The Power in the Blood

Known for his unique ability to simplify profound truth so that it can be applied to everyday life, Adrian Rogers was one of the most effective preachers, respected Bible teachers, and Christian leaders of our time. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. Some years ago, Billy Graham was preaching as a young man. And you know that God's anointing and God's power has been on Billy Graham for many, many years.

And I read somewhere where a young professor from Cornell University said to Billy Graham, to the young Billy Graham, Billy, you're gifted or you have power, you have persuasion, but I want to give you some advice. If you expect to be used in a worldwide way, you're going to have to leave out that blood stuff. Talking about the blood of Jesus, leave out the blood. Billy Graham said, I determined at that moment to preach more on the blood of Jesus Christ than ever before.

And thank God for that. I want to talk to you today about the power in the blood. Would you turn to John chapter six, beginning in verse 53 and read with me. 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.

Underscore that phrase, life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. 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 drink of my blood dwelleth in me and I in him as the living father has sent me. And I live by the father. So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. Many Christians are failing in the Christian life. They are miserable representations of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ declared and manifested the father.

But I wonder how many of us are declaring and manifesting Jesus Christ. I've told you about a little boy one time. I had a mangy old mutt, a dog, somebody asked him, said, what kind of a dog is that dog? Little boy said, he's a police dog. The man said, well, he doesn't look like a police dog.

And the little guy said, well, he's in the secret service. Now, I think I know a lot of Christians who are in the secret service. I mean, they may be saved, but you would never know it by looking at them the way they talk, the way they walk, the way they act, the way they live. They do not have that power that God wants them to have, that the life of Jesus Christ is not in them. And the difference is they have never discovered the power of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Now, let me tell you several things about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, friend, it is sacred blood. Now, what I mean by that is this, that while Jesus Christ had a human body, the blood that flowed through his veins was not like the blood of any other man, any other woman. His blood was sacred blood. That's the reason that Jesus was born of a virgin.

Did you know that the blood type is determined not by the mother but by the Father? Whose blood was in the Lord Jesus Christ? He was the Son of God, and I'm telling you, it was God's blood that flowed through his veins.

You say, now, wait a minute, pastor. God doesn't have blood. He did when Jesus was here on this earth. Let me give you a verse of Scripture. It's a wonderful verse. Put it in your margin, Acts chapter 20 and verse 28. Paul is talking to the pastors of the church at Ephesus, and he said, "'Take heed, therefore, "'unto yourselves, and to all the flock, "'over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers.'" Now, listen to this statement, "'to feed the church of God, "'which he hath purchased with his own blood.'"

That's it. Who bought the church? God did. With whose blood? His own blood. I mean that the blood of God flowed through the veins of Jesus Christ. It is sacred blood. Not only is it sacred blood, it is shed blood. For the Bible says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins, and I say it was shed blood. It was not spilt.

It was shed. Jesus said, "'No man taketh my life from me. "'I lay it down of myself.'" I have the power to lay it down.

I have the power to take it up. Jesus did not die as a martyr. Jesus died as a willing substitute. That sacred blood was shed blood, and because the sacred blood was shed blood, the sacred blood, the shed blood becomes saving blood. We are saved by the blood of the Lamb. Way back in the book of Leviticus, Leviticus chapter 17, verse 11, the Bible says, "'For the life of the flesh is in the blood, "'and I have given it to you upon the altar "'to make an atonement for your souls, "'for it is the blood that maketh atonement "'for your soul.'" No wonder the devil wants the blood message taken out of the church, and Peter in the New Testament said in 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 18, "'For as much as you know that you were not redeemed "'with corruptible things as silver and gold "'from your vain conversation, "'received by tradition from your fathers, "'but with,'" listen, "'the precious blood of Christ "'came without blemish and without spot.'"

The sacred blood, the shed blood is that saving blood. That's why he had to be born of a virgin. Had he not been born of a virgin, he would have had the blood of Adam coursing through his veins. In Adam all die, but in Christ shall all be made alive. He came as he did, virgin born, to be what he was, sinless to do what he did, to die a substitute for us.

He became man that we might become sons of God by the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can sing it, say it, shout it, believe it, and my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Sunday School teacher asked a little girl, "'Is there anything God cannot do?'"

She said, "'Yes, there's one thing God cannot do. "'God cannot see my sin through the blood of Jesus Christ.'" The Bible says, "'The blood of Jesus Christ his Son "'cleanseth us from all sin.'"

