Great Texts of the Bible: The Life is in The Blood | Leviticus 17 | Pastor William Hixson

Let's open our Bibles to the book of

Leviticus. The third book in the Bible.

The third book. Leviticus

Leviticus 17 · chapter mention

chapter 17.

Chapter 17.

Leviticus is a book that's often ignored

by God's people or avoided because it's

so difficult.

But it is very important.

And in a hard book, this is

this is extremely important. And I would

say if you learn what you need to learn,

if you get what you need to get today

from Leviticus 17, it'll open up the

whole Bible to you. It'll be a key

to open up everything.

And that's what we're trying to do as we

move in this particular series. This is

the third message in a row of a new

series of messages, great texts in the

Bible. And the text that I'm picking

from each book is are texts that uh

hopefully will be beneficial in

understanding everything.

It's the keys. I'm looking for the keys

that help unlock other stuff.

So, when we're done with this series,

hopefully we'll have a whole key ring of

66 keys

to help us open up the 66 books and the

different doors to the different rooms

in the Bible.

Uh the scripture says all scripture is

inspired of God

and is profitable for teaching for

reproof for correction and training in

righteousness. Those four things for

teaching for reproof for correction and

training in righteousness.

This life,

this life for the Christian is to be a

life of being taught,

repeatedly taught,

reproved,

corrected,

and trained.

Think of this life as boot camp.

Think of this life that way. Your whole

life,

it's it's boot camp.

You're not there to enjoy yourself.

You're there to be trained.

Trained for what? Ruling and reigning in

the next life with Jesus Christ.

So if your life is hard, it's not meant

to be easy. We live in a fallen world.

You were born in a fallen world. You're

born as a fallen person. If God has

saved you, it's that he might he's got a

future for you as the part of the bride

of Christ eternally. We're going to

reign and rule with him forever. And so

this life is meant to be a a training

ground

for us.

And we need to look at it that way. You

see, life's hard. Is boot camp hard?

Life is hard. We're in a fallen world.

We're fallen people.

But God has that he's training us for.

And so, may God help us to look at life

that way. You know, some of these verses

in the Bible that in this series are

pivotal. They're essential. They're

helpful in understanding all the rest.

Bible's a big book, 66 books.

But we're trying to give keys to open up

the treasures of every book.

Remember our first message, Genesis

Genesis 15:6

15:6. And he believed in the Lord, and

he counted it to him for righteousness.

Major big key. major key. You can't

understand the book of Romans. You can't

understand the book of Galatians. You

can't understand the New Testament if

you don't have that key.

We're not saved by personal

righteousness as if all my good deeds

would outweigh my bad. I I'll make it to

heaven. We're saved by God's

righteousness put to our account. It's a

position you get the day you believe.

And so that's a big key, major league

key, so important. The second message

was from the song of Moses in Exodus

Exodus 15:1–2

15:1-2.

The Lord is my strength and my song and

my salvation. That's a big key. That's

recorded again in of course Psalm 18,

Isaiah 12, and finally in the book of

Revelation. There's a that that's a big

deal

in the Bible.

And God expresses himself

in each of those different sections a

little differently, but but the same

key.

Now, this morning, we're looking at

Leviticus 17 10-14.

These are instructions to the high

priest Aaron and his sons and to all the

people of Israel about the ceremonial

responsibilities they have as a nation

in the tabernacle and later the temple

to go through all the ceremonies

of animal sacrifice

and worship based on that.

You say, "I don't like animal sacrifice.

I love animals." Well, thank God for

animals.

And thank God for animal sacrifice. God

has a purpose. God loves animals more

than you do. For you think you love

animals more than God.

He created them. He cared for them in

Noah's ark as well as the people. And

guess what?

Remember Jonah

told in Nineveh, "Aren't is Nineveh a

great city and named all the people and

many cattle?" Cattle is a generic word

in the Bible for Adam.

You want to destroy it? Want me to wipe

it out? What about the animal?

So God is dealing with animal sacrifice

here, but he's dealing with the

ceremonies that come from that. the the

the uh importance of the blood of the

animal

to teach people.

So that's where we are and I would say

you cannot the word blood is found in

the Bible multiple times 300 and some

times you can't understand the Bible if

you don't know what the blood mean.

So, Leviticus chap 17 and verse 10-4.

And some of this is going to be

shocking. Some of this is going to be

obtuse. You're going to think, why is

all this going on? What's he saying? Why

is he saying it? But just bear with us

here.

Leviticus 17:10. And whatever man there

Leviticus 17:10

is of the house of Israel, or of the

strangers of sojourn among you, who eats

any manner of blood,

I will even set my face against that

soul that eats blood, and will cut him

off from among his people.

For the life of the flesh is in the

blood.

The life of the flesh is in the blood.

And I've given it, that's the blood, to

you upon the altar to make atonement for

your souls. For it's the blood that

makes atonement for the soul.

Therefore, I said to the children of

Israel, no soul, that means no person of

you, shall eat any shall eat blood,

neither shall any stranger who sojourns

among you eat blood.

