This broadcast is coming to you from the Metropolitan Tabernacle of the First Baptist Church of Algiers, 501 Opelousas Avenue here in New Orleans. We're glad to have you worshiping with us today. This is J.B. Messer bringing the message to you today in the absence of Brother Gale, our pastor, who is visiting in the Indian Mission in Minnesota. Our dear Heavenly Father, we thank Thee this morning for Thy blessings that Thou hast bestowed upon us. We thank you for this opportunity you've given us to come to hear thy word. And dear Father, we pray that thou will teach us what thou would have us to learn of thee this morning. Father, we pray that thou will bless the waiting audience. Heavenly Father, that thou will give them listening ears and be with us that we may tell thy word as it is. Be true to the souls of men and women. Be with our pastor, Heavenly Father, we pray thy blessings upon him. Rest his body, bring him back to us rested. Heavenly Father, teach us Thy will day by day and moment by moment. May each one of us get a blessing out of the services of this day, which in Thy precious name we ask. Amen. I serve a risen Savior who's in the world today. I know that He is living forever. I hear His voice and sing. And just the time I need Him, He's always near. He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me. I love my Savior. With all the world around me, I see his loving care. And though my life grows weary, I never will despair. I know that he is leading through all the stormy clouds. He lives, he lives, where Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me. Our love has never wavered. He lives, he lives, our nation through and through. Take me by the arm. Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, with the dark-haired Christ, and sing. He came, alleluia, to Jesus Christ, the King. The Lord, the God, the Savior, the help, the love, He lives, he lives, my Jesus is today. He walks with me and talks with me along my Sarah way. He lives, he lives, salvation to him, Lord. You ask me how I know he lives. I know that my God's work has springs to me in heav'nly love, not my unworthy prices But I know, I have believed it, and am frustrated that he is able to give me life, which I've committed unto him for his benediction. I know of the love that saved me, God help believing in his word, for peace within the heart. Oh, I have beneath Him, and I'm persuaded that He is able to be done which I've committed unto Him of extracting. Now the Spirit moves, convincing him of sin, revealing Jesus to the world. ♪ Making things with me ♪ ♪ I have no hope, I have been heeded ♪ ♪ And I'm persuaded that it is a call ♪ ♪ To keep them which I've committed ♪ ♪ Unto me who've been stranded ♪ I know not when my Lord may come, that night my new day may come. Nor if I don't now live with you, nor meet you in the air. But I know I have been leaden and am persuaded I like the words of that song. It's one of my favorites. And not many things that I do know, but I know one thing, that Christ is mine. I know Him. And that's what salvation is, knowing Christ. Now I've asked that we sing, When I See the Blood. speak about the blood this morning. So let's turn to number 120. ♪ Rain on his head ♪ I'm He cares for sinners, Jesus can say, as He has promised, so will He ever. Oh, sinner, hear Him, trust in His word, then he will pass away. Oh All will be there, who have rejected, who have reduced. All sinner hasten, let Jesus in. If God will pass, He'll pass over you. When I see the Lord, I will pass, I will pass, I will pass, I will pass. Jesus hath power, Jesus is true. All who believe are saved from the storm. Only the Master has power. It is not necessary that I see the blood. Christ says, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. There may come times when the born-again believer may be, as we'd call it, down in the dumps and cannot see clearly the blood, but yet when God sees the blood, He says, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. I come to you this morning with a heavy sense of responsibility that rests upon me to tell the old, old story and to tell it plain. For if I give you the wrong instructions, you will die in your sins, yet God will require your blood at my hands. But it is my intention this morning to tell the story straight and you pray for me that I may do so. I'm reminded of a story that I heard our late pastor tell some years ago It was in the days of the early trains. They didn't have many trains and the West was not very thickly populated. At a certain stop, a woman and two small children got on the train. She seemed to be nervous and apprehensive. You could tell that she hadn't been riding on the train very many times. So when the conductor came around to pick up the tickets, She asked him, would you be sure that I find the right place to get off? I'm not familiar with the route. I don't know whether I'll know where to get off or not. So the conductor told her yes, he'd be back by in plenty of time to tell her the right stop to get off. So she seemed to relax and sat back in her chair. But as the conductor went into the other car to take up his tickets, a man sitting over close by got up and came over to this lady's chair. He said, now lady, I know this route just like I know the back of my hand. He said, I've ridden this route many a time. I know just exactly where all these stops are. So in case the conductor doesn't come back, I'll come back and help you with the children, show you where to get off. So they rode along quite a bit, and after a while, after they made several stops, When they made one stop, the man got up and came over to us and said, now lady, this next stop is your place to get off. I know this route. I've been over so many times, I know just exactly where we are. So if you'll put the children's coats on and get ready for the cold weather outside, I'll come when the train stops and help you off. Just a few minutes the train stopped and the man got up and came back there. Got the luggage and they went to the door. He raised up the trapdoor and let the lady and the two children out. It was cold. It was a blizzard on outside. It was snowing and cold. And so he walked on back to his seat. The train started up in just a minute. And then a few minutes the conductor came back there and he looked in the car there and he looked kind of startled. He