Alright, let's turn our Bibles
to Exodus 29. Exodus chapter 29. Hey Scott, would you mind getting me a glass
of water? Rob asked me if I wanted to bring
two messages this morning and I told him I wanted to practice
preaching the empty pews first and maybe next week we could
bring two messages. So I will be sending out an email
to everybody so that I have a few more things to say about these
meetings we're going to have. So I'll be sending that out this
week. Now Exodus 29, we read here in
the first verse it says, this is the thing that thou shalt
do unto them to hallow them, to sanctify them, to make them
holy, to minister unto me in the priest's office. Now, in
order for a filthy sinner to be received of God, we must be
hallowed. We must be made holy. We must
be sanctified. God is holy. We're unholy. So for God to receive us, we
have to be made holy. but involved in that process
or in that work is making us righteous before the law. Now,
theologians go to great lengths to distinguish between justification
and sanctification, and they are different, but you cannot
be sanctified and made holy without being made righteous. They're
so vitally connected that in order for us to be made holy
and pure within, we have to be made righteous before the law.
Grace reigns through righteousness, scripture said, through Jesus
Christ our Lord. And so sanctification and righteousness
are so vitally connected that as we look here at how the priests
were hallowed, how they were sanctified, we see a picture
of how God's elect are also justified, justified from all sin. So let's
read it here in Exodus 29 and verse one. He says, take one
young bullock, and we'll just look at this part, and in verse
10, he says, and thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before
the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron and his son shall put
their hands upon the head of the bullet, and thou shalt kill
the bullet before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of
the congregation. And thou shalt take of the blood
of the bullet and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy
finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar.
and thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and
the call that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the
fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar. But the
flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou
burn with fire without the count." It is a sin offering. And so our subject this morning
is Christ our sin offering. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
sin offering for His people by whom we're made holy and righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ. Now first
of all, this bullock had to be without blemish. Back up in verse
1, it says, take one young bullock and two rams without blemish. That means they had no spot.
within them. They would put these bullets
up and they would look at them and examine them very well to
make sure there was no spot anywhere in the bullet. They would, they
were so meticulous about it, they would even look and make
sure there was not even one little hair that was a different color
from the rest of the bullet. And the reason for that is, is
the Lord Jesus Christ had to be the spotless Lamb of God. Whenever John saw Christ coming
unto him, he said, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. He's that one pictured here in
this bullock, in this lamb that was offered. Now, in order for
Christ to be the sin offering, he could have no sin. If he's
going to take the place of another sinner, he can have no sin himself. That's why you and I cannot bear
the sin of others because we're sinners. We're guilty already. He had to be holy and without
blame before the law so that he could take our place, the
place of God's elect on the cross and bear our sin. Now, the law
made men priests who had infirmities. That means they were sinners.
And so these men had to first offer an offering for their sin
before they could offer a sin for the people. Now we read about
that over in Hebrews 7. If you want to look there, Hebrews
7 verse 26. It tells us, for such a high
priest became us who is holy. harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens, who needeth not
daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for
his own sins, then for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmity. But the word of the oath, which
was since the law, maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. So we see the significance of
this lamb being spotless. It pictured the Lord Jesus Christ
spotless. That's why he was born of a virgin,
that he would be the spotless lamb of God. Now secondly, the
sins of his people were laid on Christ. he was made the sin
of his people. Verse 10, Exodus 29, 10, he says,
And thou shalt cause a bullet to be brought before the tabernacle
of the congregation, and Aaron and his son shall put their hands
upon the head of the bullet, and thou shalt kill the bullet
before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation was the most open place for this to take place. It was right before all the people. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ was
lifted up on a cross publicly for all to see. It wasn't done
in a corner, it was public, just like this offering was public.
And when they laid their hands, when these priests came and they
laid their hands on the head of this bullet in type, in picture,
in ceremony, it was saying two things. One, it was saying they
were one with that bullock. And two, it was saying that that
bullock was made to bear their sin. Their sin was transferred
from them to the bullock. This was in type, this was in
picture. Now, all God's elect are one
in Christ. We were all in Christ the Lord
the same as all mankind was in Adam in the garden. All God's
elect were in Christ. That's why Paul could say, both
he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. So he's not ashamed to call us
brethren. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. I am. I was in Christ
when He was crucified. I am crucified with Him. He said,
reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God. How's that? Because we were in
Christ when He died. We were in Christ when He rose
again. We're one with Christ. One with Christ. And God made
Christ, who is the spotless lamb, he made him sin for all his elect
people. Isaiah 53, 6 says, all we like
sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.21,
He hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin. There we got the
spotless Lamb of God who knew no sin. And then we have the
sins laid on Him. He was made sin for us. And He
was done that way that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. Now that was the purpose for
which Christ came. He came to manifest the righteousness
of God in making His elect righteous. That's what Christ came to do.