Now, we've known that, but here's a fourth thing I want you to notice. The sacred blood, which is shed blood, which is saving blood, is also shared blood, shared blood. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ is talking to these people about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.

Look in verse 53, "'Verily, verily, I say unto you, "'except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man "'and drink his blood, you have no life in you.'" Now, folks, at that time when Jesus said that, they began to scatter. They began to leave. They got out of there. They said, I don't want anything to do with this.

They began to go here and there. They left him so much that Jesus had to go to say to his disciples, will you also go away? What was it that so offended them when he said this, that you had to eat his flesh and drink his blood? Well, over and over again, these Jews had been taught in the Old Testament, you don't drink blood. You don't eat blood. Put these scriptures down.

You can understand why they left. Genesis 9, verse 4, God says, "'But the flesh with the life thereof, "'which is the blood thereof, ye shall not eat.'" And Jesus is talking here about drinking blood.

You wonder why these orthodox Jews left. Leviticus 3.17, it says, "'There is a perpetual statute for your generations "'throughout all your dwellings, "'that ye eat neither fat nor blood.'" And by the way, you'd be a whole lot more healthy if you'd obey that. Don't eat the blood.

Don't eat the fat for all your generations. That's what God said to the Jews. That's Leviticus chapter 3, verse 17. Then Leviticus chapter 17, verse 14, "'For it,'" he's talking about the blood, "'is the life of all flesh. "'The blood of it is for the life thereof. "'Therefore, I said unto the children of Israel, "'Eat the blood of no manner of flesh, "'for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof. "'Whosoever eateth it shall be cut off.'" And here, Jesus is saying, "'Eat my flesh and drink my blood.'" They said, that's it.

That's it, so long, goodbye, I'm out of here. This is horrible. It sounds like cannibalism. It's absolutely unorthodox. It's revolting. It's savage. Goodbye.

They left. They were so offended at this statement of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Well, they were not listening through spiritual ears. Jesus is not talking here about eating his literal flesh and drinking his literal blood. Skip on down to verse 61. "'When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured "'at it, he said unto them, "'Doth this offend you? "'What, and if ye shall see the Son of Man "'to send up where he was before?'"

And then notice, here's the key to the whole thing in verse 63. "'It is the Spirit that quickeneth.'" Do you know what the word quickeneth means? It means to make alive. "'It's the Spirit that quickeneth.

"'The flesh profiteth nothing.'" Now, underscore this phrase, "'The words that I speak unto you, "'they are Spirit and they are life.'" Jesus is using symbolic language. Jesus is using spiritual language. So, we have to move from the physical to the spiritual to understand what our Lord is talking about because God created both worlds. He created the physical world and he created the spiritual world.

And the physical world is just an image of the spiritual world so we can understand things. What Jesus is saying when he's saying, "'You eat my flesh and drink my blood,' "'is that you let my life be in you.'" Look again in verse 53 and then you're going to understand it. Jesus said, "'And then verily, verily, I say unto you, "'except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man "'and drink his blood, you have no life in you.'" And then look at verse 57, "'As the living Father has sent me and I live by the Father, "'even so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.'" What Jesus is talking about is this, that we must feed our spirits on him, that Jesus, don't miss this, Jesus is to your spirit what blood is to your body. Just as the life of the flesh is the blood, the life of my spirit is Jesus Christ.

Do you understand that? The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life and Jesus is not talking only about the saving blood, he's talking now about the shared blood. Jesus was talking about his life being in me. Do you know the reason that many Christians are failing? I mean, they're saved, they're born again, they're heaven-born, heaven-bound, and they're not living in victory because they may understand the saving blood but they've never understood the shared blood.

They have never understood what it means to eat his flesh and to drink his blood, that is literally to feed on him. I've been reading a book by Dr. Paul Brand, wonderful surgeon, the title of the book is In His Image and he said some wonderful things about the blood and I'm going to try and share some of them with you, although the sermon outline is mine, some of the thoughts are his and I'm certainly not a medical doctor and I want to share some things he said concerning blood and I want us to think about the natural world and then I want us to make the application to the spiritual world. Number one, we must appropriate the constant provision of the blood. Now, your body right now lives at the mercy of the blood.

