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Sweat? Or Blood? |
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In
the beginning, God created man and woman, and placed them in a perfect
environment. There was no
sin or death, no decay or sickness.
Adam and his wife Eve talked with God spirit to spirit when God
came walking on the cool breezes of Eden.
And then came the day that Satan deceived Eve into disobeying
God. Adam worshipped and
served the creature, Eve, more than the Creator, and so sin entered
humanity, and death came tagging along with sin. It All Started | The First Sacrifices | The Sacrifices Continue | Yet More Sweat Sweating Blood | At Last, A Proper Sacrifice | Sweat or Blood | Bible References The First
Sacrifices When Adam and
Even sinned, they instantly experienced guilt and shame, and were aware
of their nakedness. To
cover themselves, they made aprons of fig leaves.
Later, when God came looking for them, they hid, too ashamed to
face Him even in their self-made clothes.
After God had pronounced His judgment, He took away their flimsy
aprons and covered them with coats of animal skins.
In doing so, God shed the first blood that was spilled on Earth,
covering the sin and nakedness of His beloved Adam and even with a
sacrifice of blood. And
ever since Eden, man has instinctively known that he is guilty before
God. Thus it has been part
of man’s nature to offer God some sort of sacrifice for sins.
The first people to do this were two brothers, Cain and Abel. Abel
brought God a sacrifice from his flock of sheep, but Cain brought a
sacrifice from his fields. Like
most people, Cain thought his sacrifice was better since he had labored
and sweated for it, whereas Abel only knifed a sheep.
But Cain, like most people, was wrong!
God flatly rejected his hard work and his crops yet He accepted
Abel’s disgusting blood offering!
Cain was so shocked, so angry at God’s unreasonable rejection
of his sweat sacrifice that he murdered his brother Abel in a fit of
jealous rage. It All Started | The First Sacrifices | The Sacrifices Continue | Yet More Sweat Sweating Blood | At Last, A Proper Sacrifice | Sweat or Blood | Bible References The Sacrifices Continue Immediately
after the flood, Noah took several animals from the ark, and offered God
a blood sacrifice. The
Bible says that when Noah did so, “the Lord smelled a sweet savor,”
and accepted the sacrifice from Noah.
Of course, man didn’t change, and Noah’s descendants were not
as wise. After the flood,
they set about building a city and a tower “whose top may reach unto
heaven.” Now this
doesn’t meant they were going to build a structure that was miles
tall. No, they meant to
build a religious building, a temple so grand in a city so grand
that God would just have to accept it.
But once again, God rejected their sacrifice of sweat.
Certainly the magnificent tower was more attractive than Noah’s
blood sacrifice, and no doubt far more work went into the city than
Noah’s ugly dead animals, but God just wasn’t interested.
He scattered the inhabitants of Babel, and the tower remained
unfinished. It All Started | The First Sacrifices | The Sacrifices Continue | Yet More Sweat Sweating Blood | At Last, A Proper Sacrifice | Sweat or Blood | Bible References Yet More Sweat God
continued to prompt man toward a right sacrifice, yet man continued to
insist on offering God the sweat of his brow rather than blood.
For instance, God had promised Abraham a son through whom great
blessings would come upon all the world.
Now God had Isaac in mind, and eventually His Son Jesus Christ.
But Abraham and his wife Sarah didn’t see things just that way.
After Sarah had gone childless for many years, she gave her
slave-girl Hagar to Abraham so that he could have a son by her.
Now lest you think that encounter with Hagar was hardly a
sacrifice of sweat, consider it from Sarah’s point of view.
Her heart was broken and grieved that she was barren, and she was
all but insane with jealousy as she watched her husband enter the tent
of her slave-girl. Yet in
order to serve God by giving Abraham the heir to the promises, she was
willing to endure it. This
must be one of the greatest sacrifices of sweat in all the Bible, yet
God flatly rejected it as He had all the rest.
Both Hagar and her son Ishmael were exiled when God’s promise
to Abraham finally came true. Then
when Isaac was finally grown, God demanded of Abraham that sacrifice of
blood. He was to offer
Isaac as the blood sacrifice unto God!
But as Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son unto God, he spoke a
prophecy that explains the whole problem.
He said, “God will provide himself a lamb. . .”
