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Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000633A
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00:00 (Breath of Life Theme Music)
00:06 Sermon #B633 - The Blood 00:20 John chapter 6, verse number 47. 00:24 I'm going to read from the King James version, I recognize many of us, if not most of us, that's what we have in our possession. 00:32 So I'll read from there. John chapter 6, verse number 47. 00:40 John chapter 6, verse number 47 if your happy to me you say Amen. [Congregation: Amen] 00:45 Alright, the word of God says "Verily, verily, I say unto you. He that believeth on me have everlasting life. 00:54 I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness are then, this is the bread, which cometh down from heaven, 01:03 that a man may eat there of and not die. I am the living"-- What everybody? [Congregation: Bread.] 01:10 Bread, which came down from where? "If any man eat of this bread, he then should live forever. 01:19 And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. 01:24 The Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? 01:32 Then Jesus said "Verily, verily as I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of man. 01:37 And drink his blood, ye have no life in you, who so eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood had eternal life 01:46 and I will raise him up, at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed, he that eateth my flesh 01:53 and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him, as the living Father hath sent me. 01:58 And I live by the Father so he that eateth me, even he, shall live by me.This is the bread which came down from heaven, 02:11 not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead, but he that eateth of this bread, shall live, forever". 02:21 When you go home this afternoon, I want you to read the rest of the chapter. It will give you context, 02:26 to what we will briefly share at this time. Father God now, speak Lord, your servants heareth. 02:36 Prepare our hearts and prepare our minds to receive these symbols. Symbols of your broken body and your shed blood. 02:48 Lord we're so unworthy, but we thank You that because of Your blood, You make us worthy today. 02:56 We pray this prayer in the name of Jesus, asking you to bless the word today. 03:01 Let everyone say Amen. [Congregation: Amen.] 03:05 And Amen. I want to zero in one more time. On verse 56-- 54. "Who so eateth my flesh 03:18 and drinketh my blood, him, her, they have eternal life". 03:31 Verse 56, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me". 03:39 Now, if Jesus were pastoring today and walking up and down the streets of Huntsville, 03:52 talking about "Unless you drink my blood, and unless you eat my flesh", 04:05 I believe there would be some people that would try to arrest him or maybe even commit him to a mental institution. 04:18 Because if any preacher, anywhere, was talking like that, you would think they had lost their mind. 04:29 Now, I believe that you love me and I want you to know that I love you too. 04:39 But if I started telling you to drink my blood and eat my flesh, somebody would probably call Daniel-- Call the conference office, 04:56 or maybe even we'd lose some members because you'd probably say "Pastor Byrd, has bumped his head. Pastor Byrd, has lost his mind. 05:09 His elevator doesn't go up all the way anymore. He has resorted to cannibalism". 05:18 And you'd tell visitors and people, that you had invited to church, "Let me get you some of his old tapes. 05:28 Some of his old DVD's, before he lost his mind". Do I have a witness in this place? You weren't supposed to say Amen. Alright. 05:43 But yet, that's what Jesus said, "If you're going to be connected to me. If you're going to be one of my followers, 05:57 if you want life, you must drink my blood and eat my flesh". When Jesus started saying this, 06:10 the Bible says, after you read the entire chapter, that the disciples started leaving Jesus. 06:18 Because Jesus was saying these stuff. And when they all started leaving him, Jesus, the Bible says, then turns to Peter 06:27 and says "Will you leave me too?" and Peter said "But if I leave, where will I go? You have the words of eternal life. 06:41 I'm not going anywhere". Some of us, even when we don't understand what God is doing, we can't afford to get offended, 06:52 because we have to trust that God is working out his sovereign will and purpose in our lives. 06:58 God never promised to explain everything that He is going to do to you. Because the Bible says, "The secret things belong to God". 07:09 As the old folks used to say "We'll understand it better, by and by", so sometimes then, in life, you've got to walk by faith 07:20 and not by sight. Sometimes, you've got to be obedient to trust Him, even when you can't trace Him. 07:28 Peter said "Look, I have no choice. I have no place to go, because in you are the words of eternal life. 07:37 So if that means I've got to drink your blood, that means if I've got to eat of your flesh then I must do it". 