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[0:00] So, Leviticus 17, verse 11, we're talking about the blood around the Lord's table today, and in part it says this, for the life of the flesh is in the blood.

[0:11] The life is in the blood, it says. You know, it goes without saying for life, we need blood. It's obvious, isn't it? Blood gives life, it gives us life.

[0:24] And no wonder there's that expression, the life blood. It's hand in hand, isn't it? Life and blood. They're together. Now, did you know your blood is full of living material?

[0:36] It renews itself every four months. The whole body. Your blood is renewed every four months. And one speck of blood, just one speck, contains five million living red cells.

[0:49] It's full of life. There's 300,000 platelets, 7,000 white cells. And through your body, there's 60,000 miles of tubing. Blood vessels.

[1:01] Veins and arteries and capillaries moving that blood around, linking every living cell. If you join those vessels, those tubes, they carry your blood.

[1:13] If you join them end to end, they extract seven times around the world. Just your blood vessels. Just your blood vessels. Amazing, isn't it? Our blood, it makes 3,000 to 5,000 round trips every day around our body.

[1:29] Carrying that oxygen, the food to the tissues, feeding, sustaining, nourishing and cleansing every living cell. And if our cells or body parts lack blood, they will die.

[1:42] It's the circulating blood that keeps us alive. Friends, truly, life is in the blood. Life is in the blood. If the blood isn't working, you die.

[1:53] You die physically. And that's true spiritually too. Because when you think about it, a church that doesn't have the blood of Jesus is dead. Amen?

[2:04] If there's a church that doesn't preach about the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, that's a dead church. There's no spiritual life there. There's no salvation there without the blood.

[2:14] Now this is a book of blood, isn't it? This is a blood purchase book. A blood stain book. A blood filled book. The Bible.

[2:26] Sadly, there's some so-called Bibles that actually remove the blood. One Bible does it at least 16 times. This is shocking. But it's true. And friends, a Bible without the blood is dead, isn't it?

[2:40] We need the blood. The blood of Jesus. And because, friends, because our Lord Jesus shed his blood for us, we can truly, truly live. The Lord Jesus gives us eternal life, spiritual life, because of his blood shed for us.

[2:56] The blood of Jesus brings life. Secondly, we see that cleansing is in the blood. In 1 John 1 verse 7 it says, The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

[3:09] Friends, cleansing is in the blood. It's in the blood. And even physically so. There's 25 trillion cells, 25 trillion red blood cells in your body.

[3:20] Now, give or take a few. And they take life, they take life to the body. And on their trip back, these blood cells, they clean the body.

[3:32] The blood cells, they're loaded with carbon dioxide. They take away toxins and waste products. They dump them in the kidneys and liver. The blood has a cleansing action.

[3:44] And the blood cells are refilled with oxygen at the lungs. And then the journey starts over again. Each cycle takes just 23 seconds. So think of it.

[3:54] While you're sitting there, you're looking like you're resting, but your body is working like man. And when it's 23 seconds, your whole blood system is recirculating. And an average red cell makes half a million round trips around the body.

[4:09] Loading, unloading, bringing life, cleansing. And friends, think of it spiritually now. We are contaminated. There's a toxin.

[4:20] There's a toxin, a germ, a blockage. And friends, it's more deadly than any virus known to man. What are we talking about? Sin. Sin.

[4:31] Friends, it's cleansing in the blood. And the cleansing, spiritually so, is a cleansing from sin. Think of sin. Friends, today, it restricts and hinders our lives from counting for God.

[4:44] The Bible says it's a barrier. The Bible speaks about how our sins have separated us from our God. Isaiah 59 verse 2.

[4:56] It says, but your iniquities, your sins, are separated. They've got in between. Separated between you and your God. And your sins, it says, have hid his face from you. But he will not hear.

[5:09] Friends, the good news is that the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord can cleanse us from all sin. So, friends, we need the life and the cleansing, and it's by the blood.

[5:20] There's life in the blood. There's cleansing in the blood. Thirdly, there's healing in the blood. There's healing in the blood. Now, we do not take the false doctrine of physical healing in the atonement.

[5:35] But there is a healing virtue over our soul's most dread disease, which is sin. There is a healing of our dread disease called sin.

[5:46] And we think of it physically, how there's a healing. There's a healing by the blood when a wound happens on your body. When a wound happens, we see as it's pictured here, there's kind of these different stages.

