1 00:00:07,410 --> 00:00:12,550 Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:12,550 --> 00:00:16,570 moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. 3 00:00:17,190 --> 00:00:23,649 Today, with the approach of Easter and Good Friday, I want to ask you, what is the importance 4 00:00:23,649 --> 00:00:31,829 of blood in the Bible? Why does God require so much blood? And where is it in modern Christianity? 5 00:00:31,829 --> 00:00:36,310 In fact, so important is blood to Christianity that I have entitled this message, 6 00:00:36,310 --> 00:00:42,170 there will be blood. So if you're squeamish, maybe you want to turn the channel. But before we take 7 00:00:42,170 --> 00:00:48,890 up this important issue, there will be blood. I'd like to invite you to our Seder dinner on Good 8 00:00:48,890 --> 00:00:56,829 Friday, April 3rd at 6 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of our church, New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church. 9 00:00:57,390 --> 00:01:04,329 The Seder dinner is the Passover meal. That is the Last Supper, which the disciples ate with Jesus 10 00:01:04,329 --> 00:01:10,489 before he went to his Passion, and at which he instituted our second sacrament of the church, 11 00:01:10,549 --> 00:01:17,030 that is the Lord's Supper. The Seder dinner is profound with the picture of our Lord's sacrifice 12 00:01:17,030 --> 00:01:23,709 and death on the cross with every element of the meal. Seder means order, and it is the order of 13 00:01:23,709 --> 00:01:29,689 service to the meal. This is not a mere token meal either that we're preparing, but a full-blown meal 14 00:01:29,689 --> 00:01:34,150 with roast lamb and all of the fixings you would find at a kosher Jewish Seder dinner. 15 00:01:34,829 --> 00:01:40,129 Not only will you not go away spiritually hungry, but you will not go away physically hungry either. 16 00:01:40,689 --> 00:01:44,870 If you're interested in attending this meal and would like to find out more, call me, 17 00:01:44,989 --> 00:01:53,969 Pastor David Bass, at 523-0196. Now back to our topic, There Will Be Blood. Perhaps you are reminded, 18 00:01:53,969 --> 00:01:59,769 as I am, of the recent movie of the same name, produced in 2007. The phrase, 19 00:01:59,870 --> 00:02:06,150 there will be blood, is an old American expression, which means that, in the situation under consideration, 20 00:02:06,810 --> 00:02:10,889 there will be violence that will cause great bodily harm, that is, bloodshed. 21 00:02:11,490 --> 00:02:17,569 And so it is in the Bible. In the situation under consideration, that is, man's predicament with God, 22 00:02:17,569 --> 00:02:24,949 there is now, and will be in the future, violence that causes and will cause great bodily and spiritual 23 00:02:24,949 --> 00:02:32,590 harm, that is, bloodshed and unending suffering. Because of man's present situation with God, 24 00:02:32,729 --> 00:02:38,289 there will be blood. How can we say this? There are six reasons. Let me begin to list them for you now. 25 00:02:38,610 --> 00:02:45,469 First of all, disobedience is of such a consequence to God that it requires the life of the sinner, 26 00:02:45,469 --> 00:02:52,750 and therefore his blood. Disobedience to God is of such consequence to him that it requires the life 27 00:02:52,750 --> 00:02:59,490 of the sinner. This reality is established very early in the Bible. Do you remember the covenant 28 00:02:59,490 --> 00:03:06,289 sanction that God attached to his placing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Genesis chapter 2 29 00:03:06,289 --> 00:03:11,349 tells us, the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the 30 00:03:11,349 --> 00:03:16,469 Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of 31 00:03:16,469 --> 00:03:21,229 the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely 32 00:03:21,229 --> 00:03:28,090 die. Unquote. You shall surely die. That's the consequence for disobedience. Behold then, listener, 33 00:03:28,629 --> 00:03:35,409 the seriousness with which God takes rebellion. And as we know, this is exactly what Adam and Eve did do. 34 00:03:35,409 --> 00:03:43,050 This was no child's prank, this eating of the fruit of the garden, surreptitiously swiping a piece of 35 00:03:43,050 --> 00:03:47,870 fruit, maybe, from Farmer Jones' orchard, as it is often characterized by Hollywood and the media. 