07:44 Now, sidebar, if you attend at Oak-wood a comparative religions class, and they start talking about various religions in that class, 07:55 one of the criticisms that comes up on Christianity, is that Christianity is a bloody religion. 08:03 Unlike Buddhism, Confucianism, which teach higher thoughts of reasoning by principles, philosophies 08:10 and ideas through meditation and reflection, Christianity is a bloody religion. Throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, 08:14 The Red Cross is always making appeals for blood donors. 08:22 it talks about blood. How then in our current world, we however, don't appreciate the blood. 08:32 Because we don't have to do what the old testament's saints had to do. You know, in old testament times, 08:39 instead of bringing Bibles to church, the people brought lambs and goats and bullocks and animal offerings to church. 08:46 And when you were trying to find a church, you didn't have to see how many miles you were from it, 08:51 you didn't have to look for a street sign to find it, nor did you have to use a GPS to locate it, 08:57 but you could smell the church. You could smell the stench of the burning, bleeding animals that were being laid on brazen alters. 09:08 And you knew that something was dying, so that something else could live. Somebody's going to get this in the minutes. 09:16 The people knew that a sinless animal, had given up its life and was dying innocently in their place, so they can continue to live. 09:26 The judgement that should've been executed on the man, was now being executed on the lamb. 09:31 So, the lamb took the death of the man, so that the man could take the life of the lamb. So, even though you got away 09:43 and you were able to walk away free and clear, you walked away with a certain awareness, that something died in your stead. 09:55 Now, remember, lambs, goats, bullocks were just shadows, types, models of what was to come. 10:05 Because when Jesus came, there was no longer need for lambs, goats, bullocks because behold the lamb of God, 10:17 which taketh away the sins of the world. So, now when you come to church, now when we come to Oak-wood, 10:29 the only reason we're not bringing lambs, goats and bullocks anymore is because, the blood of Jesus on Calvary's cross, 10:42 paid for your salvation and your sins are washed away. Keep reading the text, 10:50 the night Jesus was betrayed he said to the disciples-- This is not just the pass over you're taking, 10:58 this is not the commemoration of some lamb that Moses put on the door post thousand of years ago, 11:04 but Jesus said "This is my body, that was broken for you" and he gave them the bread, then he gave them the cup 11:13 and he said "As often as you do this, you do so the Lord's death until he comes", but why did he say that? 11:21 He said it because he was going to die, once and for all. That we wouldn't have to come back once a year, every year, 11:31 and ask him to die again. That there would be no other earthly reminder, to remind us again, 11:38 he said "Whenever you get to Oak-wood, whenever you come to church and you take communion, 11:44 just remember that the life you're now living was purchased with my dying". Every time we come here, on communion sabbath, 11:53 it's a reminder that you belong to Jesus and Jesus belongs to you. 12:02 When you take the bread, the symbol of his broken body, when you take the cup, a symbol of his shed blood, 12:09 understand that's what paid for your healing. Your healing was not paid by all states, it was not paid by State Farm, 12:20 it was not paid by Progressive or Geico or some health insurance plan, but your healing was paid for by the blood. 12:32 And when we talk about the blood, it's a kind of test for us. It's something to meditate upon, 12:40 it's something to hold up to our lives to act as a measuring stick, it's a blood test. 12:47 What am I talking about? Well, the doctors and the scientists in this church will say that "When we think about blood, 12:54 we know there are different types of blood". You have A blood, B blood, AB blood or O blood. 13:07 And even though they're talking about different types of blood, A positive, B positive, 13:15 O positive, all these types of blood focused and function I should say, in the same way. They all take oxygen 13:24 and nutrients and remove carbon dioxide and other toxins from the body. When the blood is not working right and the organs, 13:34 such as the liver and the lungs, are not working right with the blood, it can cause major sickness and even death. 