"FRUIT OF LIFE AND SHED BLOOD"
November 4, 2001 am
MF Blume
Watch how the words given to Adam parallel the words given to Noah:
TO ADAM:
Genesis 1:28 And God blessed them,
and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
REGARDING FOOD:
Genesis 1:29 And God said, Behold,
I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all
the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding
seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Genesis 2:16-17 And
the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die.
TO NOAH:
Genesis 9:1-2 And God blessed Noah
and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every
beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth
upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are
they delivered.
REGARDING FOOD:
Genesis 9:3-7 Every moving thing
that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given
you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof,
shall ye not eat. And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at
the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the
hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made
he man. And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in
the earth, and multiply therein.
God's words to Adam and Noah are almost identical.
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Adam's words included words about fruit.
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Noah's words included meat.
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Not only did God tell Noah to be blessed and multiply to replenish the
Earth, as He told Adam, but He even paralleled His words to Noah concerning
Adam's provision of food.
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While Adam could eat of any fruit, except a certain kind of fruit, Noah
could eat of any meat, except a certain kind of meat.
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Adam could not eat fruit of knowledge of good and
evil.
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Noah could not eat meat filled with blood.
So as we see such a parallel between Adam and Noah, we can get a
clearer picture of the forbidden element God desires us to avoid.
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Something was forbidden to Adam that so closely resembles the thing was
forbidden to Noah.
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Putting both pictures together gives us a clearer understanding of what
God sees as forbidden.
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It shows us what we ought to avoid.
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It gives us a clearer understanding of what God sees as acceptable and
within His will, and His desire for everyone of us.
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Knowledge of good and evil is connected to meat with blood still in it.
Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground made
the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant
to the sight, and good
for food; the tree of life also in the midst
of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Notice that every tree had the following qualities:
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Pleasant to the sight.
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Good for food.
But notice the single element the forbidden fruit had which the other fruit
did not.
Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that
the tree was good for food,
and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband
with her; and he did eat.
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Pleasant to the sight.
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Good for food.
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TO BE DESIRED TO MAKE ONE WISE.
The third element is the damning element.
Similarly, all the meat given to Noah was good.
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The forbidden meat had one single element the acceptable
fruit did not, also.
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BLOOD STILL IN THE MEAT.
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LIFE OF THE FLESH STILL IN THE MEAT.
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The damning element was the blood in the meat.
The forbidden fruit and meat was so close to the acceptable.
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Think of it.
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Remove the single additional ingredient from the forbidden and it would
be acceptable.
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Remove the blood, and the meat was fine.
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Remove the element to make self wise, and the fruit would have been fine.
The enemy always tries to get so close to the original, and leave
one element in his offer.
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But that element is absolutely glaring when you think about it.
The meat required SHEDDING OF BLOOD before
it was acceptable.
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This brings us perfectly to the issues we face in the days of the New Testament.
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The shedding of blood speaks of the cross of Jesus Christ.
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Remove the shedding of blood from our religion is to leave ourselves without
salvation.
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Without life.
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Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins!
Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things
are by the law purged with blood; and without
shedding of blood is no remission.
Removing blood means removing LIFE OF THE FLESH.
Galatians 5:16-18 This I
say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh:
and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things
that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
You cannot just train flesh to be good and not evil.
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Religions everywhere are trying that and its exactly he fruit the serpent
offered Eve.
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Sinful flesh that does good is still sinful flesh.
There is only one true remedy for sinful flesh, and that is DEATH.
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The great blessing in the Gospel is that Jesus' death counts as our deaths!
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And that means we've got the remedy for our sin!
Here is the GREAT LITMUS TEST FOR TRUE CHRISTIANITY.
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See if your Christianity passes the test or not.
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WHAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR LIFE FOR GOD?
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IT IS THE WAY YOU DO GOOD AND AVOID WHATEVER IS EVIL?
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OR IS IT BECAUSE CHRIST WAS SENT AND CRUCIFIED THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE HIS
LIFE?
DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THE THINGS YOU DO AND THE THINGS YOU CANNOT
DO?
OR DO YOU THINK ABOUT ALL THAT CHRIST DID FOR YOU?
DO YOU LOOK CONSIDER GOOD CHRISTIANS TO BE THOSE WHO DO CERTAIN
GOOD DEEDS AND AVOID CERTAIN EVIL DEEDS ?
OR DO YOU CONSIDER GOOD CHRISTIANS THOSE WHO LOOK TO THE CROSS
AND GOD'S DEEDS THROUGH IT TO LEAD THEM?
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Good and evil deed addicts, don't worry about the good that needs to be
done.
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When a soul feasts on Christ's work on the cross, that soul will do a whole
lot of good.
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But it will be in the power of the Holy Ghost and not will power nor flesh
power.
What single truth did Paul seek to stress above all truths?
1 Corinthians 2:2 For I
determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him
crucified.
PAUL GAVE FRUIT OF LIFE!
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SHED BLOOD.
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MEAT WITH NO FLESHLY LIFE IN IT.
Is making one wise regarding good and evil more important that taking
away sin?
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This blows the cover off all modernism and false religion.
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It separates Christianity from every other religion that exists.
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All religions point to self efforts to be good and not evil.
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ONLY CHRIST POINTS TO WASHING AWAY SIN AND CRUCIFYING THE SINNER.
Its like comparing trimming hedges to chopping down the tree!
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Reformation from Delinquency is nothing to be compared to Resurrection
from the Dead.
The meat that was acceptable was meat whose blood was shed.