And whatever man there is of the

children of Israel or of the strangers

who sojourn among you hunts and catches

any beast or foul that may be eaten, he

shall even pour out the blood thereof

and cover it with dust. For the this is

the verse, the life of the flesh is in

the blood. For the life of all flesh,

the blood of it is for the life thereof.

And I said to the children, you shall

eat shall eat the blood of no manner of

flesh. For the life of all flesh is the

blood thereof. Whoever eats it will be

cut off. You're messing up everything.

They're eating and drinking blood.

You see, the whole nation

is giving the whole world

a picture ahead of time of what Jesus

would do at the cross of Calvary. They

had to be very careful what they did.

And so they not only had laws like the

ten commandments and the case law, they

had ceremonial law because their whole

existence was a picture

for everyone about God about salvation

and what we are to do. This is the whole

story of the Bible. It's a love letter

from our Lord who loves us and gave

himself for us.

If you want to understand the Bible, if

you want to clearly understand, you need

to clearly understand the theological

vocabulary of the Bible and we have to

be extremely ex clear on this. Do we

know this? Do we understand this? I will

say when I read this this verse for the

first time 50ome years ago, it was like

it opened the window of my mind

to the Old Testament and the New

Testament.

That's how important this verse is.

So we hear Genesis 15 6 big verse.

Exodus 15 uh 1 and two big verses. These

are all important things. This one's

probably one of the most important we

could ever teach.

So, let's be crystal clear. If you want,

you have to know this if you're going to

understand the Old Testament, the New

Testament.

You can't understand Christmas if you

don't understand it.

And I'm going to connect this verse to a

New Testament verse. I'm going to tell

you what it is till later.

Going to put these two verses together

and it should stun us.

But that's much later. But go with me to

June John chapter 6. John chapter 6.

John 6 · chapter mention John 6 · chapter mention

Hold your place in Leviticus for the

whole message in one sense and go back

to John. Go over to John 6.

1,500 years after this, our verse in

Leviticus was given, the Lord Jesus was

born

came on the earth, he's just fed 5,000

people with two loaves and five fishes.

No. Yeah. Two fishes and five loaves.

Either way, they got a fish. John 6:47.

John 6:47

And the sermon followed the meal.

This what Jesus says about himself.

That's very common for people to say.

Muslims say this, JW say it, other

people say it, cultists say it. Jesus

never said he was God. Well, why don't

you just read John six?

I mean, really?

There's hundreds of places to go, but

this is a good one. Verily, verily, I

say to you, he that believes on me has

everlasting life. I am the bread of

life. Jesus preached himself. Jesus

preached himself.

He He pointed everybody to himself.

That's not my job. I'm going to point

everybody to Bill Hixon.

We preach not ourselves, but Christ

Jesus our Lord. That Jesus preached

himself. How arrogant to preach

yourself. If you're not God, you got no

business preaching yourself.

He said, "I am the bread of life.

Your fathers did eat mana in the

wilderness and are dead." That was bread

from heaven. Mana fell from heaven. God

could feed us from

from plants that come out of the ground.

God could feed people from bread fallen

from heaven.

This was unusual.

This is the bread that comes down from

heaven that a man may eat of it and not

die. You thought mana was some You want

You want some more mana? You want me?

The people that ate mana died

ultimately, but you eat of the bread

from heaven. You'll never die. Never

experience death in its fullness. You

may die physically, but that's nothing.

And that just enters you into glory in

the next life.

I am the living bread that came down

from heaven. If any man eat this bread,

he'll live forever.

And the bread that I will give is my

flesh which I'll give for the life of

the world. That's pretty clear, isn't

it?

The Jews therefore struggle among

themselves, how can this man give his

flesh to eat? Who does he think he is?

And Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say

to you, except you eat the Watch verse

53."

Jesus said to them, "Verily, verily, I

say to you, except you eat the flesh of

the Son of Man and drink his blood."

What?

We're not supposed to drink blood.

Jesus is speaking figuratively here,

right?

You have to appropriate

me

to yourself.

I'm the spiritual food. I'm the

spiritual drink. I say to you, except

you eat the flesh of the son of man and

drink his blood, you have no life in

you. He who eats my flesh and drinks my

blood has eternal life, and I'll raise

him up at the last day. What is saving

faith? It's it's it's it's

coming to Jesus Christ, appropriating to

ourselves who he is and what he's done.

trusting in him, his death on the cross

and his blood shed on the cross to save

us. It's not trying to do the ten

commandments and get to heaven. You're

never going to get there that way.

That's a ladder to nowhere.

Jesus said, "For my flesh is food

indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He

that eats my flesh and drinks my blood

dwells in me, and I am in him. As the

living father sent me, and I live by my

father,

so that he eats me, even he shall live

by me. This is the bread which came down

from heaven, not as your fathers did eat

mana, and are dead. He that eats of this

bread will live forever. These things,

said he in the synagogue, as he taught

in Capernaium,

the ruins of that synagogue are still

standing.

And Jesus, in fact, there's another

synagogue built on top of it's a

fascinating place.

But in that synagogue, he was teaching

these people these things.

Many therefore of his disciples when

they heard this said, "This is a hard

saying. Who can hear? We hate that

message. Who can hear stuff like this?"

