Turn to Leviticus 17:11. “For the life of the flesh is in the blood.” For decades the medical community believed the way to heal people was to drain their blood. They would even take leeches and attach them to peoples’ bodies to suck the blood out. They didn’t realize that the Scriptures had already told us that our physical life is in the blood.

When the blood circulates throughout the entire body, it brings nourishment. It brings life into the body; therefore, life is in the blood! Then God said, “And I have given it (the blood) to you upon the altar;” and the altar God was talking about in the Old Testament sometimes was a pile of stones, but later on it was called the Ark of the Covenant.

The altar was where God would come and meet His people, and when they came to the altar, they had to bring a blood sacrifice. So God said, “I have given it (the blood) to you upon the altar to make atonement (forgiveness) for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.”

Hebrews 9:22 tells us that without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (forgiveness) of sin. Colossians 1:14 says, “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” In the Old Testament, the sacrificial blood was the blood of animals, which was symbolic of what was coming, and His name was Jesus!

In the Old Testament, when the high priest went into the tabernacle (which was a tent), he took the blood of an animal in there. This was done once a year, so that all the people of Israel could be forgiven.

The high priest would take that blood and sprinkle it on the mercy seat; but before he could go in, he had to cleanse himself. Then on the Day of Atonement, he would go in, sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat, and God would accept it as atonement for their sins.

When Jesus died on the cross, He was buried, and for three days He laid in a tomb. On the third day, Jesus was resurrected. The first person to see Him was a woman named Mary Magdalene, and her objective was to anoint His dead body; but she was worried about how she was going to remove the stone from the entrance to the tomb that was guarded by Roman soldiers.

Isn’t it amazing how we worry about things, but when we get there, they are already gone? When she got to the tomb, she saw that the stone had been rolled away, and the Roman guards were gone. Now she was concerned about where Jesus had been taken. She didn’t believe He had been resurrected. She believed someone had stolen His body.

Finally, she saw someone she thought was the gardener, but it was Jesus. She approached Him and said, “Where have they taken my Lord?” When Jesus spoke to her, revelation came to her, and she realized it was Jesus. Then she fell down and grabbed Him around His feet, and Jesus said these words to her (John 20:17), “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father.”

A few hours later, He appears to His disciples in an upper room; and Thomas says (John 20:25), “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” Now He stands before the apostles and tells Thomas (the doubter), “Reach your finger here and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving but believing.”

A few hours before, Jesus told Mary Magdalene not to touch Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father. Then He tells Thomas to touch Him. So, something must have transpired during that time period. Let me tell you what transpired. The blood that He shed on the cross was taken to Heaven and placed on the mercy seat to atone for our sins.

Hebrews 9:12 says, “With His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” The high priest of the Old Testament took the blood of animals in with him as atonement for the peoples’ sins. It was temporary, because he had to do it again and again; but Jesus took His own blood that He shed on the cross, entered the Most Holy Place in Heaven, and once and for all obtained for us eternal redemption.

Hebrews 10:12 says, “But this Man (Jesus), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever.” He did that on the cross, and the cross is not a minus sign! People all the time say, well, if I get saved I have to quit this and stop that. No, no, no! The cross is a plus sign. It adds to your life. The only things the cross takes away are the things you don’t need, things that are killing and destroying you. Thank God for the blood!

The blood of Jesus is perpetual and permanent. It never dries up. If we are cut, we bleed, and it dries up. It clots and blows away, but the blood of Jesus never dries up. Not one drop of blood that flowed from His veins has ever dried up, and that blood right now is on the mercy seat in Heaven. I believe the genuine, authentic blood of Jesus is on the mercy seat today, and it is the only way we can approach God. The Bible says that we come near to God through the blood of Jesus.

“But this Man (Jesus), after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever (permanently), sat down at the right hand of God.” The same blood that was shed 2000 years ago is still on the mercy seat today!

Andre Crouch wrote these words: “The blood that Jesus shed for me way back on Calvary; the blood that gives me strength from day to day, it will never lose its power.” Thank God for the blood of Jesus!

There are theologians today that don’t preach on the blood or sing about the blood. There are many mainline denominations (that are becoming sideline denominations) that never preach the blood of Jesus, but the growing churches of today are the ones that still preach the blood of Jesus! AMEN?

I watched a preacher live on the internet last night, and I kept saying that he was going to mention Jesus. I just knew he would. I waited and waited and waited, and I never heard Jesus ever mentioned!

There is new preaching going on in mega-churches today called “Universalism,” where they preach that everybody is saved. Well, if everybody is saved, then all the things Christ said about hell are false; and if everybody is saved, you don’t need the blood and you don’t need to confess your sins. Listen, I don’t believe that. I believe there is a Heaven to gain and a hell that is hot!

The Bible tells me that God hates sin. God is not pleased with sin, and there is only one name under Heaven whereby we can be saved, and that is the name of Jesus! You have to call out that name, because He is the only One that paid a debt He did not owe.

