10/13/19 Leviticus 17:1-16 Jr

See video here.

Transcript (Experimental)

Like that I remember one of the first youth conferences with Calvary Chapel that I took a group two years and years ago. guy named Ken graves is the pastor if you’ve never seen or heard Ken grace, he sounds exactly like who’s this singer from Las Vegas singer, Tom. Tom Jones. He sounds exactly like Tom Jones when he things doesn’t bother me. But yeah, like a real deep lumberjack voice and he looks exactly how he sounds right? So if you’ve ever heard can preach and you imagine in your head what he looked like, that’s what he looks like. He’s like a big dude. And he was he was he was teaching I love this thing that he said he was like, there’s no such thing as teenager, you know? He said, You’re either a boy or a man. You’re either a girl or a woman, you know? And as I like that, I like that, you know, the fact that I was a boy till I was 30 notwithstanding you know. You know, I like that. And and so I like to reflect that when I was growing up in youth group. It was, it was I was the president of the youth true. Okay. And you’ve heard my testimony. And you’re like, how does that go together? Her? it? Don’t you know what I mean? I was like, you know, how many girls from the youth group tonight? Did you know? That early, you know, so it was it was, it was just it was, in my opinion.

That’s not what that’s not what kids or adults need. They need the Word of God. That’s it. That’s it. You know, when God was telling Moses about the law and and how he wanted them to continually be talking about the law of God and continually be talking about the things of God, with his with their children and with their families. When you rise up when you when you’re when you go along the way when you when you go down to bed at night, be talking to your children about these things, and make sure that you use felt boards and make sure that you make it palatable for the teenagers, right? No teaching the Word of God. You know one of my favorite teachers killer when said, If you can’t make it easy enough as a preacher, for kids to understand it means you don’t understand that. It’s not that difficult. People try to make the Bible a difficult thing, so that they can deliberately dismiss it. Okay? The Bible is not that hard to understand. There are a bunch of things in the Bible that are beyond us. That’s true. There are a bunch of things in the Bible that we look at and we go, I don’t know how that’s going to happen. I’m not sure how that’s going to go down. But the core of the Bible, the core of the Bible, what the Bible is, is not hard to understand. It’s very simple. We are sinners. Okay, this is this is why we’re here today. We’re not here because we’re holy. We’re here because we’re sinners. Everybody is sinners. Everybody’s a sinner, the Bible says, For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That’s everybody. Because of our sin, we’re separated from God. That’s the only thing that that that makes up the difference between heaven and hell. One well, hell was created for judgment, the lake of fire specifically, but the difference between Heaven Heaven and Hell from our standpoint, one place God is and the other place God isn’t. To go to hell is to be separated from God for all eternity. Why? Because God will not cannot abide in the presence of sin. Sin and God don’t go together they don’t mix. Sin cannot be in the presence of God. That’s why he said to Moses, no man can see my face in live is not because he’s so bright that we would melt or something like that. It’s because he is the the, the the absolute embodiment, if that’s the correct word to use, because he’s spirit of holiness and righteousness, and no sin in his presence can dwell we would literally cease to exist, I think is how that would look. If we were in the presence of Almighty God. So how in the world? How in the world? Can man be justified to God? How in the world can that broken relationship between man and God because of sin? How can that be mended? How can that be made whole? Well, we’re in the Old Testament, and we’re talking last week we talked about the Day of Atonement. We’re talking about the sacrificial systems that God gave to Moses, because he was willing to accept these sacrifices these blood sacrifices of animals as a propitiation or a covering for sin. Now, we need to remember when we’re studying these things, that it is always a temporary covering of sin. As the writer of Hebrews says, There is no way that the blood of sheep and goats and oxen and turtle doves and the like, could ever truly wash a human being clean of their sins, because sin as a matter of the heart, but God was willing To accept these sacrifices in the fat and in the in the sense that they were a preparation, they were a foretelling. They were a prerequisite to that final sacrifice that was going to be made once and for all time, that perfect sacrifice that was going to be made once and for all time, the blood of whom was sufficient and enough to cover all the sins of all mankind for all time. And the Bible talks about in the fullness of time, Jesus came in the fullness of times, it’s a doctrinal thing, the fullness of time, at just the right time. That’s when Jesus Christ came historically, when Jesus came, it was just the right time, the roadways that the Romans had built, all of the