Once again, it is indeed a privilege
to be here. I'm so thankful for this time
we have together and our time to look into God's Word, and
we pray that He'll speak to us today. I am very thankful that
I live in the day that I live in. But if I'd lived in the time
that we're gonna read about here in the book of Numbers today,
and the Lord was gracious and saved me as He did save me, I
would find that all these sacrifices were only types, shadows, and
pictures because He would have revealed to me in that time the
same thing that He revealed to me in this time, that there was
no efficacy in any of the multitude of sacrifices that took place
in the Old Testament. Now we're going to be in the
book of Numbers today, chapters 28 and 29. Numbers chapter 28 and 29. Now we very seldom take that
much of the scripture at a time, but we are this morning because
they speak of so much of the very same thing, and that is
the multitudious of sacrifices that were instituted by God that
Israel was to do and perform. Now, here in the book of Numbers
chapter 28, Numbers chapter 28, and we want to look at chapter
28 and chapter 29 today. Not all the verses, but we want
to look at those that share with us these things about the sacrifices. Now in chapter 28 we have, I
believe it�s five different times that sacrifices were offered.
There was the daily sacrifice, or sacrifices, there was the
Sabbath sacrifices, there was the monthly offerings and sacrifices,
there was the Passover offerings and sacrifices, and there was
the offering of the Feast of Weeks. And if we get into chapter
29, we find that there was the offerings for the Feast of Trumpets,
the offerings for the Day of Atonement, and the offerings
for the Feast of Booths. Now, I�d like to pick out a few
verses out of these chapters and read them because they enumerate
the many, many offerings that God required. He requested, yes,
but He required them And it tells us here in the book of Numbers
chapter 28 verse 2, Command the children of Israel and say unto
them, My offering and my bread for my sacrifice is made by fire
for a sweet savor unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in
their due season." One of the translations shares with us this,
give the instructions to the people of Israel, the offerings
you present to me by fire on the altar are my food. and they are very pleasing to
me." Well, God Almighty is telling us without any reservation that
these are a picture and a type and a shadow of Him who was to
come, who had been promised before the foundation of the world in
the covenant of grace to come and take care of the sins of
His people. Well, read with me here in verses
3 now, And thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made
by fire, which ye shall offer unto the LORD two lambs of the
first year without spot, day by day, for a continual burnt
offering. The one lamb shalt thou offer
in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer in the
evening. Now, these are the daily sacrifices that were to take
place, but we also found when we went through the book of Numbers
that there would be sacrifices brought by individuals who God
caused them to understand that they were sinners before God.
And they pictured that their necessity of their redemption
was based upon the sacrifice of a lamb. Now, this did not
take away their sin, but it was a picture of it. You know, from
time to time, and I've mentioned this a number of times, from
time to time, we go down to the river in the act of baptism. And we don't worship baptism.
It is no more to be worshipped than any of these sacrifices
were to be worshipped. It is to be observed. It is to
be taken care of. God will move upon His people
to go through that rite. And then, from time to time,
we take care and have the Lord's Supper. And we don't worship
the bread, we don't worship the wine. They are typical, they're
pictorial of what we have in Christ, that he is our bread
of life and his blood delivered us from our sin and so forth.
But we don't worship that. We have no dependence upon that
for any of our salvation. And those who knew God, those
who had God reveal Christ to them in the Old Testament, they
looked at these sacrifices exactly the same way. They were to be
offered, they were typical, they were pictorial, and they certainly
demonstrate that blood was necessary to take away
sin, but not this blood. You know, the scriptures tell
us that not by the blood of bulls and goats could sin be taken
away. There is no deliverance from
sin in the blood of any animal sacrifice. There is no hope in any of those
things. We find, in fact, that if we
have an eye for Christ, you cannot but see the agony of redeeming
his people as pictured in the description of burnt offerings.
They slew the animal. They collected the blood of the
animal, and some of them, they dressed out to certain parts,
and some went to the Levites for their food, but they were
placed on an altar, and the fire was given, and they consumed
that sacrifice absolutely and totally. There was nothing left,
and thus it is when we look at our Savior, the Lord Jesus, that
when He went to the cross, and when He cried, It is finished,
He had been totally consumed before Almighty God, and justice
had been served upon Him, and therefore He could say, It is
finished. there will be no more sacrifices
like this. We don t need any more pictures.