13:41 Why? Blood is life for us. Jesus said "Verily, verily I say unto you, 13:51 unless you drink the blood and you eat my flesh, 13:58 you will not have life". And when we test blood, when we have a blood test, we can identify many things about a person. 14:09 When we have a blood test, we can find diseases and infections and problems that are happening in our bodies. 14:15 That's why, before we go to the doctor's office, for our annual physical, we have to go a few days earlier to give blood. 14:23 Because, they need to take a blood test, to find out what's going on in your bodies. And when we come for communion, 14:33 it's a spiritual blood test. A spiritual examination. It's all about introspection, it's about looking at our lives 14:42 and seeking out help with God's spirit. What areas in our lives need to be changed or corrected? 14:49 Jesus said "Unless you drink my blood, unless you eat of my flesh, you will not have light" and so today, I thank God for the blood. 15:01 It purchased me, it delivered me, it redeemed me, it saved me, it cleansed me, it set me free. I thank God for the blood. 15:17 And one day when everything is set and done, at the sound of the last trumpet, when the dead in Christ shall rise first 15:26 and we which are alive remain to be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. 15:31 When the angel says "God, who are these that we see coming and walking towards us?", God will say 15:38 "These are they, which have dipped their ropes in the blood of the lamb, they've been washed and they are now white as snow". 15:48 What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 15:57 I thank God for the blood one day when I was lost. You died upon the cross and I know it was the blood for me. 16:08 Somebody today is happy in Jesus, somebody today can clap their hands in Jesus, somebody today can stomp their feet in Jesus. 16:20 Why? Somebody got a blood transfusion. There's a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emanuel's veins and sinners plunge. 16:33 Beneath that blood, lose all the guilty stains. 16:47 They often run low on blood supply. If you remember after 9/11 and the twin tower catastrophe in New York, 16:58 they stopped you from donating blood, because they had so much blood they just needed you to stop for a while. 17:06 Because they can keep blood, preserve blood and use it for a long time. But any hematologist, 17:17 any blood doctor will tell you they can't keep blood forever, because sooner than later your blood will lose its power. 17:35 But 2000 years ago, Jesus left his blood for anybody who had an emergency. So now I don't have to dial 911, 17:53 but I can dial 111. 1 for the Father, 1 for the Son and 1 for the Holy Ghost. And after 2000 years, 18:09 heaven has never had to have a blood drive, because the blood of Jesus has never lost its power. 18:19 It still reaches to the highest mountain, it still flows to the lowest valley. 18:27 I'm talking about the blood of Jesus that gives me strength from day to day. It will never lose its power. 18:36 I know that we like to get contemporary and I know we like to get post-modern, 18:41 but today can I just give you some old time religion? It worked for my great grandmothers, 18:47 it worked for my grandmother, it works for my mother, it works for my father, it works for my wife, 18:56 it works for our children, it works for me, it will never lose its power. I don't need Buddhism, I don't need Confucius, 19:13 I don't need Hinduism, I don't need anybody else's blood, 19:21 but the blood of Jesus will never lose its power. 19:34 "Unless, you drink of my blood. 19:42 Unless you eat of my flesh, you will not have life". 19:58 Today I offer you the blood, it will never lose its power. You don't have to worry about it losing its potency. 20:10 You don't have to worry about it losing its strength. But the blood will never lose its power. 20:23 I don't care what you did last night, I don't care what you did last week, I don't care what you did last year 20:35 but the blood will never lose its power. 20:46 So, unless you drink it, unless you eat it, you will not have life. 20:58 Jesus said "I came, but you might have life and you might have it". More of that sing it. [background singing] 21:11 It reaches to the highest mountain. 21:27 It flows to the lowest valley. 21:42 The blood that gives me strength from day to day, 21:58 It will never lose its power. 22:14 It reaches to the highest mountain. 22:30 It flows to the lowest valley. 22:46 The blood that gives me strength from day to day, 23:01 It will never lose. 23:09 It will never lose, 23:17 It will never lose its power. 23:29 Thank you very much for tuning in to this week's Breath of Life broadcast. 23:33 We hope and pray that you've been blessed by Dr. Byrd's inspirational message. 23:38 If you would like to hear this sermon in its entirety, 23:41 please feel free to visit us at www.breathoflife.tv. 23:47 Or, call us at (256) 929-6460. 23:52 [END] |
Revised 2019-03-18