Welcome to From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.
Each week we bring you a different message
from some of history's greatest speakers in the
Christian faith and powerful sermons from modern preachers
too.
This week we have Billy Graham with his
message, The Gift of Blood.
Now tonight I want you to turn with
me to the fifth chapter, the fifth chapter
of the book of Revelation.
The fifth chapter of the book of Revelation.
These words, And I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne
a book written within and on the backside,
sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with
a loud voice, Who is worthy to open
the book and to loose the seals thereof?
And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open
the book, neither to look thereon.
And I wept much because no man was
found worthy to open and to read the
book, neither to look thereon.
And one of the elders saith unto me,
Weep not.
Behold the lion of the tribe of Judah,
the root of David, hath prevailed to open
the book and to loose the seven seals
thereof.
And I beheld.
And low in the midst of the throne
and of the four beasts and in the
midst of the elders stood a lamb as
it had been slain, having seven horns and
seven eyes, which of the seven spirits of
God sent forth into all the earth.
And he came and he took the book
out of the right hand of him that
sat upon the throne.
And when he had taken the book, the
four beasts and the twenty-four elders fell
down before the lamb, having every one of
them harps and golden vials full of odors,
which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song, saying, Thou
art worthy to take the book and to
open the seals thereof, for thou was slain
and has redeemed us to God by thy
blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation.
For thou hast made us kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth.
And I beheld and I heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne and
the beast and the elders and the number
of them were ten thousand times ten thousand
and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud
voice, Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and blessing and
every creature which is in heaven and on
earth and under the earth and such as
are in the sea and all that are
in them heard I saying, Blessed in honor
and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb
forever and ever.
And the four beasts said, Amen.
And the four and twenty elders fell down
and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever
and ever.
This is a picture of a scene that
is going to take place someday in heaven
at the throne of God.
These twenty-four elders that you read about
here represent the twelve apostles and they represent
the twelve tribes of Israel.
The four beasts that it says is a
mistranslation.
It's for creatures, angelic beings, mighty beings of
God.
And they're at the throne of God.
And God has never allowed anybody to look
into the future.
No one can look into the future.
We have computers today searching in many laboratories,
whether it's the Pentagon or the Union or
throughout the world trying to find out what's
going to happen next.
What is the enemy going to do next?
God has it in that book.
And it was sealed.
And the reason John was weeping is because
nobody could open those seals.
Nobody was worthy to open these seals because
these seals held the secret of the past,
present and future of the human race.
God was going to show through these seals
what is about to come upon the earth.
And John saw that nobody was worthy to
open them.
And he wept.
Then an angel came to him and said,
don't weep anymore.
There's somebody here worthy.
He is the lion.
He's a lion.
The root of David hath prevailed.
Then when John looked, he didn't see a
lion.
If somebody tells me as we're traveling along,
there's a garden, I expect to see a
garden.
If somebody says there's an airplane, I expect
to see an airplane.
If somebody says that's a train, I expect
to see a train.
But he didn't say that.
He didn't say that.
When he looked, instead of seeing a lion,
he saw a lamb.
A sacrificial lamb who had died.
And this lamb was the only one in
all of heaven, on all the earth, or
under the earth, or in hell, that was
able to open those seals.
I'm writing a book right now.
It'll be out, I hope, this fall, about
November 1st, on the four horsemen of the
apocalypse.
And I've been working on it for many
months, and we're getting toward the end of
it, hopefully, now.
And I have been amazed at the things
that, and the research that I've done, and
friends have helped me do.
If what is about to happen on the
earth, the four horsemen, I can hear their
hoofbeats now, approaching, and so can you.
And we see in our newspapers and on
our television screens the evidence of these four
horsemen.
Well, those four horsemen come under the first
seal.
The seal that is to be broken, and
God is going to pull out upon the
world.
Judgment.
And the fifth chapter that I've just read
is really one of the most thrilling in
the Bible.
There was a period of silence, and then
John weeping.
No one able to open the book, and
out of the midst of the throne came
the lion, but not in the form of
a lion, but a lamb which had been
slain, and the book was opened, and it
reveals the past, present, and future.
The secret of the ages is out at
last, and it says that by blood, God
has reconciled the world unto himself through the
death of his only begotten son.
And they sang a new song.
And Brother Odom and Shea and Baraz and
the choir are going to have to learn
a new song.
A song they've never heard before, but it's
going to be about the blood of the
lamb.
The blood that was slain, not about a
lion, but about a lamb.
