He is the only way

Elder Randy Hughes
Oct. 29, 2023

I would like you to turn to Luke 22. And having found that let us bow in a word of prayer. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this opportunity. Lord, I just pray that you open our eyes take away all the things from our minds and help us to focus on you this morning. Father we're so thankful for the opportunity we have to share the communion table today. You tell us do this in remembrance of you. It's interesting Lord, when I think about that what are the things we are to remember? I pray today that we will recognize those things.  Father, may your honor and glory be shared today. May everything that's shared from the word of God bring you that glory. And Father thank you for the opportunity that you've given me to be able to share from your word of God today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. 

It's important to focus on the blood of Jesus Christ. But why? Have you thought about it? Have you given thought to why we should focus on the blood of Jesus Christ? We're supposed to remember why it was necessary. And what happened? And most importantly, what did it accomplish? In Luke chapter 22 verses through 20. I like to read those for us.  Luke chapter 22 verses 14 through 20. And when the hour was come he sat down. And the 12 apostles with him,  and he said unto them  with desire, I have desire to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,  for I say unto you, I will not anymore eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

And he took the cup and gave thanks and said take this and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took the bread and gave thanks and break. And he gave unto them saying, this is my body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of me. Likewise, he also took the cup after his supper.  After supper saying this is the cup the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you today in preparation for us doing what Jesus instructed. What he did with his apostles and taking the bread, which represents his body given for us  and taking the cup and remembering him. 

I would like us to ponder today. Please clear your minds and let's ponder together some of the things of what he said to those gathered there. Jesus told his disciples to remember just as he wishes us to do the same. Let's think a moment just what are we remembering?  Is it the upper room? Is it the account of Jesus washing his disciples feet? Is it what they drank or ate? Is it just his body and his blood? If so, what is it about these things we are to remember? And why did this new covenant with God, through Jesus, the Son of God, require blood? All of these things are important to remember. But, I think, this is me. I think the primary thing we're supposed to remember is the sacrifice and why it had to happen the way it did. 

That's what I believe we are to remember today. And not simply the events of that Passover meal that Jesus shared with the men who were the very closest to him. Not even just his body and his blood given for us. We're supposed to remember why it was necessary. Ponder that,  what did it, why did it have to happen? What did it accomplish? And how do we fit into this picture as individuals 2,000 years later? That  was a long time ago. How do we fit into this? The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 1:7, In whom Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. Amen? I would like us to review the words  of one of my favorite hymns. It's one that, when I go home to be with the we...  Somebody would sing it, whether it's the congregation or whether it's an individual. I don't care. But nothing but the blood. I love that song. I'm gonna read you the words. And I want you  just to think about them as we go through them. 

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 that flow. That makes me white as snow.  
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
For my pardon, this I see, nothing but the blood of Jesus.  
For my cleansing, this my plea, nothing but Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
Nothing can for sin atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
Nothing good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
Now by this I will overcome. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
By this, I will reach my home. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.  
Glory, glory, this I sing, Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 
All my praise for this I bring, Nothing  but the blood of Jesus.  

It's a beautiful song. I started preparing for this message a couple weeks ago. And as I was doing it, this song came to mind. And I had a hard time  getting past it. But then I read it. I opened  it. I told Paulie  not to worry when she looked at this. I'm not going to sing. But I had to go get a hymnal and open it up and read it  because I  didn't know all of it,  but what a special song.  And I thought abou, How vital is the blood  of Jesus? How vital is that to each and every one of us?  And I guess one of the questions I have to ask is have you ever or had known anyone that needed to have a blood transfusion? I see a lot of heads nodding yes. If you have, then you know just how vital the blood is to life. There are some great theological truths in this hymn, that are very appropriate to ponder today, as we prepare to take communion. As we remember what Jesus asked us to remember, I think the first and foremost we need to remember is that it took Jesus blood To wash away our sins, it took that blood and nothing else would do. There is nothing. If you're putting your faith and trust in works or things that you're doing, I'm going to tell you, you're on your way to hell. That's not going to get you to heaven. That will not get you to heaven. It's only the blood of Jesus  that can wash away your sin. And the whole reason for that is that  nothing else is good enough in God's eyes. It's just not good enough. We're going to look at some of these theological truths as we read in the Ephesians 1:7. It tells us that we have redemption, we have forgiveness of sins, and in this we experience The riches of God's grace, but that grace came as a price, not for us, but for Jesus and for God, the Father and the song. Sometimes we sing, we'll never know how much it costs to see our sins upon the cross. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews chapter nine, and I want to read verse 22. And almost all things by the law purged with blood and without the shedding of blood is no remission. There is no remission without the blood. And we'll talk more about that in a little bit. 