sea ways and the shipping, shipping routes and everything that was set up by the Roman Empire made it the very perfect time in history for Jesus to come die raised from the dead for Was church with the spirit and then for the gospel to be spread throughout the entire known world. It was the perfect time. It’s not an accident that Jesus came when he came. But before that, before Jesus came, something still had to be done for a human being sins so that they wouldn’t die in their sin, because to die in our sins is to be separated from God for eternity. And so God gave the children of Israel and anyone who would believe in this, these animal sacrifices and that’s what we’ve been talking about. And today specifically, we are in chapter 17 of Leviticus, chapter 17 of Leviticus. And we are talking today of course about oops, there goes my, we are talking today about specifically about the blood and also the correct place of sacrifice, interestingly enough. Now remember, Chapter 16 is the Day of Atonement. That was the day when when atonement was made by specifically by the high priest for the entire nation of Israel. Not only were the was it just the people of the nation of Israel, who were atoned for by the high priest, the high priest himself was atone for the high priest family and the rest of the priests were atone for the articles of the tabernacle and the tabernacle itself was atoned for, and the people of the children of Israel were atone for on this, the Day of Atonement. And of course, the Day of Atonement. We talked about it last week was a beautiful picture of what Jesus Christ was going to accomplish himself. It’s interesting when you read through some of the ceremonies, the different and Animals and have to be used in the different people that are have to be involved, all to give you a picture of what Jesus was going to do alone, right? You know you have the Escape Goat you have the goat where you put your hand on the one goat and you transfer the sins of the people onto the goat in that goat is is sacrifice. And the excuse me, there is one goal to sacrifice and then escape goat is the goat that you put your hands on the priesthood, transferring symbolically, the sins of the people to the goats, and then that goat would be set free symbolizing that Jesus Christ was going to be sacrificed both our sacrifice and also the first fruits of the resurrection, which is freedom to you and I that setting it loose that sending it away to a far off place. The Bible says that God takes our sins and separates them as far as the east is from the west, and he remembers them no more. That was what was accomplished in Jesus Christ. But in 17, we start to pinpoint a little bit more, we’re going to be starting to get into Some of the more finer details of the law, going from the sacrificial system and the ceremonial sacrifices and some of those laws now moving into more of the social, but at the center of that, and it’s interestingly enough, before dad starts getting into the moral laws in chapter 18, and the second service in between the ceremonial laws and the moral laws, we have this law concerning the worship of our God and the sanctity of blood.

Okay, so Leviticus chapter 17. And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to Aaron to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say to them, this is the thing The Lord has commanded, saying, whatever man of the house of Israel, who kills an ox or a lamb or goat in a camp, or who kills it outside the camp. Now, notice specifically, these three animals, the ox, the Lamb, or the goal, these are sacrificial animals, okay? Anyone who kills it outside the camp and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting to offer an offering to the Lord, before the tabernacle of the Lord, the guilt of bloodshed shall be imputed to that man, he has shed blood, and that man shall be cut off from among his people. So this is going to change a little bit in Deuteronomy when the children of Israel are getting ready to enter into the promised land. And as they are spreading out throughout the promised land, God begins to make provision for them to be allowed to offer sacrifices in places other than the temple, the tabernacle or the temple. Now remember, the tabernacle is this portable place of worship, that God specifically had Moses set up for the children of Israel so that they could have a place of worship, and that also it could then be broken down at any point in time, and they could follow God wherever he led them. Okay, so beautiful picture of our relationship with God. Remember that During the day, there would be that pillar of cloud that was settled over the tabernacle. And at night, this pillar of fire. Imagine what did that look like? That would settle over the tabernacle. And when that would move, that’s when the children of Israel knew it was time to move on. And they will be able to collapse the tabernacle and all of its articles, and move it on when they went into the promised land. And of course, it was it was years and years and years after they went into the promised land, that finally the temple was erected, the temple was built, the temple was set up, and that’s where the place of worship was. But during this time when the children of Israel, the nation is all together, in one place at a time in the tabernacle is the place of worship.