The music of heaven has centered around the
cleansing and redeeming power of the blood of
Jesus Christ.
All heaven recognized at this moment that redemption
was through and by the blood of the
lamb.
But you know, the Bible tells us about
blood from Genesis to Revelation, and many people
wonder why God demands blood.
The scripture says, for the life of the
flesh is in the blood.
You see, blood stands for life.
When blood leaves your body, that means life
is gone.
The first war that I ever went to
was the one in Korea.
Grady Wilson and I went in that fall,
after we had been here, and we spent
Christmas there.
And I'll never forget the bloody sights that
we saw, and we were in Pusan, and
I remember we got on a train to
go up to Seoul at night, and they
warned us, get down behind your baggage because
the train will likely be shot at.
Boy, we stayed down behind that baggage all
night.
But there was a reporter on that train
that didn't, and he had his hand a
little bit up and got his finger shot
off.
But somehow we survived it when the guerrillas
did attack.
And then during the Vietnam War, several Christmases
we spent there with our service men.
And I remember I was on an aircraft
carrier, I think it was a Kitty Hawk,
the night before Christmas, and Bob Hope sent
a wire.
And Bob said, would you come and be
with us and I forget the name of
the town, the next day, and be on
the base the next day and be on
our program.
Well, it was zero, zero outside.
You couldn't see anything.
They'd grounded all the planes, or at least
they were all on the aircraft carrier.
They couldn't leave.
But finally, the admiral decided that he'd let
us go, or the captain.
And we took the cod and took off.
Somebody said it's the world's greatest slingshot, and
it shot us right off.
We were real low over this base.
And the mountains were real high, it seemed
to me.
And so I took the microphone and said
to the captain, the pilot of the plane,
I said, if you fellas don't just have
to land down here, I said, if I
were going there to preach, but just to
be with Bob Hope, I said, you can
just keep on going to some other town
where it's clear.
And this man that was the pilot said,
don't worry, Dr. Graham, I'm a big coward.
I was delighted to hear that.
But we finally landed, and we were on
Bob Hope's show, that Christmas show that he
put on.
And we were there a number of times
and had some interesting and very teary and
brokenhearted times with servicemen during the war.
And I'm so delighted to see so many
here tonight, and we are so honored to
have them here from the various bases, both
from the Air Force and the Navy and
the Army.
How many bases we've been to, I don't
know whether we could ever count them up,
all over the world, to minister and to
greet them, and they've always encouraged us wherever
we've gone.
And we ought to support those people who've
dedicated their lives to defending our freedom and
defending our way of life.
Now, from the third chapter of Genesis, when
man was in the Garden of Eden, and
he broke God's law, and he rebelled against
God, and he found out that he was
naked, and God went out in the field
and slew some animals and shed some blood
in order to take their skins and cover
their nakedness.
From that moment on, blood has been shed
as a symbol of our salvation.
Cain and Abel.
Cain and Abel had apparently been instructed as
to how to worship God, and Cain paid
no attention.
He brought some vegetables to God as an
offering.
God rejected it.
Abel brought a blood sacrifice, a calf, and
offered it to the Lord, and God accepted
it.
And Cain grew very angry and very jealous
of his brother, and he slew him, and
he was the first blood that was shed
in anger.
And war has been going on between brothers
in the human race ever since, and Jesus
said there'll be wars and rumors of wars
till the end of time.
And then we move over again, and we
see when Moses was down in Egypt trying
to get the people out of Egypt and
trying to get them into the Promised Land,
and he was having these debates with Pharaoh,
and you remember that God said, all right,
tell them that I'm going to kill the
firstborn and all of Egypt tonight, and tell
the people, the Jewish people to go out
and slay a lamb without blemish and put
the blood on the doorpost, and when I
see the blood, I will pass over.
Not when I see their good works, and
that was the beginning of Passover.
The slaying of those animals and the blood,
God didn't say when I see their good
works or even when I see your ethnic
background.
When I see the blood, when I see
the blood, I will pass over.
Now there are several great words on the
power and value of the blood around which
the music of the angelic host in this
fifth chapter of Revelation is gathered.
The first word is redemption.
For as much as you know that you
were not redeemed with corruptible things such as
silver and gold, but with the precious blood
of Christ, a lamb without blemish.
You go to a pawn shop and a
time limit is set and the failure of
the borrower to reimburse with interest, the pawn
shop automatically releases the article to the public
and any person putting up that amount required
is able to buy out of the pawn
that article and this is called redemption.
We redeem it out of the pawn shop.