And above that, sin has been put away totally and completely
for everyone that I hung on this cross for. Now, there are many
that are not going to be beneficial to the blessings of Christ s
cross, Those whose names were not written in the Lamb's Book
of Life have no benefit in the blood of Jesus Christ. But everyone
that He went to the cross for, His blood is absolutely able
to put away sin time and for eternity. And they will all be
presented before Him without sin. As we look through here
in chapter 28 and verse 9, it says this, that on the Sabbath
day, two lambs of the first year without spot and two-tenth deals
of flour for a meat offering, mingled with oil and drink thereof,
we have here the Sabbath offerings, and then if you'll drop down
to verse 11, and in the beginning of your months you shall offer
a burnt offering unto the Lord, two young bullocks and one ram,
seven lambs of the first year without spot, and verse 15 of
that chapter it says, and one kid of the goats for a sin offering
unto the Lord shall be offered besides the continual burnt offering,
and his drink offering and verse 18 of that chapter and the first
day shall ye holy convocation this is the feast of unleavened
bread the Passover offering and holy convocation shall do no
work And ye shall offer a sacrifice, verse 19, made by fire for a
burnt offering of the Lord, two young bullets, one ram, seven
lambs of the first year, and then shall ye be without blemish. And verse 22 of that chapter,
it says, and one goat for a sin offering to make an atonement
for you. And verse 26 of that chapter,
it says, also in the day of the first fruits, this is the offering
of the Feast of Weeks, When you bring a new meat offering unto
the Lord after your weeks be out you shall have a holy Convocation
you should do no servile work time and time and time again
through these two chapters alone But throughout the entire Bible
we find out that works have nothing to do with this there is no work
work is a set-aside no work will prevail over before God. None
of our works will prevail, not by works of righteousness which
we had done, but according to His mercy He saves us. Now the
work is God's, the work is Christ's, the work is to be performed by
Him. Verse 27, And ye shall offer a burnt offering for a sweet
savour unto the Lord, two young bullocks, one ram, seven lambs
of the first year, and verse 30, and one kid of the goats,
and make an atonement for you. Next chapter, please. Chapter
29. It tells us in verse 2, the Feast of Trumpets. Now, the Feast
of Trumpets is such a declarative message. All of these have that.
You know, the Feast of the daily offerings every day to the believer
is a day of thanksgiving. Every day to a believer, we're
to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Thank God for what He�s done
on the behalf of the church. And then there�s those Sabbath
offerings. You remember, you know, to me when I read this
about the Sabbath offerings, I�m reading about God who is
the Creator of all, and He is the one that rested, and that
illustration is given to us in the book of Hebrews that Christ
is our rest. We rest in Him. It's not a labor. We cease from our own works. And then we find the Passover,
a picture of the Lamb of God taking away the sin of His people.
And here we get to the Feast of the Trumpets. We find that
there's a gospel call. These trumpets were pictorial.
silver hammered out out of one piece, trumpets to call and to
bring to mind the things that were going on in the camp, whether
there be peace, whether there be war, whether to move, whether
to stop. The trumpet went out and we find that the gospel message
has been given out since the time that God spoke to Adam and
Eve in the Garden of Eden and clothed them with the clothing
that was acceptable in his sight. It has been a gospel trumpet
ever since then, and it has been clear and distinct. There is,
as we heard this morning in the Bible class, anything added to
the gospel, anything taken away from the gospel makes it not
the gospel. The Apostle Paul wrote to the
Galatians, and he says, I'm so, I'm marveled that you are so
soon turned from him. to another gospel, which is not
a gospel. We add anything, any of our works,
any of our righteousness, anything to the blood of Christ, and it
makes it null and void. It's not our decision. It's not
coming forward. I bought a Bible over here at
St. Vinny's the other day, and I
opened it up, and right here in the very beginning, here is
the sinner's prayer. If you sign it, you've been saved,
and here's how to, on and on. What a sham. What, how terrible
that is. And yet people believe that's
the way God saves His people. That it's only up to them. That if God, it's not comforting
at all to find out, if you get to the end of your life and find
out God has done all He could do and now it's up to you. That
is only a lost person's prayer. God, I want you to do everything.