God is specifically reminding Moses to tell the people that don’t go just offering sacrifices or the sacrificial animals at your house. That would be fun. That would be nice. You can just leave out the tent and you know, and put an arrow in it and awesome figure that one’s for you, you know, but No, God had set up specific instructions in the way for the way in which each animal was to be offered. We’ve been through all of that, right? The sin offerings and the fellowship offerings and the burnt offerings, it goes on and on and on. And God is holding the people accountable, to know his law and to abide by it. Very important. The specifics A lot of times, in my opinion, aren’t as important aren’t as important as the fact of obedience as obedient. Remember when Saul is waiting on Samuel to offer the sacrifice before they go up against the Philistines in war and battle? He’s waiting on Samuel, and he’s waiting on Samuel and Samuel is waylaid and Samuel is late and he’s not there yet. So Saul takes to the King Saul, the first king of Israel takes it upon himself to offer the sacrifice and just as he’s doing that, Samuel shows up perfect timing right hand in the cookie jar. Right. And Samuel was like, What are you doing? Well, you were late bubble. Blah, and they have this discussion. And during that discussion, remember what Samuel says to Saul to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams. And he says, but rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is idolatry. Interesting. It’s one of the first times that God is going right to the heart of the matter. The sacrifices were important, the sacrifices were given by God for the covering, but God is still even in the Old Testament God was concerned with the heart. God was concerned with the condition of the heart, it’s about obedience. Remember when during the during the kingdom years and God says to the prophets, your new moons, your festivals, your Sabbath’s your feast days, your sacrifices, my soul deep tasks, if you’re the one who told us to do it, right, but God wants the heart of a person, not a religious person. allegations, not our good deeds that follows man. So often people want to put the cart before the horse. And they think it’s, well, I’m a good person will I’m a good person will I’m a good first of all. First of all, Jesus was the one who said no one is good, except for God. Remember, the rich young ruler came to Jesus said, good teacher, and Jesus stopped him right there. Wait, why do you call me good? No one is good except for God. Jesus was saying one of two things, either that he was no good, or that he was God. You chose. And he was saying this to the rich young ruler. No one’s good. There is no there is no good. Well, I try to be good. I try to be good. It doesn’t matter how good I think you are. And I think you’re pretty good. That was a few in here that I know. I think you’re pretty darn good. Most of you better than me. Right? I think you’re pretty good. But it doesn’t matter how you add up to me. It matters how you add up to God. It matters how you add up to God. The Bible says that if you’ve broken one portion of the law What? He broken the whole thing and you stand guilty, your intentions don’t matter. Here’s one that’s going to hurt your feelings. Your feelings don’t matter. Right? Your feelings, our feelings. But I feel that I feel that then I believe and I feel Who cares? Well, no, I mean, I’m not trying to be a jerk or and I know that just comes naturally but I’m not trying to be a jerk or hard or I’m saying this right. I’m saying this. I’m gonna jump out of this airplane. And I’m going to be okay. What Why do you think you’re gonna be okay? Well, I feel that the earth and the sky and you know, who cares? You’re gonna die son. You’re