Now the Bible teaches that we as a
human race are in the pawn shop of
the devil and by disobedience unable to redeem
ourselves and Christ died on the cross and
paid the price for our salvation and redeemed
us by the giving of his own blood.
I read about a Roman slave girl who
was given her freedom and the girl jumps
on the ground and says you've redeemed me
and I will serve you faithfully the rest
of my life.
Fallen man and women are on the auction
block with no one to redeem us.
We're lost.
We're going to judgment and hell.
What are we going to do?
That's where Jesus Christ came and died and
shed his blood and gave his blood to
pay for our sins and to redeem us
and if you are not under the blood
you're not going to go to heaven.
You must be under the blood.
Are you sure that that experience has been
yours?
You have to repent of sin and receive
Christ into your own heart?
Matthew 26 For this is my blood of
the New Testament which is shed for many
for the remission of sins and we go
back again to the Old Testament Hebrews quotes
it and almost all things are by the
law purged with blood and without the shedding
of blood there's no forgiveness.
The blood you see is a shatter and
a type in the Old Testament and it
was sprinkled on the tabernacle the vessels, the
book the congregations annually and this action enabled
God to forgive sin.
Divine justice was satisfied and divine mercy extended
through the types of blood and Jesus in
his death on the cross made possible the
forgiveness of sins and the extension of mercy
at the same time.
Holiness was left pure and while mercy and
love provided the demands of justice this is
the heart of the gospel.
There is no gospel but this.
I read about a daughter of a poor
widow.
She left home to go out into sin
for three years she was gone and when
she came back stumbling back having been beaten
up by her boyfriend she came to the
back door and expected it to be locked
but it was open and she opened the
door and she went in and her mother
was sitting there reading the Bible and the
mother said my darling ever since that night
you walked out that door has been open.
God stands ready to forgive.
You see God doesn't have to get ready
for you to repent.
He doesn't have to get ready for you
to come to the cross.
He doesn't have to get ready for you
to be forgiven but thou art a God
ready to pardon gracious and merciful slow to
anger and in great kindness the scripture says.
God's ready right now.
He's standing here with open arms and saying
Jim, Bill, Suzy, Mary come you that are
watching by television right now can pick up
a telephone and call the number on the
screen and talk to a counselor about your
own spiritual need and about Christ coming into
your heart right now.
Redemption, remission, then there's another word associated with
the blood and that's justification.
In Romans 5 but God commended the cross
much more than being justified by his blood.
We shall be saved from wrath through him
again the blood and the dictionary defines justification
to be free from blame to be proven
to be innocent.
We cannot do it ourselves.
It's impossible.
You can work all your life and do
good works and pay money to the church
but that won't justify you.
The only thing that will justify you is
the blood of Jesus Christ and justification means
just as though you'd never sinned.
Wouldn't it be wonderful as though you'd never
committed a sin in your whole life?
Well that's what can happen tonight when you
come to the cross.
That's the power of the blood.
The physiological and psychological and spiritual all convict
man of guilt being justified freely by his
grace.
Notice his grace.
That's something I don't deserve.
I don't deserve my sins forgiven.
I don't deserve to go to heaven.
I'll be honest with you.
I don't deserve it.
I deserve hell.
Someone asked me a few moments ago before
I came on the platform don't you feel
very good about all this and all that?
I said I feel like Martin Luther did.
He was born 500 years ago this year.
He said when I come into the presence
of God I feel like a worm.
I feel like a worm all the time.
I don't deserve anything.
But I receive forgiveness and justification and my
name written in the book of life.
I'm going to receive heaven forever because the
blood was shed.
A little girl was asked by her mother
if she was afraid to die and she
said no mother.
On what are you depending the mother asked.
On the justice of God said the little
girl.
Oh you don't mean the justice of God
you mean the mercy of God.
No mother said the daughter.
I mean the justice of God.
You know mother all my sins were laid
on Jesus and he bore my punishment and
God in his justice is not going to
punish me too.
He's not going to punish.
He's not going to let Christ down the
cross and you'd be lost if you believe
in Christ and put your trust in him.
And then another word associated with blood blood
is cleansing.
First John 1 7 but if we walk
in the light as he is in the
light we have fellowship one with another and
the blood of Jesus Christ his son continues
to cleanse us from all sin.
When you come to the cross not only
does he cleanse all the past sins but
that blood is available for any present or
future sins.
So that you stand before God justified ready
to go to heaven.
That's a marvelous thing to have happen to
you.
You see fire is a cleansing power.