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Acceptable meat corresponds to acceptable fruit OF LIFE.
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The fruit of Life is connected to the thought of SHED BLOOD.
We must translate these Old Testament commands of eating and not
eating into New Testament, contemporary issues.
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Don't think you have it made today just because there are no trees of Life
or forbidden trees in our backyards.
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The same PRINCIPLES in those commands to Adam and Noah apply to us today
in a spiritual form.
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In fact, the unseen forms of those commands we have today are far more
serious than the visible forms of fruit on trees and blood in meats.
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Spiritual unseen things are eternal.
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Visible things are only temporal (2 Cor 4:18).
Since the acceptable meat was meat in which there was no blood, then the
acceptable Fruit of life corresponds to necessary SHED BLOOD.
Matthew 26:28 For this is my blood
of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.
This statement of Jesus is so fitting because the picture portrays that
blood has been shed.
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It shows us the aspect of LIFE as opposed to punishment of death!
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Acceptable meat was bloodless meat.
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Blood had been shed.
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It was like Adam's acceptable fruit of Life.
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Shed blood corresponds to LIFE!
John 6:47-54 Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that
bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead.
This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and not die. 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. 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. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
John 6:63-64 It is the spirit that quickeneth;
the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that
I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
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.
Sandwiched between the references to BELIEVING HIS WORDS in verses
47 and 63 were symbols of that thought.
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The symbols of believing on Him were the eating His flesh and drinking
His blood.
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These symbols represented the fact that HIS BLOOD WOULD BE SHED.
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And that represents the ACCEPTABLE MEAT that corresponds to the FRUIT OF
LIFE.
John 6:67-69 Then said Jesus unto
the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord,
to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of
eternal life. And we
believe and are sure that thou art that Christ,
the Son of the living God.
No wonder Peter said WE BELIEVE.
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No wonder he said, "Thou hast the words of eternal life."
You must believe this and make it part of your life TO RECEIVE ETERNAL
LIFE FROM IT.
To eat meat with blood, with this in mind, spiritually represents
people who do not believe they need Jesus.
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They do not need a Saviour to shed His blood.
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Since the Lord shed His Blood on Calvary, they think they do not need Calvary
since they do not need shed blood.
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They do not need the work of the cross.
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Just get knowledge of good and evil and do the good and avoid the evil,
and all will be fine.
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Sound familiar?
The serpent tried to get Adam to eat knowledge of good and evil.
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He leaped at the opportunity to veer man away from the fruit of life.
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He was so determined and bound to offer this alternative.
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And today, religion that speaks more about what is good versus what is
evil, than speaking about Jesus' blood being shed, is religion that is
serpentine!
Even Christian circles that speak more about what we can do to do
good and avoid evil than what the cross has done in supplying God's efforts
of salvation is SNAKE FRUIT.
Anything to get the stress off the SHED BLOOD and the CROSS is
Satan's desires to kill and destroy you.
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The serpent still offers this forbidden fruit today.
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To concentrate upon your efforts to do good more than the truth of God's
efforts to give life is to be heading into the wrong direction!
John 6:50-51 This is the bread
which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.
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.
To talk only of Jesus doing good and
not evil is to stray from the vital part of Jesus' life in shedding His
blood.
Acts 10:38-40 How God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about
doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God
was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the
land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree:
Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly;
Peter made sure He spoke of the Gospel of death, burial and resurrection
when he referred to Jesus doing good.
To miss the cross is to miss the entire point of Jesus.
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The cross destroys the sinner and makes the person a new creature.
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The cross is Jesus' shed blood, remitting our sins and putting us back
into Adam's state before he fell and threw us all into sin.
Watch your life.
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Take inventory of what you consider the most when considering GOD and CHURCH
and your CHRISTIANITY.
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Is it more of what you do that is good and what you don't do that is evil?
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Or is it more of WHAT GOD DID TO GIVE US LIFE?
The serpent said...
Genesis 3:4-5 And the serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil.
PAUL THE APOSTLE SAID:
Ephesians 1:17 That the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope
of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward
who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought
in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own
right hand in the heavenly places,
SERPENT: Your eyes shall be opened to know good and evil.
PAUL: Your eyes shall be opened to know the hope of His
calling, and his great power to us according to the power wherewith He
raised CHRIST FROM THE DEAD.
I want my eyes opened to hope of Christ's calling.
I want my eyes open to the power towards me according to the power
God used to raise Jesus from the dead.
PAUL:
Philippians 3:8 Yea doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord:
Philippians 3:10 That I may know him,
and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his
sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
I don't want to know good and evil.
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I want to KNOW JESUS CHRIST.
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EXCELLENCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST JESUS.
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KNOW HIM IN POWER OF RESURRECTION (involves idea of blood shed),
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And FELLOWSHIP OF SUFFERINGS (involves idea of blood shed).
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Being made conformable unto his death (involves idea of shed blood).
Analyze every sermon you hear.
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Contrast every candy-stick of Christians with the cross principle.
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Find out if GOD'S WORK is stressed more than MAN'S WORK.
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GOD'S EFFORTS AND NOT OUR EFFORTS.
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GOD'S POWER AND NOT WILL POWER.
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LIFE AND NOT CONDEMNATION.
Ask God to fill your soul up with revelations of His work on the cross.
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Feast on these things when you read the Bible.
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Read Christian books that are packed with this truth.
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Listen to Gospel songs that are praising this work of SHED BLOOD.
Read the Bible to understand more of His work.