gonna cursplat. It doesn’t matter what you feel. It doesn’t matter what you think. And yet when it comes to eternity in our relationship with God, people around, well I feel that God needs to take into account Does he? Does he need to take into account that you’re going to stand there as Judge of Almighty God? Remember what he says what Paul says in the New Testament, this is a pistol he says, shall the clay say to the potter Why have you made me thus? The Potter does as He pleases. And see the issue with the heart of all of this for mankind and for us is rebellion, right? We’re Americans. I’ll put on my Minuteman hat, get my musket, put on my MAGA shirt, clap on the side arms and march to capital. You know, I mean, I’ve got Cuomo. Because I’m a rebel. At the heart of it. Yes. I love the Constitution, the Bill of Rights. I love that stuff. There’s some of the greatest documents ever written. And I’m proud to be an American. But at the heart of it, nobody tells me what to be afraid. That’s what it is. That’s the heart. of mankind were rebels and in the face and the presence of Almighty God, rebellion just ain’t gonna cut it. Doing it my way doesn’t isn’t gonna cut it. God doesn’t care. Okay, now listen. He says the Bible says that he cares about the sparrow that falls from the sky. Not a sparrow falls from the sky, but that your heavenly Father knows about it. So don’t think that God’s up there going, I see you’re sad, who cares? Suck it up, Buttercup, you know, that’s not that’s not our Heavenly Father, then please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. We need to be we need to be gentle. The Bible says that those of us who are strong should uphold the failings of the week. We’re not supposed to be out there hammering on people. And it’s not that God doesn’t care about people’s feelings in the sense that he doesn’t care if they’re sad, or if they’re upset. Of course he does. Jesus was so gentle with sinners, so gentle with sinners. But when it comes to God’s laws and statutes for the worship of him, and for his will for our lives, it ain’t up for debate. Right? So that good parents with you say to your kids, obey my voice, obey my voice, kids want to have a discussion. Okay? Completely room. But if I feel that then I could go clean your room. And when we’re training our kids to obey our voice, remember, I tell them I used to tell my kids, all little kids all the time. I need to be able to tell you stop and know that you’re going to stop. So that if we’re in the yard and you’re running towards a ball that’s going in the road and there’s a truck coming, I need to be able to yell to my three year olds stop and know that they’re going to stop. Because the consequences could be death, right? It’s an extreme example, but it could be anything That’s the purpose. I don’t want my kids to obey me because you need to recognize the dead. He’s the king. Get my crown, you know what I mean? rub my feet. That’s not what it is. I want to teach my children to be obedient so that their lives are happy and healthy and successful. And the bottom line is, is if you’re the kind of person who can’t ever do what you’re told, and be obedient, you’re going to have trouble. You’re going to have trouble as the first 24 or five years of my life. nothing but trouble because I couldn’t do anything that I was told to do. I was a rebel, still a rebel, not as much. thank Jesus. obedience. This is this is what this is about. This is why BYY can see why it cannot go to my house. I have a look at the salt idols gorgeous. I put little shiny stones on it is beautiful. I set it up God said, Go over there and offer your sacrifices. And so I do so why? Because he knows better than I do. And because he said so and to obey is better than sacrifice. Okay?