Now, you might say that's some of my

messages legitimately, but you can't say

it about Jesus. This is good stuff.

When Jesus knew it himself, his

disciples murmured at it. He says, "Does

this offend you? You don't like me

saying I came down from heaven? All

right, I'll I'll double down. I'm going

back."

You don't like that? Take some of this.

What if you see the Son of Man ascend up

where he was before? It is the spirit

that gives life. The flesh profits

nothing. The words I speak to you, their

spirit and life.

But there are some of you that believe

not. And of course, he goes on to Judas

and all of the rest of that.

So, what a precious sermon this is as

the Lord points to himself.

Now, we need to hear what he's saying

with this Old Testament background.

They We need to hear it the same way

they heard it. They didn't like it, but

they understood it.

See, they didn't. It's not. They didn't

like it because they didn't understand

it. They liked it because they did

understand it. This guy thinks he's

better than everything. A whole

sacrificial system. This guy thinks he's

the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He

thinks he's better than the mana. He

thinks he's more than animal sacrifices.

Who does he think he is?

And Jesus said to Peter later on, "Will

you also go away?" 5,000 people turned

around and said, "No more of this. We're

leaving."

People do it today when they find out

what Christianity really teaches. I'm

out of here.

They prefer any religion, any philosophy

to that.

And it says in verse 66, from that time

many of his disciples went back and

walked no more with him. And Jesus said,

"You you go away or by leaving and you

don't leave, too?"

Simon Peter said, 'Lord, to whom shall

we go? You got the words of eternal

life. They hated sermon eye. We loved

it.

John Wesley said, "If you don't make

people mad or don't get them saved,

you're not a very good preacher."

And Jesus was a good preacher.

Simon Peter answered and said, "Lord, to

whom shall we go? You have the words of

eternal life, and we believe and are

sure you're the Christ, the son of the

living God.

So when we look at John 6, the blood's

important.

Jesus's blood's important. We have to

it's it's central.

When you think of blood, what do you

think about?

I mean, what's the first thing comes to

your mind? I'm an old guy. I'm getting

stuck with blood test all the time.

It's always another blood test.

I'm thankful for the girls that know how

to do that and the guys that know how to

do that well. But when we think of

blood, we don't think we we think of uh

medical issues. We have blood tests for

medical issues.

Um those kind of things.

We think of tourniquets so you won't

bleed to death or we think of uh

stitches to patch you up when you're

bleeding.

But blood in the Bible is is not

primarily medical. So it is that the

life of the flesh is in the blood. God

knew that before science, the Bible

taught that before science discovered

it. It's your blood that takes food to

the cells and your blood that takes

waste away. You got to have the blood

working, right?

But there's a theological meaning to

blood.

And just as medical doctors are very

occupied with blood work, you can't

understand modern medicine if you don't

get your blood work done.

Only if you get that done can they

really understand, diagnose and treat

you and the health of the body and they

graph all that stuff.

To fail the understanding of the blood

in the Bible is to be woefully

ignorant.

You're like a physician in the Middle

Ages. You don't already know what you're

just guessing.

And so now if in the Bible your blood is

shed,

you're dead.

Without the shedding of blood is no

remission of sins means without dying.

With a d without a death taking place,

there's no remission of sin.

If I said, "How many of you have had

stitches?" Probably most of us have been

stitched up. I've had my chin stitched

up twice.

I've had my thumb stitched up.

And every time I knew I was bleeding

because the blood's dripping on the

ground,

it told me, "Oh, this is a little more

serious than I thought."

And so when we think of bleeding, we

think of the blood being shed. We think

about, you know, had this, had that, got

stitched up for it, had a tourniquet,

whatever.

The shedding of blood in the Bible means

a death takes place.

When you murder somebody, you've shed

their blood.

That's how the Bible puts it.

Let's uh let's look at some verses.

Let's look at some verses. Let's go to

the New Testament first. Get get your

thumb wet and we'll flip a little bit

before we go on. Romans chapter 3, verse

Romans 3:23

23.

Romans 3:23.

Romans 3:23

I'm not going to go to all of them.

There's too many. I'll go to some of

them.

Romans 3:23.

Romans 3:23

It says,

"For all have sinned and are coming

short of the glory of God."

There's no exception to this in the

human race except Jesus.

We have all sinned and we are all coming

short. The best Christian you ever know,

you ever met, is still coming short. I'm

still coming short. You're still coming

short.

We're not all of you ought to be. We're

not as good as Jesus. We never will be

in this life.

We're all sin and are coming short of

the glory of God. So we got no right to

look down on somebody else said, "I'm

better than you."

No,

that's not the program.

For all have sinned and come short of

the glory of God, being justified freely

by his grace through the redemption

that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set

forth to be a propitiation. That means a

wrath averting sacrifice through faith

in his what?

his blood

to declare his righteousness for the

remission of sins that are passed to the

forbearance of God. So our faith is to

be in his blood

according to the New Testament.

Okay. Uh Romans 5:9.

Romans 5:9

Romans 5:9.

