Gospel of Blood — E.A. Johnston

Father in heaven, we come before you today by the blood of the Son, Jesus. Let our hearts be still before you, Lord, as we turn our focus on the blood of Christ and we ask you to be here with us by your Spirit and with your pungent presence.

We ask this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. I remember when churches sang hymns about the blood like, There is power, power, wonder, work, and power in the blood of the Lamb. I used to love to sing, What can wash away my sin?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And who can forget William Cowper's great hymn, There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The Bloodless Gospel and the Sanitized Cross

But we quit singing about the blood when we quit preaching on the blood. We have a bloodless gospel today because your average pastor has gotten out his mop bucket and has cleaned up all the blood and gore around Calvary to make it so attractive and pristine you can sit and have your lunch there.

Sin, Repentance, and Christ's Substitutionary Death

But you can't preach on blood redemption if you fail to preach against sin. Jesus shed his precious blood for sin at Calvary. He became sin for us, bearing the curse and satisfying God's wrath for sin.

That cross was a bloody scandal as a bleeding and dying Christ hung there naked on that ignoble tree. He suffered, died, was buried, and in three days he rose again and ascended back into heaven where he now sits at the right hand of the Father.

And he earned that right by way of a bloody cross. We read in Matthew's gospel in chapter 27. And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall and gathered unto him, the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.

Christ's Humiliation and Crucifixion

And when they had plaited a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head and a reed in his right hand. And they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. And they spit upon him and took the reed and smote him on the head.

And after they had mocked him, they took the robe off of him and put his own raiment on him and led him away to crucify him. I will stop there, friends. What a tragic and scandalous scene. How the angels in heaven must have gasped as they peered from their portals to witness Christ's humiliation.

The forehead of Jesus was stained in blood from the crown of those thorns that dug into his tender skin. His back looked like a crossword puzzle from the lashes of that whip that had pieces of broken glass and stones attached to it.

The back of Jesus was flayed open, lacerated into a bloody mess. They drove nails into his hands and feet. And as they lifted him up on that cross, his blood splattered all over the very earth he created.

Christ on the cross was a bloody scandal. But you won't hear much about that today, friends, because most pastors don't want to upset their good deacons. So they only preach a gospel of love. God loves you.

The Dangers of a Diluted Gospel

Come to Jesus. No mention of sin. No mention of the needy repentance from sin. No mention of a cross or a bleeding and dying Christ who suffered for the sins of man. We have watered down the gospel to make it more palatable to sinful man.

But a diluted gospel only produces shallow conversions where one responds by making a mental ascent to Jesus, where the intellect is touched but the heart is left unchanged. That's why our churches today are full of the unconverted who rest their hope of heaven on an empty religious profession.

Old-Time Preaching on Judgment and Repentance

But old time preachers knew better. They preached a gospel of blood. They held the Bible in one hand and held a bucket of blood in the other and warned about a future judgment that awaited all mankind.

They preached hard against sin until you felt like you were hit all over by a buckshot. And they preached man's duty of repentance. And if you did not repent, you would surely be cast into a burning hell of torments and misery.

They would stand behind that pulpit and preach with authority as they cried out against the sins of the land and shook their hands in such excitement that that bucket of blood would spill over and splatter all around them.

Salvation Under the Blood of Christ

For the blood of Christ was the only way to have your sins washed away. If you wanted to stay out of a devil's hell, then you must get under the blood. Every sermon they preached had much blood in it.

They magnified the atonement through the blood until their congregations were shaken by the power of God. Their whole purpose in preaching was twofold. To glorify God in the salvation of sinners and to induce sinners to take shelter under the blood.

Their gospel had power because it was a gospel of blood. Dear Jesus, all my sins forgave and washed and made me whole. I have sweet peace and joy within. His blood is on my soul. His blood is on my soul, my soul.

Security, Sanctification, and the Hope of Heaven

His blood is on my soul. I rest securely in his hand. His blood is on my soul. The tempter cannot overcome or gain the least control. I have God's everlasting seal. His blood is on my soul. His blood is on my soul, my soul.

His blood is on my soul. I rest securely in his hand. His blood is on my soul. I have his spirit now within. My life's in his control. I'm ready for that crowning day. His blood is on my soul. His blood is on my soul, my soul.

His blood is on my soul. I rest securely in his hand. His blood is on my soul.