The blood is constantly providing every cell in your body with nourishment. I want you to imagine a pipeline that runs all over the world and it runs past every village, every town, every city and it goes down every street, every alley, every pathway to the smallest little home, a pipeline. It's just flowing all over the world, all around the world. There's not an island, there's not a continent, there's not a village, there's not a hamlet, there's not a neighborhood, this pipeline doesn't go. And in this pipeline are little boats that are just going through this pipeline everywhere. These little boats are just going just like this all over. And on those boats is everything that a human being would need to survive.

And so if they need anything, any kind of sustenance, all they have to do is just kind of reach into that pipeline and take what they need off of those boats and those boats are just constantly coming and everybody is just getting what they need off those boats that are coming past. Well, friend, that is what the blood does in your body. There is a pipeline that is just supplying your body with everything that your body needs. Those little boats are the red cells in your bloodstream. Did you know, you're going to be surprised at this, I was surprised when I read it, in your body, 60,000 miles of blood vessels in one body, 60,000 miles. Some of them very small, but if you'd have lined them all out, they would stretch for 60,000 miles. And through these vessels, through this pipeline, to every cell, every part of your body, every organ of your body, the blood is flowing and the blood, these red cells, how many of those?

Dr. Brand says 100 trillion of these little boats are just going through your body like that. Where you're sitting is just flowing to every part of your body.

This pipeline is going. And in those boats is everything that every cell of your body needs in order to have life. There's oxygen, amino acid, nitrogen, sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sugars, lipids, cholesterol, hormones, everything you need is on those little boats and your cell is just picking them out, picking them out, picking them out and they're just flying past just like this.

I mean, billions of them just going like this. No wonder you're so tired. That's all going on inside of you right now as you sit there. Now, you live at the mercy of these cells. You could live maybe two days without water. You can live several weeks without food, only a few minutes without oxygen. And those red cells are bringing that oxygen to your body as you sit here.

And so these vessels have everything that you need. Now, it's the reason why you have to keep replenishing blood because 30 billion of your red cells will die today. Blood cells are dying, but they're being reproduced all of the time. One of the most commonly accepted medical facts is this. The life of the flesh is in the blood.

Now, men did not know that for a long time. It wasn't until about in the 16th century that William Harvey even discovered that the blood circulates in the human body. But every cell in your body lives at the mercy of your blood. Your blood is a red river of life. And so Jesus is saying to his body, to the church, you've got to have my blood in you. Not only is it saving blood, it needs to be shared blood. In the book of Romans chapter five verse nine, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, that's the saving blood, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. That's the shared blood. Listen, Jesus Christ gave himself for us that he might give himself to us.

Now, you want me to tell you why we're failing? We can be going to heaven and we can thank God for the shed blood, which is saving blood. But he gave himself for us. That he might give himself to us. That we eat of his flesh, drink of his blood.

And he's saying that my life might be in you. For he goes on to say, listen, if we have been reconciled by his death, much more will be saved by his life. Saved by his life. There's the saving life of the Lord Jesus Christ. God didn't just forgive you and say, all right, now gut it out, live it as best you can.

No, just as in my human body, everything that my human body needs to exist is delivered to me by that, those red blood cells, those little boats that are coursing through all these channels in my physiological makeup. So everything I need to live the Christian life is in Jesus. Put down 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 3. The great, great, great verse, listen to it. According as his divine power, don't you love that? His divine power. Boy, we just blow past these words, don't we?

Listen to it. According as his divine power hath given unto us. Listen, hath given, we already have it. Not will give, not might give, not that we need to beg for it. Hath given to us all things, not some things. A double L, how much does that mean? What does all mean?

It means all, listen. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue. How many people you know are living in glory and virtue? Not many.

Because they have not appropriated what God has given us by his divine power. He has given to us all things, all things that pertain unto life and glory. How many of you have all the love that you need? How many of you have all the wisdom that you need? How many of you have all of the strength that you need? How many of you have all the courage that you need?

How many of you have all the patience that you need? Well, I submit to you, friend, that you do have all that you need. You say, if I have it, how come I don't have it? You don't have what you have because you haven't possessed your possessions. God has given it to you. And what you need to do is to possess what God has already given to you. Peter says, listen, his divine power, he has given us all things, all things. Not he will give, might give, he has given to us.

He said, I don't understand that. What do you mean, possess your possession? How many of you have books in your library you haven't read yet? Okay, are those your books? Yes. Have you possessed your possessions?

