I'm going to ask you to turn
in your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, chapter 17. Leviticus
17. Last Wednesday night, we're going
through the book of Genesis, and the Lord forbid Noah when
it comes to eating food. I tell you what, just hold your
place in Leviticus. Turn to Genesis chapter 9. I dealt with something that I
want to pick up on this morning out of what we were talking about. In Genesis chapter 9 in verse
3 and 4, every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you. even as the green herb have I
given you all things, but flesh with the life thereof, which
is the blood thereof, shalt ye not eat." Now, in the book of
Leviticus, the Lord God taught Moses in the law the same thing. Leviticus, turn back to Leviticus
12, verse 10 to 12. And here's what the scripture
says. And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or
of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner
of blood, I will even set my face against that soul that eateth
blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For, because. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. And I have given it to you upon
the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood
that maketh an atonement for the soul. Now, according to the word of
the Lord, It is a serious thing according
to the law of eating the blood. Consider the penalty of it. The
scripture says that man would be consigned to everlasting rejection
of God and therefore eternal damnation. No hope. From these verses we behold the
reason that the blood was not to be eaten, consumed. And here
was the reason. Leviticus 17 verse 11. For the
life of the flesh is in the blood. Now for a few minutes, I want
to consider those two truths again. We touched on them last
Wednesday. I want to look at them again.
Here's the two truths. I guess I've got two points.
Here's the first point. The life of the flesh, here's
my second point, is in the blood. Now, the life of the flesh, that is the soul, the soul, the
life, when it says the life, It means the vitality by which
the flesh lives. I'm moving. I'm moving. Why? How? I have life. I have life in me. The life,
the soul, the vitality which is in the flesh is what causes
this flesh. This is flesh. How can I do that? There's life there. Man and animal. They're flesh. And the flesh
is animated by which is called life. And what is that life? Now let's don't say what is.
Let's just say who is that life. Life is not a what. You might
say, well, I got life in him, like it's a what? Uh-uh, uh-uh. John 14, 6 says this, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. When we speak of life, here's
the truth of the matter. Christ is the life of the flesh. Hold your place and turn to the
gospel of John. John chapter 1 verses 1 to 4. John 1 verse 1 to 4. I want to be, not long, but I
want to try to be very, very simple. I want to try to be simple,
simple, simple. That's why I have to hear it,
you know, because I'm so simple minded. John 1 verse 1, In the
beginning was the Word, the Logos. and the Word was with God and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life. And the life was the light, the
illumination of men. In Him was life. By Him and with Him. And without Him, there's death. That's all there is. Life. Life is not a what. Life is a
who. He is the fountain, the efficient
cause, and the preserver of life. And the scripture reveals in
creation, life himself is transferred,
is placed, is there in all created beings, life himself, there can
be no separation of Christ who is the life without death. Christ, you know, when a man
or a cow is born in time. How much contribution did the
man or the cow make concerning them being born. How much contribution
did I give or you give to be born? If a horse, a dog is born, where did the life come from?
All things were made by him and for him and without him was not
anything made that was made in him was life. So God Almighty Himself is the
life of everything. Everything living is by Him. By Him all things consist. That's what the scripture says.
Colossians 1, 16, 17. For by Him were all things created
that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible, invisible,
whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. All things
were created by Him and for Him and before Him. He is before
all things and by Him all things are held together. Consist. Stand. Abide. Continue. That's what that word consist
means. You know, it's an amazing thing
that man by nature will agree that natural birth is brought
about totally by God. Any rational person would say,
well, who causes everything to live? Oh, God does. Did I impart life to me to be
born? I mean, did I drum it up? Where
did it come from? God. God Almighty. But men will argue that it takes
more than just God, that salvation could be totally by the grace
of God and power of God. They think that man's got to
contribute to his second birth. But back to our point. Here's
the first truth that I want everybody to understand, me too. That there's
animal life, all living things that exist, possess, Life Himself. We're held together. We abide by Him who is the life. There is no other life. You say,
well it's Christ, but life and everything else is something
else. No it isn't. There's only one life. I am the way. I am
the truth. I am the life. In Him was life. And nowhere else. But then when it comes to Regeneration,
you know. I know that everything is by
Him, Acts 17, 28, for in Him we live. I look these words up. In Him we live. What does that
mean? That means we breathe, we breathe. In Him we breathe.
In Him we live and move, that is, perform every movement. and have our being. That word
means, it means exist. That's what it means. He's the
author, the sustainer. So everybody, everybody, every
unbeliever that's moving around, that car that just went by, that
person that was driving that car, I'll tell you how they're
alive. Christ is Him. Christ is their life. Natural
life. Their natural life. They're just
Every, every man, every woman, every animal, every plant, everything. By Him all things consist. Now
we know that's the truth. But there's another life. There's
another life. I know all, all, everything exists
by Him because without Him we could do nothing. But there's
another life. And it's a life that must be
given from Heaven. It's a life that is given to
a people of God's affection and choosing. It's spiritual life. It's eternal life. John 10, 27, 28, My sheep hear
my voice, I know them, they follow me, I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Now you want to know what that
life is? That's Him too. That's Christ. There is but one life. He holds together all things.
