Martin R. DeHaan, M.D. (1891-1965)
The Chemistry Of The Blood
“The life Is In The Blood” —Leviticus 17:11
Martin R. DeHaan, M.D. (1891-1965)
SERMON THREE
"God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." —Acts 17:24-26
One statement in this passage calls for special attention. Paul says that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." The one thing which relates all men to each other is the blood that flows in their veins. Every other part of man's body differs but little from the body and the flesh of animals but the blood is distinct and separate from that of all other creatures. ALL MEN OF ONE BLOOD and that ONE BLOOD was the blood of Father Adam, the first man and the progenitor of the whole human race.
It is not Eve's blood which flows in the veins of mankind but ADAMS. That is why it is ADAM's sin and not Eve's which all men inherit. Sin is in the blood, and transmitted in the blood of man and in the flesh. Since the LIFE is in the blood according to the Scriptures, and the wages of sin was death, sin affected the blood of Adam and caused him to die. Because sin is a disease of the blood, it can be cured by the application of sinless blood, for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. As the first Adam’s sin corrupted the blood of the entire human family, so the pure sinless blood of the last Adam makes atonement for the sin of the world. "For without shedding of blood is no remission . . ." "It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." It was not Eve’s sin which affect us although Eve sinned before Adam did. It was the SIN of ADAM which brought death upon the whole race because it is ADAMS blood that transmits original sin and it is for this reason we are not called the SEED OF THE WOMAN but we are ADAM'S SEED. ONLY Jesus is called the Seed of the woman, because He was born of a woman without one drop of human blood in His veins, and thereby could avoid the sin of Adam which is only transmitted through the blood which the male contributes to his offspring. Jesus could have a human body, but one drop of Adam's blood would have made Him a sinner just as you and I. There was then only one remedy for SIN and that was sinless blood and only one could supply this, even the sinless Son of God.
From Genesis to Revelation we have this message of the atoning blood. In the Old Testament, we have it in type in the blood of the lambs and the goats which were slain in the bloody ritual of Israel. Long, long before the perfect Lamb of God Himself came, the Lord was preparing the world for Him by the multitudinous types in the Old Testament. Without blood there could be no atonement, and until the blood was presented the holy law of God demanded justice and death upon the sinner. That is why, when God gave the two tables of the law to Moses upon Mount Sinai, the law which called for justice and not mercy, the law which said, "The soul that sinneth it shall die," the Law which demanded PERFECTION or death, when God gave the perfect Holy Law He also gave to Moses in the same Mount the pattern for the Tabernacle which was indeed built on blood and its whole ritual was bathed in blood. God knew when He gave to Israel the law that they could not keep it perfectly and MUST DIE and so in mercy He gave the Tabernacle and the altar and the blood so that a sinning people condemned by the Law might have life through the sheltering blood.
THE ARK OF THE COVENANT
The central object of the tabernacle was the Ark of the Covenant. This was an oblong box made of acacia wood and overlaid with God. In this box together with a pot of manna and the rod of Aaron reposed the Law of God which demanded the death of the Israelites. They had broken that law even before Moses had brought it down from the mountain, and that broken Law demanded death. God had made a provision whereby the guilty ones could be spared from death and the penalty of the law. this provision was a mercy seat which rested on top of the ark which contained the Law of God. This mercy seat was a cover made of beaten gold with two Cherubim overshadowing it. This mercy seat was of no avail until the High priest had taken blood from the altar and sprinkled it on the mercy seat over the arc and then when Jehovah came down upon the arc in the Shekinah cloud, He did not see the law but instead the blood and the law was satisfied. And God was reconciled and instead of the curse of the Law He now brought the blessing of the blood for He had said "When I see the blood I will pass over you." There can only be one escape from the curse of the law and the penalty of sin and that is the blood. Take away the blood and death falls. Remove the blood from the Bible and it dies as surely as when you remove the blood from a human body. There can only be one place of shelter and that is under the blood.
