Voice of the Nazarene 6-2-24

I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene, a week by week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We join our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle, and the voice of the Nazarene.

I'm talking about the eternal Son of God, creator of the universe, He spoke stars into existence. You could look up at night and stars like diamonds pinned against the backdrop of a midnight sky, the great Son of God, but he's in a human form. And John recognizes him for the first time. They're in Saint John chapter one, verse 29, he said Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. You got to understand, 4000 years lambs have been slaying for people since. And suddenly John is saying in these few moments, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Is there any way that I can impact or impart to you the importance of the blood? I don't think I know how to do it in a sermon. Two men, we're at a blood bank, and they were lying on their gurneys. And this is not an ethic one of those kinds of jokes, I'm just talking to you to wake you up. One was a Caucasian and the other was a native Indian. Before you get mad, I've got I think there's an eighth or 16th, Cherokee in me so, be good. But the Caucasian guy said to the native Indian, he said, Could I ask you a question? We've been talking, getting acquainted, and we're not going anywhere? And he said, Sure, go for it. He said, Are you a full blooded Indian? No, he said, I'm about a pint short.

But here in the Bible tells us in Leviticus 17, verse 11, for the life of the flesh, is in the blood. Do you realize that your heart weighs nearly 12 ounces.

Leviticus 17:11

And it beats about 75 times a minute, 100,000 times a day, pumping about 45 pounds of blood per minute, and every 30 seconds, all of the blood is passing through your heart. You cannot survive without blood. I hope you get that. The life of the flesh is in the blood the scripture says, Physically, you cannot survive without blood.

And may I also add that spiritually and eternally. I'm talking about your spiritual and eternal life you cannot survive without the blood. Without the blood, the body cannot survive.

And may I say without the blood, the message of the church, the church will die too. It's the blood. Fact of the matter in Hebrews 9:22. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission wiping away forgiveness, of sin. It's always been about the blood. It's not an Old Testament thing. It's not a law thing. It's always been about the blood for without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. Let me explain. You remember God put Adam and Eve in a wonderful garden. And God's plan was that they live in this garden forever. God had a plan that you and I the descendants of Adam would live in that garden forever. And God said don't eat that one tree. That's only thing I'm saying don't eat of that tree for the day that you do, you will die. And they brought death upon all of us. Somebody said that Adam and Eve literally ate us out of house and home.

Hebrews 9:22

Adam and Eve sinned and then they realize they were naked and so they made clothes out a fig leaves and then God did something. He saw their nudity and God made him coats, let me read it to you. It's Genesis 3:21: Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And you need to notice what God made the clothes of, God made the clothes out of a sacrifice.

There was a death and blood was shed. And what God was saying to the first people, I'm offering up a sacrifice for Adam and Eve's sin. It's setting a pattern, it always was and it always will be the blood. Now in Exodus chapter 12, there is a story. Let me relate it really quick. The Israelites had been in bondage for over 400 years down in Egypt. And the pharaoh of Egypt was a wicked man. Fact of the matter, he was having the little babies drowned in the Nile River, little Hebrew, innocent babies, were being drowned. Kind of sounds like something goes on in our hospitals, across the nation, doesn't it? The political world of that day, let's not get off on that. And the Israelites, they they were slaves, nothing more than slaves for 400 years.

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

And you need to understand something folk, the principle of God. The principle that was back then is the same principle today. God said, I'll bless those who bless my people, and I will curse those who curse my people. So the day came when God sent nine plagues. God's cup was full, you have cursed my people, and now I'm about to curse you.

God is a God of His Word. Now, I've made a mistake, or two, don't say, Amen, don't get really excited. I know this is the high point of the sermon. I for years have said that the death angel came through the land. And I was amazed reading it again, I don't know how I missed it. But it didn't even say the death angel. But God said that he was coming through, and that he would smite the firstborn of every Egyptian family. Let me read it to you.