Verse five. He finishes this thought up by saying to the end, that the children of Israel may bring their sacrifices which they offer in the open field, that they may bring them to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting to the priest and offer them as peace offerings to the Lord. And the priest shall sprinkle the blood of on the altar of the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting and burn the fat for a sweet aroma to the Lord. They shall no more offer their sacrifices to demons, after whom they have played the harlot. This shall be a statute forever for them throughout their general Also, you shall say to them, whatever man of the house of Israel or the strangers who dwell among you who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of meeting to offer it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from among his people. So there’s a couple of things to this. God’s keeping them honest. Because remember, they had been in Egypt for hundreds of years, like 400 years. They were in Egypt, and bad company corrupts good character, right. We talked about this at the men’s the men’s retreat this weekend. They were in Egypt for 400 years. You think they probably picked up a couple of bad habits as worship goes, you know, they didn’t even know God’s will. All they knew is we hate being slaves. But remember later on when God takes them out of Egypt, and they’re in the wilderness, they begin grumbling and they begin complaining and they begin saying all we Miss Egypt. Remember the flesh pots? I mean, what’s a flush pot? First of all, it’s just a crock pot. Okay, crap. That sounds better remember the crock pots with leeks and onions and on this manner. Yay Nana, you know, can’t you know we miss Egypt leanness, Egypt, you know long for it because it’s what they knew, like you were slaves. You were literally crying out. You’re being you were being eradicated. Your children are being thrown into the Nile River, you’re being worked to death. And you missed the onions. You missed the onions. You know, my wife used to hate it when we would hang around any of my old friends. They’d be like Thomas Thomas. And she goes Oh, here we go. Remember that time. Remember that time remember that time. But it’s so easy to start talking about the good old days. The good old days, the good old days. Remember the good old days. The good old days. Oh used to do this means that Today, and we so easily can forget how empty we were. We so easily can forget how it felt, to have nothing, and to be in bondage to things. We forget that part. Just remember the fun we used to have we used to go down to the lake, every time you got so drunk, you almost drowned. Forget that part. The link was so much fun, you know, this is the way we are. And God knew that they were carrying a lot of the detestable practices of the Egyptians out of Egypt with them. And he also knew that they were going to place in Canaan, where the inhabitants of that land had a whole bunch of detestable practices that they carried out. And God is making a distinction You shall not be like the other nations. And it’s interesting that when they do worship in a false way, or worship other gods, God always relates it to adultery. The other the false gods that after what you go a whoring It’s like, that’s kind of harsh.

But that’s how God sees us. And when we worship Him in a way other than what he’s prescribed, it’s it’s a spiritual unfaithfulness. It’s a spiritual adultery of sorts. Verse 10, and whatever man of the house of Israel or the strangers who dwells among you who eats any blood, remember, Red Dawn, remember that movie Red Dawn, anybody? Wolverines, right? And they go out hunting now. You haven’t seen Red Dawn. Awesome. But however, there’s there’s one scene where they kill the deer ne ne ne ne puts the blood and the company goes, you gotta drink it. Once you drink it, you’ll never be the same. Again, no kidding. There’s probably a tick in there. You know, you drink the blood, you know. And it’s this whole thing. And I remember as a little kid thinking, that’s cool. That’s cool. But God has a completely different view, on blood and on life. Whatever man of the house of Israel or of the strangers who dwell among you who eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. Now notice what God says here. He’s not saying you will cut that person off, or you will punish that person. God says, I will set my face against that person, I will set my face against that person who eats blood. For 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 makes atonement for the soul, the blood. It’s almost as though when God created Adam and Eve. Now, some scholars even even debate whether or not Adam and Eve had blood, before before the fall of mankind, or if they were in some sort of a glorified state. Remember when Jesus Christ rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples, he actually says, I have flesh and bone, he doesn’t say flesh and blood.