The term blood of Christ refers to the New Testament, to the atoning of Jesus. The atonement refers to the basis and the process by which estranged people, people that are lost, people that are upset, not having fun, and they become one with God. Look at the word atonement if you would. Break it down. It says, at  one  mint. Atonement, at one minute, or as I would say, at one moment, refers when you look at that, we don't nearly have enough time to explore that fully, but the language of sacrifice is seen throughout the word of God. Not just in the Old Testament, where we learned the Jewish sacrificial system, but also the New Testament, where we see the language of sacrifice. We have removals of sin.Turn to Romans chapter 3 and I'm going to read Romans chapter 3 through 26. And it says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Where is our redemption? Where do we get forgiveness of sins? It's in Christ Jesus. Unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. Good verse being justified freely. Verse 24 by his grace to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness, that he might be just, and a justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Very interesting passage of scripture. You know, we can talk about all the things that, when we're talking about the blood of Christ and where the blood of Christ is at, you know, and how that blood, without that blood, we would be lost. 

We would, we'd be lost. There is no way to be saved if Christ had not died for each of us. And in 1 Peter and I'm reading verses 19, and there it says, but with the precious blood of Christ,  understand this is 1 Peter. But with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. You know, it's really, really interesting when we look at that the blood of his, of his son, Jesus Christ. Cleansed us. It cleansed us from all sin. 

And turn to 1st John 1:7. And there it says, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin.  I really like that verse. I like that verse for several reasons. One is basically because what it tells us that we're cleansed by the blood of Christ, but it also. Talks about a fellowship, a fellowship of believers, one another, one another, serving one another, caring one another, loving one another. Encouraging one another, building up one another. That's the fellowship that has brought us together through the blood, the cleansing of Jesus Christ. In Romans 5, 9 it talks about redemption and we read Ephesians 1:7.

You know, these metaphors show that only God, only God could provide atonement. You know, I find it interesting. I want, I want to go back. I want us to go to the Old Testament because there is a difference. There is a strong difference between Jesus Christ  and his sacrifice and the sacrifice of the, the priest, the chief priest of Israel. Turn in your Bibles to Leviticus.  And I want you to see  a major difference  between the Old Testament and what the law had done, and the New Testament today, what Christ has done. There is a difference, folks. Today, God is not dealing with nations. Paul makes that very clear in his epistles. He's dealing with people. And there's not a separation of those people any longer, either Jew nor Greek. We're all one. And in Leviticus, we're going to see  what Aaron  went through to  prepare  for The forgiveness of sins, not just for the people, for Aaron himself. Let's look. In Leviticus, it talks about, and I'm looking at starting in verse 8. It said, And Aaron shall pass lots upon two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for his people. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell,  and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. And Aaron Shall bring the Boloch of sin offering, which is for himself. See the word there? This is God's word. Aaron brought that Boloch for him. Why would he have to do that?  Because he sinned. And it goes on. Which is for himself and shall make an atonement for himself and for his house and shall kill the Boloch. of the sin offering, which is for himself. And then he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the Lord, and his hands full of sweet incense, beaten small, and bring it within the veil. And he shall put in the incense upon the fire before the Lord. That the cloud of which incense may cover the mercy seat, that is upon the testimony that he die not, and he shall take the blood of the Boloch and sprinkle it with the with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward, and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle a blood with his fingers seven times.

And then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring his people within the veil, and do that blood as he did with the blood of the bollock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat. And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of  the uncleanliness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions of all their sins. And so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that there remaineth of them in the midst of their uncleanliness. Listen, this is the Old Testament, and Aaron is doing exactly what he was taught by Moses to do. They're talking about the Jewish sacrificial system. This is what had to take place there for the Jews. 