23. When the Lord goes through the land, to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top of the sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. Now look at verse 29. And it came to pass that at midnight the Lord smote, all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne, under the firstborn of the captive, that was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle. And there was not a house where there was not one dead .God is saying I'm not only going to kill your firstborn, but I'm going to kill the firstborn of all the animals. It'll cause a disturbance, and when that disturbance happens, Moses, get the people ready. They need to flee the land. This is the moment when the first born are killed. Now you're saying to the children of Israel, here's what I want you to do above the door of your house, put blood right at the top of the door, and on the side of the door, put blood, smear blood on the two door post and when I come through, when I see the blood I'll pass over you. So when John said Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. From that story, those people knew exactly what he was talking about. They understood immediately 4000 years lambs being slain, but now he's pointing at one and said, from this point on, this is the Lamb that'll take away the sin of the world. Now you can call it a gory religion if you want to, but I'm reporting to you a newsflash, it's still the blood.

Still the blood. And I want to show you five things real quick like. First of all the blood shows, it reveals to us God's love. In the New Testament, there are 290 references to the love of God. But if you read on you'll find there are over 1300 references to the blood of Jesus. Four times as many references to the blood as to the love. Okay, I just wanted you to see that. And God said it here in Exodus 12. This is what I want every family to do. Verse three, Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the 10th day of this month they shall take to them every man or lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house. So that men every household had to go out and get this little baby lamb and bring it in. Everyone not a big lamb, it has to be a little lamb.

Here's what's interesting. You get that lamb and cut its throat. Now, before you you do that he said on the 10th day you get the lamb and it's not to the 14th day that you slay it.

But you're to take that little baby lamb and take it into your house, set it up on the table, give it a cup, and it gets to eat out of that cup right along with the children while they're eating. When they go to bed at night, they'll take that little lamb and cuddle it in their bed, and it become like a pet and they'll give it a name, and they'll love it and then become attached to it. And then on that 14th day when dad takes that lamb out to slay it. The kids are begging please don't Daddy, Daddy, don't kill that little lamb. It's our pet, we become attached to it, daddy don't. And the dad has to explain to the kids the reason why we're slaying the lamb. We would die if it didn't die in our place.

You get the story? God was reminding us that he loved his son, that he himself was attached to his own Son, that He loves it in such a way that it's unimaginable. And that he would actually rip the throat of Christ and shed his blood on Calvary's cross, because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So the blood on the top of the door, it flowed down and then on either side of the door, the blood was applied and literally it looked like a cross the typology of a cross. The blood, reveals to us and shows us how much God loves us that his son died for our sins. And the second thing I immediately saw that I began to read down through it, the blood secures us God's liberation.

They'd been in bondage for 400 years. And I thought, as I sat in my office a little bit ago, many of you and those watching, have been in bondage to things for many years to. Your thought life, your attitude in life, maybe your tongue, I've not said anything about it, I pastor here a long time, there's more sins can be sinned by the tongue than any other member of the body.

You can literally destroy somebody's friendship by a cruel, bemursing thing that you can say about them and cut them off from somebody else. The tongue. We could go on and on.

And he's talking here about being in bondage. I see people with addictions like I've never seen in all my years of living, like I have in the last 5 or 6,7,8 years, all kinds of addictions, things that we try to overcome, and we can't seem to overcome. And here's what I want you to see. Notice the scripture says Exodus 12:30. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Isreal; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. I said, Listen, you're free. You're free to go. You talk about the blood setting those people free from all of their bondage. They found liberty and liberation like they never known. When were they free? When they applied the blood. And what can make you free? It's the blood of Jesus, that lamb that John spoke about the blood being applied to your life. What can wash away my sin?

Exodus 12:30

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

What can make me whole again?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Boy, it's a bad day when the church didn't want to talk about the blood anymore. And want to rule out the cross. Well, the blood shows us God's love that reveals God's love and the blood secures that liberty. But thirdly, the blood sets us into a new direction. Exodus 12:23 God said, here's what I want you to get on that day with a blood was applied, God said and started the Jewish calendar.