36 00:03:48,250 --> 00:03:54,610 No, rather, this was open rebellion on the part of our first parents. In doing this, our first parents 37 00:03:54,610 --> 00:04:01,090 openly sided with the serpent, that is, the devil, in his operation to deceive them into achieving the 38 00:04:01,090 --> 00:04:06,110 ends, God said, set for them, but doing it without the difficulty of obedience that God required. 39 00:04:07,430 --> 00:04:12,469 The serpent said to the woman, Genesis says, you will surely not die, for God knows that when you 40 00:04:12,469 --> 00:04:19,490 eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So they went ahead 41 00:04:19,490 --> 00:04:25,410 and ate, and all of the temptations that Satan dangled in front of Adam and Eve would have been theirs, 42 00:04:25,410 --> 00:04:31,370 but it would have been theirs in righteousness, had they but obeyed God during the time of their 43 00:04:31,370 --> 00:04:37,389 probation in the garden. Then they would have eaten from the tree of life as well. But as it was, 44 00:04:37,470 --> 00:04:43,569 they tasted of death, owing to their disobedience and rebellion. This is because of the ironclad 45 00:04:43,569 --> 00:04:49,250 principle throughout the Bible, as Ezekiel puts it, behold, says the Lord, all souls are mine. 46 00:04:49,250 --> 00:04:56,930 The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul who sins shall die. That is the 47 00:04:56,930 --> 00:05:01,629 ironclad principle we see throughout the Bible, beginning in the Garden of Eden, all the way to 48 00:05:01,629 --> 00:05:10,110 the very end. God says, the soul who sins shall die. Death is the consequence of our sin. This is the 49 00:05:10,110 --> 00:05:16,790 exact price demanded for sin, no way around it. And God nowhere in any portion of the Bible 50 00:05:16,790 --> 00:05:24,569 indicates that He cuts slack for sin, or that He lets sin slide, or go easy on it. God is perfectly 51 00:05:24,569 --> 00:05:31,430 righteous and holy, and as the Bible says in many places, will by no means clear the guilty. As He often 52 00:05:31,430 --> 00:05:38,790 says, right? Consequently, God demands that element in which the life resides, and that is blood. That brings 53 00:05:38,790 --> 00:05:46,050 me to point number two. That life of the sinner, which is required for sin, that life of the sinner is in the 54 00:05:46,050 --> 00:05:52,930 blood. Not only, dear listener, is blood necessary to sustain the life of the creature, being the primary 55 00:05:52,930 --> 00:06:00,370 element in the circulatory system, but also blood is the biblical metaphor for the whole of life of a 56 00:06:00,370 --> 00:06:07,430 living creature. Blood was quickly observed by a primitive man. The loss of it, in particular, by it, 57 00:06:07,569 --> 00:06:14,970 a man died. Blood thus became a vivid symbol of the whole life of a man, and figured largely in what it 58 00:06:14,970 --> 00:06:21,569 took to atone for sin. Moses tells Israel this. He says in Genesis chapter 4, from the opening chapters 59 00:06:21,569 --> 00:06:29,110 of the Bible, the demand for life, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, Moses says. The life of the 60 00:06:29,110 --> 00:06:35,730 flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is 61 00:06:35,730 --> 00:06:43,970 the blood that makes atonement by the life. That is, by the life the blood is symbolized. The life of the 62 00:06:43,970 --> 00:06:49,970 flesh is in the blood. So, from the opening chapters of the Bible, the demand for the life of the sinner 63 00:06:49,970 --> 00:06:56,170 is pictured in the demand for blood. This is why biblical Christianity is a bloody religion, and 64 00:06:56,170 --> 00:07:02,750 precisely why we consider it at the cross, when Christ's blood was shed. Do you remember the first 65 00:07:02,750 --> 00:07:09,269 murderer and his victim? From Genesis chapter 4, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him, 66 00:07:09,269 --> 00:07:15,709 as the Bible says. The innocent life of Abel is thereafter portrayed in the Bible as his 67 00:07:15,709 --> 00:07:21,589 righteous blood, the Bible says. That is a picture of an innocent life forfeited in murder, 68 00:07:21,850 --> 00:07:29,310 most foul. Jesus says to the Pharisees, he says to them, on you may come all the righteous blood shed 69 00:07:29,310 --> 00:07:34,389 on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, 70 00:07:34,389 --> 00:07:41,589 whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar." Throughout the Bible, then, we see that 71 00:07:41,589 --> 00:07:48,490 blood is representative of the very life of the one whose blood is spilt. It only becomes logical, 72 00:07:48,689 --> 00:07:54,970 then, that if the life of the sinner is required for his sin, then its sign must be present, that is, 73 00:07:55,310 --> 00:08:01,689 blood. That brings me to point number three. God, therefore, logically insists that no disobedience 74 00:08:01,689 --> 00:08:09,350 can be forgiven without the shedding of blood. When blood is shed, life goes forfeit, dear listener. 