Romans 5:9

Much more than being now justified by

his blood. That means declared just,

declared righteous by his blood, not by

our good works, not by helping little

old ladies across the street. Not by

doing good things. Oh, I keep the ten

commandments. No, you don't. You're

lying to yourself. You're lying to God.

You're lying to me. You don't. Nobody

has except Jesus.

We are justified

by his blood, by his death.

much more than being now justified by

his blood will be saved from wrath

through him.

For if when we were enemies, we were

reconciled to God by the death of his

son, much more being reconciled, we'll

be saved by his life.

Kind of important.

Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 1

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

and verse 7. That's after Romans is 1 2

Corinthians Galatians Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 1:7

1 verse 7

writing to the Christians at the church

at Ephesus he says in whom that's in

Jesus

remember verse six says we're accepted

in the beloved in whom that's the

beloved that's Jesus we have redemption

through his blood redemption through his

blood, the forgiveness of sins according

to the riches of his grace.

That's a very important verse.

It's the blood of Jesus Christ that

cleans us from all sin.

So very very important. Chapter 2 verse

13.

Chapter 2 verse 13.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were

once were far off are made near by the

blood of Christ.

You see the old New Testament's full of

verses like this. And only when you

understand Leviticus, do you say, "Oh

yeah, that now I understand what that

mean. Now I now I'm these verses are

starting to open up." When it talks

about Jesus blood, it's talking about

his death.

Ephesians 2:13. But now in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:13

you once were far off were made near by

the blood of Christ.

Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9

Hebrews 9 · chapter mention Hebrews 9:14

verse 14.

I'll just go to verse 13.

12. Go to verse 12.

Hebrews

Hebrews 9:12

chapter 9 verse 12. Neither by the blood

of goats and calavs, that's the Old

Testament system, but by his own blood

he's entered in once into the holy

place, having obtained eternal

redemption for us. For if the blood of

bulls and goats and the ashes of a

hepher, sprinkling of the unclean,

sanctify 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 and true God. And for this cause

he, that's Jesus, is the mediator of the

New Testament, that may by means of his

death, for the redemption of the

transgressions that were under the first

testament, they who were called might

receive the promise of eternal life. You

see, Old Testament people weren't saved

by animal blood. Animal blood's just a

credit card.

It postpones payment till Jesus would

come and die.

He paid for it.

And so in chapter 13 of Hebrews verse 12

it says wherefore Jesus also that he

might sanctify the people with his own

blood suffered outside the gate. Hebrews

12 13:12. And there's some really a

couple more good ones and we'll go back.

1 Peter 1:2. 1 Peter 1:2. Keep going to

1 Peter 1:2 1 Peter 1:2

the back of your Bible. 1 Peter 1:2.

1 Peter 1:2

Describing the Christians he was writing

to. The apostle Peter wrote of them

elect according to the fornowledge of

God the Father through sanctification of

the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling

of the blood of Jesus Christ. Every all

three members of the Godhead involved in

salvation.

One planned it, one presented it, and

the other purchased it.

Now turn to first John se. I already

quoted that one. We're still in 17.

>> This then is the message which we've

heard of him and declare to you that God

is light. In him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship him, walk

in darkness, we lie and do not the

truth. If we walk in the light as he's

in the light, we have fellowship with

one another. And the blood of Jesus

Christ, his son, cleanses us from all

sin. Christians need to be cleansed as

well as non-Christians, right? We all

sin even after we're saved. Some people

say, "I can't get saved because I can't

stop sinning." Nobody can stop sinning

in this life. That doesn't h that's not

the program.

Hopefully, we sin less after we're saved

because we got a new nature. We're not

our old sinful self, but we still have

the old flesh that's still there until

we are glorified.

So, those are some of the verses. It's

not all the verses. I'm not even going

to Revelation. We've already studied a

lot of those. But that that that brings

us up to this whole wonderful thing of

the blood.

Now go back with me to Genesis 9 and

verse 6.

Remember I said

if someone's blood is shed, they're

dead.

Not like me getting my chin busted.

didn't die from either of those

from my thumb.

Right after Noah's flood,

God b makes a covenant.

Genesis chapter 9 verse 6. This is where

Genesis 9:6

God gives permission for capital

punishment

for murder.

There's some very fascinating things

going on here in this particular

chapter. Noah steps off the ark and

verse one, God blessed Noah and his sons

and said, "Be fruitful and multiply and

fill the earth." He's never rescended

that responsibility. People are supposed

to have babies.

And the fear of you and the dread of you

shall be upon every beast of the earth,

every foul of the air, and upon all that

moves on the earth. On all the fish of

the sea, in your hand are they

delivered. Every moving thing that lives

shall be food for you. Even as the green

herb have I given you all things. The

prefall, pre flood people were

vegetarian.

You ever think about that?

No animal was ever eaten by Adam and

Eve.

or by anybody in the pre-fall world.

They were totally vegetarian.

For the first time, God gives permission

to eat animals,

which means hunting is a legitimate

enterprise in our current world.

And raising cattle, raising sheep is

legitimate for food.

God says this in verse three.

Uh, every moving thing that lives shall

be food for you. Even the green herb

have even as the green herb have I given

you all things. But the flesh with the

life thereof, which is the blood

thereof, shall you not eat.