But to some, out of the mass of humanity, that He holds together
to some, He looks upon them in mercy, in grace. They were given unto Him of His
Father. The Father chose a people that
He gave to Christ, and to these He gives unto them eternal life. And He is that eternal life. Again, we start talking about
eternal life like salvation, like it's an it. Well, I got
saved. What does that mean? You got
saved. Well, I gave my heart to Jesus.
I got saved. Life eternal is Christ. Whenever life himself is imparted,
takes up residency, in saving grace, in saving mercy, Ezekiel
36, 26. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I'll take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give you a new heart.
Hold your place there and turn to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31,
verse 31 to 33. Let's look at something about
this new life, born from above. Jeremiah 31, 31 to 33. Behold,
the day is come, saith the Lord. that I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I was a
husband unto them, saith the Lord, but this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts and write it in their hearts and be their God They shall be
my people. Now the Lord said, the days are
coming, I'm going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel.
Not new in time. This covenant he's talking about
is the everlasting covenant of grace. It's not new in time. It's eternal. But it's new to
their revelation. They're taught it in time. So
it's new to them. Whenever the Lord is pleased
to call me out of darkness, and reveal Christ to me, and show
me that salvation is not by my will, that I didn't have, that
everybody told me I did. Everybody told me, said, well,
it's up to you. Show me that. Show me that. That's not in the scriptures.
I'll show you where it says salvation of the Lord. I can show you where
it says it not, not by blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but of God. I can show you that. But that man has the power to
regenerate himself. I could just as quickly make
a cow as I could make a new man in me. I can't do that. He says
the days are coming. I'm going to make a new covenant
with the house of Israel. It's a covenant of grace. That's the covenant
revealed. That's when God comes in regenerating
grace and He shows His people what they are. He says, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day. I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. What
covenant is that? That's a covenant of works. The law. Do and live. Kind of like that
little card I saw. Heaven's promises to do is what
it says. Read your Bible. I put it in
the bulletin last week. Things to do. This new covenant,
here's this word, done. Done. and revealed. So the scripture reveals that
Almighty God, who is the life of all things, without Him, nothing,
nothing could move. You take away the life from anything
and it's dead. It's dead. Oh, but whenever God's
pleased to come and regenerate, He said, I'm going to give you
eternal life. Now this is a great mystery. Somebody said, well,
how do you differentiate? God said it is. Everybody's living
by Christ who is life. But if he comes to them in mercy
and power, he said, I'm going to give you a new heart, a new
life. The apostle Paul quoted what
was said in Jeremiah over in Hebrews 8, Hebrews chapter 8. Hebrews 8, verses 7 to 10. He says, For if the first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the
days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day, when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt,
because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them
Not, saith the Lord, for this is the covenant I'll make with
the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I'll put
my laws in their mind, write them on their hearts. I will
be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. So this verse
of scripture reveals the truth concerning what we're looking
at on the life of the flesh is in the blood. Think about what
this is. That was a verse of scripture
concerning the law. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. I've given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your souls. It's the soul that make an atonement.
It's the blood, I'm sorry, that make an atonement for the soul.
But here's what the scripture is to claim to us. When God did
forbid them to eat the blood, they heard what the word said.
They heard what God said. I've given you everything to
eat, but don't you eat the blood. If you eat the blood, I'll cast
you away. Why did he say that? Because
of man's misunderstanding of the demand of God's law, the
satisfying of God's law. When you read this passage of
scripture, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. Now listen to this, the life
of the flesh is in the blood. I've given it to you upon the
altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood
that make an atonement for your soul. Do you know what the natural
man will say? Then I'll eat it. I'll eat that. If the life of
the flesh is in the blood, and the Lord has given it to
us upon the altar to make an atonement for our souls, and it's the blood that make
an atonement for the soul, then what is man's natural conclusion? I'll eat that. I'll eat that. And by me eating it, an atonement
will be made for my soul. God said, you eat it. And you
think that you have approached me are being reconciled to me
by what you did, and I'll cut you off. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. So the life
of the flesh is in the blood. But the question is, and here's
where faith By faith, we understand this passage of scripture. Whose blood? What the people
saw was the blood of bulls and goats. That's what they saw.
The Lord told Noah, you eat anything you want, but don't you eat the
blood. Because the life is in the blood. The life of the flesh is in the
blood But spiritually speaking, whose blood? Not the blood of
bulls and goats. Our natural understanding is
I'll eat that because God said it will make an atonement for
my soul. And I'll eat it. That's works. That's works. That animal on that sacrifice
must die. Why? Because Christ, the one
that the animal pictured, must die. That animal's blood must
be shed and poured out. Why? Because His blood was poured
out. His blood was shed for the atonement of His people. And
eternal life is evidenced by the Holy Spirit of God as being
a sinner's only hope. John 17, 3. This is life eternal. Not by the works of the law.