75 00:08:10,269 --> 00:08:16,689 Therefore, it is the logical ritual symbol, blood is, for the satisfaction by God of the life of the 76 00:08:16,689 --> 00:08:23,470 sinner in payment for his sin. In fact, the Bible is crystal clear on the necessity of blood for the 77 00:08:23,470 --> 00:08:29,230 forgiveness of sins. The author of Hebrews says, indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified 78 00:08:29,230 --> 00:08:35,070 with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins." Unquote, from the Bible. 79 00:08:35,070 --> 00:08:41,009 Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Listener, do you see the 80 00:08:41,009 --> 00:08:47,210 chain of consequence for our disobedience, not only yours and ours personally, but also those of Adam 81 00:08:47,210 --> 00:08:54,669 and Eve and all of his progeny? This chain of consequence begins with an all-holy God who is so 82 00:08:54,669 --> 00:09:01,090 perfect and righteous and high above that no sin and no imperfection can dwell with him. The prophet 83 00:09:01,090 --> 00:09:08,870 Habakkuk says, you who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong. Unquote. He's talking 84 00:09:08,870 --> 00:09:16,250 about the Lord God there. And as a result then, when creatures such as ourselves commit evil or wrong, 85 00:09:16,649 --> 00:09:22,049 this disobedience demands the very life of that creature, the ritual symbol for which life is the 86 00:09:22,049 --> 00:09:28,029 creature's blood. This is why such elaborate rituals were established in Israel's religious 87 00:09:28,029 --> 00:09:34,669 life. They were established primarily to handle and manipulate the blood so necessary to the atonement 88 00:09:34,669 --> 00:09:42,110 for sin amongst the people. The book of Leviticus says this in chapter 17, for the life of the flesh is 89 00:09:42,110 --> 00:09:48,250 in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, 90 00:09:48,250 --> 00:09:54,629 for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. The life of the flesh is in the blood. 91 00:09:55,129 --> 00:09:59,990 From the time of the inauguration of Israel as a nation in the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai 92 00:09:59,990 --> 00:10:08,850 in the 14th century BCE, to its very sad and brutal demise at Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman 93 00:10:08,850 --> 00:10:16,970 general Titus in AD 70. In the interim of all that time, God revealed to Moses and Israel what he required 94 00:10:16,970 --> 00:10:23,669 in blood from his people in order to atone for their sins. Detailed, meticulous rituals were 95 00:10:23,669 --> 00:10:31,370 prescribed and revealed to Moses on how to procure and handle and apply the blood of lambs and bulls and 96 00:10:31,370 --> 00:10:36,590 goats and birds to the accoutrements of the tent of meeting in the wilderness, and then later when it was 97 00:10:36,590 --> 00:10:45,309 built, the temple established later in Jerusalem. Those blood rituals reveal how seriously God takes sin. 98 00:10:45,309 --> 00:10:52,549 Those blood rituals by their content, quality, and quantity. By their content, they reveal how 99 00:10:52,549 --> 00:11:00,090 seriously God takes sin in that only the best is offered. Gold and silver, the finest materials were 100 00:11:00,090 --> 00:11:06,950 used to construct the temple, and these sacrifices show God how seriously God takes sin by their quality 101 00:11:06,950 --> 00:11:12,549 too, in that only the purest of ingredients, only the purest of animals were to be sacrificed. 102 00:11:12,549 --> 00:11:19,090 In fact, elaborate cleansing rituals were also a standard part of temple worship. And then we see 103 00:11:19,090 --> 00:11:26,450 how God reveals how seriously he takes sin by the quantity of blood sacrificed too, in that for over 104 00:11:26,450 --> 00:11:34,350 14 centuries, numberless millions of animals were sacrificed, shedding a sea of blood in the process. 105 00:11:34,350 --> 00:11:41,809 Thus, if one asks, how seriously does God take sin? Oh, dear listener, look upon the sacrifice. 106 00:11:42,309 --> 00:11:48,549 There will be blood. There were rivers of blood for that matter. And so we observe the provision 107 00:11:48,549 --> 00:11:55,090 that God early on established for atoning for the sin of his people that he might bring them back to 108 00:11:55,090 --> 00:12:01,429 himself. The economy for doing so, bringing him back to himself, bringing them, his people back to 109 00:12:01,429 --> 00:12:07,190 himself. The method and agreement by which he bound himself to doing this for his people is called a 110 00:12:07,190 --> 00:12:12,889 covenant. And the sign and the seal of that covenant is called the blood of the covenant, which was 111 00:12:12,889 --> 00:12:18,049 sprinkled on both the altar of God, representing his presence, and then the people of God as well. 112 00:12:18,809 --> 00:12:24,590 Exodus chapter 24 vividly pictures this for us. For example, we see there, and I quote, 113 00:12:24,590 --> 00:12:31,070 Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he threw against the altar. 114 00:12:31,450 --> 00:12:37,169 Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, 115 00:12:37,309 --> 00:12:43,149 all that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw 116 00:12:43,149 --> 00:12:49,850 it on the people and said, behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in 117 00:12:49,850 --> 00:12:56,330 accordance with all these words, unquote. Oh, dear listener, do you see how utterly necessary blood 118 00:12:56,330 --> 00:13:03,429 is to Christianity? At Easter, at Good Friday, it is important to consider the role of blood in our 119 00:13:03,429 --> 00:13:09,509 salvation. Christ shed his blood for us there at the cross, and we will note more closely blood's 120 00:13:09,509 --> 00:13:15,590 relation to Jesus' death on the cross. But first, I want to note one thing not often considered on this 121 00:13:15,590 --> 00:13:21,649 topic, and that's its direct opposite, the dark in contrast to the light. And that is number four, 122 00:13:21,950 --> 00:13:29,090 the evil one also requires blood in order to compound sin, not to cleanse it. Consider this, 123 00:13:29,210 --> 00:13:35,710 dear listener, the evil one, Satan, the devil, also requires blood in order to compound sin, not to 124 00:13:35,710 --> 00:13:41,049 cleanse it. From the beginning, the evil one, Satan, has also demanded the lives of creatures as 125 00:13:41,049 --> 00:13:46,129 witnessed in the murder of Abel by Cain in the very first generation of men. And since then, 126 00:13:46,610 --> 00:13:52,409 every pagan religion, look at them throughout history, every pagan religion of man has required 127 00:13:52,409 --> 00:14:02,070 human sacrifice of its devotees, wicked, evil human sacrifice of its devotees. In fact, the Old Testament 128 00:14:02,070 --> 00:14:08,190 says, you shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech. Molech was one of the detestable 129 00:14:08,190 --> 00:14:13,330 gods of the Old Testament. And so, profane the name of your God, the Bible says, I am Yahweh. 130 00:14:14,029 --> 00:14:18,750 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering. 131 00:14:19,149 --> 00:14:26,029 Well, this was typical of all the pagan religions of ancient history. Behold the rationale behind the 132 00:14:26,029 --> 00:14:30,470 complete extermination of the peoples in Canaan by Israel as she took possession of it. Oh, 133 00:14:30,470 --> 00:14:38,149 these were the corrupt, diseased, and wicked nations who occupied the land at the time of Israel's taking 134 00:14:38,149 --> 00:14:44,470 of it. They were the devilish Nephilim of Genesis, evil spirits who, when mated with the daughters of 135 00:14:44,470 --> 00:14:51,549 men, produced, as Genesis tells us, the mighty men of old, the men of renown. Oh, and these mighty men 136 00:14:51,549 --> 00:14:57,509 created the religion and rituals that would form the basis, for example, of the religion of Egypt, 137 00:14:57,509 --> 00:15:03,529 a religion which demanded the blood of men and animals to satisfy the bloodlust of its demonic 138 00:15:03,529 --> 00:15:09,850 gods in the netherworld of the Spirit. Yet, make no mistake about this, Satan and his devotees seek 139 00:15:09,850 --> 00:15:16,429 blood, that is, the lives of men, in order to amass sin and wickedness, not to ameliorate it. 140 00:15:17,490 --> 00:15:22,889 Satan's covenant with man demands blood, too, dear listener, but not to put an end to sin, 141 00:15:22,889 --> 00:15:29,529 but rather to strengthen and increase sin. Satan founded his covenant for a kingdom on the life 142 00:15:29,529 --> 00:15:34,629 of Adam and Eve, too. Their death for disobedience in eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge 143 00:15:34,629 --> 00:15:40,830 of good and evil established Satan's kingdom in the realm of men. It made a covenant of death 144 00:15:40,830 --> 00:15:47,710 with Adam and his progeny. Each human life sacrificed to Satan subsequently further strengthens 145 00:15:47,710 --> 00:15:54,629 and confirms that covenant of death that Satan has with them and with us. In fact, evil men boast in 146 00:15:54,629 --> 00:16:01,230 this, and evil men even today take shelter with Satan in hell. The prophet Isaiah warns them, he says, 147 00:16:01,590 --> 00:16:07,590 you have said, we have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement. When the 148 00:16:07,590 --> 00:16:12,769 overwhelming whip passes through it, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, 149 00:16:12,769 --> 00:16:18,190 and in falsehood we have taken shelter. Unquote. Oh, this is the boast of the evil, those who follow 150 00:16:18,190 --> 00:16:24,889 the evil one. And therefore, all pagan religions since have paid homage to the God behind them all, 151 00:16:25,029 --> 00:16:30,490 Satan, the devil, the serpent who first established that covenant of death in the garden by shedding 152 00:16:30,490 --> 00:16:36,909 rivers of human blood, human sacrifice. It is why Luciferian worshipers even today in their secret 153 00:16:36,909 --> 00:16:42,409 rites sacrifice children to further strengthen this covenant of death by means of death. 154 00:16:42,409 --> 00:16:48,669 the very lives of the sons of Adam, whose lifeblood first established a covenant of death so long 155 00:16:48,669 --> 00:16:55,269 ago. Jesus himself observes to the Pharisees that Satan was a murderer from the beginning, 156 00:16:55,669 --> 00:17:02,309 and why his followers continue to murder today. In addition to these deliberate Luciferian rites 157 00:17:02,309 --> 00:17:09,089 of devil worship that I have mentioned, every aborted baby, every senseless war, every Christian 158 00:17:09,089 --> 00:17:16,009 martyrs slaughtered by the demons of Islam, every victim of some raging son of Cain, every people 159 00:17:16,009 --> 00:17:22,049 group targeted by wicked governments, all of these and more are part and parcel of the ceaseless 160 00:17:22,049 --> 00:17:30,190 appetite of evil for blood, of Lucifer's hunger for the lives and souls of men, of why the Bible says 161 00:17:30,190 --> 00:17:39,589 Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, unquote. Proverbs says that Sheol, that is death, the realm of the dead, 162 00:17:39,970 --> 00:17:49,130 and Abaddon, that is the destroyer, are never satisfied. So, both God and Satan require blood, but they do so 163 00:17:49,130 --> 00:17:58,049 for 180 degree opposite reasons. God in his mercy and love demands blood to cleanse sin from his people. 164 00:17:58,549 --> 00:18:06,230 Satan and his hatred and malice, he requires blood to compound sin amongst God's people. There will be 165 00:18:06,230 --> 00:18:12,890 blood. Which will it be for you? Here at Easter, here at Good Friday, which will it be for you? Which blood will 166 00:18:12,890 --> 00:18:19,569 it be for you, dear listener? And that brings me to point number five. The only blood ever shed that 167 00:18:19,569 --> 00:18:27,990 completely atones for sin is that of Jesus Christ. Oh, thanks be to God. The only blood ever shed 168 00:18:27,990 --> 00:18:34,950 that completely atones for sin is that of Jesus Christ. The Bible makes perfectly clear that his 169 00:18:34,950 --> 00:18:41,109 life, Christ's life, and his alone was of such a character to God the Father that it was acceptable to 170 00:18:41,109 --> 00:18:47,250 him as a proper sacrifice for sin. Christ was, in the first place, the second person of the Holy 171 00:18:47,250 --> 00:18:54,789 Trinity, the perfect son of the Father. Christ was made like us in every respect, the Bible says, 172 00:18:55,049 --> 00:19:00,769 yet without sin. Christ was made perfect through suffering, the Bible says. In fact, the Father, 173 00:19:01,109 --> 00:19:07,829 as Hebrew says, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever, unquote. Christ was also fully human, 174 00:19:07,829 --> 00:19:14,450 not