by Gary L. Evans
(revised 7/28/2023)
The Blood of Christ — Part 4
Exo 23:14-15 Three times thou shalt keep a feast unto me in the year. Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread: (thou shalt eat unleavened bread seven days, as I commanded thee, in the time appointed of the month Abib; for in it thou camest out from Egypt: and none shall appear before me empty:)
In the first month, the month Abib, we must keep The Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is also The Passover.
The Blood of The Lamb of God protects us from losing our Life by the deception of The Antichrist when he comes into this world at the end.
Exo 23:16 And the feast of harvest, the firstfruits of thy labours, which thou hast sown in the field: and the feast of ingathering, which is in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in thy labours out of the field.
Then we must keep The Feast of The Harvest, to give thanks for the “first-fruits,” and finally we must keep The Feast of In-gathering, to give thanks for the full harvest.
In these Feasts we can see The First Resurrection which is The First-fruits of Eternal Life, and also The Second Resurrection at The Great White Throne Judgment which is The Full Harvest of Eternal Life.
Exo 23:17-18 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the Lord GOD. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leavened bread; neither shall the fat of my sacrifice remain until the morning.
We must never eat leavened bread with any blood sacrifice. The leaven symbolizes false doctrine. The “bread” symbolizes The Bread of Life, and the “blood” is The Blood of Christ, and the “flesh” of the sacrifice symbolizes The Body of Christ.
Exo 24:6 And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.
Moses sprinkled half of the blood of the sacrifice onto the altar.
Exo 24:7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.
Then Moses read all of The Book of The Covenant, The Word of God, in the hearing of the people. This is that Unleavened Bread that we are commanded to eat with every blood sacrifice. So we see that Unleavened Bread is a similitude for the pure and unadulterated Word of God read chapter by chapter verse by verse at least three times to the congregation during the annual Feasts. Note that Moses wrote the first five books of The Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, which are considered together as The Books of The Law. And the people all agreed to obey and do according to The Word of God.
Compare the unadulterated reading of God’s Law to the people three times a year, chapter by chapter verse by verse, with what antichrists do in these Last Days. They take a few verses out of context and give a speech about them for an hour or two once a week. At that rate, people who attend such a church for a lifetime will never read The Bible cover to cover, chapter by chapter verse by verse. Even a church that has three one hour services a week can never teach God’s Word over a lifetime. But a Christian who reads The Bible for an hour or two a day can read The Bible from verse one of Genesis to the last verse in Revelation in about a year.
Exo 24:8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.
And Moses sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the people and said, “This is The Blood of The Covenant.”
Our Lord shed His own blood on the cross for our sins today. Now understand that it was His Own Blood that was The Blood of The New Covenant. So we see that all of the blood sacrifices that The Lord commanded in The First Covenant, The Covenant of The Law, were similitudes of the ultimate sacrifice that The Lamb of God would make to seal The New Covenant. And in The New Covenant the sacrifices of innocent animals is superseded by The Blood of The Only Begotten Son of God. We must not sacrifice animals anymore.
The gods of other peoples have required that they sacrifice their sons in worship of them. No people on earth except Israel has served The True God that was willing to sacrifice His Son, to shed His Own Blood in Sacrifice for them, only our God, and Lord and Savior. Therefore agree to obey and to do according to The Word of God.
Lev 3:17 It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood.
We are forbidden to eat animal fat or blood. An animal must be properly bled during the preparation of its body for cooking, so that no blood remains in the body. If any blood remains in the body, it will putrefy spoiling the meat. And the fat must be removed and discarded or burned.
Lev 7:22-27 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it. For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.
We are forbidden to eat animal fat or blood.
Joh 6:51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
Christ is The Living Bread which gives us Eternal Life.
Joh 6:52-53 The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, 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.
Jesus commanded us to “eat His flesh” and to “drink His Blood.” We know that we must never eat a human being. And we know that we must never eat or drink blood. Isn’t our Lord presenting to us a shocking commandment? But unless we do these things according to His Word, we cannot have Eternal Life.