And surely your blood of your lives will

I require. At the hand of every beast

will I require it. At the hand of man,

at the hand of every man's brother will

I require the life of man. Whoever sheds

man's blood by man shall his blood be

shed. Now that doesn't mean whoever cuts

somebody's finger, you got to cut his

finger. That means if you kill somebody,

first-degree murder. First-degree

murder, not an accident. First-degree

murder,

you're going to be executed. Not sent to

prison for 30 years, 50 years. Executed.

You struck at the image of God. That

other person was made in the image of

God. You struck at God when you murdered

them. Now, fighting in a war is

different. A whole different thing.

Being a policeman and protecting people,

that's a whole different thing. Or being

a father, protecting your family, that's

a different thing. Murder, you're in

trouble.

And so

he says in verse six, whoever sheds

man's blood by man shall his blood be

shed, for in the image of God made him

man. Every human being, every person

here, you are made in the image of God.

When a person

trying to kill you. He's trying to erase

God from the universe.

Very important stuff.

Now,

let's uh think through this just a

little bit. What a fascinating business.

And and the communion, a communion wafer

and the communion cup. What are we

doing?

The wafer represents

Christ's body.

The cup, whether it's grape juice like

we use or wine like other churches use,

represents his blood.

Wait a minute. I says, you said we're

not supposed to drink blood.

Yes, but figuratively we do it, right?

Not literally. We're remembering his

death.

Do you remember the book of Exodus

Exodus 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12? God did something. He put

those 10 plagues on Egypt. Those 10

plagues were destroyed Egypt and the

last one was the biggest. Do you realize

more Egyptians died in that last of the

10 plagues than atomic bombs on Japan

and Nagasaki and Hroshima

when the firstborn died? Do the math on

it. People

have ways of measuring the population.

I' I've figured this out.

This was a massive thing. Lesser matters

didn't lesser means didn't work. Pharaoh

kept hardened his heart and God dropped

the bomb on them. That bomb was a plague

and it went throughout Egypt and God

told the Jews, "Get in your house and

the plague's going to destroy the

firstborn of every family. Everybody

else is okay, but the firstborn's in

danger."

Oh, yeah. They killed the They killed

all the boy babies, didn't they? Jewish

babies. Threw them in the river.

Yeah. And the river turned to blood.

Why? Cuz they shed the blood.

Those Jewish boys. Moses almost made it

into the river. He was in a little raft

his mother made.

You see, it's coming back. Sin come back

on a nation.

There's consequences to sin.

Your sins and my sins come back on us.

And they came back on that nation.

And they were guilty as a nation.

And so, may God help us to just think

how solemn this is. But God said to the

Jews when that was going to happen, the

last plague, he'll let you go after this

last one. It's going to be, I'm going to

pass through Egypt tonight. The

firstborn, every family's going to die.

And the only way for you to escape it,

because you're sinners, too, not just

the Egyptians. And we Christians need to

remember, it's not just those

nonchurched people out there that sin

and drugs and drink and uh adultery and

all that other stuff.

I'm a sinner, too. I sin, too.

Apart from Christ, I'm in trouble, too.

So, they had to they had a ceremony.

They killed a lamb and they put the

blood of the lamb on the door, didn't

they?

And they put the blood and God said,

"When I see the blood, I'll pass over

you." That's Passover.

They celebrate Passover once a year,

reenacting this whole thing.

And I'm talking about Exodus 12 now.

Verse 5-13.

Exodus 12 5-13. When I see the blood, I

will pass over you.

And he says in verse 12, "For I'll pass

through the land of Egypt this night,

and will smite the firstborn in the land

of Egypt, both man and beast, and

against all the gods of Egypt will I

execute judgment. I'm the Lord. And the

blood shall be to you for a toonement on

your houses where you dwell. And when I

see the blood, I'll pass over you. And

the plague shall be not be on you to

destroy you when I smite the land of

Egypt."

I can just see some Jewish woman telling

her husband, "You're not going to put

you're not going to put that blood on my

door."

No, it's got to be there.

Got to be there. And you know where they

put it?

This is no This is no accident. This is

no coincidence. They put this side of

the door, this side of the door, and

over the top

the three points of the cross.

And God said, "But I see the blood

pass.

Not that you're better than them. It's

that your sins

covered with the blood and theirs

aren't."

Anybody put blood on their door, they

were okay.

Those that didn't, they got in trouble.

Now, when Jes the night before Jesus

died, guess what they were doing? The

Jews were told to celebrate Passover

once a year, every year for the rest of

their existence.

Guess when Jesus died? Passover day. You

think that was a coincidence?

I mean, God does these things. So, we

know the Bible is true.

This is not an accident. You can't

control history this way.

It's no accident that Jesus wrote to

rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and

died on Passover day. And they

celebrated Passover. The Jewish day

starts at night with his disciples.

They're eating the Passover meal

together when Jesus brings communion.

And he's basically saying, "You've been

looking forward to my death, looking

backward to Egypt, and looking forward

to my death by the Passover meal. Now

you're going to remember my death for

you. It's my blood you're going to look

at instead of the lamb's blood because

I'm the lamb of God that takes away the

sin of the world.