it's necessary in order for us to be redeemed. Alright, in verse
2 of this chapter it says, And ye shall offer an offering of
sweet savour unto the LORD one young bullock, one ram, seven
lambs of the first year. Verse 8, we have here, It shares
with us on the Day of Atonement, it says, But ye shall offer a
burnt offering unto the LORD for a sweet saver, one young
bullock, one ram, seven lambs of the first year, without blemish.
And it tells us there in verse 11, And one of the kid goats
for a sin offering. Verse 13, You shall offer a burnt
offering, a sacrifice made by fire, a sweet savor unto the
Lord, thirteen young bullocks, two rams, and fourteen lambs
of the first year. We have the Feast of Booths,
and every day we have this offering to be given during this period
of time. You go down through here, we
find that the numbers of sacrifices that God imposed upon Israel,
and not one of those sacrifices took away sin. Do you know, when
we find out all these sacrifices took place, when a man is found
picking up sticks on a Sabbath day, he stoned to death. Why? Look at the sacrifices that have
been made. All of these numbers of animal sacrifices and a man
picking up sticks on the Sabbath day is stoned to death. All these
sacrifices took place and a young man who is belligerent against
his parents and cannot be controlled was turned over to the people,
the judges, and they stoned that boy to death even though all
those sacrifices took place. Not one of the Ten Commandments
was ever gone unjudged, even with all those sacrifices. You know, it doesn't take us
long to thank God Almighty for finding in His great wealth of
wisdom a sacrifice that would make a difference. Turn with
me, if you would, to the book of Hebrews 10. In Hebrews 10,
we find that we�re reminded, this new generation that came
along, most of these people that these two chapters are given
to were people that did not come out of Egypt. These are people
that were either young children, but they did not come out of
Egypt in that old generation. And God is reviewing what He's
already given unto them in the book of Leviticus, in the first
part of the book of Numbers. He's reviewing for them and going
over it again. And we find that He's reminding
them, and we find through chapters 28 and chapter 29, the absolute
enormous value of Jesus Christ. Turn with me here to the book
of Hebrews chapter 10. In Hebrews chapter 10, we find
these glorious words are given to us by the Holy Spirit to the
writer, the secretary. It says, verse 10 of chapter
10, By the which will we are sanctified through the offering
of the body of Christ once for, you know, I read that to my mother
one time, she said, see right there, it says once for everybody,
once for all. I says, no, this is time. It's
not people, it's time. Once for all time. One sacrifice
for sin, one time. Jesus Christ went to the cross
at the appointed time and he did what he did there with great
enormity and took away and put away sin. Every, verse 11, every
priest standeth daily ministering, offering and offering oftentimes
the same sacrifices which could never take away sins. It doesn't
take long in reading chapters 28 and 29 of the book of Numbers
to find out just how many sacrifices there were. You know, I tried
to figure out over 40 years how many sacrifices were given, and
I got close to 40,000 animals were sacrificed. Now, on the
day that the temple was dedicated, there were thousands offered
on that very day. And you know what? Not one took
away sin. Here we read about someone, the
priest, standeth daily, weekly, monthly, and on all of these
feast times, offering this multitudious number of sacrifices. But in
verse 12 of this chapter, it says, but this man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sins forever. How did we know
that it was accepted? How do we know that it was effectual?