And we see God's righteousness typified here. This bullet was
not slain while as yet it was spotless. This bullet was not
slain until the sins of the priest were laid on the bullet. Now
you and I who have been saved by God's grace are priests unto
God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, the
spotless Lamb of God, was not slain on the cross until He was
made to bear our sin. He knew no sin. He came into
this world holy, without blame. So our spotless Lord Jesus Christ
was not crucified until He was made sin for us. God is the just
judge. Turn with me to Proverbs 17.
God is the just judge. That means He only condemns those where
sin is found and He will not condemn one where sin is not
found. He only condemns where sin is
found. And it will not condemn where
sin is not found. That's why he says in Romans
5.13, after he said we were made sin in Adam, he said, but the
law is not imputed, or sin is not imputed where there is no
law. There has to be sin under the law, there has to be sin
on a person before God will impute sin to them. And his point was,
we really were made sin in Adam. Well, Christ really was made
sin for us. And here's why. Proverbs 17,
verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination
to the Lord. You see that? That's why Christ
had to be made sin. There's no other way that He
could have been manifesting the righteousness of God. God will
not justify the wicked and He will not condemn the just. That's
abomination to God. That's not righteous. And so
when the sins were ceremonially laid on that bullock, not until
then, But when they were laid on that bullock, then that bullock
was slain. Picturing Christ, bearing our
sin and justice being justly poured out on Him in place of
His people. Now, how was Adam made sin? Somebody will say, well, he broke
the law. Well, that was the cause. for
which he was made sin. But how was he actually made
sin? How was it that his eyes were
opened, and he saw he was naked, and he saw he was guilty, and
he hid from God, and he wouldn't answer God when God called him?
What made that happen? Well, God took his spirit from
Adam. He took his spirit from Adam.
And when he took his spirit from Adam, Adam's nature became corrupt. Well, we know Christ would never
break the commandment of God. He never broke a commandment
of God. That's why scripture says, he
hath made him sin. He made him to be so. He didn't
break the law. God laid on him the iniquity
of his people. But our substitute, he had the
Spirit without measure. Before he went to the cross,
he had the Spirit without measure. After he went to the cross, he
manifested the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection, by him entering
into the Holy of Holies and offering himself without spot to God through
the eternal Spirit. But, when he was in the Garden
of Gethsemane, it says an angel came and strengthened him. not
the Spirit of God, an angel came and strengthened Him. And what
I'm saying to you is, is when our Lord Jesus went to the cross,
He said, I tread the winepress alone. I tread the winepress
alone. He said, cast me not away from
thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Why did
God remove His presence from him? We know He did because Christ
cried out, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? We know
He took His Holy Spirit from him. Now that's a mystery. We can't explain that, but why
did He do that? Why did He do it? Look at 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1. Here's why He did that. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse
9. Here is what hell will be. This is the living death of hell
right here. It says verse 9, who shall be
punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. That means God will remove his
presence from men. and from the glory of His power. He'll move His presence and He'll
remove the glory of His power from men. And that's what Christ
was suffering on the cross. That's why He cried out, My God,
My God, why hast thou forsaken Me? God removed His presence
and He removed His power from our Redeemer so that on that
cross He was suffering the death of hell that His people deserved. That's what He was suffering.
He said, Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest
not. And in the night season, and am not silent, why would
God not hear him? He said, but thou art holy, O
thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. We see God's righteousness
in that. Well preacher, are you saying
that our Lord Jesus Christ's nature was corrupted on the cross?