Not by taking that which God has forbid us to do that we could
not make atonement for ourselves for and doing it. No. This is
life eternal that they might know thee the only true God in
Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Eternal life is not a knowledge
of facts about God. This is life eternal that they
might know Thee, the only true God. Eternal life is not a knowledge
of facts about God. But it is the personal experience
of regeneration and a revelation of the living God in the heart
concerning Him alone who is life. It is essential that we understand
for the comfort of joy of our heart to not merely believe that
the Lord gives eternal life. Again, I'm guilty of this. I'm
guilty of this. I have life eternal. It's just
an existence that I'm going to have. It's life eternal. Explain
to me, this is what we were talking about the other night. We were
talking about The life of the flesh is in the blood. Okay,
when we say life, I mean, it's not the oxygen. I know oxygen
is in the blood, nutrients are in the... But when you say life,
what is it? It's Christ. It's Christ Himself. So when
we say that we possess life eternal, this is life eternal. Christ
in you. The hope of glory. It's Christ.
Eternal life is a person. It's not a what. It's not an
experience. It's not an existence. It's Christ. John 14, 9. Because I live, you
shall live also. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
life of His people. Because I live, you'll live also.
You'll never die. Now I do realize this. This body,
It's going to die. This body is going to die. It's
going to go the way of all men. But the life of Christ and my
union with Him. Now here's life eternal. This
is life eternal. My union with Him. My union with
Him. That is life eternal. My union
with Him. One with Him. A union that is
closer, dearer, more binding than I can possibly come. I don't,
I can't. One with Christ, made with Christ. John 11, 26, whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? 2 Corinthians
5, 8, absent from the body, present with the Lord. Colossians 3,
3 and 4, your life is hid with Christ in God. And when Christ,
who is our life, when Christ, who is our life, when Christ,
who is our life, our eternal life, our physical life, yes,
no doubt about that. But our eternal life, when Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
Him in glory. So the life of the flesh is Christ. Natural life to all creatures,
eternal life to the sheep of God's choosing. And closely, I'm going to read
something that just blew the Jews away when they heard this.
They knew the restriction on eating the blood. Why did God
tell them not to eat the blood? He told them, He said, the life
of the flesh is in the blood. I've given it to you for an atonement
for your souls. The blood shall be an atonement
for your souls. Don't eat it. Now why did he
tell them that? He told them that because they
would think by eating the blood that atonement then had been
made for our souls. I've given you the blood upon the altar
for an atonement for your souls. The blood is for an atonement.
It's an appeasement. It's a covering for your souls.
Don't eat it. Because the moment we think that
we've done something to appease God and have now gained peace
with God by what we did, we're proud. Salvation by us. That's what we did. Don't do
it. It was a picture. The life is in the blood, but
not the blood of bulls and goats that I told you don't eat. The
life is in my Son's blood. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That blood when I see, I'll pass over you. So they knew. They knew the restriction of
eating the blood. They knew that. Now, when the
Lord came to them, and they had been raised under the scriptures
of the Old Testament, when the Lord was here, that's all they
had was the Old Testament scriptures. That's all they had was Leviticus
and Noah. They knew. They knew the restriction.
Don't eat the blood. Now listen to the words of the
Lord. John 6, 53, 54, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man,
and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh
my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. Wait a minute. John 6.60, many
therefore of the disciples when they heard this said, that's
a hard saying. Who can hear it? In the law, you said that the
blood was given for an atonement for our souls. And you said if
we eat it, that you're going to cast us off. And now you're
saying that Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you
have no life in you. What's the difference? Works
in grace. Works in grace. Works in faith. Works by man thinking that he
can attain salvation by his works or faith in Christ. We know that he was not talking
about cannibalism. He was talking about faith in
his life His obedience to God in establishing the righteousness
of God for His people, and the blood that was shed, and we drink
that by faith. That's what we do right now.
We don't drink the blood of bulls and goats thinking we've gotten
the atonement of God. No, we know better than that.
That's works. But to drink His blood and eat
His flesh by faith. He said, unless you eat my flesh
and drink my blood by faith, by faith, You have no life in
you. The Lord Jesus Christ, by living
for His people, established their righteousness. The Lord Jesus
Christ, by shedding His own blood for His people, and they drink
that by faith. That's a spiritual terminology.
We drink of Him by faith. He's established righteousness
and satisfied the law, and now there's no condemnation to them
that be in Christ Jesus. The life is in the blood. His blood. His blood. His blood shed for
those of God's choosing. And again, I've said this already
two times today. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. May the Lord bless these words
to our heart, give us some understanding, for Christ's sake, amen.