That's not just Jewish people.

Now, go to read Acts 20. Flip over to

Acts 20.

Now, I hope that helps open the Bible to

you. Whenever you see that word blood,

the New Testament or Old Testament,

there's many places that's going to

start to ring differently to you. Now,

sometimes it just rings with somebody

blood, but most of the time it's dealing

with that 326 times.

A lot of those are the ceremonial blood

and all the rest. In Acts 20,

Acts 20:28

verse 28,

this is our second verse.

Paul's in the city of Ephesus. He's

saying goodbye to these people. He's not

going to see them anymore in this life.

Saying goodbye to the elders of the

church. And he says in Acts 20:28, "Take

Acts 20:28

heed therefore to yourselves and to all

the flock over which the Holy Spirit's

made you oversee seers to feed."

Sometimes that can be translated

shepherd the church of God which he's

purchased with his own blood.

With his own blood.

Feed the church of God which he's

purchased with his own blood.

Oh, Christmas

and communion go together.

Christmas and Calvary go together.

Therefore, Christmas and communion go

together. What happened on the cross of

Calvary? God was in Christ reconciling

the world to himself.

We've been purchased

by the blood of God.

were bought and paid for. We were

redeemed not with silver and gold from

our vain manner of life, but the

precious blood of Christ

as a lamb without blemish and elance.

The greatest person who ever lived, who

lived a perfect life, a life you and I

have not lived,

>> and died a horrible death that we can

have his righteousness put to our

account and be in God's holy presence

for him.

Now Paul identifies the church of God.

The church belongs to God.

He obtained it with his own blood.

But now God the father has no blood.

Right?

We believe in one God. Three persons are

called God. God the father has no blood.

God's a spirit.

>> Spirits don't have any blood. Angels

don't have any blood. They're spirit

beings. God the Father doesn't have any

blood.

God is spirit and those that worship him

must worship him in spirit and truth. Um

God the Holy Spirit doesn't have any

blood.

Again, he's spirit.

God the Holy Spirit has no blood.

He's a spirit. God the Son, the eternal

son of God had no blood until he be got

it in Mary's womb.

He had no blood before he became God

incarnate in Mary's womb. And that's

Hebrews chapter 2:14. Since therefore

children share in flesh and blood, he

himself, that's Jesus, likewise parttook

of the same, that through death he might

destroy the one who had the power of

death, that is the devil.

This is a sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh

sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh

sh sh sh sh shing sh sh sh sh sh sh sh

sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh

shining example of how the Bible fits

together.

A lot of people don't like it. Oh, the

Bible's that bloody book. It's always

talking about sacrifices and death and

all that. Yeah, it's talking about the

God's love pay a price you couldn't pay

no matter how many lifetimes you ever

lived.

And the Lord's supper is not a small

thing.

It's a big thing.

I'm going to show you how big from the

Old Testament.

Turn with me to Genesis 4 verse 34.

You remember Old Testament they were

circumcising all the boys, right?

Jesus was circumcised. John the Baptist

was circumcised. Isaac was circumcised.

Abraham was circumcised. And everybody

else was always getting circumcised.

And

circumcision was a ceremony. That's what

it was. It wasn't. You don't get saved

by circumcision.

And people were thinking that. And Paul

showed that that wasn't true.

And there was a circumcision of the body

and there's a circumcision of the heart

according to the Old Testament.

But in in um

in the book of Exodus, I'm sorry, I'm in

the wrong place. Exodus chapter 4. I

Exodus 4 · chapter mention

think I wrote

Genesis. Exodus chapter 4.

Exodus 4 · chapter mention

God calls Moses at the burning bush. So

Moses and his wife are gone.

They're finally going to get he's

returning to Egypt.

In verse 24,

it came to pass by the way in the end

Moses and his wife were going back to

Egypt. The Lord met him and sought to

kill him.

What? Apparently Moses either he got

sick or he became something's going on

and it became obvious why. Then Zapora

took a sharp nut stone and cut off the

foreskin of her son and cast it at his

feet and said, "Surely a bloody husband

you are to me." So he let him go. Then

she said, "A bloody husband you are

because of the circumcision."

But Moses neglected to circumcise his

son and he is going to be the deliverer

of the Jewish nation. And he never got

around doing that. And so God said, "No,

you need to do this before you go down."

And Moses himself had been circumcised

as a baby. Remember, it was three months

before they put him in the basket. And

they would always do that on the sixth

day.

But his son was

Now, does that sound too severe?

You neglect the ceremony.

Therefore,

now God didn't take his life, but he got

his attention.

You're going to die if you don't do

this.

You know how the Corinthians got in

trouble?

They mistreated each other at the love

feast that preceded the Lord's supper,

and some of them were sick, and some of

them died.

The Lord's Supper is a ceremony.

Circumcision is a ceremony. You can't

get saved by ceremonies.

But ceremonies are teaching us

something. And God wants it to be

taught. He wants us to get the lessons.

This is my body broken for you. This is

my blood shed for you. This is

important.