No. No, when God removed the presence
and power of his spirit from Adam, his nature was corrupt. But that shows us why Christ
is so superior to Adam. He's not really a man, he's the
God-man. He's the God-man. And when the
Lord removed His presence from our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
was forsaken of God, Christ remained holy in His heart. His Godhead
held up His humanity and He remained holy in His heart while as yet
He bore the sin of His people. The Psalms reveal that. They
show us Christ never ceasing to pray to the Father from His
holy heart. And we hear that pure heart in
Psalm 22 verse 7. Listen to this. He said, All
they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip,
they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he
would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he
delighted in him. Now listen to Christ. Listen
to this. This is a holy heart faithfully looking to the Father
even when the Father has withdrawn his presence from him. He said,
but thou art he that took me out of the womb. Thou didst make
me whole when I was upon my mother's breast. I was cast upon thee
from the womb. Thou art my God from my mother's
belly. Be not far from me, for trouble
is near, for there is none to help. and there was none to help. Not even the Spirit of God helped
our Redeemer. He tread the winepress of the
fury of God's wrath alone and yet remained holy in His heart
as He bore the sin of His people. Why is that important? We don't
just argue things like this if there's not some importance to
it. Why is it important? There's two sides to the law
that have to be fulfilled. There's an active side and there's
a passive side. And our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
both of those things on the cross. They both had to be accomplished
in order for the law to be fulfilled. One, Christ's people had to die
the negative, passive side of the law by dying that living
death of hell on the cross. That's why Christ had the sin
of His people laid on Him so that justice could be poured
out on Him and He could justify us from our sins by dying that
death for us. But number two, we had to also
fulfill the active side of the law, that positive side of the
law. And the only way that could be fulfilled is in perfect faith,
perfect love from a perfectly holy heart. and both were accomplished
in Christ for His people. He's the perfection of our faith
from the Holy Heart. He's Jesus Christ who is the
faithful witness, the Amen, the faithful and true witness. That's
who He is. He said, Thou wilt not leave
my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption. And He's also the perfection
of our justification. The God of our fathers has chosen
thee that thou shouldest know His will and see that just one. And shouldest hear the voice
of His mouth. Christ satisfied and upheld the
justice of God for His people. And He fulfilled the active side
of the law in perfect love to God and perfect love to His people. That's the righteousness of the
law. So he fulfilled the law entirely. Entirely. And he put our sins completely
away by his blood. That's what we see here in verse
12. Exodus 29, 12. And thou shalt take of the blood
of the bullet and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy
finger. The horns represent strength. And the blood of Christ is our
strength before the law of God. And he says, and pour all the
blood beside the bottom of the altar. Without the shedding of
blood, there's no remission of sin. This is what we have pictured
here. Our Lord Jesus, by His blood,
remitting the sins of His people. Now this was not in type when
our Lord did it. It wasn't a shadow when our Lord
did it. It wasn't ceremonial when our Lord did it. Our Lord
Jesus had to personally be without sin, and He was. He had to personally
be made sin for his people, and he was. He had to personally
bear the justice of God for his people, and he did. He had to
actively fulfill that law with a perfect love and perfect faith
from a perfectly holy heart, and he did. And he had to die,
and he did. And so the Scripture says, He
being the brightness of God's glory, and the express image
of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His
power, when He had by Himself purged our sins. There was none
with Him. The Father wasn't with Him on
the cross. The Spirit of God wasn't with Him on the cross.
No angels were with Him on the cross. No man was with Him on
the cross. He by Himself purged our sins. and then sat down at the right
hand of the Father because the work was finished. He put away
our sins. And we see here that Christ actively
gave the law that perfect love we're talking about. That which
is the righteousness of the law. He gave it perfect love. He perfectly
loved the Father and He perfectly loved His people. And we see
that here. He did this from within, from
a holy heart. Verse 13. And thou shalt take
all the fat that covereth the inwards. Where's holiness? It's within. It's from a perfectly
holy heart. Take that which covereth the
inwards and the call that's above the liver and the two kidneys
and the fat that's upon them and burn them upon the altar.
