The greatest evangelist of the Twentieth Century, without question, was Billy Graham. The greatest evangelist before him of the Nineteenth Century undoubtedly was Dwight L. Moody. Both shared a common trait. They were criticized because of a particular subject they preached about.

When Billy Graham was getting started, a professor from Cornell University wrote him a letter and said, "Mr. Graham, you have great talent, and you have what it takes to be a successful minister. But if you want to continue to be successful, you are going to have to leave out the preaching on the blood. It is out of date and no enlightened man of the Twentieth Century will swallow it."

When Dwight L. Moody started preaching, a woman wrote him a letter and said, "Brother Moody, if you want to be effective, you are going to have to leave out that blood stuff." Dwight L. Moody said, like Dr. Graham after him, "I determined at that moment to preach more on the blood of Jesus Christ than ever before."

I remember when I was a student at the seminary, I had an extremely liberal professor who said, "I am sick and tired of this slaughter-house religion, and we need to get it out of our pulpits and out of our churches as quickly as possible." Well, medically, when you take the blood out of the body, the body dies. May I tell you, that is also true of the body of Christ. When you take the blood out of the body the body dies.

We are not only a people of the book, we are a people of the blood. The Bible is not only a blest book, it is a blood book. The word "blood" is found 415 times in the Bible. The Bible begins with blood in Genesis when Cain sheds the blood of his brother, Abel. It ends with blood in the book of the Revelation when the Lord Jesus returns wearing a robe "dipped in blood." (Rev. 19:13)

There is a scarlet thread that binds every page of this book. You cut this book and it bleeds. The reason for that is, all of the Bible can be summarized in a part of one sentence we are going to study today: "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." (1 Jn. 1:7) The only spiritual detergent that can remove the stain of sin from the human soul, is the blood of Jesus Christ. Whether you are a Christian or not, I want you to understand why this is true.

I. The Blood Comes From a Supernatural Person

This verse tells us that we speak of "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son." This is not ordinary blood. There is no other blood like it. The blood that flowed in the veins of Jesus Christ was the pure perfect sinless blood of God the Son. One of the most incredible verses in the Bible is Acts 20:28. Here is what it says: "Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood." A blood that was shed on the cross was the blood of God.

Now this is crucial to understand because if it was God's blood, then it must be innocent blood.

Judas said of Jesus in Mt. 27:4, "I have sinned by betraying innocent blood." Jesus Christ is the only person ever born truly and totally innocent. Every other person ever born is born with a sinful nature flowing through his veins, but not the Lord Jesus.

When Jesus Christ died on the cross, He was innocent. He was not guilty of one sin nor one crime. Now it is possible for a person to be innocent of a crime but guilty of a sin. For example: It's not a crime to gossip, but it's a sin. It's not a crime to commit fornication, but it's a sin. It's not a crime to rob God by not tithing, but it's a sin. You can be guilty of one, but not guilty of the other. But Jesus was innocent of both.

When Jesus was dying on the cross He said in Luke 23:34, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." Now Jesus never one time ever prayed this simple little prayer, "Father, forgive me." The reason why He didn't was because He never did anything he had to be forgiven for. Heb. 4:15-16 tells us, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weak-nesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

2 Cor. 5:21 also says, "For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Now if Jesus had not been innocent He could not have taken my guilt, because He would have had to have dealt with His own. The reason He could die for my sin is because He did not have to die for His sin.

Peter said in his epistle, "You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold…but with the precious blood of Christ." (1 Pet. 1:18-19) The word precious literally means "valuable." Now the value of something is determined by several things. I was taught when I took Economics 101 in college that one of the things that determines value is supply and demand. But another thing that determines value is rarity.

A few weeks ago I was walking up Park Avenue in New York City, and I turned into a little shop there that had some antiques and memorabilia in it, and there on a wall in a frame was a letter by Mark Twain. It only had a few words written on it with his signature. But that letter was valued at $45,000. Why? Because a letter by Mark Twain is extremely rare. Well, the blood of Jesus Christ is the only blood of its kind in the history of the entire world, because only His blood was innocent blood.

Incidentally, Jesus did not only have to die, He also had to shed His blood. The fact of His death cannot be separated from the form of His death. That same professor I had in seminary also once said, "Jesus Christ could have fallen down a hill and have broken his neck and accomplished the same thing He accomplished on the cross of Calvary." Well, that is not only heresy, it's downright blasphemy. For the Bible says in Heb. 9:22, "Without the shedding of blood there is no remission."