All of his blood had been drained out. He’s flushing Bone we are blood drive, right? That’s that’s what runs us. That’s our that’s what makes our bodies work and move is the blood. The life is in the blood, no blood, no life. After we go to be with the Lord and we’re in heaven when we were Jesus, we will no longer be blood drive creatures. We will be spirit, Dr. creatures. Jesus was spirit Dr. That’s why he was able to appear. That’s why he was able to pass through walls because he was not a blood drive flesh and blood person, but he was flesh and bone is what he said to his disciples. It’s a whole different ballgame. So whether or not Adam and Eve have blood had blood, we don’t know or whether God when the fall happened he specifically changed everything to being blood drive. You know, this is all just speculation. This is all just free, useless information okay. For the specific purpose that that blood which was the life of the beast and of man at that point, Time would be used to cover up sin, the shedding of blood. And it’s more than just the blood itself. Its life. Its life, its life for life, right? Only life can cover and atone for sin, the giving the taking of life. God is setting this up, and he’s making blood the sacred thing. The life of the flesh is in the blood and I’ve given it to you that is blood. I’ve given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Therefore, I said to the children of Israel, no one among you shall eat blood nor shall any stranger who dwells among you eat blood, whatever man of the children of Israel or the strangers who dwell among you who hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eat. Now, these are non sacrificial animals. These are animals that don’t have to be brought to the door of the tabernacle because they’re not given for sacrifice. This is you go out and hunt a deer and you shoot Deer for food, hunts and catches any animal or bird that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with dust. Even those animals that are not for the purpose of sacrifices, their blood is still sacred. There’s a spirit, there’s a sacred this, there’s a sanctity, to that life, there’s a sanctity, to that blood, for it is the life of all flesh, its blood sustains its life. Therefore, I said to the children of Israel, you shall not eat the blood of any flesh. For the life of all flesh is in its blood, and whoever eats it shall be cut off. And every person who eats what died naturally or what was torn by beast that roadkill, whether he is a native of your own country or a stranger, he shoved both wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening, then he shall be clean, but if he does not wash them or bathe his body, then he shall bear his guilt. I wanted to talk just a couple of minutes facts I looked up about blood. Amazing things about blood Jen, if I call them call me out like if I, because it’s me. So if it was online, it can’t be wrong. It has to be true. Okay 58 quarts of blood circulates through your body every hour, that’s 3000 gallons a day of blood circulate through your body. Nearly a fourth of the total cells in your human body are red blood cells. So the total number of red blood cells in an adult human body at any given point in time is about 20 to 30 trillion. The total number of white blood cells in an adult human bodies between 4011 thousand and then it said these numbers are our best estimates and vary with with different people different sized people and so forth. Nearly 2 million red blood cells in an adult human body die every second. Simultaneous simultaneously nearly 2 million red blood cells are produced. In bone marrow every second so that they can replace the dead ones. You know how that happened? will see a bomb went out and off in outer space you say it makes perfect sense. This is how this happened just so you got us You are body Listen to this. This might be really wrong but it sounded good so I wrote it down our body has about point two milligrams of gold in it is that right? And gold is actually in our blood I actually got that from several different sources I thought there’s no way the book is a whole you know different meaning to being a king’s kid right? Well there’s gold in my blood and about you. Gold, liquid gold.

Our blood is what carries of course the oxygen in the nutrients to every cell in our body. But as blood goes from arteries to veins to capillaries, which is the arteries and veins are smaller than the arteries and then the capillaries are smaller than the veins capillary actually comes from the word hair. Because that’s how small the capillaries it’s like one of your human hairs are even thinner the capillaries Now listen to this. The blood cells as they go from the arteries to the veins to the capillaries before they get to the capillaries, they line up in single file so that they can squeeze through the capillary. they line up and arrange themselves in single file. They don’t just funnel in because you’ve been in traffic right? You know how that works out when it’s one lane ahead, right never just goes right. These arranged themselves and single file and then squeeze through the capillaries and the the friction that that creates as they squeeze through the capillaries. That’s what creates your circulation and gives you you know, if you have poor circulation if you have good circulation, you have cold hands, you have warm hands, that’s from that friction, as those blood cells line up and squeeze through your capillaries. Blood consists of a special type of white blood cell known as grand new low p high. Brand new kite grant Hulu kite something like that. These cells roll along blood vessel walls and hunt for bacteria. If they find any harmful bacteria, or new glue kites will destroy granola will destroy. They will destroy these bacteria by engulfing them as they go along. When you cut yourself, a signal immediately goes out, which causes the blood to separate and begin to cause the clotting around the cut. Now, this is a very cool thing your white blood cells actually will leave can leave the vein and take the shortest route to the wound. They will break rank white blood cells and take the shortest route to where the cut half so they can start fighting infection immediately. Now, how did all that happen? and doctors, of course, and scientists have absolutely no idea how this makes possible. I mean, you and I of course know. It’s because there was an explosion in outer space. And then a piece of snot landed on a rock. And then lightning struck the snot and there it is a living cell.