The blood of Jesus is pure and perfect. We have all sinned, so we all need a Savior; and this Savior must have pure and perfect blood. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, and the Father of Jesus was not Joseph. The virgin Mary conceived when the power of the Holy Spirit came upon her; so, thus, Jesus Christ had blood flowing through His veins that was not tainted by sin.

The blood of Jesus is holy and undefiled, inside and outside. Neither defilement nor death was attached to His blood. 1 Peter 1:18 says, “Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers.” Verse 19: “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

If Jesus tarries, all of us here will face death. Without trying, we automatically age. Death is a reality of life, because death has contaminated the blood; but death and defilement was not in the blood of Jesus.

The blood of Jesus is sinless and sacred. The blood that was shed on the cross was the blood of God. It was perfect and pure. Have you ever heard about a fountain filled with blood that flowed from Immanuel’s veins? The word Immanuel means “God with us.” So, if there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from God’s veins, and Jesus is God, that blood is God’s blood!

Jesus was not just a Preacher, a Teacher, and a Healer. Jesus was and is God! He said, “Before Abraham was, I AM!” Do you believe Jesus is God? So, when Jesus died on the cross and His blood was shed, that sacred, sinless, pure, and perfect blood was the blood of God!

1 John 3:5 says, “And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.” What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

The blood of Jesus is priceless and precious. We are redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:19). That means it is valuable and costly. We cannot comprehend what it cost Jesus to save our souls. Jesus Christ paid an enormous price to purchase our salvation. Jesus gave up His own life by shedding His own blood; and the Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.”

Jesus left the glory and the splendor of Heaven to come to this earth. How was He treated? He was whipped and beaten beyond recognition. His beard was ripped from His face. Spikes were hammered into His hands and His feet, and He was nailed to a wooden cross. A spear slit His side open. A crown of thorns was shoved down into His skull. He bled from His head to His feet. Why? To pay a debt He did not owe, because I owed a debt I could not pay. The blood of Jesus is priceless and precious.

The blood of Jesus is powerful and potent. It is so powerful that 1 John 1:7 says, “It cleanses us from all unrighteousness (from all of our sins).” The blood of Jesus has the power to cleanse us from ALL of our sins!

I want to make much of the blood, because the devil is afraid of the blood. He isn’t afraid of that religious jewelry around your neck. He is afraid of the blood of Jesus, because the blood of Jesus is powerful and it cleanses us from ALL of our sins!

The blood of Jesus has the power to conquer. You have an enemy, and some of you don’t even know you have an enemy. He is the prince of the power of the air. He roams this planet seeking whom he may devour. He is out to kill, steal, and destroy everything that is wholesome and holy. His name is Satan, Lucifer; but the Bible tells me that the blood of Jesus conquers our enemy!

Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” Whether you know it or not, there are principalities and powers, rulers in dark places; but we (the blood-washed ones) have the power to conquer the enemy, in every arena, in every situation, and under every circumstance.

Then you have to have a testimony, and my testimony is that Jesus Christ is my Savior. I have been washed in the blood. I have victory over the devil, and the blood of Jesus conquers the enemy!

The blood of Jesus is protective and prevailing. The blood of Jesus has the power to protect and cover us. When the Passover was going on in the Old Testament and the blood was applied to every door post of believers in Israel, at midnight when the death angel was loosed, in Exodus 12:13 God said, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.”

As the death angel moved throughout Egypt, the only ones that were protected and spared were those that were covered by the blood of Jesus. Romans 4:7 says, “Blessed are those whose sins are covered.” Are you covered? Thank God for the blood!

What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus! One day we will stand before a Holy God, and He will ask us what we did on this earth for His Son. I want to say that I was a follower of Jesus! How about you?

The blood of Jesus not only has the power to cleanse you, but it conquers your enemy, it covers and protects you, and the blood of Jesus has the power to cure you. There is only one cure for you, and it’s the blood of Jesus!

Isaiah 53:5 and 1 Peter 2:24 say, “By His stripes we are healed.” It isn’t the wounds that heal you. It’s the blood that flowed out of those wounds that heals you! The devil is a liar. My Lord, through His blood, is my cure. He is my healer!

Song books are now absent of the word “blood.” Pulpits no longer talk about the blood. Dr. Richard Dehann, a great man of God, said, “The Bible is a Book of blood; wholly, distinct from all other books for just one reason. Namely, that it contains blood circulating through every page and in every verse. From Genesis to Revelation, we see the stream of blood.”

Charles Spurgeon, the great 19^th Century preacher, said, “For me there is nothing worth thinking of or preaching about but this grand theme. The blood of Jesus Christ is the life of the gospel.”

If you are going to a church where you never hear about Jesus and His blood, run, flee; because there is only one thing and one thing only that can wash away your sins, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ. It is not in joining a church or becoming religious. It’s all about having a relationship with the Savior.

1 John 1:9 says, “If we will confess our sins, Jesus Christ is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Thank God for the blood! Thank you, Lord, for the enormous price You paid for our salvation. Thank you, Lord, for the power and the potency of Your blood today, because it’s all about the blood!