THE MEN OF BETH-SHEMESH
God has caused an incident to be recorded from the history of Israel to emphasize this great indispensable proof. You will find the complete record in I Samuel 6. Let me give you this setting. Israel had gone forth to battle against the Philistines and had superstitiously carried this Ark with the broken law and blood covered mercy seat with them into battle, hoping it would give them the victory. Instead they were defeated and the Ark of the Covenant was taken captive by the enemy and set up in the house of Dagon the Philistine Fish God. The next morning the Fish God Dagon had fallen down before the Ark, and the following morning the same occurred severely damaging the Philistine's God. Then an epidemic of terrible boils swept over the enemy country, together with a most grievous plague of mice which together with the boils almost drove them frantic. The priest blamed it all on the Ark and suggested sending it back to the land of Israel, which they did with a great deal of elaborate ceremony. When the Ark arrived back in Israel at the city of Beth-shemesh, drawn by two oxen before a brand new cart, the Israelites rejoiced greatly at the return of the Ark. Someone, concerned deeply about the safety of the Ark and it's contents, lifted the golden mercy seat from the Ark wherein lay the broken law. For just an instant the blood was removed from over the law and God looked upon the law without the protecting cover of blood, and we read the sad, record as found in 1 Samuel 6:19, 20,
"An He (God) smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the arc of the Lord, even He smote the people 50,000 and three score and ten men ..... And the men of Bethshemesh said, Who is able to stand before this HOLY LORD GOD?" —1 Samuel 6:19,20
Because they had removed the blood from over the law, the Lord smote FIFTY THOUSAND and SEVENTY of the inhabitants of the city. Now why is this record given except to emphasize the fact that WITHOUT BLOOD THERE IS NO REMISSION and that the BLOOD is the only guarantee from the curse of the law even death and from the wrath of a Holy God. Think of this for a moment. Over fifty thousand men slain by the wrath of God because they looked for only one brief moment upon the law of God without the covering blood. Now all this, of course, illustrates the plan of salvation. It points forward to the true Lamb of God even The Lord Jesus Christ Himself whose blood alone was able to make eternal atonement for sin. Please do not overlook the fact that the blood upon the mercy seat in the tabernacle must be applied again and again. Each year on the day of the atonement, the High Priest must repeat the ceremony and present fresh blood to be sprinkled on the Arc. The blood of bulls and goats and lambs could not atone for sin, but merely pointed forward to the one that would come in the end of that age to PUT AWAY SIN by the sacrifice of Himself.
GOD'S PERFECT LAMB
So in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son into the world to be born of a woman, and at the end of His life He shed His precious eternal blood ONCE and for all. After that there was no more sacrifice. The blood of the sacrificial animals of the Old Testament was corruptible and decayed and was soon gone, but the blood shed on Calvary was imperishable blood. It is called incorruptible. Peter says,
"Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ. . . . ."
The blood of the Lord Jesus is sinless blood, and since it is sinless, it is incorruptible, for sin brought corruption, and where no sin is there is no corruption. In our next message, we shall point out how the blood which flowed in Jesus’ body was sinless and how He escaped having one single drop of Adam's human blood within Him. Every drop of blood which flowed in Jesus’ body is still in existence just as fresh as it was when it flowed from His wounded brow and hands and feet and side. The blood that flowed from His unbroken skin in Gethsemane, the blood that was smeared about His back as the cruel, weighted thongs cut through His flesh as the flagellator scourged Him, the blood that oozed out under the thorny crown and flowed from His hands, His head, His feet was never destroyed for it was incorruptible blood. David in speaking of Him in the sixteenth Psalm which Peter quotes in Acts 2, says:
"Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption."
Although the body of the Lord Jesus Christ lay in the tomb in death for three days and three nights, no corruption had set in for that body contained incorruptible blood. Lazarus being dead only one day more was said by his sister to be STINKING with corruption, but this one saw no corruption because the only cause of corruption, SINFUL BLOOD, was absent from His flesh. That blood, every drop of it, is still in existence. Maybe when the Priest ascended into heaven, He went like the High Priest of old into the Holy of Holies in the presence thereof God to sprinkle the blood upon the Mercy Seat in heaven of which the material Mercy Seat and Ark in the Tabernacle were merely copies. In Hebrews 9:23-26 we read.