Far out man. You know, remember that old book from goo to you by way of the zoo? You know? It’s it’s it blows my mind mathematically in any way to me. You know, people say we’re nuts. You’re crazy. You believe that God you believe in God, God, God. Well, if you believe in God, first of all, at all, if you have any kind of belief in God whatsoever, then the very talk about anything being impossible is preposterous. If you believe in God, he can do anything he wants. Okay? He can argue about semantics about how how old is the earth really, and this and that and the other thing, but when when for me, when we’re out at the lake, and you’re looking at the perfect ecosystem, and how nature all coincide and goes together and the one thing depends on the other thing which depends On the other thing, which we watch those blue ocean shows on Netflix seriously though those nature’s about the blue, the blue ocean of blue, and you listen to what they’re saying. And then you’re like, yeah, my gosh, absolutely random chance. I mean, that makes perfect sense. absolute perfect sense. We serve an amazing creator. The reason it’s called intelligent design is because of the absolutely breathtaking and staggering perfection to the design within the world that God created. And there’s so many different things about the human body that are just absolutely amazing. Every single one of our selves as a digitally organized database. You know what I mean? Like we are literally code. We are literally code. You know what I’m saying? Like, oh, we’re the first computer come from well by lab blew up. Yeah. And there was an apple computer, you know, or the beginning of an apple computer. You know, it’s just as to me. I don’t know how you guys feel about that. It makes absolutely no sense but There is a sacred is now remember, even in the New Testament, when the Judaism’s were going around and telling the new converts to Christianity who are Gentiles, you have to be circumcised. And you have to also follow the laws of Moses. Remember, Paul contended against them and there was and then Peter contended against them after he was shown that vision and went to the house of Cornelius. But when they had that Council and all the Church Fathers gathered in Jerusalem, and they went, Okay, now, what do we need to do? What are we going to do about this? And some of them said, you know, the Gentiles need to be circumcised and follow the laws of Moses and Peter, or not Peter? Yeah, Peter is the one that stood up and said, why would we put a burden on the Gentiles that we there neat, we know our forefathers were able to bear. In other words, we were unable to keep the law, but we’re going to ask the Gentiles to keep the law. But that doesn’t make any sense. And they came to the conclusion that that this is what they set out. And this is a beautiful thing because of the simplicity of it. Don’t eat food sacrificed to idols abstain from sexual immorality, and abstain from blood. Interesting that the church even though we were freed from all the dietary restrictions and all of those other things, God still through the apostles told the church, I still want you to abstain from eating blood. Blood is sacred. Blood is still where the life dwells. And it’s a sacred thing in the eyes of God. So that’s all I got, Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you in Jesus name, we thank You for Your Word and just Lord for calling our attention to what you’ve said in it father, and what’s important and what matters to you, Lord, and how it points to Christ. And we’re grateful for the encouragement Lord that can give us even in the Old Testament, Lord to to see that your plan was at work father from from way, way long ago. Lord, we’re thankful that we could be here together we pray that you would be with our second service as well in our fellowship in between services that you would bless our conversation. That she would be lifted up and magnified and everything that we say and do today here, Lord and we pray that you would just be encouraging our hearts Lord to draw closer to you and deeper into our walk with with you through Christ Jesus father and in our knowledge of the word and in our fellowship with each other Father, we pray that you would help us to be more and more interested in concerned about our spiritual life father and less concerned about the things of this world, Lord as time goes on so that we can be prepared for hopefully, Lord, the revival that we pray that you that you pour out on this world before Jesus Christ coming back, we ask father, that you would make us the people that you need us to be and that you would use us for Your glory and for your purposes, Lord, in Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Scroll to Top