Exodus 12:23

When did the Jewish calendar start? When did the 12 months of the Jewish calendar start? Right here. And God is saying it's a new beginning. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. Brand new star, Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer. He said one night he said, I had a dream. And he said, In my dream, the devil came and stood at the foot of my bed and was so real. And he said, the devil began to unroll this scroll and I looked at the scroll, and it listed all of my sins and all of my past and things that I've thought about and things that I've done, and a voice said, oh, what hope do you have old miserable sinner? And in that dreadful moment, he said, another voice spoke up and said, tell the devil to unroll the scroll all the way down. And I said, devil, unroll the scroll. And he said, No. And I said, In the name of Jesus, roll the scroll all the way down. And when they did, he said, I looked and I saw, it said, the entire sin of count of Martin Luther has been paid in full by the lamb, the blood of the Lamb.

Thank God. But fourthly, the blood solidifies our past, present, and future. By the way friend, nothing is in the Bible just to be in the Bible. God said here in Exodus 22. When you put the blood over the doorpost, take a piece of hyssop, that's a branch of a certain plant called hyssop. Take a branch dip it in the blood, and smear it on the top of the door, and then on the two sides, use a hyssop branch.

Then you read over there in John chapter 19, when they walked up to the cross, and Jesus Christ is dying, and they want to offer him some vinegar when he said, I thirst. And they dipped a branch of hyssop in vinegar, and reached it all the way up to him and had tasted, and in the very next verse, he said, it's finished. You read it, he received the vinegar, it said it has finished, bowed his head and gave up the ghost. I'm glad he didn't say I'm finished. But he said it is finished. The sin debt has been paid in full by the blood of the Lamb. Pastor, what if after I become a Christian I sin? Well, there's no what ifs to it. Hang around long enough, you're gonna come up short. God never does but we always come up short. I'm not giving you a license to sin.

John 19 · chapter mention

Don't you walk out of here and say that. So what do I do? Well,

9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now the psalmist said in the 66, Psalm, verse 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, oh God, thou will not hear. If I know there's sin in my life, God's not going to hear me unless I'm confessing it. And Isaiah 59:2 said, your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you. So, I've got to confess, if I want to have a relationship with God, God doesn't forgive any sin that we're not willing to confess.

Isaiah 59:2

Now listen to what the Bible

7, but if we walk in the light. That's understanding the truth, the Bible. If I walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. Did you know we're supposed to get along?

is the Holy Spirit preaching a little sermon to you right now?

That works at home to or should, ought to work around the church.

We'll have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Now in the original Greek, it's a present tense continuing. So as I'm walking in the light, I'm also being continually kept clean by the blood of Jesus. Now, I'm not a doctor, not a doctor that can help you. But if you know anything about the blood, did you know the same blood that courses all the way through your veins, do you realize it's taking nutrients and oxygen all the way out to various cells in your body and is feeding those cells and of the same moment they're loading up all the waste matter and carting it off like a railroad train? And carts it off and dumps it off in the dump bin. Which is discreated later, and it keeps us clean, the blood keeps us clean. You understand that physically, it not only feeds the body, but it also packs all that metabolic stuff, and all the waste and it carries it away and it keeps us clean.

And he's saying here the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, not only feeds us spiritually, but it also continually keeps us clean in the present tense.

Again, what can I wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. You say Oh, Pastor, What if I've confessed 500 times to the same thing? Well confess it again.

You say well, will he hear me?

Why wouldn't he? I mean, if you confessed it 500 times the Bible said that he forgives and forgets, so he won't remember anyhow. So you can confess all over again because his compassions are new every morning. That's the good news. I love that song. What can wash away my sins? 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 found I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

And then I'd like to conclude with this, the blood sends a message to others. Let me explain. When they left

36, as they're leaving the Egyptians are saying, Here's her gold, and here's our precious things you can take them. In verse 30, it almost implies that some may have wanted to go with them and perhaps did, I don't know. But here's what's important. The blood sent a message to others while they're applying the blood over the door. People are going by and they're asking questions, Why are you doing this? Because death is coming. And if we don't have the blood applied, we're trying to cover our family and cover our home with a blood of a lamb. So that we have a safety net, so that we have protection.