[5:58] When a wound happens, the body responds to its healing process. As tissue repair starts to restore the body, this rebuilding happens.

[6:09] That rebuilding, this healing is by the blood. And when you get wounded, when you get physically wounded, within minutes or even seconds, the blood cells clump and clog, protecting the wound and preventing further blood loss.

[6:23] It knits together as that scab that forms, that emergency repair. There's a healing that happens. And the blood is part of that. Making that scab, protecting the tissue from the germs.

[6:36] The blood vessels then open up and allow fresh nutrients and oxygen to come to the wound. And then fresh blood brings oxygen to bring healing. And then the white blood cells help clean the wound and fight infection from germs and begin to repair the wound.

[6:54] So we think of physically, there's healing. The blood is part of that healing. And think of it spiritually now, how our Lord was wounded for us.

[7:05] As we think about the cross, we think about our blood of our Saviour shed for us. In 1 Peter 2.24 it says, Who of our Lord, it says, Who?

[7:15] His own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree. That we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. By his stripes ye were healed.

[7:28] Friends, it's talking about spiritual healing. Spiritual healing. This is what Peter was referring to. As you see the context. As you see the application of it.

[7:38] As he is referencing Isaiah 53. Verse 5 where Isaiah the prophet says, 800 years before Christ came. Isaiah says this in Isaiah 53.

[7:50] Verse 5. He says, But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him.

[8:01] And with his stripes we are healed. Now again, we don't have time to fully unpack this truth. But it's the fact that these verses that we just referred to are very often misapplied and misunderstood.

[8:17] The clear context is of sin and of righteousness. Not disease and sickness. Elsewhere the Bible speaks of healing backslidings for one. So there's that spiritual application.

[8:30] It's talking about sin. It's talking about righteousness. It's talking about backsliding. Friends, our greatest ailment is spiritual. That's the greatest problem. You see these faith movement, faith prosperity, healing preachers.

[8:44] They are misapplying these scriptures. That's not to say God cannot heal. Amen. God is our healer. God is our healer. When he sees fit to heal, he can heal. And the prayer of faith can save the sick.

[8:57] We do believe in divine healing. But we don't misapply these scriptures to say that the physical healing is guaranteed by the atonement. Christ healed people before the cross.

[9:08] He heals people now. The healing is not, the physical healing is not in the atonement. It's spiritual. That's the application. So the emphasis here is on the spiritual sickness.

[9:19] What we say from. What do we say from? It's our sin that's talked about here. It's our transgressions, our iniquity that we're saved from. It's spiritual sickness. And it's about spiritual healing that we're saved unto.

[9:33] It talks about peace. It talks about healing. And the context of Isaiah 53, if you look at chapter 53 of Isaiah nine times, it's about the curse of sin.

[9:44] That's the emphasis. It's about sin. Friends, sin is the ultimate sickness. That is the ultimate sickness. That is, you know, that the heart sickness is sin.

[9:55] And it says in Isaiah 53 verse 6 that all we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord have laid on him the iniquity of us all.

[10:07] So true spiritual health is yours in Christ. It's that heart that can be healed. He can carry our sorrows, our griefs.

[10:18] He can come and says he can heal the brokenhearted. And he can bind up our wounds. These are the deepest wounds, aren't they? Those heart wounds. He can lift you up today and restore your spiritual joy.

[10:31] We can find our wholeness in Christ. He makes us whole. There's true blessing there. There's true healing. Heart deep healing. And because of his blood at the cross, friends, today, we can be dead to sin and alive unto righteousness.

[10:45] This is the healing work of our Lord at the cross. It's the healing work of his stripes as he was wounded for us. His work heals us of that dread malady of our sin.

[10:59] Friends, it's all about sin. As we come to the table of our Lord, it was our sin that made this necessary. Our Lord's death is necessary because of our sin.

[11:15] And it's sin that bruises us, that hurts us, and the people that we love. It's sin. That's what it is. And Christ has come to heal. To heal the guilt.

[11:27] To heal the shame. To heal all the hurts. To restore. To renew. To bless. To forgive.

[11:38] To bring us into fellowship. Restoration. It's the work of the cross. He makes us whole. Truly whole. There's wholeness. Because of the work of the cross.

