WILL SOMEBODY
LOVE ME?
MF Blume
Sunday,
June 15, 1997 AM
Matt 27:50-51
Jesus, when
he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold,
the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and
the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
Hebr 10:19-20
Having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new
and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is
to say, his flesh;
I. BLOOD COVENANTS
- The cutting of flesh of
the hand between two people, and the subsequent mingling of their blood by
clasping their cut hands, joined two lives together in a covenant.
- It was a union.
- The two were so united
in purpose and will that they actually mingled their living blood as one.
II. GOD INITIATES
A BLOOD COVENANT
- When Jesus
died, God rent the veil of the nearby temple.
- Hebrews
10:20 says that veil represented Jesus' flesh.
- It was
as though God cut His hand to join with our's.
- The glory
behind the Veil in the Holiest of Holies was the presence of God.
- This glory
of God the Father was therefore inside the flesh of Jesus Christ, for that
veil and all that was behind it indicates Christ's flesh and all that was
within it.
- The Life
of Christ was the Father
- The Father
in Him was the life in Him.
- When Jesus
died, the NEW covenant was initiated
- The cut
was made on God's side.
- And then
it was up to man to fulfill his part and mingle his life with God's life.
- As in blood
covenants in which two lives were joined as one, God desired mankind's lives
to be united with His Spirit/Life.
- God already
initiated His covenant and all we have to do now is walk up to the cross,
figuratively speaking, with an OPEN HEART and GRASP JESUS CHRIST and allow
our lives to unite with His.
- He has
opened Himself up for us and to all the world.
- His flesh
is opened and rent.
- The world
just needs to come to Him now and unite with Him in His covenant.
John 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.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 14:20 At that day ye shall
know that I [am] in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
- Jesus repeatedly
spoke of His being in us and us being in Him.
- This is
what the mingling of blood/lives indicates.
- As the
blood of each party of the covenant would mingle, one's blood would enter
the other's body and the other's would enter one's body, so did Jesus say
He is in us and we in Him.
John 14:16-18
And I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide
with you for ever; [Even] the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive,
because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come
to you.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, [which
is] the Holy Ghost,...
- The Holy
Ghost is the Spirit form of Jesus Christ.
- This is
seen in that Jesus said the Comforter is the Holy Ghost.
- And He
also said that He would not leave us comfortless, but He would come to us.
- His Spirit
within a person is HIS LIFE
- His Spirit
can only enter our lives when we UNITE with Him in covenant.
- Our HEARTS
must be opened to Him and we must LOVE HIM and give our lives to Him by dedicating
ourselves to His Kingdom and living a true Christian life.
John 6:54-56 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.
III. MAN AND
WOMAN.
- Man and Woman become united
in one flesh by a covenant where vows are exchanged.
- Physically they unite and
physical life passes from one to the other.
- This is a type and foreshadow
of Christ the groom and the Bride of Christ uniting in Spirit.
1Cor 6:16-17 What? know ye not that
he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one
flesh. But
he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
IV. WHAT ADAM
SHOULD HAVE DONE
- Two hands
join in matrimony as man and woman unite
- Jesus is
the right hand of God's power.
- Each hand,
that of man and that of God, had a barrier between them that had to be rent
so the union of both lives could occur.
- God initiated
His part by having His embodiment of Christ crucified.
- Christ's
flesh rent open.
- It was
a picture of Adam eating fruit of life and receiving that life into his life.
- Had Adam
obeyed God and not fallen, he would have eaten of the fruit of life.
- Adam sinned,
however, and was barred from the Garden, where the tree of life stood, by
cherubims.
- Had Adam
passed the cherubims again after sinning he surely would have eaten of the
fruit of life.
- Something
had to be done to remove the barrier so God and man might unite as was originally
intended.
- That something
occurred when Jesus died on the cross.
- The Veil
on the temple which was rent when Jesus died had cherubims' likenesses embroidered
on it.
- When the
veil was rent the barrier blocking mankind from God was removed.
- Jesus is
the fruit of Life.
- He gave
His life and we must now give our lives to unite with Him.
- Blood/life
mingles and we become one.
- Not literal
blood, but giving our lives is represented by the giving of blood in Old Testament
times.
- When we
give our lives to Him it can be said we have united with him.
V. GOD'S LONGING
DESIRE
- Every year,
and one day a year, the High Priest would offer blood of a lamb to atone for
Israel's sins during Old Testament times.
- That man
would take the blood and pass the veil of the temple and enter into the Holiest
of Holies.
- God must
have thrilled and looked forward to those times.
- When those
days arrived, God's mind would race ahead in the future to the day which these
foreshadowing rituals involving the veil and the High Priest would be fulfilled.
- The lamb's
blood that was taken past the veil represented mankind's life.
- And that
blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.
- It was
over the ark of the covenant that God's very presence manifested physically.
- God's Spirit,
you could say, was there.
- And when
that blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat of the ark, you see a picture of
man's LIFE and God's LIFE uniting and mingling.
Levi 16:14 And he shall take of
the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle [it] with his finger upon the mercy
seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with
his finger seven times.
Exod 25:21-22 And thou shalt put the
mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony
that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune
with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which
[are] upon the ark of the testimony, of all [things] which I will give thee
in commandment unto the children of Israel.
- This sprinkling
of the blood illustrates TRUE REPENTANCE, which we must do in order to unite
with God.
- Joel said
REND YOUR HEARTS... as the veil in the temple was rent.
Joel 2:13 And rend your heart,
and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he [is] gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the
evil.
- That is
OUR part
- We must
rend and OPEN up our hearts to Him.
- And God's
part is mentioned in the very same chapter in Joel.