How do you know that it was efficacious? How do you know? He's sitting
at the right hand of the Father. He came out of that tomb victorious. It says here, this man, after
he'd offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the
right hand of God. It was accepted. God was pleased. You know, when we get down to
it, we really find out that the salvation of the elect of Christ
did more for the Father than it did for us. The Father was pleased. Sin could
be taken care of. Forgiveness could be given. This
is the Father's business. You know why? Because He was
the offended party. We're the offending party, and
He was the offended party. He needs much more taken care
of than we do, but when He is taken care of, when He has all
this given to Him by His Son, the Lord Jesus on the cross,
He has His faithfulness given, He has His blood shed, when He
is there doing what God had appointed them to do in the covenant of
grace, God is satisfied, you know? Our sins are taken care
of? Yes. We have promise of eternal
life? Yes. But God the Father is pleased,
and He's so pleased that He welcomed His Son back into glory. What
Christ did for God resulted in God doing something for us. You
know, most religion has it all turned around. What we do for
God, then God will bless us. No, what Christ did for God,
then God can bless us. That's the only way that we can
be blessed. What he did when Christ offered
himself to God, our sin was judged, forgiven, and put away. In all
of this, Christ pleased God. And as a result, God can be pleased
with us. Not in ourself, but in Christ
Jesus alone. Isaac Watts wrote many years
ago a hymn. Not all the blood of beasts on
Jewish altar slain could give the guilty conscience peace,
nor wash away one's stain. All of those hundreds, thousands
of animals that were sacrificed over those 40 years, and then
when they went into the land of promise, it continued on.
You know, like so often happens though, We find out that even
though they offered the sacrifices, they had no interest in their
heart about what they were doing. It became mechanical. It became
just something to do. I would like you to turn with
me, if you would, to the book of Amos. To the book of Amos,
chapter 5. In retrospect, when we are privileged
to look back, when we have another prophet, given this authorship
by the Holy Spirit to give us a commentary about all those
sacrifices that took place. Here in the book of Amos, small
book of the Old Testament, but this too is the gospel. Amos
chapter 5. In Amos chapter 5 verse 25, it
tells us these words. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices
and burnt offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch, and shew in your
images the star of your God, which ye made to yourselves.
Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus,
saith the Lord, whose name is the God of hosts. In reality,
the bulk of these people were offering these sacrifices in
their heart. Not to God, but to their own
idols. You have offered these, you know,
the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,
and we do the strangest thing with our heart. Everything we
have to deal with is a heart condition. We have sin in our
heart and God alone can deal with the sin of our heart. And
you know how he does that? He gives us a new heart. He never
tries to reform the old heart. He never tries to remold the
old heart. He gives us a new heart. And
that heart is caused to love God. Now you know and I know
some days we're just thankful that that's the part that God
gives us because we say, Lord, is that right? You ever complained
about the weather? Who gives the weather? Who is
in charge of the weather? Who gives us the snow and the
sunshine? Who gives us 120 degree weather? Who gives us zero weather, zero
degree weather? It's not us. And I'll tell you
right up front, it's not because of some cataclysmic event here
on the earth. It's God that gives us the weather.
cold, hot, and then some days I wake up and I say, oh no, I
didn't want it to rain today, I wanted to go fishing. Well,
Lord, thank you that you are the ruler of my heart and what
you did has been imputed to me and I can carry it to the grave.
In the book of Acts, would you read with me in the book of Acts,
again, a commentary on those Old Testament sacrifices that
were given. In the book of Acts, chapter
seven, The book of Acts chapter 7, and I want to begin reading
with verse 40 of this. The whole chapter is a wonderful
commentary on the Old Testament given by the Holy Spirit through
our friend Stephen. Now, he paid dearly for saying
what he did. He was martyred. He was stoned to death for what
he said because the people that he was talking to believed that
they had done absolutely everything that God had ever told them to
do in the Old Testament, and he brings up, ìNo, you didnít.
because of your heart. Here in the book of Acts 7, verse
40, it says, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us,
as for this Moses which brought us up of the land of Egypt, we
want not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those
days, and offered sacrifices unto the idol, and rejoiced in
the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them
up to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in
the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered
to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in
the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
and the star of the God of Rephahim, figures which ye made to worship
them, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. our fathers had
the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed,
speaking unto Moses, and he should make it according to the fashion
that he had seen. And there in verse Verse 45, then, which also our
fathers which came before brought in with Joshua into the possession
of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers
unto the days of David. All right, we see again that
the God of heaven brought this commentary against them, that
they had used all of these sacrifices and they observed them all, but
in their hearts, these sacrifices were not to God. You know what?