[11:49] There's healing for your soul today. If you will, but trust him. And friends, when you think about it, our ultimate perfect healing is yet to come. You know? The best life is not now.

[12:02] The best life is still to come. The best life. We're getting ready for heaven. But that's the best life. That's the ultimate. Our ultimate healing. Our ultimate perfect healing is ours in heaven.

[12:15] And friends, it's the work of the cross today that we want to concentrate on. To focus upon. Of his blood shed for us. Of that healing. That we can receive from the hurt.

[12:26] And the bruising of our sin. Friends, sin is damaging. There's wounds. There's scars. There's hurting. In our lives. In our minds. Christ has come to heal.

[12:38] He's come to heal the broken in heart. He's come to bind up our wounds. And this is our dread melody of sin. Our dread disease of sin. He can heal us from that. The soul sickness.

[12:49] So, thanks be to God this morning. As we think about the blood. Friends, let's just put aside any other thought. And just think of the blood. Of our precious dear Lord and Saviour.

[13:01] Think of the blood of our Lord. There's life in the blood. There's cleansing in the blood. And there's healing. Deep soul healing.

[13:12] That comes to you. Because of the blood. Of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, friends, you're invited. You that know the Lord today. To join as one family of God today.

[13:24] As we tangibly take these. Emblems. That speak to us. Of our precious Lord's blood.

[13:36] Given for us. So, I'll call Peter Guttridge and Neil Writings, please. If you could come and help at this time.

[13:48] And friends, it's our practice to hold the bread and the cup. And take together. So, let's wait for one another. And prayerfully so. As the Bible says, let a man examine himself.

[14:00] And so let him. Eat and drink. Let's prayerfully consider the precious blood. Pour it out. He poured out. He poured out.

[14:12] It wasn't spelt. He poured it out. He deliberately poured it out. He gave it freely. That we can know his saving. As he tore that bread.

[14:24] In two. And then in three. In four. In five. Until everybody had a piece. That's what our Lord does, isn't it? He pours out himself.

[14:34] He gives himself. There's a sharing. There's a communion. A common unity. As we commune together.

[14:47] As his body. Praise him. Praise the Lord. What's that fateful night?

[15:04] The night that he was betrayed. Amen. That he took the bread.

[15:19] And he took the cup. And we see that he took another cup. In the garden, didn't he? He took the cup. The cup that he must drink.

[15:35] I'll just open the Bible. Try to do it then, actually. In Matthew 26, 39. Excuse me. And he went a little further.

[15:45] And fell on his face. And prayed. Saying, oh my Father. Father. If it be possible. Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will. But as thou wilt. Praise God.

[16:02] He took that cup. Oh my Father. If this cup may not pass away from me. Except I drink it. Thy will be done. And we know that he did drink of that cup.

[16:13] The cup of, as it were. The cup of God. The cup of God. The cup that we deserve.

[16:25] He took that wrath and paid it fully there. At the cross for us. Praise him. Friends, this is a time for believers to think of that precious life that is in the blood.

[16:43] New life. Eternal life. It's because of his blood. It's because of his blood. We have new life. Everlasting. Everlasting. Life. It's because Jesus has come, our Lord.

[16:55] To die that we might have life. This cleansing here. Whatever the stain. This is the greatest stain remover known to man, isn't it?

[17:06] The precious blood of Jesus, our Lord. The greatest remover of every stain. The greatest cleansing agent known to man is the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

[17:18] That cleanses the heart stained by sin. That's cleansing. That's perfect cleansing. And friends, there's healing. Whatever the hurts of sin.

[17:30] Whatever the shame, the regrets, the guilt, the burdens, the weight, the load, the scars. There's healing for you. He takes not only the sin away.

[17:41] He takes the result of it, doesn't he? We don't have to be broken hearted. Because he can heal us of even the result of our sin. I want us, brother Neil, to come as we pray. Think about the blood of our Lord given for us.

[17:56] Oh, sorry, the bread. Yeah, go for the bread, brother. Thank you. Let's pray. Father, as we just hold this little piece of broken bread in our hands, Lord, let us come and remember that thy body was broken for us, broken for our sin.

[18:14] And you did this out of your great love for us. So we just remember and give thanks and praise for what you have done for us in our precious name. Amen.

[18:25] Amen. This is my body. Praise him. Let's pray.

[18:59] Let's pray.