So we'll live and not die. And as they're walking away, they're pondering that in the mind, it sent a message. You know, Can I just talk to you for a brief second? I guess I've been doing that. I forget. But we live in a culture that says the church needs to get more like the world. And we need to act like the world. And we need to think more like the world. And we need to get this whole thing so comfortable that everybody just feels goody goody, Pastor, you need to get you a pair of shorts and some flip flops and get you a gold chain and hang around your neck and get comfortable with yourself and make us. Hey, we're never gonna make a difference until we are different. And if you stoop low enough with the dogs, you're gonna get up with fleas. God never called us to be like the world. And as long as I'm Pastor, might what it'll be another week after this message.

This is not a concert, this is a church. It's going to be that way. And there's just some things we're not going to bend to. And we're gonna mind God.

And what I'm trying to say this is a worship center, and we're going to worship God here.

Listen, the door probably seems silly to those walking by. But there was something different and I believe there's something different about the home of a Christian, a dad and a mom that says you know, we're gonna have a Christian home and we're gonna apply the blood, and we just don't want certain things to get past this door. We've got children and young pliable minds and and we don't want them to be addicted by all of this stuff.

And we're applying the blood and we're praying a prayer and we're gonna keep something's out.

It'll bring death to us if it comes into our home. The blood sends a message to us. I still believe that Jesus Christ changes lives. Doug Oldgam, anybody remember Doug Oldham?

Big heavyset singer, used to sing on Jerry Falwell's program.

And there was one song that it almost seemed to be his song.

And if you knew his background, he had some alcoholic problems.

He'd had some other problems that I don't really have the right to mention here, but he had some problems. And so in coming to the Lord, God has really done some changes. And he'd sing this song and weep while he's saying tears would run. Today, I went down to the place where I used to go. And he'd sing, today I saw the same old crowd I knew before. And when they asked me what had happened, I tried to tell them, thanks to Calvary, I don't come here anymore. Thanks to Calvary, things are different than before. And as the tears ran down my face, I tried to tell them that thanks to Calvary, I don't live here anymore, The blood sets us free from all addictions and our paths. That's why the Bible said, Come let us reason together. saith the LORD, though your sins will be a scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. How in the world God could take a pimp and a prostitute and a drunkard, liars and horror mongers and change him. I don't know how he can free them from the guilt till they can walk in and no longer are who they used to be. Only God can do that. You say, Well, Pastor, I messed up since becoming a Christian. That's why John wrote in that second chapter of his little epistle.

Verse one, My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous: and he is not only a

and not for our's only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Deaths coming. And if I see the blood I will pass over.

There was not a home in all of Egypt but what there wasn't a death even to the throne. And I can see that princely young chap, future Pharaoh of Egypt saying, Daddy, Daddy, are you going to apply the blood. Whar are you talking about? Well, some of my Hebrew playmates, you don't need to be running with that crowd. They're slaves. But daddy, their dads are applying the blood. They're putting blood over the door post so death can't get in. And Dad, if you don't apply the blood, I'm the oldest. It would mean that I'll die tonight. It's just about your mythology, just much of that religious stuff. But that night when women begin to sob and scream, and the whole world of Egypt was torn apart, that King raced his way down the hallway and into the bedroom of that eldest son and lit the candle and looks into his sightless eyes. Death was in the room. There'd been no blood applied. I don't know about you, but you better have the blood applied. Jesus Christ stands outside the door of your heart, and he wants to come in like that little lamb and sit at the table and eat with you and fellowship with you. Don't leave him outside your home. Don't leave him outside of your heart invite him in. He's the Lamb who is offering an sacrifice God will accept.

Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene visitors every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle.

For more information regarding BNC visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.