By the way, God spared Isaac because He really did intend to
provide His own Lamb for a sacrifice later. It All Started | The First Sacrifices | The Sacrifices Continue | Yet More Sweat Sweating Blood | At Last, A Proper Sacrifice | Sweat or Blood | Bible References Sweating Blood God also
gave the Law of Moses. In
the giving of the Law, God took all the mystery out of the kind of
sacrifices He would accept. Literally
scores of sacrifices of blood were required under the Law.
Yet for all this, man kept trying to offer God sacrifices of
sweat. The custom of
tithing became a sort of extra god, and observances of Sabbath days took
on a meaning God never intended. In
this way, even God-ordained sacrifices of blood were ignored while other
ordinances were twisted by man into sacrifices of sweat.
It All Started | The First Sacrifices | The Sacrifices Continue | Yet More Sweat Sweating Blood | At Last, A Proper Sacrifice | Sweat or Blood | Bible References At Last, a Proper
Sacrifice As
Abraham had prophesied, God Himself was to provide a Lamb for the
sacrifice. He sent His
beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the Lamb of God for the
sacrifice for man’s sin. Jesus
Christ, who is God in human flesh, was to die as the sacrificial lamb.
So He was crucified on a Roman cross, and the offering of blood
God demanded was supplied by God Himself.
On the hill called Golgotha, the place of the skull, the Creator
of the ends of the earth poured out His own blood as the sacrifice for
man’s sin. At last, a
proper sacrifice was given once for all.
The Bible says Jesus entered into the holy place in heaven, not
with the blood of goats and bulls, but with His own blood He went once
for all into the only place and there obtained eternal redemption for
us. The Bible says that
this man Jesus, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat
down at the right hand of God, for by one offering of His own blood He
eternally perfected those who are sanctified. It All Started | The First Sacrifices | The Sacrifices Continue | Yet More Sweat Sweating Blood | At Last, A Proper Sacrifice | Sweat or Blood | Bible References Sweat or Blood? Because
of the offering of the blood of Jesus, our need for a sacrifice of blood
has already been completely filled by God Himself.
He shed the blood of His Son Jesus, and finished the sacrifices
of blood once for all. Now
we face the question of how we shall approach God.
Will we come by sweat or blood?
You see, just as in former ages, man still desires to come before
God offering that sacrifice of sweat.
People prefer to offer God the sweat of church membership, the
tithe, and good works. They
say that they’ll straighten their lives out and then come to
God. But God will reject
these sweat sacrifices just as flatly as He has rejected every other
sweat sacrifice in history. This
is truly the offence of the cross!
It offended Cain, and the builders of Babel, Abraham and Sarah,
and the Hebrews under the Law of Moses.
And above all it offends modern man.
Man really hasn’t changed at all.
The sacrifice of sweat looks so much better to the natural
eye than the blood of Jesus that people can’t understand why God
won’t accept them with their labors, their baptisms, their rosaries,
their sincere efforts, or anything else they do.
It crushes the pride of life out of a man when he sees this
truth, that the only way God will accept a man is by the blood of Jesus,
for it is only the Lamb who is worthy.
God will accept nothing else because He just doesn’t need your
sweat. So what’ll it be?
Your sweat? Or
Jesus’ blood? It All Started | The First Sacrifices | The Sacrifices Continue | Yet More Sweat Sweating Blood | At Last, A Proper Sacrifice | Sweat or Blood | Bible References It All Started . . . Genesis
1:1, 31; Genesis 2:8-25; Genesis 3: 1-24; Romans 5:12 The First Sacrifices
Genesis 3:21; Genesis 4:1-8. The Sacrifices Continue
Genesis 8:20-21; Genesis 11:1-9.
Yet More Sweat Genesis
18:10; Genesis 16:1-6; Genesis 21:10-12; Genesis 22:1-14. Sweating Blood Lev 7,
16, 23; Isa 1:10-14 Matthew 23:23; Mark 2:23-27 At Last, A Proper Sacrifice
John 1:29; 1 Tim 3:16; John 10:28-30; Hebrews 9:22; John 19:17-18;
Hebrews 9:12-14; Hebrews 10:11-14. Reprinted from old tract by: Restoration Missions, Inc., PO Box 366, Crestview, Florida 32536 |
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