Do we believe these things or do we not?

Are we involved in an idolatrous view of

life? We've got an idol, a god of our

own making. Uh, and by the way, atheism

is also the same thing. You make a god

of yourself. Atheists, they say they

don't believe in God. Yeah, they believe

they're the god.

They don't want any competition. Got a

god complex.

JC Riyle said, "Beware of manufacturing

a god of your own, of your own. A god

who's all mercy but not just. A god

who's all love but not holy. A God who

has a heaven but uh for everybody but a

hell for none. A God who allows good and

evil to be side by side in time but will

make no distinction of good and evil in

eternity. Such a God is an idol of your

own hands and of your own fancy and and

sent uh and sentimentality that you

you've made. He is not the God of the

Bible. And besides the God of the Bible,

there is no God.

There is no God. Our

our hearts are idle factories. John

Calvin said, "The only way to not be an

idoltor is know this book and worship

God as he is, not as we think he or want

him to be."

Modern day pastor said, "The reason why

so much confusion over sin is because

there's a confusion about who God is."

Most people do not have a biblical view

of God. The view of God is their view of

God is based on their own opinion. Have

you ever had a person say you try to

teach them something, "Oh, my God would

never do that. Oh, my God would never."

They're not worshiping the God of the

Bible. They're an idoltor. You just got

to flat out tell you, "Well, then you're

an idoltor.

You made up your own God.

That God doesn't exist. It's not worthy

of your time."

So he says, "So what most people do,

they make a god in their image and

likeness. So the God they've made likes

the things they like and hates the

things they hate.

That's convenient.

So it's very very simple. We need to

think of God as he is.

And as one Bible teacher said, when we

think of God, we don't go high enough.

We think of oursel, we don't go low

enough.

You say, "Well, that gives me a bad

self-image." No, it gives you a

realistic self-image. You're worse than

you imagined, and God's greater than you

imagine.

But there's salvation for the worst of

us through faith in Jesus Christ.

Now, you know what Satan does at

Christmas? Satan hates Christmas.

Did you you ever notice something in

America?

Every holiday that has anything to say

about God,

Satan has a diversion.

He has a diversion.

You know what I mean by a diversion?

It's like a cowboy shootout. The rocks.

He takes a rock and he throws it over

there and the guy looks that way and

then he shoots it.

Instead of looking at him, he looks over

there. So Satan says, "Look at this over

here. Look at this over here.

Look at Thanksgiving. Is it an accident?

What do they call it? Black Friday or

whatever they call it.

Don't look at Thursday. Don't look at

Thanksgiving. Look at the go shopping.

Is it wrong to go shopping? Guess not.

On Friday, you want to go shopping, go

shopping. But think about behind this

in Christmas. It's all about Jesus. And

people make it all about what?

Santa Claus is coming to town.

Well, Santa Claus isn't God.

The Babylonian bee is a Christian sar

sarcastic humor site. It says Santa

Claus converts to Calvinism. He moves

everybody to the naughty list.

Think about that one.

Calvinism says, "Well, we all sin and

come short of the glory."

But you remember the old song, he's

making a list and checking it twice, see

who's naughty and nice. Well, that

implies there's some that aren't

naughty. Nope. We're all naughty.

You need to get a biblical view of life

because we have a biblical view of God.

When we think of God, we don't go high

enough. We think of oursel, we don't go

low enough. And God is so much better

and greater than we imagine. And we are

so much worse than we imagined. And it's

a satanic diversion. He does it for

Thanksgiving. He does it for Christmas.

He does it for Easter.

Don't think about the cross. Don't think

about the death of Christ. Don't think

about the resurrection. Think about the

Easter Bunny and all these eggs or

whatever else you want to do.

Now, if you want to paint eggs on

Easter, I'm okay with that. I'm just

saying don't let the diversion keep you

from thinking about what's really

important.

Uh, and some people see,

all religions got some good in them. No,

they don't. Most religions are man-made.

There's 3,000 man-made religions.

They're all idolattors.

Martin Lloyd Jones, the Welsh preacher,

said, "Night and day are all alike to a

blind man. Truth and error are all one

to an ignorant man." And hopefully

you're not ignorant. Now, the God of the

Bible talks about blood. Without the

shedding of blood, there's no

forgiveness of sins. But with the

shedding of Christ's blood, big sins,

little sins, I mean, humongous sin can

be forgiven because God's greater than

any sin you've ever done or anybody else

has ever done.

And false gods and false religions all

have a shelf life. They've all got a

expiration life. According to Jeremiah

Jeremiah 10 · chapter mention

chapter 10,

body Bakam said, "We act as though the

sins of others are too significant to

forgive while simultaneously believing

our sins are not significant enough to

even mention.

We're not

we are not able to really judge oursel."

No. No.

Give Ourel a pass. We we we rule other

people differently than us.

And I I I want to be a I know my I got

to be conscious of my time here, but

think about modern times, how wicked man

is. We're getting better. No, we're not.

I think it was Bacham that wrote this. I

may have read it somewhere else. The

Black Death killed 130 million people.

Spanish flu killed 75 million. World War

I killed 21 million people. The

Holocaust killed 11 million people.