By nature, we cannot offer a sacrifice to God. We can't offer a good
sacrifice. We can't even offer a bad sacrifice,
because we don't even know Him. We have no knowledge of the God
of heaven until we are born again. We don't have a commentary on
it. You know, we read through the scriptures and we say, well,
have you ever said this? If I'd have lived in those Old
Testament times, I'd have certainly been better than those folks.
I'd have made better decisions than that. I wouldn't have done
that. You know what? We just lied through
our teeth. We'd have done exactly what they
did. We have the same nature they
had. Even though God set them aside as a nation to give them
all those rich blessings, not one heart was turned as a result
of those blessings. It always takes God and His Holy
Spirit through the preaching of the gospel to change us. In the book of Deuteronomy, chapter
32, let's go back there, if you would, to the Old Testament again,
the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32, and here we find again God's
commentary on all those offerings and sacrifices. They did them,
and most of them were done out of some compliance or obedience,
but we find out that their heart was not in these sacrifices. We may have believed that Jesus
went to the cross, and we may have believed that he even died
for some people on the cross, but we will never comprehend
anything about what Jesus Christ did for his church until he reveals
himself in the gospel. And then we can walk away and
say, now I can see. Threw a glass darkly, but I see
now what I never saw before. Here in the book of Deuteronomy
chapter 32, there in verse 12, the scriptures hold this and
says, so the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange
God with him. And he made him ride on the high
places of the earth, that he might eat the increase of the
fields, and he made him suck honey out of the rock and oil
out of the flinty rock. What pictorial language? What
blessings God gave to Israel? They were able to get things
out of where there was nothing. There was nothing. Butter of
kind, milk of the sheep with fat of lambs and rams of the
breed of Bashan and goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat.
Thou didst drink the pure blood of the grape. But Jeshuim, another
name for Israel, waxed fat and kicked. Thou art waxen fat, thou
art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness. Then he forsook
God, which made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation."
When things went well, look what I've done. When things went bad,
oh, the book of Judges. God, oh God, we are so sorry
for what we're doing. Would you send us some help?
He'd send them some help and give them the same heart that
they had, by and large, and after this was over and peace was made
after 40 years, they'd go right back into the same line of thought
that they had and get back to their old gods. They provoked
him to jealousy with strange gods. With abominations provoked
they him to anger. They sanctified unto devils,
not to God, to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came
newly up, whom your fathers feared not." What a statement is made
here as all of those sacrifices, thousands of sacrifices, Daily
sacrifices, Sabbath sacrifices, monthly sacrifices, Passover
sacrifices, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Feast, Feast, Feast,
all the sacrifices that took place, not one of them was effectual. There is only one effectual sacrifice
ever given, and it is the blood of Jesus Christ. For had they believed Moses,
they would have believed me, for he wrote of me. That's what
Jesus said in the book of John, chapter 5. But ye believe not,
because ye are not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me out of the
host. we find two that were permitted
to go into the land that God had promised to Abraham, and
that was Joshua and Caleb. Now that doesn't mean that everybody
that died there died in unbelief, but they all died. Most of them
did die in unbelief. To be put in the place to cross
paths with the gospel of God's marvelous grace, His sovereign
grace, is no small thing. To be brought to a place to be
able to hear something besides sacrifices and offerings, To
be able to hear something besides, �It�s up to you.� To be able
to hear something besides, �It�s your sacrifice.� To be able to
hear something besides, �God has done all He can do, now it�s
up to you.� To be able to go beyond that, that God would be
pleased to bring the message of God�s grace in Christ Jesus
to a people is beyond measure. We cannot count the very blessings
that we have in that. To hear of the Savior that actually
saves, and a Redeemer that actually redeems, and a payment that was
actually paid, and a ransom actually made, and a love actually given,
and forgiveness actually done. Christ alone is all of these
things. Not one bit was found in any
of those sacrifices. All the slain beasts that took
place did not procure even the happiness of anybody. And the cost, you know, as we
heard mentioned there in the class this morning, eventually
the Jews got tired of spending all that money on good beasts,
clean beasts. So they started offering, and
you know, I look at that and I said, this, they're absolutely
representing their God. Now there throughout the sacrifices
of the Old Testament, God required that they be without blemish
and without spot. It was typical of our Savior,
pictorial of Him, that He was without blemish and without spot.