The jewelers often called upon to refashion some
old silver or gold and the article is
placed in a pot over an alcoholic on
alcohol flame and allowed to remain there for
several hours and the boiling process cleanses corrosion
and dust and other metals come to the
surface and are dipped off it's called dross
and that's what God's what the blood of
Christ does it cleanses.
It takes all those bad elements out and
leaves you standing before God justified and pure.
God can no longer see your sins.
You can take some brown sugar and dip
it in the blood from animals and it
obliques the sugar next to the snow and
its whiteness.
We are cleansed by blood in the spiritual
realm.
The process is that of repentance and faith
to all who would forsake sin God offers
a new chance.
There was a student co-ed I read
about the other day at 19 years of
age.
She got into the Guinness Book of Records
this year by standing in the shower for
a consecutive 121 hours.
Think of that.
When you know back when I was a
boy they used to see how many goldfish
they could swallow and then they'd see how
many kids could get in a telephone booth
and we had all kinds of or how
you could sit on a pole how long
you could sit on a pole then they
had what they call the walk-a-thons
they would go all over the country and
people would see how long they could dance
and some of them would dance for 3
and 4 and 5 weeks night and day,
night and day never sleeping, dancing and the
one that lasted the longest would get maybe
$75.
But tonight you can be cleansed by the
blood of Christ and you don't have to
take a 121 hour shower.
It can happen tonight, right now.
It's an instant thing with Christ.
He promises to blot out all the old
sins and make the record begin with a
new start wouldn't that be wonderful a brand
new start in life to be born from
above to be born anew to start over
and all the past forgiven that's what God
offers you tonight.
Then there's another word there's redemption and remission
and justification and cleansing then there's peace peace
in the midst of a world filled with
war we're told that there are 40 wars
going on right now in the world and
there's all sorts of wars in families all
sorts of wars between friends going on in
Colossians 1.20 it says and having made
peace through the blood of his cross by
him to reconcile all things unto himself because
of that blood we can have peace there
are three types of peace spoken of in
the Bible first is peace with God you
see God says that because of our sins
we're at war with him he makes peace
at the cross then there's the peace of
God that the Holy Spirit produces in you
when you come to Christ you have a
peace that you've never known before think of
the restlessness in the world today among so
many of us the pressures that we live
under but to think of having peace in
the midst of it all and then there's
peace between nations and that's going to happen
someday when Jesus comes back again and reign
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords
I'll talk about that Sunday afternoon there's absolute
harmony in heaven because of the shed blood
I heard about a famous incident in the
First World War a terrible battle had taken
place and there were two wounded soldiers one
was a German and the other was French
and as they lay near each other on
the field the Frenchman gave his enemy a
drink of cool water for his tongue then
they clasped hands and they prayed and the
dying German said there'll be no war on
the other side and in a few moments
they were both on the other side and
there's no war there peace but you can
have that peace here and now in the
midst of the troubles and trials and discouragements
of life and the pressures of life you
can have the peace of God that passeth
all understanding right now there's no war going
on in the heart of those who really
know Christ if you surrender to Him not
only is there peace but there's also another
word access access but now in Christ Jesus
ye who were far off are made nigh
by the blood of Christ we can come
straight into the presence of God we don't
have to come through a third person having
therefore brethren boldness turned unto the holiest by
the blood of Christ by a new and
a living way says Hebrews 10 from the
cross the Lord said it is finished the
veil in the temple was rent in twain
there was a veil between the people and
God but when Christ died that veil was
rent in two and it's been rent ever
since and this was symbolic of the veil
between God and man that had kept fallen
man from having access to the Father and
Sir Walter Scott was speaking one day and
he's once speaking about the veil of the
temple being rent in two and a man
in the back stood up and said how
big was that hole and Sir Walter Scott
said it was big enough for any sinner
to get through yes it's big enough for
any sinner to get through and you can
come directly into the presence of God with
boldness I heard about a prisoner who was
brought up to trial in England under the
reign of Charles the first and throughout the
proceedings the condemned man remained calm and people
couldn't figure out because everything was going against
him they knew the judge was going to
pronounce him guilty and they knew that he
was going to be condemned to hang and
he was so calm and he had such
peace it seemed and so the sentence of
death was passed and he reached in his
pocket and he pulled out a paper and
handed it to the judge it was a
pardon from King Charles the first he already
had it if you have pardon from God
you can stand before anything in this world
with peace in your heart because if you're
ready to die you're ready to live and
you've already been pardoned because of Christ so
in the day of judgment if we have