"It was therefore necessary that the "patterns of things in the heavens (referring to the earthly Tabernacle) should be purified with these (that is, the blood of beasts); but the heavenly things themselves with BETTER SACRIFICES THAN THESE. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the High Priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others . . . but now once in the end of the age hath he appeared to PUT AWAY SIN by the sacrifice of himself." —Hebrews 9:23-26
After Christ had made the atonement, He arose from the tomb, and then as the eternal High Priest, ascended into heaven to present the blood in the Holy of Holies where God dwells, and that blood is there today pleading for us and prevailing for us. The priest in the Tabernacle never spoke a word. All he did was PRESENT THE blood, and that was enough. MAYBE there is a golden chalice in heaven where every drop of that precious blood is still in existence, just as pure, just as potent, just as fresh as two thousand years ago. The priest in the earthly Tabernacle needed to repeat the sprinkling again and again and it is a significant fact that among all the pieces of the furniture of the Tabernacle there was no chair to be found. We read of the altar, the table, the candlestick, and the Ark, but there is no chair in the Tabernacle of Israel. It simply signifies that the work of the earthly priest who sprinkled the blood of animal sacrifice was never done. He could not sit down. His work was never finished. Of the Great High Priest Jesus Christ, we read:
"But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, SAT DOWN on the right hand of God. . . . . For by one offering he hath perfected FOREVER them that are sanctified." —Hebrews 10:12,14
The blood has been shed. The incorruptible, eternal, divine, sinless, overcoming, precious blood. It availed then, and it avails now and throughout all eternity it shall never lose its power.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose it's power,
Till all the ransomed church of God
Be saved, to sin no more.
Because of all this, the blood is called in Scripture by many descriptive names. “It is precious,” says Peter. “It is incorruptible,” says David. “It is overcoming blood,” says John in Revelation "for they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." No wonder Satan hates the blood and will do anything to get rid of that power of the blood of Christ.
Today, it is as true as in the day of Israel, that there is no remission without the blood. When the men of Bethshemesh looked upon the Law of God without blood, they perished. Today the Law has not changed its character, nor the blood. The Law still is the "ministration of death." (2 Corinthians 3:7). It is still true that "cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." They that are of the works of the law are under the curse. The Law killeth (2 Corinthians 3:6).
ONLY THE BLOOD
God said to Israel and to us, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." He did not say, “When I see your goodness, your morality, your works, your fervent religious worship, your earnestness in trying to keep the Ten Commandments or observe the Golden Rule." No, it is simply this, "When I see the blood I will pass over you." Do you think that I have made too much of the blood, that have I over-emphasized its importance? Listen, blood is mentioned in the Bible about Seven Hundred Times from Genesis to Revelation, and when we see the redeemed throng in heaven in the book of Revelation, we hear them singing, not about their goodness, not about how they have kept the law and been faithful, but this is the song,
"Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood." —Revelation 1:5
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing blood,
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are your garment spotless, are the white as snow,
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
END OF ARTICLE
Edifying Quotes by Martin R. DeHaan, M.D.
"Before an individual can be saved, he must first learn that he cannot save himself."
"We need not all agree, but if we disagree, let us not be disagreeable in our disagreements."
"Be on guard against any tampering with the Word, whether disguised as a search for truth, or a scholarly attempt at apparently hidden meanings; and beware of the confusion created by the senseless rash of new versions, translations, editions, and improvements upon the tried and tested Bible of our fathers and grandfathers.""The true Church preaches REGENERATION; not reformation, not education, not legislation, but regeneration."
SOURCE: THE TABERNACLE, Pg. 101
"Let me repeat that no greater curse has ever afflicted the Church of Jesus Christ than the curse of spiritualizing Scripture, that is, making Scripture mean something other than its literal meaning... Instead of spiritualizing, it is 'demonizing' of the Scriptures, for if any 'spirit' has anything to do with that school of Scripture interpretation it must be an 'evil spirit.'
No, the Scriptures were not given to us to confuse us but rather to instruct us. Certainly God intends that we should believe His Word with all simplicity. A thousand years means a thousand years; a wolf means a wolf; a lion means a lion. If you read your Bible that way, a child can understand it."
SOURCE: THE SECOND COMING OF JESUS, pg. 82,83; by M.R. DeHaan; 1944; ISBN: 0-8254-2483-6