said, where's the little lady and the two children that were supposed to get off at this next stop? The man says, oh, I put them off back there. That was their stop. He says, I know all about this route. I know that was their stop. The man said, do you realize what you have done? He says, this is just a watering stop where we watered the stop to take on water in the boilers. He says, there's no habitation within several miles of that place. He ran the emergency cord, and the train backed up. And the men got out and looked around. And after searching for quite a while, they found the woman and the two children huddled down in a corner, frozen to death. Now this man thought he was given the right instruction, but he gave the wrong instructions, and it cost the life of this mother and her two children. There is a responsibility, and I feel it keenly this morning, of telling the story true, being true to the souls of men and women. But yet there is another side of this question, and that is your ability and your responsibility to hear. For there's laid upon you the warnings, many times in God's word, of how you shall hear. Hear and your soul shall live, the scripture tells us. Let a man take heed how he shall hear. Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speech, and so forth. And then James tells us, but be doers of the word and not hearers only. So may I preach, and so may you listen this morning as for eternity. There is no easy way into grace. There is no easy way into grace. As our late pastor used to say, you don't jump from a static rapture into grace, but salvation is a dying. I want us to notice some of the scriptures in God's Word telling us about how hard it is to enter into the kingdom of heaven. Luke 13, 24 tells us, Strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. John 6, 27. Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endeareth unto eternal life. Mark 8, 34 and 35, whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospels, the same shall save him. And then in Luke 14, 33, so likewise, Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple." I brought you a message last Sunday night about coming to Christ. Salvation is coming to Christ. Salvation is knowing Christ. But before you are enabled to come to Christ, there is a work of grace that must be carried out in your heart. For the natural man, by nature, will not come unto Christ for salvation. By nature, a man will look for every remedy, every escape that he can find in order to get salvation without coming to Christ. But there is no other way except by coming to Christ as Savior and Lord. Salvation, as I said a while ago, is a dying. It is a dying to self, It is a dying to your loved ones. It is a dying to your possessions. It is a dying to everything that you are and everything that you have and a being resurrected by the Lord Jesus Christ unto salvation. You must come to Christ in order to be saved and yet you will not come to Christ until you are brought there by the power of God's Holy Spirit. Philippians 2.13 tells us, For it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Every individual by nature is dead. A dead person cannot believe, a dead person cannot repent, a dead person cannot come to Christ. There must be life given to that individual before he can do anything. And so the first work of God in salvation is that he grants life unto a soul. 2 Timothy 1-9 tells us, Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And our subject this morning is atonement by the blood. There are seven thoughts if we have time I want to bring to us this morning. First of all, atonement is by the blood. Second, it is not Christ born for us, but Christ dying for us. Third, it is not the life of Christ as our example, but the death of Christ as our atoning sacrifice. Fourth, it must be a willing sacrifice. Fifth, atonement justifies the sinner. Sixth, atonement justifies God in justifying the sinner. And then seventh, the scarlet thread running through the scriptures. Atonement is by the blood. The word atonement means a covering or to cover. Leviticus 17 11 tells us, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. In the Old Testament Tabernacle and later on in the temple The blood of the lamb was taken into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat, which was the lid to the Ark of the Covenant. And that lid had only two cherubims out of beaten gold with their wings overlapping in the middle. And in between the wings of those cherubim, the high priest once a year brought the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. turning the judgment seat of God into a mercy seat whereby sinners might be saved. Only once a year, he didn't come into the Holy of Holies whenever he had a desire, whenever he wanted to, whenever he felt like he needed a cleansing from sin, but once a year the high priest came into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled the blood upon the altar. The Holy Spirit signifying that the way into the Holy of Holies belongs unto the Lord. It was a very sacred place, this Holy of Holies. The outer court was to be entered in often by the priest to make sacrifices and put the incense on the altar and different things. But the Holy of Holies was only to be entered once a year. The blood was the security of the high priest. And the priest had bells on the bottom of his robe as he walked in there so that the people, in hearing him move about, could hear the ringing of the bell and know that he was still alive. For if he did anything wrong, anything that was not according to God's will, God would strike him dead there in the Holy of Holies. Now let's turn to Hebrews 9, and I want us to read something there. I guess you folks know by now that I love the book of Hebrews. The Hebrews is one of the most interesting books in the whole Bible to me. Let's begin reading with the 11th verse. But Christ, being come and high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. You know, those are mighty words. Listen to it again. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. When did he do that? there on the cross of Calvary when Christ gave his life a ransom for sinners. He took as it were his own blood and went into the Holy of Holies in heaven and there sprinkled his own blood upon the altar once for all obtaining eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying of the flesh How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they who are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ offered himself, gave his own blood as it were, and put his own blood on the mercy seat, opening the way whereby we might be saved. And at the death of Christ, the veil of the temple was rent in two. signifying that the way into the Holy of Holies, which had until now been for the high priest only once a year, the way into the Holy of Holies was opened that the believer might come into the presence of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ on the basis of his shed blood. Ephesians 1, 6 and 7 tells us, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Redemption is always and only through the blood. Nowhere in the scripture is there intimated any other atonement but by the blood. For the life is in the blood of the flesh. And he says, I have given you the blood upon the altar, not in the veins, but upon the altar to make an atonement for sin. Ephesians 2, 11 through 13. Wherein remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that times, Ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. Now that's a very grim picture of humanity, isn't it? But now listen to that latter part of that verse. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were afar off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Ye who sometimes were far off, just as far off as death, just as far off as you can be. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Now we come to that second thought, atonement is by blood and blood alone. Christ is not born for us, but Christ died for us, which is our salvation. I know we all love to sing about the babe in the manger, to talk about the early life and the boyhood of Christ, read about the song of the angels as they announced his birth, but the scripture nowhere admonishes us to observe or to celebrate his birth. If you haven't read our pastor's book on Christmas or Demon Holiday, you get it and read it. We are nowhere told to observe Christ's birth, but His death is what makes the atonement for the soul. If Christ had not died on the cross, our salvation would not have been complete. We would still be in our sins. It is not Christ living for us that is our salvation. It is not Christ going about doing good that assures us of being saved. Paul says the gospel is, moreover I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory that which I have preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He arose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. It is not Christ being born for us that is our salvation, but it is Christ dying on the cross of Calvary, giving Himself an offering and a sacrifice unto God for us. Now let's notice again, it is not the life of Christ as an example that saves, but the death of Christ as our atoning sacrifice. It would have been the most cruel thing in the world if Christ had only given us an example to follow, without giving the power of a new life. For without the new birth, no individual can follow the example of Christ. No individual can live the type of life that Christ lived, and if we would have to depend upon following his example to get saved, then we would, as Paul said, of all men be most miserable. I. M. Haldeman, in his tabernacle priesthood offerings, has this to say about Christ as our example, and I quote, You may believe in him as a good man, You may exalt him as a teacher and follow him as a perfect example. If that be all, then he shall be of no more avail to you than the live bullock or lamb would have been to the Jew who brought it to the altar and led it away again alive and unslain. He, the Christ of God, should be of no more value to you than if you should believe in Buda, rest your soul for salvation upon the best, the most moral, the most perfect John Smith in the whole wide world." If you're trying to rest upon the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and trying to follow his example then you're doomed to failure to begin with. It is not his life as an example, but his death as an atoning sacrifice for sin. In the offering for sin, the blood was taken within the veil, while the carcass of the lamb was burned with outside the camp." Now notice that, notice the sequence of it. The blood within the veil, the body burned outside of the camp. As the ashes of the burnt body drifted away upon the breeze, the Israelites could look and say, My sins have all been blown away. My sins have all been put away. Christ, outside the camp, our sins consumed the ashes upon the cross. Christ, within the veil, His blood testifying that our sins are consumed. Christ, outside of the camp, dead for us. Christ within the veil, alive for us. Christ on the outside of the camp, our suffering substitute. Christ inside the veil, our living priest. What more can you want? Nothing can be more secure than that. Now, let's notice something else. This sacrifice must be a willing sacrifice. This offering must be a willing sacrifice. John 10, 17 and 18, listen to Christ as he speaks. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, and that's definite, isn't it? No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my father. Christ said, I lay my life down. I give my life for the sheep. I'm the good shepherd. I give my life for the sheep. And then to reinforce it, he said, no man takes my life away from me. No man has the power to take my life away from me. He could have called millions of angels to have come down and delivered him from the cross if that had been his pleasure, but he was willing. He willingly gave himself for you and I. Christ counted it a joy to give his life for his people. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set down before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. In his death on the cross, Christ Jesus committed himself in the hands of sinners to do with as they pleased. He was like a sheep led to the slaughter. He opened not his mouth, When Christ stood before Pilate, Pilate said to him, speakest thou not to me? Christ didn't even answer him when Pilate asked him about himself, who he called himself. And Pilate said, speakest thou not to me? Knowest not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Christ answered, thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. Christ was a willing sacrifice. He laid down his life willingly, gladly, freely for sinners. That's what breaks the sinner's heart when he realizes that no matter how wicked and seeing how wicked he is, that in spite of his wickedness, in spite of his meanness, in spite of his sinfulness, Christ willingly laid down his life for him. Now let's go on to the next thought. Atonement justifies the sinner. Atonement justifies the sinner. As we said at the beginning, the word atonement means to cover. Thou on the cross of Calvary, sin was covered. Christ, as He hung on the cross of Calvary, gave a shout of victory, saying, It is finished. What was finished? Transgression was finished. The sins of all his people were paid for. There was not a sin left that was not paid for of his people. Covered sins are sins that have been put away. You know I heard once, I don't know whether it's true or not, that when a man was in a certain place and was to collect a bill of groceries that the grocer would write the bill down in red ink. He'd write the article down and how much it cost, and then at the end of the month, he'd total it up. And when the man came in and paid his bill, he had a little paintbrush there. He would take this little paintbrush and paint the whole page over with the same color of ink that he used to write the figures in there, thus blotting out the whole thing. All sins have been blotted out as a thick cloud. Our sins are covered by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1.29 tells us, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. That word taketh away means beareth away. And then in Hebrews 10.4, For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Hebrews 10.12, But this man, speaking of Christ, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, thus signifying that the work was accomplished and had been completed. Hebrews 10 14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Atonement then by the putting away of sins and by the covering of sins makes that sinner as though he had not sin, as though he had never sinned. Now that's justification. Let me repeat that statement. Atonement then, by the putting away of sins, by the covering of his sins, makes that sinner as though he had not sinned. His sins will not be remembered in God's sight anymore. He has been justified by the Lord Jesus Christ, by that shed blood. Micah 7, 19 tells us, and thou wilt cast all thy sins into the depth of the sea. Then he tells us in Isaiah 38, 17, behold, for peace I had great bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. And then in Jeremiah 31, 34, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Hebrews 8, 12, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. The atoning blood obliterates the son of sins as though he had never sinned. cover those sins where they'll never be brought to bear against Him. God does not demand payment for the same sin twice. First at the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and then at the hands of the Son of Man. Christ on the cross of Calvary paid the sins of every one of God's elect for all ages, for all times. Those sins are blotted out as though they had never happened. Now let's notice this other fact. Atonement justifies God in justifying the sinner. In other words, the atonement makes it possible for God to be just and the justifier of those who trust Him. It enables God to be just. God cannot be anything but just. It enables God to be just and yet to justify the guilty sinner through the covering of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 3, 24-26, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom he has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that is God's righteousness, that he might be just and a justifier of him who believeth in Jesus. In the atonement, by the shedding of the blood, the sin debt of every one of God's elect has been paid in full. And God cannot punish twice for the same sin. Therefore Paul tells us in Romans 4, 7 and 8, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That is indeed a very blessed man, that man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, that man whose sins have been covered. That man's sins have been put away. That man's sins have been buried in the depths of the ocean. That man's sins have been put away out of God's sight and they will not be charged against him anymore. Once that sin debt has been paid, then there will be no other possibility of that debt ever being collected again. That debt is taken off of the books as far as every believer is concerned. Now let's notice something about the Day of Atonement as recorded in the 16th of Leviticus. Turn with me to Leviticus, the 16th chapter. Let's begin reading with the second verse. And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark, that he die not. For I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat. Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place. Now this is once a year that he comes into the holy place with a young bullock for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired. These are holy garments, therefore shall he wash his flesh and water, and put them on. And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats, one for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Now I want you to notice these are different from the sin offering and the bullock that he has for himself. Aaron the high priest before he could go into the holy place had to offer a bullock for a sin offering for himself and a ram for a burnt offering before he could go into the presence of the Holy of Holies to offer the sin for the sins of the children of Israel. He shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goat for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock for the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself and for his house. And he shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the Lord's lot fell, and offer it for a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make an atonement with it, and to let it go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. Now we have the sequence there. First of all, Aaron offered for himself a sin offering and a burnt offering. And then he takes the two goats that are furnished by the children of Israel, furnished by the congregation, and he casts lots upon them. One of them is chosen