Global abortion from 2019 to 2024 killed

365

million people.

We are living. You think, "Oh, if I

lived in Nazi times, I would I wouldn't

put up with that. I'd stand up against

that." What about this?

What's worse?

Child murdering their mother like we

just saw with Rob Rener.

Her mother murdering her child.

We live in a world without morals and

without meaning. It's banished God from

their minds

and their thoughts.

We live in a world that's excommunicated

God from his universe as far as they are

concerned and evicted God from their

lives.

A philosopher that helped me a lot when

I was all mixed up in university 50

years ago, Francis Schaefer, said,

"Modern man, having repudiated God,

finds himself in an absurd position. He

believes he is nothing but a product of

chance, yet demands meaning, values, and

purpose in a meaningless universe."

What's that called? Intellectual

schizophrenia.

can't even think, right?

So, may God help us as we come to the

Lord's table.

May we appreciate

his death for our sins. And not just

sins of commission.

They're sins of omission. If you know to

do good, you don't do it. That's sin.

According to the Bible, those are sins

of omission.

Moses almost died for not circumcising

his son. The Corinthians almost died for

not waiting for one anothers in the love

feast. Nabal died because he wouldn't

support David. He didn't attack David.

He didn't report David to King Saul. He

just he just misrepresented David and

justified his his uh uh ignoring of him.

Samuel said, "God forbid that I should

sin against God and ceasing to pray for

you. If I just stop praying for you, I'm

sinning."

So may God help us.

God became a man.

I don't know if we can even grasp what

that means. Not just a he became a

member of the human race.

How would you like to become us a worm

permanently?

Our God became a man in the person of

Jesus Christ and he died for your sins

and mine. He's coming back as the God

man. He's marrying the church. We have

got a big wedding to look forward. The

world's looking forward to judgment.

We're looking forward to a wedding.

And we should be thinking not about the

Christmas tree, although if you got one,

I'm okay with that. I'm just saying if

you want to do that, but how about

Calvar's tree where Jesus died?

Don't forget that.

Remember what the angel said to Joseph

about Mary? She will call his name

Jesus, for he will save his people from

their sin. That's why he's being born,

to save his people from their sin.

Satan won't say, "Look over here. Look

at the mistletoe. Look at the family get

together. Look at jingle bells and all

that stuff. Don't look at Jesus. Don't

look at the baby Jesus. Don't look at

the seed of the woman that's supposed to

bruise the serpent's head. Don't look at

that.

Anything but that."

God himself paid a price we could not

pay so we could be redeemed. It's an

insult to a holy God to reject his son

or just to forget his son and ignore his

son. God doesn't have blood. But God,

the son as the God man does have blood.

And that was God's blood that was shed.

Feed the church of God which he's

purchased with his own blood.

He uses the word God there on purpose.

It's meant to shock the mind.

And some of the early scribes got

shocked when they read it and they

changed the word God to Lord because

they thought, "Well, that means Jesus."

Well, Lord means all three. But it was

just too shocking for them.

But the best textual critics are very

clear on this and many of them aren't

even Christians. You know, he wrote God.

He wrote, he said, "God, and the Bible

says God, it's the blood of God.

feed the church of God which he's

purchased with his own blood.

And so may God help us to remember all

of that

today. If you're here and you're not yet

a Christian, you might say, "I'm too

bad. God would never forgive me for

this, that. You don't know me, pastor. I

don't have to know you. God knows you.

He knows you. He knows everything."

and the God who put the word blood in

the Bible 362

times.

Many of those times

referring to death by violence. 203

103 of the times blood of sacrifice.

The Bible says the life is in the blood

and Jesus gave his life

so that we could be saved.

If you're not a Christian, may God speak

to your heart today. What a wonderful

time.

Come know Lord.

It's not by changing your ways. It's not

by it's by changing your mind.

Reduces the change of ways. You can't

change your ways. You can repent. That

can't even do that. If you God's grace,

you can. That means a change of mind.

The results in faith.

I've been thinking wrong about myself.

I've been thinking wrong about God. Been

thinking wrong about life.

Repent and believe the gospel.

May God do the work that I can't do and

you can't bring you to himself. Don't

know him yet as your savior and your

lord. We're going to pass the bread.

We're going to wait for one another

and partake together.

If you're visiting with us this morning,

you're not a Christian, uh, just let the

cup in the past and the bread pass by.

It's is a s eating the bread and

drinking the cup is symbolic of faith.

So if you don't have that faith, just

let it pass by. Or if you're Christian

and you're you you don't feel like

you're in real good fellowship with the

Lord right now, just let it pass by.

We're not going to look at you. That's

between you and God.

Father, we thank you for in the fullness

of time, God sent forth his son, born of

a woman, born under the law to redeem

those who were under the law.

And Father, as we wait

on you this morning, we pass the bread

and the cup. We partake of that. It's

symbolic of our faith

in Jesus and his who he is and what he's

done.

And we're admitting we're sinners. We

can't save ourselves.

We're admitting he's the savior and

we're not ashamed of him.

And so bless this part of the service

for your glory and our good. Jesus name.

Amen.