No. You see, listen, we need to understand that we already have through the blood of Jesus Christ everything it takes to live the Christian life. I'm telling you there is a river of life flowing in us and now Jesus is speaking metaphorically. He's not talking literally, he's talking symbolically. He said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.

There is an abundant life through the resurrected Jesus, Jesus Christ who gave himself for us is Jesus who has given himself to us that he might live through us. And that's what the Christian life is all about. We need to possess our possessions.

Now that's the first point. And I want you to get it down in your heart. We must appropriate the constant provision of the blood, just as in my physical body, the life of my physical body is the blood stream in your spiritual life.

That life is Jesus in you. Number two, we must rely on the cleansing properties of the blood because not only does the blood supply, but the blood cleanses. Did you know that those red cells they give all the stuff that you need, it's all in there. They pick up all of the uric acid and they pick up the carbon dioxide and they pick up all these metabolites that are in your body, these poisons, these toxics, and they're carrying them away. They're carrying them to the lungs to be expelled, carrying them to the kidneys to be extruded. They're just taking all of these things.

It'd be an amazing thing if you could get the milk truck to be the garbage truck at the same time. That's what God has done. No wonder the Psalmist said, I am fearfully and wonderfully healed, the blood not only supplies every need, but dear friend, it cleanses constantly. It cleanses constantly. First John 1.7, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son does what? Cleanses us from all sin, not it cleansed past tense.

It is continually cleansing us. Without the blood flowing, you're going to have a lot of toxin that builds up in you. The man said, you can take a cuff, you know, when they take your blood pressure and they go, and that thing goes like that. You've been there, you've done that? Put a cuff on your arm, he says, and pump it up real tight. And then he says, begin to exercise your arm, begin to do something, get a rubber ball and begin to squeeze it. At first, he said, you'll feel weak. After a while, you will feel pain. And he says, after a while, the pain will become so excruciating you will scream in pain.

Why? You know what's happening? There are toxins that'll be building up in that arm, in that hand, and the blood will not be flowing through there and the blood will not be carrying away those toxins and the pain will be overwhelming. Then you release, release that cuff and the blood begins to flow back and forth again.

You feel that relief. I know a lot of folks who are living painfully because they've let toxins build up in their lives. Worry and envy and jealousy and fear and pride and bitterness and doubt.

Those things just build up. And if you don't allow the shared blood to be constantly cleansing you, you're going to be living a life of pain. 1 John 1-7, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. And if those things, those toxins are in you, it's because you've not been letting the blood of Jesus flow through you. You may be saved and on your way to heaven, but you're miserable. You're miserable because you don't have the saving life of Jesus Christ in you.

And you're just miserable. You see, listen, not only is there the constant provision, but my dear friend is the cleansing property of the blood. It is the blood that cleanses in the physical world and in the spiritual world. Now, here's the third thing. We must claim the conquering power of the blood, the cleansing properties, but also the conquering power of the blood.

Did you know that there is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of Jesus? The great enemy of mankind is, the great enemy of mankind is not war. The great enemy of mankind is not wild beasts. The great enemy of mankind is bacteria and viruses. In World War II, eight and one half million people died, but shortly after the armistice was signed, a flu epidemic killed 25 million people, a flu epidemic. In 1348, the Black Plague hit Europe. What had happened is this, that about a million visitors had come to Rome to visit Rome.

They were pilgrims. And when they were there, they got infected with the plague, and historians tell us that it killed one-third of the people in Europe. I mean, it'd be like just taking one-third of this auditorium, and they all were killed with that one disease. Now, these bacteria, these viruses, they invade the body. And when they invade the body, listen, the blood declares war on them. Now, the part of the blood that does that are the white blood cells. Dr. Brand says there are five distinct kinds of white blood cells.

And let me quote him. He says, some white cells armed with crude chemicals shock troop and attempt to overwhelm the invaders through sheer numbers. Others with massively shielded cell walls roll in with heavier ammunition, like battle tanks.

Attack strategy differs also. Some white cells free float in the bloodstream, sniping at strays. Some stalk the vital organs, alert for any invader that may slip through the initial defenses. Others try to corral invaders into a fortress-like lymph gland for execution. And still others, the sanitary core, linger until the battlefield is strewn with bits of cells and leaking protoplasm, then move in to clean up after the Malay. What he's saying is that there are warriors inside of you, these white cells, normally 25 billion at one time in the body. But if you get an infection, those 25 billion can multiply 10 times that many right away.