Christ's free pardon for sin we're not afraid
of anything at the judgment when I see
the blood I read about in a hospital
in Pennsylvania recently a fellow died in the
hospital because he was given the wrong kind
of blood the blood of Jesus Christ God's
son shed on the cross for us was
the right type of blood to cleanse and
infuse every person in this room tonight with
life we've been reading a lot about a
new disease that people are frightened about and
it gets in the blood stream through transfusion
there's no pollution in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ it's pure it'll cleanse from
every sin no matter what it is the
blood accomplishes three things it satisfies God who
was delivered for our offenses and was raised
again for our justification you see we sometimes
refuse to rest where God rests when the
atonement has been made God was satisfied nothing
needs to be added to the demands of
His holy nature divine justice was completely satisfied
we're constantly seeking to add merit or to
combine work along with what Christ did on
the cross we're constantly seeking to add merit
but you don't have to it was all
done at the cross and in the resurrection
are you ready to meet Him though your
sins were scarlet they shall be as white
as snow though they were red like crimson
they shall be as wool so we can
say with Paul I live yet not I
but Christ liveth in me the second thing
the blood does it saves sinners like you
and me I'm a sinner, yes a sinner
in hell, yes but for by grace so
you say through faith in that and out
of yourselves it is the gift of God
oh there's a tremendous sense of relief when
I realize that He gave it to me
that my name is written in the book
of life that I know that I'm going
to heaven it liberates you from anxiety and
fear and how many of us live in
anxiety and fear today if I had the
ability to sing like Doug Odom or Bev
Shea I would burst forth right now in
amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved
a sinner like me but it also does
one other thing it silences the devil the
Bible says who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect it is God that
justifies you see the Bible teaches a strange
thing and I don't quite understand all this
now I'll get some clergyman here to explain
it to me sometime but Satan is standing
daily before the throne of God accusing us
he's the accuser of the brethren he's saying
look at that Billy Graham you see that
he didn't do that he did that he
did this he did that he's accusing us
all the time but Jesus Christ is our
advocate He's my lawyer at the right hand
of God the Father He answers the devil
and He reminds the devil that when he
died on the cross that took care of
Billy Graham's sins and there came a day
when Billy Graham repented of his sins and
received Christ as his own Savior and Jesus
said look at that and the devil has
to back away and says yes he's under
the blood when I see the blood I
will pass over is the blood tonight sprinkled
on the door of your heart will the
judgment of God pass over you or are
you going to have to face the judgment
of God which is it going to be
you say well Billy I'm really not sure
I'm a member of the church I'm a
deacon in the church I'm the pastor of
a church but I'm really not sure I
had a bishop come to me sometime ago
of a great church and he said you
know I've been through a theological school in
England I'm a bishop in my denomination but
he said I really don't know for sure
that I know Christ I want to know
and I talked to that bishop in his
home as though he were a little child
even though he held a doctor's degree in
theology from Cambridge University and he got on
his knees with tears coming down his cheeks
he confessed before God how many people here
tonight are in the church but you're a
long way from full fellowship with Christ Jesus
said you can serve me with your lips
but your heart is far from me tonight
is the night you may never have another
moment like this we've seen hundreds of people
every night come forward to make their commitment
to Christ and to be sure I'm going
to ask you to do that tonight I'm
going to ask hundreds of you to get
up out of your seats in a few
moments and come and stand in front of
this platform and as you come and stand
here quietly and reverently I'm going to say
a word to you and have a prayer
with you and give you some literature and
you can go back and join your friends
if you're with friends or relatives or come
in a bus they'll wait on you but
Christ paid the price on the cross for
you and shed his blood certainly you can
come a few steps to make your commitment
to him you say Billy why do you
ask us to come publicly because every person
that Jesus called in the new testament he
called publicly publicly he said if you're not
willing to acknowledge me before men I'll not
acknowledge you before my father which is in
heaven so it's biblical and it's psychologically sound
for you to come publicly and make your
commitment to Christ husbands and wives and whole
families need to come sweethearts need to come
and surrender to him tonight and say tonight
I want to leave here knowing that my
sins are forgiven and that I'm going to
heaven if you're with friends they'll wait I
said no one leave the stadium now this
is the holy moment ask us to be
bowed in prayer everyone praying as people come
you get up and come right now quickly
we're going to wait hundreds of you from
everywhere and make this commitment to Christ you
have been listening to the From the Pulpit
and Classic Sermon series this week you heard
Billy Graham with his message The Gift of
Blood tune in next week to hear Chuck
Smith talk about The Worship of False Gods
on From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons