Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. Today, with the approach of Easter and Good Friday, I want to ask you, what is the importance of blood in the Bible? Why does God require so much of it? And where is blood in modern Christianity?

This is an important issue in biblical religion. In fact, so important is blood to Christianity that I have entitled this message, There Will Be Blood. Omnibus title, isn't it? There Will Be Blood. But before we take up this very important issue, I would like to invite you, our listeners, to our Seder dinner on Good Friday, April 15 at 6 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall of our church.

Now, the Seder dinner is the Passover meal, the Last Supper, if you will, which the disciples ate with Jesus before he went to his Passion and at which he instituted our second sacrament of the church, that is the Lord's Supper. It is profound with the picture of our Lord's sacrifice and death on the cross with every element of the meal. Now, Seder means order, and it is the order of service to the meal. And this is not a mere token meal that we're offering, but rather a full-blown meal with roast lamb and all of the fixings that you'd find at a kosher Jewish Seder dinner.

And not only will you not go away spiritually hungry, but you will not go away physically hungry either. So, if you're interested in attending this meal and would like to find out more, call me, Pastor Dave Bass, at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196. Now, perhaps you are reminded, as I am, of the recent movie of the same name, the same title as our presentation today, and that is There Will Be Blood, the movie There Will Be Blood that was put out in 2007.

Now, the phrase There Will Be Blood is an old American expression that means that in the situation under consideration there will be violence that will cause great harm, that is bloodshed, and so it is in the Bible. In the situation under consideration here, that is man's predicament with God, there is now and will be in the future violence that causes and will cause great bodily and spiritual harm, that is bloodshed and unending suffering. There will be blood. Because of man's present situation with God, there will be blood, dear listener. Now, how can I say this?

Well, let me bring out six points for you today. Number one, disobedience is of such a consequence to God that it requires the life of the sinner. That's a foundational principle with the living God of the Bible. Disobedience is of such a consequence to God that it requires the life of the sinner. This reality is established very early in the Bible.

Do you remember the covenant sanction that God attached to his placing of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Oh, the Bible says, The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die, unquote, from Genesis 2, verses 15 to 17. So, behold the seriousness with which God takes rebellion. And as we know, this is exactly what Adam and Eve did do.

They were in a frank rebellion against God. This was no child's prank of surreptitiously swiping a piece of fruit from Farmer John's Orchard, as is often characterized by Hollywood and the media, right? But rather, this was open rebellion on the part of our first parents. In doing this, they openly sided with the serpent, the devil, in his operation to deceive them into achieving the ends that God had set for them, but without the difficulty of obedience that God required.

The Bible tells us in Genesis 3, But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate, unquote. So, all of this temptation Satan dangled in front of them would have been theirs in righteousness, the things he offered.

Had they but obeyed God during the time of their probation in the garden, then they would have eaten from the tree of life as well. Was that as it was they tasted of death, owing to their disobedience and rebellion? This is because of the ironclad principle from the prophets. Ezekiel, for example, says it. He says, Behold, says the Lord, all souls are mine.

The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul who sins shall die. That's an ironclad principle in the Bible. The soul who sins shall die. Death is the consequence for our sin.

This is the exact price demanded for sin. No way around it. God nowhere in any portion of the Bible indicates that he cuts slack for sin, or just lets it slide, or goes easy on it. He is perfectly righteous and holy. The prophets also tell us that he will by no means clear the guilty.

Consequently, he demands that element in which the life resides. The life resides in the blood. That brings me to point number two. The life of the sinner is in the blood. The life of the sinner is in the blood.

Not only is blood necessary to sustain the life of the creature, being the primary element in the circulatory system. Of course, it is also the biblical metaphor for the whole life of a living creature. It was quickly observed by primitive man that by the loss of blood in particular, a man died. It thus became a vivid symbol of the whole life of a man and figured largely in what it took to atone for sin. Moses tells Israel in Leviticus, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.

For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life, unquote. From the opening chapters of the Bible, the demand for the life of the sinner is pictured in the demand for blood. Do you remember the very first murderer and his victim? Genesis tells us that Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. The innocent life of Abel is therefore portrayed in the Bible as his righteous blood.

That is a picture of the innocent life forfeited in murder, most foul. Jesus says to the Pharisees in Matthew 23, he says, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Barakiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar, unquote. So, throughout the Bible, then, we see that blood is representative of the very life of the one whose blood is spilt. It only becomes logical that if the life of the sinner is required for his sin, that its sign must be present too, that is blood. Brings me to point number three, then.

Number three, God therefore logically insists that no disobedience can be forgiven without the shedding of blood. No disobedience can be forgiven without the shedding of blood. When blood is shed, life goes forfeit. Therefore, it is the logical ritual symbol for the satisfaction by God of the life of the sinner in payment for his sin. In fact, the Bible is crystal clear on the necessity of blood for the forgiveness of sin.

The book of Hebrews tells us, indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. The book of Hebrews. Listener, do you see the chain of consequence for our disobedience? Oh, it begins with an all-holy God, so perfect and righteous, high above, that no sin or imperfection can dwell with him. The prophets tell us again, Habakkuk in particular, he says, you are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, unquote.

As a result, when creatures such as ourselves commit evil and wrongdoing, this disobedience demands the very life of that creature, the ritual symbol for which life is blood. This is why such elaborate rituals were established in Israel's religious life, primarily to handle and manipulate the blood so necessary to the atonement for sin amongst the people. Leviticus 17, once again, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the life.

Oh, so dear listener, from the time of the inauguration of Israel as a nation in the wilderness at the foot of Mount Sinai in the 14th century BC, to its very sad, brutal demise at Jerusalem at the hands of the Roman general Titus in AD 70, well, God revealed to Moses and Israel what he required in blood from his people in order to atone for their sins. Detailed, meticulous rituals were prescribed, revealed to Moses on how to procure, handle, and apply the blood of lambs, bulls, goats, and birds to the accoutrements of the tent of the meeting in the wilderness, and then the temple that was established later in Jerusalem.

So, these rituals reveal how seriously God takes sin by their content, quality, and quantity. Yes, God takes sin seriously, and we see that by these rituals, content, quality, and quantity, by their content, in that only the best was to be offered, gold, silver, the finest materials to construct the temple, and by their quality, in that only the purest of ingredients and animals to be sacrificed. In fact, elaborate cleansing rituals were a standard part of the temple worship, and also by their quantity, in that for over 14 centuries, numberless millions of animals were sacrificed, shedding a sea of blood in the process.

And so, if one asks, how seriously does God take sin? Well, look upon the sacrifice, dear listener, there will be blood. And so, we observe the provision that God early on established for atoning for the sin of his people, that he might bring them back to God, bring them back to himself. And the economy for doing so, the method and agreement by which he bound himself to doing this for his people is called a covenant. And that sign and seal of the covenant is called the blood of the covenant, which was sprinkled on both the altar of God and the people of God.

Oh, you may remember from the book of Exodus, Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins, and half the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, behold, the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words, unquote, from Exodus 24 at the inauguration of the covenant. Do you see how utterly necessary blood is to Christianity?

At Easter, it is important to consider the role of blood in our salvation. And we'll note more closely its relation to Jesus' death on the cross momentarily. But first, I want to note one thing not often considered on this topic, and that is number four, point number four. The evil one also requires blood in order to compound sin, not to cleanse it. Oh, Satan requires blood in order to multiply and compound sin, not to cleanse it and get rid of it.

No. From the beginning, the evil one, Satan, has also demanded the lives of creatures as witnessed in the murder of Abel by Cain in the very first generation of men. And since then, every pagan religion of man has required human sacrifice of its devotees. Oh, the prophets say, for example, you shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, unquote. Behold, dear listener, the rationale behind the complete extermination of the peoples in Canaan by Israel, as she took possession of it. These were the corrupt, diseased, and wicked nations who occupied the land at the time of Israel's taking of it. They were the devilish Nephilim of Genesis, evil spirits who, when mated with the daughters of men, produced the mighty men of old, the men of renown from Genesis chapter 6.

They created the religion and rituals that would form the basis for the religion of Egypt, one which demanded the blood of men and animals to satisfy the bloodlust of its demonic gods in the netherworld of the Spirit. Yet, make no mistake about this. Satan and his devotees seek blood, that is, the lives of men, in order to amass sin and wickedness, not to ameliorate it. Oh, Satan's covenant with man demands blood too, but not to put an end to sin, but rather to strengthen and increase sin. Satan founded his covenant for a kingdom on the life of Adam and Eve.

Their death for disobedience in eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil established his kingdom in the realm of men. It made a covenant of death with Adam and his progeny. Each human life sacrificed subsequently to that of Adam and Eve further strengthens and confirms that covenant of death that Satan has with them and with us. In fact, evil men boast in this. They take shelter with Satan in hell.

Isaiah tells the Israelites, you have said we have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have made an agreement. When the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter, unquote. Oh, and since then, and before that even, all pagan religions have paid homage to the God behind them all, that is Satan, the devil, the serpent, who first established that covenant of death in the garden by shedding rivers of human blood.

It is why Luciferian worshipers today, in their secret rights, sacrifice children to further strengthen this covenant of death by means of death, the very lives of the sons of Adam, whose life and blood first established a covenant of death so long ago. Jesus himself observes that Satan was a murderer from the beginning, and why his followers continue to murder today.

In addition to the deliberate Luciferian rights of devil worship, every aborted baby, every senseless war, every Christian martyr slaughtered by the demons of Islam, every victim of some raging son of Cain, every people group targeted by wicked governments, all of these and more, they are part and partial of the ceaseless appetite of evil for blood, of Lucifer's hunger for the lives and souls of men, of why Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, as the Proverbs say. Dear listener, both God and Satan require blood, but for 180 degree opposite reasons. God in his mercy and his love requires blood to cleanse sin from his people.

Satan and his hatred and malice requires blood to compound sin amongst God's people. Oh, dear listener, there will be blood. There is no way around it. You cannot escape this principle of life. this principle of the universe.

There will be blood. Point number five, then. The only blood ever shed that completely atones for sin is that of Jesus Christ. Very important to maintain. Very important to underline today.

The only blood ever shed that completely atones for sin is that of Jesus Christ. The Bible makes perfectly clear that his life and his alone was of such a character to God, the Father, that it was acceptable to him as a proper sacrifice for sin. He was, in the first place, the second person of the Holy Trinity, Christ. He is the perfect son of the Father. He was made, like us, in every respect, Hebrews tells us, yet without sin.

Christ was made perfect through suffering. In fact, the Father appoints a son who has been made perfect forever, as Hebrews tells us. Oh, dear listener, Christ was also fully human. He was God made man. Philippians tells us who, that is, Christ threw, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Well, as such, Christ was the Savior, to which all of the Old Testament temple sacrifices pointed. They were only provisional until God's chosen time and his chosen man appeared. Hebrews tells us again in Hebrews chapter 9, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

There will be blood, dear listener. Hebrews goes on to say, for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Unquote. Oh, there must be blood. There will be blood.

By the sacrifice of himself in giving his perfect life for our imperfect lives, symbolized by his blood, Christ cleanses sin and does not compound it. Oh, dear listener, Christ saves us. He redeems us. He ransoms us. Peter tells us in one of his letters, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

Unquote. Dear listener, there will be blood. There must be blood. You cannot escape this. Will that blood be yours shed in eternal suffering in hell, or will that blood be that of Christ shed in your place upon the cross, which was the father's altar at which he slew his son, giving his life for yours?

The choice is yours, and it is for faith in this Christ and in his work. And that brings me to my last point, point number six. There is blood present in the rituals of the righteous and the wicked. There is blood present in the rituals of the wicked, too. There are rituals for both.

Even today, Christianity and the religions of paganism and Lucifer continue to be bloody religions. There is no escape. There will be blood. You cannot have a nice, neat, clean, and tidy religion, dear listener. The blood of pagans is shed as animals and humans feed the bloodlust of the evil one, feeding and confirming the covenant of death made with Adam so long ago.

But there is also blood in the rituals of Christians, too. Where, you might ask? Where is that blood? Well, Luke tells us in his account then of the upper room meal, the last meal that Christ had with his disciples, he said, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

And likewise, the cup, after they had eaten, saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, unquote. We Christians participate in the mystical body and blood of Christ, in the bread and wine of the supper of the Lord. No more animal sacrifice. It was done away with at the cross of Christ. No further need of Christ to die.

He died once for all, as the Bible says that Good Friday. No human sacrifice either, God forbid. Oh, dear listener. There will be blood. Where will that blood be shed for you?

Eternally in hell? That is the only other option to having another stand in your place. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. His blood has been shed in your stead, dear listener. Will you avail yourself of it?

Will you claim it by faith? It can be yours, this salvation, the blood shed already by Jesus Christ on your behalf. Nay, claim this as your own. His life in substitute for yours, because, dear listener, there will be blood. Now, before we close, I want to invite you once again to our Seder dinner on Good Friday, April 15 at 6 p.m. in the fellowship hall of our church, the Seder dinner is that Passover meal, the Last Supper, which the disciples ate with Jesus before he went to his Passion, and at which he instituted our second sacrament of the church, that is the Lord's Supper.

So, it is profound, the Seder dinner, with the picture of our Lord's sacrifice and death on the cross with every element of the meal. Remember, Seder means order, and it is the order of service to the meal. This is not a mere token meal, once again, but a full-blown meal with roast lamb and all of the fixings. My mouth was watering already. You'd find all these things at a kosher Jewish Seder dinner.

Not only will you not go away spiritually hungry, dear listener, but you will not go away physically hungry either. Now, if you are interested in attending, we want you to make a reservation. Tell us how many people will be coming. If you're interested in attending this meal and like to find out more, you can call me, Pastor David Bass, and also to make a reservation too at area code 208-523-0196. Area code 208-523-0196.

For more information, to make a reservation new Geneva meets for holy worship at 10 a.m. on Sunday at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. We encourage you to come visit us in our worship service. We have an open door, a very friendly reception you will receive from our people. So come and join us for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. We meet at 101 4th Street in Idaho Falls on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information or some feedback at area code 208-523-0196. 208-523-0196.