Gold, as you know, is the most precious of all metals. For years and years a solution was sought that would dissolve this precious metal so it could be bought and sold. Finally, after years of experimentation, a solution of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid was concocted and put to the test of dissolving this precious metal.

It was discovered that this one solution could dissolve gold from any ore. This combination of acids came to be known as "aqua regia" or "royal water" because for years it was believed to be the only solution that could totally dissolve gold.

Well there is only one thing that will dissolve and remove the sin stain of the human heart. The spiritual solution to sin pollution, is the blood of Jesus Christ. That is because it comes from a supernatural person.

II. The Blood Cleanses With Supernatural Power

Our verse goes on to say, "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us." Now it is extremely important to see that the verse does not say that the blood of Jesus Christ "has cleansed us," or "will cleanse us." It says specifically it "cleanses us." That verb is in the present tense. What it literally says is, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us and keeps on cleansing us. It cleanses us now, it cleanses us today, it cleanses us tomorrow. Every day that you need to be cleansed, the blood is available to do the job.

So often after someone gets saved, the first question they ask is, "Does this mean that I will never sin again?" Or, "What happens now when I sin?" Let me give you some bad news and some good news. If you get saved today there's a strong chance you're going to sin tomorrow.

But now let me give you the good news. You get saved today and tomorrow you lose your temper, just remember "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us." If you get saved today and you let a bad word slip out tomorrow, just remember "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us." If you get saved today and you think an impure thought tomorrow, just remember "the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us."

If you ever do any grocery shopping, you will notice that today when you buy certain products like milk or something else, it will say "Use by" and it will give you a certain date. Now the reason for that is, if you don't use it by that date it will either lose its potency and its effectiveness, or, like milk, it could get sour and be unhealthy to use. Well, the blood of Jesus Christ never loses its power. It is just as effective in washing the dirt of depravity away today as it was 2000 years ago.

But let me give you this caution—the only person who ever gets clean is the person who admits he's dirty. I have found far too many people who just don't understand either that they are dirty because of sin, or just how dirty they are. They are like a little boy I heard about who hated to take a bath; just despised soap and water. One day his mother, trying desperately to approach the subject from a more successful angle, said, "Son, you do want to be a nice clean little boy don't you?" Her little boy said, "Yes ma'am, but Mama can't you just sort of dust me off?"

Well, our hands are dirty because of the deeds we do. Our hearts are dirty in the desires that we have. Our heads are dirty in the deliberations we consider, in the thoughts that pass through our mind. If you want God to forgive you, you must allow God to cleanse you.

I believe that God does not forgive without cleansing. Let me tell you the difference between God and us when it comes to sin. When God sees sin, He wants to cleanse it. When we see sin, we want to cover it. When God forgives sin, He wants to cleanse sin. Imagine a little boy dressed up in his Sunday clothes to go to church. When his mother is not looking he goes outside and rolls around in the mud. He comes in, his mother scolds him, threatens to spank him and he begins to cry. He says, "Mom, I'm sorry, please forgive me." The mom says, "All right, get out of those clothes and go take a bath."

Now suppose the little boy just stands there. The mother repeats her instructions and he ignores it. Finally, he looks at the mother and says, "I don't want to take a bath, I like this mud." What that little boy wants is to be forgiven, but he doesn't want to be cleansed.

He wants to be forgiven because he doesn't want to be punished, but he wants to keep the mud. Sometimes we try to bargain with God that way. We ask God to forgive us so He won't punish us, but we want to keep the sin. You can have the forgiveness or you can have the filth, but you cannot have both.

I was reading about how a sailor is designated at night as the Officer of the Deck. That means he has the watch late at night. He would have to stay awake for a designated period of time, usually around four hours, and keep a watch out to insure there was nothing wrong with the ship. The Officer of the Deck usually would stand on the bridge where the ship is controlled and steered. At night no white lights are allowed on the bridge because they hinder the ability to look out and see other ships or obstacles to the safety of the ship. So all of the lights and flashlights have a red filter over the lens maximizing night vision.

When these officers would receive messages or documents, they could read everyone as long as it was not written in red ink or with a red felt-tip pen. Because if the document was written in red, the red light would blend with the ink of the pencil, and you couldn't see what was on the paper.