That's one way a doctor can tell whether or not you have an infection. The average white cell lives only about 10 hours, but a few live 60 to 70 years. And some of these white cells have little entities attached to them called antibodies.

That's kind of a bad name because they're not against the body. They're really for the body called antibodies. And these antibodies have a memory.

And that's the reason why they will stay for about 60 or 70 years. And if there ever comes an invader, any kind of a virus or bacteria, this antibody has a memory. It said, I know you. I know your name. I know your rank. I know your serial number.

I know what you're up against. And this antibody tells the right kind of white cell, said, go get him, sick him, get him. And these antibodies have a memory, a wonderful memory. And so they mobilize these white cells in your body to go and attack that enemy. And an antibody will only attack one kind of an enemy.

For example, the antibody against measles would not be an antibody against polio or whatever, but you have all these little antibodies. We're so fearful and wonderful made. And God's got these little gizmos in there. And they're guiding these cells.

You know, it's command central. But Dr. Brandt said that sometimes a person will get a disease from being transported from some foreign land or something, comes over here. And the body doesn't know. It doesn't recognize this invader. Never seen him before.

It doesn't know his name, doesn't know his rank, doesn't know his serial number. It can't, the antibody runs to the lymph glands and says, look, we've got to build some munitions. We've got to get started. We've got an invader. We've got to get ready. Come on, guys, get together.

Come on, let's go, let's go, let's go. But there's a time gap. And the body cannot mobilize and the body cannot get ready. And this invader has come in and there's a time gap and people die because of the time gap, because there's no antibody.

And they're at mercy of this time gap. And then came along Louis Pasteur and Jenner and others. And they learned something about how to immunize people against these diseases. And an immunization is you take a weakened or a tired form of that disease that somebody else has had. And that weakened or tired form has a chemical memory. And you put that from somebody else's body into your body. And then your antibodies have the same memory that that person's antibody has.

And then you're ready to go. For example, smallpox. Smallpox used to be a devastating disease. When Cortez the explorer came and visited the Aztec Indians, he left behind one of the soldiers that had smallpox. And in two years, 4 million of the Aztecs died because they didn't have any antibodies.

They didn't recognize this. Then one day Jenner was talking to a milkmaid. And she said, I'm not afraid of smallpox. He said, why? She said, I've had cowpox.

He got to thinking. And he learned how to immunize by taking a weakened form of a disease and putting it in a human body so that that weakened form of that disease could then mobilize, get the name, rank, and serial number of these invaders and call the army to war. And we virtually eliminated smallpox because of this. And you know what they call that blood that has had this disease and overcome this disease?

I love it. They call it wise blood. Wise blood. We know you.

We're going to get you. Wise blood. Now listen, a person who has been immunized has wise blood. The blood of Jesus is wise blood.

Now that's the whole thing. The blood of Jesus is wise blood. You see, anything Jesus has overcome, we can overcome. John 16 verse 33, these things have I spoken unto you that ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

I have overcome the world. And that's the reason they said over there in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11, speaking of the saints who are coming, doing warfare against Satan, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb.

Satan has no power against the blood of Jesus Christ that flows through his body, which is the church. This is the shared blood. We're not here just to wallow in pain. Jesus said, because I live, you live also. My life is in you. If you don't eat my flesh and drink my blood, you won't have any life in you. Thank God for the constant provision of the blood. Every need I have is in the blood of Jesus. Thank God, friend, for the cleansing power of the blood because all of my sin can be forgiven in the Lord Jesus. Thank God for the conquering power of the blood, the wise blood Jesus has overcome, and so can I. Napoleon, they said Napoleon, after he lost the battle at Waterloo, was in a chart room with some of his generals and they had the map of the world up there and the British Isles were in red and they said, Napoleon took a pointer and pointed to the British Isles that were in red and said, had it not been for that red spot, I would have conquered the world. Surely, surely the devil has to say that about Calvary, doesn't he?

Had it not been for that red spot, I would have conquered the world. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the land. Friend, let that blood that was shed on Calvary now flow through you. Well, you say, pastor, how do you do that?

Read that sixth chapter. Jesus said, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. The word of God is to your spirit what blood is to your body. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Jesus is saying, the flesh profits nothing. I'm not talking about eating my literal flesh and drinking my literal blood. Let my word abide in you. There is power, power, wonder-working power in the precious blood of the land. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus, or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org, or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.