And that smoke went up. And you know how fat smells when
you're cooking a steak out on the grill? It smells good. And
the scripture says, walk in love as Christ also has loved us and
given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a
sweet smelling savor. Next time, we're going to see
the burnt offering. And that's what the burnt offering
pictured. But we see it here too with a
sin offering. because it had to be from a perfectly
holy heart. This is why the Lord is well-pleased
for His righteousness sake. He magnified the law. He made
the law honorable by what He did. Now, thirdly, the outward
parts were burned without the camp. Let's look here at verse
14. He says, but the flesh of the
bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire
without the camp. And this whole thing was a sin
offering. But the flesh, the skin, the dung, they burn it
without the camp. They burn it with fire. We're
told one significance of this in Hebrews 13. Turn there with
me. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13 verse 10 tells us... Well, let's read verse 9. Be
not carried about with different and strange doctrines. For it's
a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with
meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein. We have an altar. We have an
altar. where if they have no right to
eat, would serve the tabernacle. Folks that are still trying to
come to God by the works of the law. The reason theologians like
to divide righteousness from sanctification is because they
say that Christ alone fulfilled the righteousness of the law,
but now sanctification is between you and Christ. Those are folks
who are still serving the tabernacle. They're still trying to come
to God by the works of the law. They have no right to eat of
our altar. Our altar is Christ. Watch this. He says, Verse 11, For the bodies
of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by
the high priest for sin are burned without the count. That's what
our text said, without the camp, that's where they're burned.
Now here's what it means. Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify, you see that? That he might hallow the people
with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Christ Jesus
suffered without the gate in order to sanctify his people.
Well, I thought we were looking at a sin offering here by which
we're made righteous. We are, but he also sanctified
his people by that offering. You can't separate sanctification
and righteousness. They're just so vitally connected.
Because to fulfill the law outwardly, you have to do it from a perfectly
holy heart. And only Christ did that. Now
look at this. Here's what the admonition to
us is. Let us, verse 13, Hebrews 13,
13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the count bearing
his reproach. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks unto His name. You see, that's what
God's interested in. He's not interested in your works
whereby you're trying to make yourself holy and righteous and
accepted of Him. He's pleased with us offering
up the calves of our lips continually, praising His Son because His
Son accomplished that work for His people. That's the sacrifice
God's pleased with. Sacrifice of praise to Him instead
of the sacrifice of offerings by our works. He wants the sacrifice
of praise. Praise for His Son. Now those
priests, look there at Hebrews 10. Those priests offered not
themselves. They offered animals that could
never take away sin. That's why their sacrifices had
to be repeated over and over every year. But Christ offered
himself. Our Lord Jesus offered himself,
his whole human nature, soul and body in union with his divine
nature. And He did so freely, He did
so voluntarily in place of His people. He satisfied justice,
He fulfilled the law, took away sin, brought in complete righteousness
for everyone for whom He died. In other words, He accomplished
this work of hallowing His people. He accomplished this work of
making righteous, perfect, all them that are sanctified. Look
here at Hebrews 10 and verse 11. Every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. That's still going on in our
day. It's going on in Baptist churches. It's going on in Presbyterian
churches. It's going on in Catholicism. Men are offering up works of
their hands trying to please God. And they can never take
away sin. No works you and I do can ever
take away sin. How then are we going to be made
righteous and holy before God? Verse 12, But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool, because by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And this is what the Holy Spirit
bears witness of. When Christ enters in and sanctifies
us within. He doesn't make you turn to yourself
and look for righteousness and holiness. He makes you, when
you're truly sanctified, He makes you look to Christ for righteousness
and holiness. Of God is He made unto us righteousness
and sanctification. And we look out of ourselves
to Him. Now sinner, Anybody listening
to this, that's a sinner. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn from your works, turn from
trying to please God by your works, by your morality, and
by your worth. Turn from you and trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. He is the righteousness of God
to everyone that believes. And for you who believe Him,
Don't ever look anywhere but to the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't
cease believing Him. Don't look anywhere else. No
matter what kind of reproach you have to bear, stay without
the camp. Leave religion. Leave it entirely
and go to Christ and stay on Him. He is our salvation. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our great God and our Father,
we thank you for blessing us with this message. We thank you,
Lord, for giving us a way that we can broadcast this under these
circumstances. Lord, thank you that you provided
us with this means before you sent the virus. Lord, we trust
you'll bless this and bless it to the hearts of your people
at home, and we pray that you will do that as only you can. Lord, make Christ to be exalted
in the hearts of each person who hears this. Make us rejoice,
make us see that he's the only way, the only way to come to
you. The only way we can be made righteous
and holy. Lord, we pray for your people
everywhere. We pray for our brothers and
sisters of this congregation. Pray, Lord, weeks to come that
you'd keep us communicating with each other and speaking back
and forth by telephone and keep us from being isolated. And Lord,
help us to continue to tune in and worship you and give you
this sacrifice of praise, giving Christ all the glory and all
the honor. Forgive us, Lord, of our sins.
We ask it in Christ's precious name. Amen.