But as time went on, we find out people, they could care less.
And they're going to present what they believe about their
God, and their God has blemishes, their God has sores, their God
is unable, their God is not able to do anything. And they offered
that to God. You know, and we read there in
the book of Malachi that Malachi said, would you give this to
the governor? No way, I wouldn't give it to
the governor. The governor wouldn't make him happy, but I'll give
it to God. Because you know what? He's never
interfered in my life. Praise God when God interferes
in our life, from going down to the pit, that he would stop
us in our life, that he would interfere, that he would arrest
us, that he would bring us the gospel, and we may not appreciate
it or like it when we hear it, but oh, when he reveals Christ
to us, there is glory, glory, glory. In the book of Ezekiel
chapter 16, would you turn there with me? The book of Ezekiel chapter 16. And there in verse 1. Again the word of the Lord came
unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say, Thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land
of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and
thy mother a Hittite. No wonder when Stephen brought
these things up to the Pharisees they had a problem with it because
they were of the stock of Abraham. And as for thy nativity in the
day that thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast
thou washed in water to supple thee, thou wast not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. And I pitied thee to do any of
these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast
out into an open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born. God is speaking about the very
people that he chose as a nation. Many of them he did not choose
to salvation, but he chose them as a nation to demonstrate what
would happen if he gave them all of the richest blessings
in this world. Not one heart was changed as
a result of that. In fact, they went off and worshipped
idols. But when I passed by thee and
saw thee polluted in thy blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. Now that's God speaking to his
elect and saying, when I came, when I saw, I said live. And you know, that's the only
call that we'll ever get to cause us to live. We'll go through
life without life. We'll be dead in trespasses and
sins before God in our last moment, before we're cast into the pit.
dead and not alive. Turn with me to, if you would,
in the same book, to the book of Ezekiel chapter 36. In Ezekiel
chapter 36 and beginning with verse 23 of this chapter. Ezekiel
chapter 36, 23. Now this is a chapter that shares
with us, I will and you shall. the number
of times, and I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them.
And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord
God, when I shall be sanctified in you before them. For I will
take you from the heathen, and gather you out of all countries,
and will bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye shall be clean for all your filthiness,
and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. And I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I'll give
you a heart of flesh. I'll put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statues and ye shall keep my judgments
and do them and ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your
fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God and I
will also save you from all your uncleanness and I will call for
the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you and
I'll multiply the fruit of the tree and the increase of the
field all the spirit spiritual blessings that God has for his
people he says I will give it I will give it I will give it
and Verse 32 not for your sakes do I do this? Saith the Lord
God be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded for your own ways
O house of Israel thus saith the Lord God in the day that
I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also
cause you to dwell in the cities and Wastes shall be builded and
the desolate land shall be tilled and they shall be And the desolate land shall be
tilled, whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that passed.