for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. He takes the one that belongs to the Lord and offers it upon the altar as a sin offering. And the goat on which the Lord fell to be a scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement with it, and to let it go for a scapegoat into the wilderness. And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself. Let's go on over now to the 20th verse. And when he hath finished atoning for the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send it away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And the goat shall bear upon it all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited, and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness. Now this is an interesting thought here. There are two goats offered as a sin offering unto the Lord for the children of Israel. One of them, the sin offering, was to be killed and the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat, and the Holy of Holies. And the other goat was to be presented before Aaron, and he was to put his both hands over the head of that goat, confessing on that goat, or over that goat, the sins of all the congregation. And this goat, carrying all the sins of the congregation of Israel upon himself, was to be led out in the wilderness, and left to wander out there in the wilderness never more to return to the camp of Israel, signifying that the sins of the people of Israel were taken away out of sight. You know, that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did there on the cross of Calvary. Not only my past sins, but my present sins. And let no one tell you that he doesn't sin even now as a born again believer. I have no sympathy for that individual who says that he's perfect, that he doesn't sin. I heard a man say once, well, you know, I'm as good as Jesus Christ and getting better all the time. Just cause cold chills to run all over my body. We sin, but the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only cleanses me from all past sins, but all sins that I might commit from now until the time that I die. My sins are taken away out of my sight, out of God's sight. Not even God himself can see my sins because they have been covered by the blood of the atonement. Therefore we can trace through the entire scripture this scarlet thread. From the very beginning, back in the Garden of Eden, When man had sinned, God slew animals and made coats of skin to clothe Adam and his wife. We find the blood atonement there. We find a little later on the two boys, Cain and Abel, when they get to be men of accountability, they come to the offer and offering a sacrifice unto God. And there have been rivers of blood that have flown down through the ages down through the times of the children of Israel, the history of the children of Israel. There have been sins and blood shed, lambs killed, bullets killed. Many, many rivers of blood has flown from that time. And all the way through the Old Testament prophecies, all the way through the Psalms, all the way through the New Testament, you find the blood. and then coming to the Lord Jesus Christ as he was taken and led out to Calvary to be crucified and there shed his blood which was the blood of which the goats and lambs was a type and a shadow. It is only through the blood that sins can be forgiven. It is only through the blood that the sinner can have peace. It is only through the blood that the sinner can be justified in God's sight. I'm glad that the Lord Jesus Christ did not hold back from giving himself as a sacrifice, otherwise I would not be saved. Otherwise I could not be saved, but he gave himself for us. I'd like to read a poem here that I found, that we've sung before as a song here, and I appreciate the words of it. When wounded sore the stricken soul, lies bleeding and unbound, one only hand, a pierced hand, can heal the sinner's wound. When sorrow swells the laden breast, and tears of anguish flow, one only heart, a broken heart, can feel the sinner's woe. When penitence has wept in vain over some foul, dark spot, one only stream, a stream of blood, can wash away that blood. It is Jesus' blood that washes white, His hand that brings relief, His heart that's touched with all our joys and feeleth for our grief. It is Thy bleeding hand, O Lord, unseals that cleansing tide, We have no shelter for our sin, but in thy wounded side. It is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes an atonement for the soul. It is only by the blood. There is no other sacrifice. There is no other way. You may live a good, clean, moral life. You may join the church. You may be baptized. You may do this and do that and do the other, regardless of what you do. Salvation is not a question of what you do. But it is a question of what the Lord Jesus Christ did there on the cross of Calvary. Let's go back and let me give you over again those thoughts that we gave you about the thing we were going to talk about. I'll find a place just in a moment. Atonement is by the blood. We've shown you that atonement is only by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not only Christ born for us, but Christ dying for us as our Savior and our substitute. It is not the life of Christ as our example, but the death of Christ as an atoning sacrifice. We've shown you that it was a willing sacrifice that Christ gave himself willingly. Atonement justifies the sinner. And then atonement justifies God in justifying the sinner. And then we have shown you briefly this carted thread running through the scriptures. Now I want us to turn to number 115 and sing that song. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood. and lose all thy guilt and stain. Now you notice the words of this song as we sing it. Number 115. Notice especially that fourth verse. Ever since by faith I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. Let's stand as we sing it. ♪ His power and glory evermore proclaim to thee ♪ ♪ Then sing his praise with ear and tongue ♪ ♪ To God the King we sing, to God the King we sing ♪ We're glad to have had your wife being with us today. You'll be back tonight to hear Brother Davis bring the message. And then Wednesday night is Brother AJ plays us another tape. How many of you liked that tape last Wednesday night? That was good. I appreciate that. Let's bow our heads in a word of prayer. Brother AJ, lead us in a closing word of prayer.