But there are things that are part of this. Now, we know, we all know that because of the dispensation of  grace of God, things changed. We're no longer underneath this sacrificial system. We never were as Gentiles anyway. We couldn't even enter that tabernacle, and nobody could go into the holies of holies except for the chief priest. 

This is what God had planned for Israel. And we'll talk more about this as we go forward.  These, you know, passages that took and showed the blood of our sins that Jesus took away. And the life in this blood, the phrase, the blood of Christ, represents the life he gave for our atonement. We see the word blood used in the New Testament and most always used in connection with Jesus death on the cross. He shed his blood in a real physical death. It is the same blood that we bleed when we cut ourselves or we get injured. It's the same blood. And why is this understanding so important? Look at Romans chapter 6. This again is a verse that we all know, but I want, I want to make an emphasis here. Romans chapter 6, if you would. Romans chapter 6 in verse 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You know, it's important because his death demonstrates to us  what the wages of sin is. Christ had to die. He had to be buried. And if we, folks, I don't know where you're at in your salvation today. 

I don't know where you put your faith and trust in. But I will tell you this, this is fact. This is the truth. This is God's word. For the wages of sin is death. It's talking about not just the fear of physical death, but a spiritual death. You are separated from God. You're totally separated from God. And the only way to change, to put a bridge so that you and God can come together. Is what it says right there at the end of that verse, but the gift of God is eternal life to Jesus Christ our Lord. That gift, it's not a present, could be, you could call it that, but it's not a thing. It's Jesus Christ. 

That's the gift that God is offering to us. Jesus became, you know, and when I look back at the Old Testament, The high priest and Judaism, the chief religious function. He is the, he is the key person when it comes to  the Judaism religion. He's the functionary in the temple of Jerusalem, whose unique privilege, he has a unique privilege. Was to enter the holies of holies, that inner sanctum  once a year, every year,  I'm going to say it again. Once a year, every year  on Yom Kippur, the day of atonement to burn incense and sprinkle sacrificial animal blood for the forgiveness of sins and the sins of the people. Jesus, here's an opposite, in the New Testament, Jesus Christ became a permanent fulfillment of that purpose. A permanent fulfillment, once and once for all. What the high priest could not accomplish and this is why we have the age of grace. So I'm not saying what the high priest was doing back then was wrong. What he was doing back then was right. But because of the age of grace in which we now live in, what you know, when you think about that, what the high priest could not accomplish because he was a man. And he was a sinner himself. That's why God had to change this whole dispensation. Why he brought the dispensation into place. God needed a sacrifice that would be permanent. And that would be  so easy. So welcoming to each of us. That we could all we have to do is put our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Jesus was able to accomplish the shedding of his blood because he was a sinless son of God. He was man, God on earth. He was without sin. That whole time. The sacrifice made by the high priest was an actual physical sacrifice with real blood involved. 

Just exactly what Moses had told Aaron to do. It had a spiritual purpose. Jesus sacrifice, too, was an actual physical sacrifice with his very real blood,  and it, too, had a spiritual purpose and a goal. There's a goal in mind. Yet there was a big difference between the high priest sacrifice versus what Jesus was able to accomplish. And that is, is one of the things we are to celebrate even as we remember his death today. When the high priest sacrificed an animal, God agreed to tolerate, to overlook, and to pass over the consequences of sin. That was God's truth to them.  That's what he promised them. You do this and I'm going to overlook your sin. As a result The high priest sacrifice had to be done yearly, every year, since they were not a true and lasting remedy. What they did for Israel at that time was right. That's what Paul, that's what Moses had called them to do. But they didn't have any lasting remedies for sin. They would have it on that, that  holy day, that day of atonement and then they would go on living their lives. And there were those that were faithful. But even Jesus says, no one. Was able to live up to the entire law, so there was always sin, but it only, you know, there were not those remedies and it only reminders of it. And basically it was a reminder of God's mercy and overlooking their sin. 

That's what that sacrifice was there. But Jesus blood removes our sin. It washes away our sin. It didn't just overlook them or cover them up only to be held against us at a future date. That's not what Jesus blood did. Jesus blood satisfied the holiness of God. And Jesus life, for our eternity life, Jesus blood transforms us into new creations. 

Jesus blood delivers us from the slavery of sin. And that was Paul's biggest message you ever read through the book of Galatians, and maybe one day we'll go through it together. That was Paul's first epistle and it was the Sternest epistle of all of his epistles. He had gone to Galatia and he had brought about churches and all of a sudden the jus came in and they were taking those Christians and saying, but you still need to be circumcised, bringing them back under the bondage of the law  and not of grace. That's not what God wanted for us all. And that's one of the most important things. In John 1:7. Turn there if you would. First John 1:7. And I know we've read this already once, but I want to read it again. But if we walk in the light as He is the light,  we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. John 1:7 describes the work of Jesus blood. It describes exactly what He did on the cross. It does it for us. And it says, and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. The verb cleanses here indicates continuity. It indicates continuity. There is a beginning and there is also a continuing cleansing.

Now we know that once we have put our faith and trust in Christ, our sins from the past are forgiven. Our sins that we do today, tomorrow, this week are forgiven, and all of the sins in the future are forgiven as well. But that's that continuing cleansing we have  because of what Jesus Christ did. That's something worth remembering today, isn't it? There we remember it, but also, as we come to this table today, it is because of Jesus Christ once for all shed his blood on Calvary's cross, fully satisfying God the Father. 

Turn to Ephesians please. 

Ephesians chapter 1. And I'm going to read verses 8 through 10. And it said, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of fullness of times he might gather together and won all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on the earth. Those that are in him, other words, those who have put their faith and trust  in his death, his burial and his resurrection. That resurrection is the hope that we all have. We all know that. We're looking forward to that day, as far as I'm concerned, it could come right now. When we think about it, I found this quote after while I was doing this study and I was just looking through different things and I found this quote. It says, in our time, there are signs that the belief in grace may be coming untethered from our understanding of the cross. I'm going to turn to Galatians chapter five and I want to read first verse one. Stand therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Stand fast. That's what we need to do today. I believe that quote. I think churches, Christchurches, sometimes the message is becoming untethered. 

And in our churches today, there's, go look it up, read the research. People are leaving the church by groves. Not just Grace Churches, but all churches. People are leaving. They don't see the purpose or the need anymore  in church. Let us, let not Grace Bible Church Oshkosh  ever disconnect with the grace of God from our understanding  and our need for his grace. Why his grace evidenced by the blood of Jesus that flowed from his wombs after his scourging, illustrated the blood that flowed through his hands. And his feet and hung on the cross while why his blood was necessary. Our need for grace is very real. We are sinners in need of grace. His grace was demonstrated in the shedding of his blood, Jesus Christ. That's why nothing but the blood.  of Jesus can wash away our sins. Make me whole, bring me hope and peace with God. Jesus blood was required because we have sinned. I have said the Lord's Supper is a reminder of that. But let us also be mindful of what it is. Remind what it is reminding us of. It's reminding me of Jesus sacrifice. But why was the sacrifice necessary? We can never be atoned. Centered too much, think of the atonement.

We can never be atoned too much, reflect  long enough and often enough on the sacrifice of Jesus blood and why it was necessary. The answer to the question, why it was necessary?  Because it's the only way. It is the only way  to eternal life. There is no other way. And I pray, if you haven't yet trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, if  you haven't put your faith there, it's not a difficult thing to do. 

Just bow your, bow your head, and pray, and ask Christ to come into your heart, and to lead you. And then after you do that, read the book of Romans, read Ephesians one and two, and understand that once you put your faith and trust in Christ, there is nothing, nothing, not even anything you do that would ever separate you again. From the love of Christ. Never. 

Let us pray. My grace is God and help me. Father, thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for this opportunity  to just be able to preach and to share your word. Father, I just pray  that you were honored and glorified by it. And I thank you so much for your spirit's direction. It is so amazing. Lord, as we go now to the table  and we partake in the things which you've asked us to do, the remembrance that you want us to have. Help us, Lord, to not be solemn. Help us to be excited. Help us to be happy, knowing that through this sacrifice of Christ, we have eternal life, and one day we will be with you in heaven. Pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

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