Joh 6:54-58 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; 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, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
Whosoever has eyes to see and ears to hear, let him hear.
The Blood of Christ — Part 5
Joh 6:59 These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum.
Jesus taught this doctrine publicly, right in the synagogue in Capernaum.
Joh 6:60 Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?
Jesus had many followers, people who had been as disciples of Him as He went from place to place to teach. These were not necessarily among the twelve disciples He had chosen, but likely some of those who followed Him from among the public.
Joh 6:61 When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?
The word “offend” is from the Greek “skan-dal-id’-zo” which means “to entrap, that is, trip up (figuratively stumble [transitively] or entice to sin, apostasy or displeasure).”
So our Lord asked them if His teaching would cause them to commit sin or to fall away from the true faith into apostasy.
The precept of eating His flesh and drinking His blood was a very dark saying indeed, and on its surface was clearly a command to transgress God’s Law! Would it not be a false prophet that would demand the people to transgress The Law? Of course! So we can understand why they would be shocked at His teaching here.
Deu 12:32 What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.
God’s Law is Eternal. Nothing may be added to it or anything removed from it. It is perfect and complete.
Was Jesus telling the people to ignore The Law which forbid eating any animal that was not cloven footed or did not chew the cud? Was Jesus telling them to ignore The Law which forbid to eat or drink blood? Was Jesus teaching a “new law?” Because if He was doing these things, then He would be transgressing God’s Law Himself and therefore be guilty of a capital crime!
Joh 6:62 What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
Jesus reasoned with them. What if He did a great miracle and levitated above the ground and ascended up into Heaven where He had been before? Would an amazing miracle greater than those He had already performed convince them to obey Him in this matter? Good question, and I advise you to consider it, because The Antichrist will perform miracles.
Deu 13:1-2 If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;
Our Lord warned us about any false prophet that would perform miracles, who would prophesy and his prophesy come to pass, but who would also be teaching that the people should turn away from God’s Law and bow down in obedience to other doctrines or gods. Making up new laws or omitting any of God’s Law is a capital crime punishable by death, because they cause people to turn away from God’s Law.
Deu 13:3-4 Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.
We must never listen to any prophet or preacher or teacher no matter how many miracles he or she may perform before our very eyes, if they teach that we must transgress God’s Law. If that happens, then The Lord IS TESTING US! We must obey our Lord faithfully and reverence Him only.
Deu 13:5 And that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams, shall be put to death; because he hath spoken to turn you away from the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, to thrust thee out of the way which the LORD thy God commanded thee to walk in. So shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of thee.
And we are commanded to put that false prophet to death! Was such an offense not precisely what those hypocritical scribes and Pharisees were falsely accusing Jesus of being guilty of in order to justify having Him crucified? Yes it certainly was.
Jesus had done many miracles, cast out devils, gave sight to the blind, healed the lame, healed lepers, raised the dead. And now He was teaching that the people must eat His flesh and drink His blood. This was a very difficult teaching for the people to understand and accept.
Whosoever has eyes to see and ears to hear, let him hear.
The Blood of Christ — Part 6
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Our Lord continues reasoning with the people by explaining that the “spirit” is what gives life to the body, because the flesh of the body provides nothing alone by itself. Then He declares that His words were “spirit” and “life.” Let’s analyze His teaching here which is in two parts.
We know from The Law that “the life is in the blood.” Therefore since Jesus explains that the “spirit” is the very “life” of the body, then the “spirit” dwells in “the blood.”
The word “spirit” is from the Greek “pnyoo’-mah” which means “a current of air, that is, breath (blast) or a breeze; by analogy or figuratively a spirit, that is, (human) the rational soul, (by implication) vital principle, mental disposition, etc., or (superhuman) an angel, daemon, or (divine) God, Christ’s spirit, the Holy spirit.”
Spirit is the rational soul or mind, vital principle or life force, mental disposition or attitude, etc. This revelation gives us the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of mankind.
Where is the soul or mind? The soul or mind dwells in the blood.