Joel 2:28 And it shall come to
pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your
sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your
young men shall see visions:
- True repentance
is opening our hearts and being broken within due to the sin that we committed
in the past.
- It breaks
the shell of the barrier that separates our lives from His Spirit.
- Our hearts
and souls then bleed forth, so to speak, in sorrow for our sins.
- These sins
separated us from God as flesh upon the hands of two parties separates the
blood from uniting in the two.
- Sin is
in our flesh.
Roma 7:17-18 Now then it is no more
I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in
me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:
for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I
find not.
- We do not
literally cut our flesh, but this occurs spiritually when we confess our sins
and sorrow over the sins we have done.
- It is as
though our hands are rent and we clasp Jesus, and mingle our lives with His.
- We are
totally genuine with God and ourselves at this point.
- We give
everything for Him and nothing is too precious to hold back, for nothing can
be more important that giving Him our lives.
V. BLOOD ONLY
Hebr 9:7 But into the second [went]
the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered
for himself, and [for] the errors of the people:
- The High
Priest carries only BLOOD past the veil.
- Nothing
else can allow a man to enter the veil.
- Without
it, High Priest cannot enter.
- Unless
we give our all in salvation, we simply are not united to Him in covenant
and are not saved.
- Blood represents
our very lives.
- Only with
blood could the High Priest enter.
- So Christianity
is not simply joining a church or congregation.
- It is giving
our total lives!!
- Unless
we give Him that, we are lost and without hope.
- We must
give him our wills, for it was Adam's independent will that threw all humankind
into sin to begin with.
- If we fail
to yield all to Him, we are simply not saved.
VII. ABRAHAM'S
PROMISE
- God told
Abraham that his seed would be innumerable and that He would give him the
land of promise.
- Abraham
asked God how he could know for sure this would occur.
- God then
proceeded to show him.
Gene 15:8-10
And he said,
Lord GOD, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it? And he said unto
him, Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years
old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.
And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each
piece one against another: but the birds divided he not.
- God was
going to prove it by cutting a covenant.
- After laying
out the sacrifice, indicating Abraham's part, representing HIS LIFE with the
animal's lives we read...
Gene 15:11 And when the fowls came
down upon the carcases, Abram drove them away.
- Abraham
seen the fowls come to devour the sacrifice, so he drove them away.
- In Jesus'
parable of the sower and the seed, fowls depicted the devil who comes to steal
the word.
- So we can
safely assume these fowls also indicate devils trying to rob Abraham of His
dedication to God through temptation.
- But Abraham
would allow nothing to remove his commitment.
- When you
commit to God, the devil will plant thoughts in your mind saying, "You do
not need to give THIS part to God. Keep it. He will not miss that little part
of your life. And what about this part, too? You can get by without giving
that."
- Satan will
do this until all you have left is a SHOW of religion with NOTHING from your
very life into it. And he doesn't mind empty, religious show.
- Abraham
then heard God tell him of the Egyptian bondage that would come in generations
later.
- 400 years
of affliction would occur.
- Then he
seen a vision of a smoking furnace and a burning lamp coming down and running
g through the sacrifices.
The furnace represented
EGYPTIAN BONDAGE.
Deut 4:20 But the LORD hath taken
you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, [even] out of Egypt, to be unto him a people
of inheritance, as [ye are] this day.
The Lord was
CUTTING A COVENANT WITH ABRAHAM.
-it was as though
the Lords' right hand (foreshadowing Jesus) reached down to Abraham's sacrifice
(representing Abraham's life) and CUT and MINGLED LIVES.
Gene 15:17-18 And it came to pass,
that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold a smoking furnace, and
a burning
lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant
with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of
Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
- God showed
Abraham how Abraham would KNOW God was telling the truth by cutting a covenant
with Abraham.
- Nothing
could be more assuring.
- the lamp
in the furnace of darkness showed God's covenant to come with Israel in Egypt
by delivering them out of bondage in the midst of bondage.
- God would
give them the land as He promised Abraham.
- The EXODUS
in the midst of bondage would fulfill God's promise.
- And God
showed Abraham a vision of the future when He showed him the Exodus in symbol.
- The Exodus
was the taking of Israel OUT of Egypt and INTO THE PROMISED LAND.
- The land
was the PROMISE.
- To this
day, Israel prizes its land more than anything.
- That is
why there are wars over there constantly.
- The PROMISE
today is the baptism of the Holy Ghost. - GOD'S LIFE ITSELF.
Luke 24:49 And, behold, I send the
promise of
my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of
Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.
Acts 1:4-5 And, being assembled
together with [them], commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which, [saith he],
ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
Acts 2:38-39
Then Peter
said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that
are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call.
- God's PROMISE
is His LIFE - HIS SPIRIT
- Our part
must be equally given - OUR LIVES
- Beyond
the veil is LIFE.
- God was
Opened towards Adam by putting Him into the Garden where the tree of Life
stood.
- He waited
for ADAM to open his life to God, as God did for him.
- He wanted
ADAM TO LOVE HIM with the greatest love in giving his LIFE to God.
- But Adam
opened his life towards something else.
- God LOVES.
- A life
for God without the aspect of LOVE is really no life at all.
- Religion
can be found without love for God.
- It is nothing.
- From the
Garden of Eden man had a problem with loving God.
- God is
crying out today.. "WILL SOMEONE LOVE ME?"
Deut 6:4-5 Hear, O Israel: The
LORD our God [is] one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
- God's door
is open, but so often man's door is closed.
Reve 3:20 Behold, I stand at the
door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come
in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
OPEN UP TO HIM....
give your life to God today.
His door has
been open since Calvary, but one day it will close.
Matt 25:10-12 And while they went
to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to
the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also
the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said,
Verily I say unto you, I know you not.