When we receive Jesus Christ, God puts a red filter over the lens of His eyes, and when He looks down at our life, all of our sins are completely gone. He cannot see them through the filter of His beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ.

III. The Blood Completes a Supernatural Purpose

The last part of this verse says, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." Now please hear this next statement. With God a person who is only partially clean is totally dirty. Would you let your dog into your house if only two of his paws were muddy? Absolutely not, and God will not let anyone into His heaven unless they have been cleansed from all of their sins.

You see, the shed blood of Jesus Christ is not like STP. It's not an additive that you give to your heart that gives it that racer's edge. The blood of Jesus is not something you add to your religion, or add to your ritual, or add to your righteousness, to cleanse you. His blood alone cleanses from all sin.

So many people have the idea that salvation is on the installment plan. When you go to buy a house you make a down payment. After you make the down payment you then begin to make monthly installments. There are some people who have this idea that when Jesus Christ shed His blood, He made the down payment for our sins, and then we make the installments by going to church, keeping the Ten Commandments, being religious, doing good. Well, have I got some news for you. When Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross, He paid off the entire mortgage!

Just before Jesus breathed his last on the cross, He said in John 19:30, "It is finished." Those three words in the English language are one word in the Greek language that literally means "Paid in full."

Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, had a dream. In fact, I guess you would call it a nightmare. He didn't know what it was, but he awakened in the middle of the night, and standing at the foot of his bed was a figure that he believed to be the devil himself.

The devil had a scroll, and on that scroll were the sins that Martin Luther had committed. The scroll was accurate. It was true. The devil was reading them one after another and pointing a fiery bony finger into the face of Martin Luther and condemning him and accusing him and saying, "What hope of heaven do you have as a miserable sinner?"

Martin Luther said that he thought his very soul was slipping down into hell. But then the Lord spoke to Martin Luther and said, "Martin, tell him to unroll the scroll all the way down." Martin Luther said, "Unroll the scroll." He said the devil refused. Luther said, "This time I said, ‘In the name of Jesus, unroll the scroll.'" The devil did unroll it and there printed at the bottom of all of the sins Martin Luther had ever committed were these words written across the entire thing: "This entire sin account of Martin Luther has been paid in full by the blood of Jesus Christ."

The highest holiday of the Jewish faith is Passover. It celebrates both the Exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt, but also that night when God's death angel passed through Egypt and slaughtered every firstborn of every household that did not have the blood of a lamb painted over the doorpost. God made a promise to His people. He said, "You paint the blood of a lamb over your doorpost and when I see the blood, I will pass over you."

Now what if God had seen tears in that household, but no blood?—Death would have come. What if God had seen remorse in that household, but no blood?—Death would have come. What if God had seen faith in that household, but no blood?—Death would have come. What if God had seen religion in that household, but no blood?—Death would have come.

The point I'm making is this: If there was any other way to be saved, any other way to be cleansed, any other way to be forgiven, any other way to be accepted, then Jesus would not have died nor shed one drop of His blood. But that He did die and that He did shed His blood, tells us that only His blood can cleanse us from all sin.

I read a true story one time of a part of six people who began a dangerous descent of a peak in the Swiss Alps. The first man in line lost his foothold and slipped over an icy ledge. The next two men slid after him while the experienced climbers above braced themselves and stood firm to bear the shock. They thought, without any question, they would simply hold and all these men would be saved by the rope they were connected to.

But when the rope ran its length, the cord snapped into. The climbers watched in horror as their friends scrambled hopelessly to stop their slide over the slick precipice. Within seconds the three men fell screaming to their deaths 4000 feet below.

For a half hour the other three climbers were frozen in silence and fear, unable to move. Finally, they began that slow painstaking descent down the mountain. Hours later they arrived safely, eager to find answers. Why had the rope broken? They were told that true Alpine Club rope would never break, and that was true.

The survivors were shocked when a close examination revealed the rope they had was not true Alpine Club rope. It was a poor cheap fatal substitute. How did they know it was not the true Alpine Club rope that the professional climbers used? Because true Alpine Club quality rope has a red strand running through it, but this rope did not.

I don't know what your rope of hope is that you are holding on to; counting on it to take you to heaven. But I can tell you what my rope of hope is. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Because nothing but the blood can save you.