The brain then must merely be a spirit-body interface, which makes sense, because even when someone is damaged in their brain, they still have their full mental faculties even though they may not be able to talk or walk or may have some other disability, for example, loss of memory. If their brain eventually heals completely, then they return to full activity as they were before, having suffered no permanent loss. Their mind was never damaged, only their flesh body, and in this case, their brain.
The second part of our Lord’s teaching is that His Word is Spirit and Life. God’s Word is The Life Giving Force, The Holy Mind. Therefore The Word of God is Eternal Life.
Joh 6:64-65 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.
We can save no one, my friends. Only God The Father can call someone to Christ.
Joh 6:66 From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
Many of those disciples among the people just walked away, because they could not understand His teaching. It was just too hard and also sounded like it was false doctrine, perhaps even blasphemous speaking. Can you imagine some of them shaking their heads in dismay as they slowly walked away, never to come back to hear Him teach again? Our Lord always taught publicly using parables, so that only God’s Elect would learn to understand, and some of the people still would ponder them and continue to follow Him, but this one was just too much for them to even think about.
Joh 6:67 Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?
Jesus wanted to know if any of His chosen would also turn away from Him now.
Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
Peter got it! “Lord, you have The Words of Eternal Life.”
Joh 6:69 And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.
Again, Peter professes the very foundation stone of all Christian doctrine, the very foundation of the assembly, that Jesus was The Messiah, and The Only Begotten Son of The Living God.
Whosoever has eyes to see and ears to hear, let him hear.
The Blood of Christ — Part 7
Joh 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Our Lord is The True Vine, and God The Father is The Farmer or Vineyard Man.
Joh 15:2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
The Vineyard Man cuts off any branches that do not produce any fruit. And He prunes those fruitful branches so that they produce even more fruit.
Joh 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
The Word of God cleans us, in the sense it purifies our hearts and minds.
Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Jesus commands us to remain in Him and to keep Him in us. We are His branches, and nothing by ourselves, unless we remain in The Vine.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
We cannot save anybody. We cannot even save ourselves! But if we remain in Christ (The Word), and keep Christ in us (The Word), then we will produce much fruit.
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
At the end of The Millennium will be The Great White Throne Judgment, at which time all of those withered and worthless branches will be burned up.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Our Lord makes a promise to us. Do you believe our Lord’s promises? If we remain in Christ and if His Word remains in us, then we may ask Him whatever we desire (according to His Word) and He will do it.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
And because He answers our prayers, this is what glorifies God The Father, so that we produce much fruit. Our prayers then are that we produce much fruit in accordance with His will. Then we will be among His Disciplined Ones (disciples).
Joh 15:9-10 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
As The Father loved Jesus, so has Jesus loved us. We must keep The Lord’s Commandments in order to remain in His Love, just as our Lord kept The Commandments of God The Father.
Joh 15:11-13 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
There is nothing more a man can do than to sacrifice his life to save the life of another man.
Joh 15:14-15 Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.
Our Lord has held nothing back from us, and has even called us His friends. We are His friends if we keep His Commandments.
Joh 15:16 Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
We have not chosen Christ, but Christ has chosen us! Think about this fact, my friends. And He has ordained you, so that you would produce much fruit. Again, He gives us His promise.
Joh 15:17-19 These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
The people of Satan’s world hate us, almost instinctively, because they hated Jesus. We are not of this world, but Christ has chosen and separated us out of this world.
Joh 15:20-22 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin.
Jesus The Messiah came into this world and taught the people of Satan’s world, so now they have no cloak of innocence, those that heard His teachings.
Joh 15:23 He that hateth me hateth my Father also.
Anyone who hates Christ, The Word of God, hates The Father.
Joh 15:24 If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father.
Jesus taught God’s Word in detail, although in parables, and performed many miracles before their very eyes. So now those people who were witnesses are now guilty of sin, because they have rejected and hated The Son and in turn The Father.
Joh 15:25-27 But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
We have been with Christ Jesus since The Beginning, which was before the destruction of The First Earth Age!
Whosoever has eyes to see and ears to hear, let him hear.