only fully God, but also fully human. God made man, right? As Paul says in Philippians, 175 00:19:14,849 --> 00:19:19,950 who, that is Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be 176 00:19:19,950 --> 00:19:26,829 grasped, but rather he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of 177 00:19:26,829 --> 00:19:32,630 men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, 178 00:19:32,630 --> 00:19:39,750 even death on a cross, the Apostle Paul says in Philippians chapter 2. And as such, perfect God and 179 00:19:39,750 --> 00:19:46,930 perfect man, he was the Savior to which all of the Old Testament temple sacrifices pointed. They were 180 00:19:46,930 --> 00:19:56,549 only provisional until God's chosen time and chosen man appeared. The writer to the Hebrews puts it this 181 00:19:56,549 --> 00:20:02,369 way. And he says in chapter 9, and I quote, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have 182 00:20:02,369 --> 00:20:08,730 come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, Christ 183 00:20:08,730 --> 00:20:15,490 entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own 184 00:20:15,490 --> 00:20:23,410 blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled 185 00:20:23,410 --> 00:20:29,009 persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the 186 00:20:29,009 --> 00:20:34,750 blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, how much 187 00:20:34,750 --> 00:20:41,230 more will that blood purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Unquote. Oh, dear 188 00:20:41,230 --> 00:20:48,869 listener, by the sacrifice of himself in giving his perfect life for our imperfect lives, symbolized by 189 00:20:48,869 --> 00:20:55,910 Christ's blood. Christ cleanses sin. He does not compound it. He cleanses sin for us. He saves us. 190 00:20:56,210 --> 00:21:03,190 He redeems us. He ransoms us. As Peter puts it, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways 191 00:21:03,190 --> 00:21:09,250 inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with the precious 192 00:21:09,250 --> 00:21:16,789 blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. Unquote. You have been redeemed by the 193 00:21:16,789 --> 00:21:23,750 precious blood of Christ. That is his life for yours. His life gone forfeit in order that yours 194 00:21:23,750 --> 00:21:31,210 might not. But there will be blood, dear listener. There will be blood, either yours eternally shed 195 00:21:31,210 --> 00:21:37,789 in punishment throughout eternity in hell, or else there will be blood in atonement for your soul 196 00:21:37,789 --> 00:21:44,829 so that you might live unto and with God. Will your blood be shed in eternal suffering in hell, 197 00:21:44,829 --> 00:21:50,990 or will it be the blood of Christ shed in your place upon the cross, the Father's altar, the cross 198 00:21:50,990 --> 00:21:57,650 at which he slew his Son, giving his life for yours? The choice is yours, too, for faith in this Christ and 199 00:21:57,650 --> 00:22:04,269 in his work. Oh, dear listener, we also see then point number six I would like to make with you. There is 200 00:22:04,269 --> 00:22:10,450 blood present in the rituals of the righteous and the wicked, even today. There is blood. Do you know 201 00:22:10,450 --> 00:22:15,490 where it is? In Christian rituals, there is blood present in the rituals of the righteous and the 202 00:22:15,490 --> 00:22:22,670 wicked. Even today, Christianity and the religion of paganism and Lucifer, they continue to be bloody 203 00:22:22,670 --> 00:22:29,250 religions. The blood of pagans is shed as animals and humans feed the bloodlust of the evil one, 204 00:22:29,730 --> 00:22:35,589 feeding and confirming the covenant of death made with Adam so long ago. How evil, how wicked this is. 205 00:22:35,589 --> 00:22:41,450 But there is also blood in the rituals of the Christians. Where might that be, do you ask? 206 00:22:41,950 --> 00:22:47,609 Oh, I submit to you. When Jesus said in Luke chapter 22, for example, he says, 207 00:22:48,049 --> 00:22:52,390 and he took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them saying, 208 00:22:52,710 --> 00:22:58,829 this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, the cup after 209 00:22:58,829 --> 00:23:06,430 they had eaten saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. Yes. In the 210 00:23:06,430 --> 00:23:10,990 Old Testament, there was blood ritual with the sacrifice of animals. In the New Testament, there 211 