And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like
a garden of Eden, and the waste and desolate and ruined cities
are become fenced and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left
Round about ye shall know that I, the LORD, build the ruined
places, and plant that which was desolate. I, the LORD, have
spoken it, and I will do it." And all through the entire passage
there, we find nothing that is required of us. In fact, we get
in our own way when we do that. Now, in the short time I have
left, I'd like to go to read four places in the New Testament,
and the first one is found in Ephesians 2. In Ephesians chapter
2, would you turn there with me as we think about that blood,
gallons, tubfuls, shed through the years in the sacrifices that
God required of Israel. Animal blood, non-atoning blood. blood could not achieve anything. It was taken and once a year
and taken and sprinkled on the mercy seat. And we only see that
as it's the blood of Christ that prevents us from having all judgment
against us. Those three things that were
contained in that mercy seat, the two tables of stone, the
golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, those
three things, every one of them represent us going against God. Cried out, we want food of Egypt,
he gave a manna. We want to rule with Aaron, showed
it by that sign of Aaron's rod that budded. And while he was
up on that mount, the first time, the children of Israel are dancing
around a golden calf. And he broke that first set and
Moses did and came down and God gave him another. It just shares
with us our ruin, our heart, desperately wicked, put in that
mercy seat in the blood of Christ, pictured, put over there, put
sin away. Well, let's read here in Ephesians
2, verse 13. Ephesians 2, verse 13, the scripture
says, But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off
are brought close, are brought nigh. By what? Our good works? Our righteousness? Our ability
to quote scripture? Our ability to go after some
article of faith? Member of some church? No! Made
nigh by the blood of Christ. You know, that's one thing that
every believer will agree on. We're made nigh by the blood
of Christ. We're brought to God by the blood of Christ. Nothing
that we have done. All right, in Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9, let's read there. Hebrews chapter 9, verse
14. In Hebrews 9, verse 14, we read these words, all the blood
offered on the altars, Jewish altars, avail nothing. But Christ
the heavenly lamb takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of noble
name and richer blood than they. Here in the book of Hebrews 9,
verse 14, we read these words, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, Verse 13, For if the blood of bulls, and goats, and
the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctify to the
purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot
to God? Did you notice the Godhead in
that verse of Scripture? The blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without spot to God the Father. Purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. One thing
the blood of Christ does, it takes away every interest we
have on our part to do something to appropriate salvation. We'll
trust Him. All right. And then in the book
of 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1, it's not by the blood of bulls and goats,
it's not by the sacrifice of ourself. In the book of 1 Peter
1, verse 2, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience
and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Again, the Godhead. The eternal everlasting covenant
of grace made between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
That's one thing about that covenant that God made with Israel. It
was broken by Israel before it was given. They could not keep it. It was
an impossibility. It is no more possible for them
to keep it than it is for us to keep our New Year's resolutions. It's impossible. But here, elect,
God had a people before the foundation of the world. According to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of
the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus
Christ, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. There is no peace
without the grace of God. We will not have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ except for His grace, and grace
means we have no involvement in it. I've had people tell me
there's the works of grace. That's destroyed the very definition
of the word of grace as God meant it in the scriptures. There are
no works of grace on our part. Thank God on his part, he did
all the work out of grace. And then if you would to the
same chapter of 1 Peter 1, verse 18 and 19, for as much as you
know, You know, that's a thing the
church knows all together. We learn more about it every
time we meet and study God's Word and hear the gospel. But
for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things of silver and gold, what's that saying? You're not redeemed
by your works. You're not redeemed by giving. You're not redeemed
by praying. You're not redeemed by all the
stuff that the religion has that you were taught from youth up.
You're not redeemed with that stuff. You're redeemed here,
it says, not with corruptible things as silver and gold, from
your vain conversation or your manner of life received by tradition
from your fathers. My grandfather passed it on to
my mother. My mother passed it on to me.
And you know what? In its totality, it was worthless. because there
was no gospel in it. It just keeps being passed on
and passed on. This rigmarole that religion
has ordained, but God has more ordained. It's an eternal, and
he said here, but we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ
as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. You remember
the words of John when he pointed to this one man? Behold the Lamb
of God. which taketh away the sin of
the world." Go to Him. Go to Him. Flee to Him. And you
know, they left John. Turned back and says, thank you
for all you've done, but we're headed there. The blood of Jesus Christ. There
is absolutely no comfort. And I believe only a lost person
would take solace in God has done all He can do. You know what? God has done everything.
absolutely everything for our redemption. There is nothing
left and we just pray that the gospel of God's grace in Christ
Jesus would strike our hearts and cause us to rejoice in the
goodness of God found in Christ Jesus as the true sacrifice that
put away sin for time and for eternity. And we could rejoice
in that as the whole church will rejoice at the feet of Jesus
in glory to come, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive
glory and honor and praise. The Lamb that was slain, all
the beasts. The third verse of that, my faith
would lay her hand on that dear head of thine. While I, like
a penance, I stand, And there confess my sin. My soul looks
back to see The burden thou didst bear When hanging on the cursed
tree, And hopes her guilt was there.