00:23:10,990 --> 00:23:17,069 was blood ritual in the supper of the Lord. The cup of the Lord is now the blood of the Lord. Is it 212 00:23:17,069 --> 00:23:24,029 not? We Christians participate in the mystical body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine of the 213 00:23:24,029 --> 00:23:29,390 supper of the Lord. There is no more animal sacrifice. Oh, that went the way, didn't it? 214 00:23:29,789 --> 00:23:36,470 With the one sacrifice of Christ. It was done away with at the cross of Christ, the animal sacrifice of 215 00:23:36,470 --> 00:23:43,470 the Old Testament. There was also no further need of Christ to die. He died as Hebrew says, once for all 216 00:23:43,470 --> 00:23:50,670 that good Friday. Did he not? He died once for all. And God forbid, there was no human sacrifice 217 00:23:50,670 --> 00:23:56,809 either. That belongs to the realm of the evil and the evil one. But there will be blood, dear listener, 218 00:23:57,069 --> 00:24:03,250 one or the other. Do not think that Christianity is a bloodless religion. No, Christianity is in the end 219 00:24:03,250 --> 00:24:09,990 a very bloody religion. There will be blood. Where will it be for you? Will it be your own blood? That is 220 00:24:09,990 --> 00:24:16,890 your own life sacrifice, gone forfeit for your sin in the end? Or will it be the blood of another, 221 00:24:16,890 --> 00:24:22,269 the blood of an atoning sacrifice in your place? That is the blood of Christ, the life of Christ, 222 00:24:22,390 --> 00:24:28,490 his life gone forfeit, that yours might live forever. There will be blood. Which will it be for 223 00:24:28,490 --> 00:24:36,809 you? Come to this living Christ in faith and your life will be yours in him. Blood for blood. 224 00:24:37,710 --> 00:24:43,849 Well, before we close, I'd like to remind you that we are having a Seder dinner on Good Friday, 225 00:24:43,849 --> 00:24:49,289 April 3rd at 6 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of our church. I invite you to this. The Seder dinner is 226 00:24:49,289 --> 00:24:55,470 that Passover meal, the last supper that we've been speaking of, which the disciples ate with Jesus 227 00:24:55,470 --> 00:25:01,609 before he went to his passion and shed his blood, and at which that supper he instituted our second 228 00:25:01,609 --> 00:25:08,569 sacrament of the church, that is the Lord's Supper. The Seder dinner is a profound one with the 229 00:25:08,569 --> 00:25:14,289 picture of our Lord's sacrifice and death on the cross where he shed his blood. Every element of the 230 00:25:14,289 --> 00:25:22,269 meal pictures this for us. And so, we would like to invite you to join us on Good Friday at 6 p.m. 231 00:25:22,569 --> 00:25:29,869 in the Fellowship Hall of our church, in the basement of our church. And you don't have to bring anything. 232 00:25:30,630 --> 00:25:36,789 We will take an offering in the course of the meal to help defray our costs. But we really want to 233 00:25:36,789 --> 00:25:42,529 open this up to the community and serve the community in this way, picturing the passion 234 00:25:42,529 --> 00:25:47,289 of our Lord Jesus Christ, his death on the cross, his shedding of his blood, that is the giving of his 235 00:25:47,289 --> 00:25:56,390 life, yours, his blood for yours, his life for yours that you might live. Now, Seder means order, and it is 236 00:25:56,390 --> 00:26:03,210 the order of service to this meal. This is not a mere token meal, let me remind you, but we are preparing 237 00:26:03,210 --> 00:26:08,930 a full-blown meal. We've got roast lamb ready to go in the oven. My mouth is watering just thinking 238 00:26:08,930 --> 00:26:15,190 about it. We also have all of the fixings that you would find at a kosher Jewish Seder dinner. So, 239 00:26:15,269 --> 00:26:21,609 we'll have all of the side dishes, and we will proceed through the meal part by part, step by step, 240 00:26:21,609 --> 00:26:27,769 so that each part of it will bring forward the significance of the meal, of the Last Supper, 241 00:26:27,769 --> 00:26:34,890 and why Jesus was able to declare, this is the blood of the covenant. Well, call me, Pastor David 242 00:26:34,890 --> 00:26:41,230 Bass, at 523-0196 for further information on this. Let me remind you that New Geneva Meets for Holy 243 00:26:41,230 --> 00:26:47,589 Worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Sunday Worship, 244 00:26:48,269 --> 00:26:51,730 10 a.m., 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard.