All right, let's go back to Leviticus
chapter 4 this evening, the book of Leviticus chapter 4. And we
know from the first chapter of Leviticus that the burnt offering
was the very basis of Jewish worship. and the burnt offering,
it informed the people, it spoke to the people about the right
way, the only way to draw near unto God and be received. If their offering was acceptable
unto God, then they were acceptable unto God. And this is what we
need to see as well. Whether or not God receives sinners
today is fully dependent upon whether he received the sacrifice
for sinners. You see, if we endeavor to draw
near to God, If we want to be accepted by
God, so we try to approach Him, if we do so on the basis of our
labors, or maybe on the basis of our prayers, or on the basis
of our consecration to the Lord, then we're not going to be accepted
because all those things are stained with sin. You see, the
only offering that God will accept has got to be one without blemish. And we have nothing to offer
to God that is without blemish. The fact of the matter is the
best deed that you've ever done, the best deed that I've ever
done, is defiled by sin. and therefore in and of itself
cannot be acceptable to God. And if we endeavor to draw near
to the Lord on the basis of something we've done or on the basis of
something we feel, or even on the basis of our faith, or on
the basis of our repentance, We're not going to be accepted
because none of those things are done to perfection. In the
book of Leviticus, and further over in the 22nd chapter, we
read, What whatsoever hath a blemish, whatever has a blemish, God says,
don't offer that to me. Don't offer that to me, for it
shall not be acceptable for you. It won't be acceptable for you.
God says if you offer it, and it's got a blemish. If there's
an imperfection. And it goes on to say in Leviticus
chapter 22 and verse 21, it shall be perfect to be accepted. So we must look away from ourselves
and we must find an offering that God accepts. We've got to
find an offering that is suitable for God and is without blemish
in the eyes of God. It's not how the offering looks
in our eyes. It's how the offering appears
to God. If the offering is absolutely
perfect, God will accept it. And in accepting the perfect
offering for sin, then He will accept us. Christ Jesus is that offering.
So the burnt offering deals with this vital issue, how can God
be just and justify the ungodly? That is, how can God accept me
seeing as how I'm a sinner? The burnt offering sets forth
the acceptance of the substitute and therefore the acceptance
of the worshiper. If my substitute is accepted,
then I'm accepted. When I go to draw near to God,
whatever way that I try to approach God, my acceptance before God
is based upon whether or not He accepts the way that I come
to Him. And if I come to Him by the way
of my baptism, or the way of my labors, Or as I said, the
way of my consecration, He's not going to accept me. But if
I go to God through Christ Jesus and His blood and His righteousness,
then the Savior is accepted by God. I know that. And if I go
to God the right way, through Christ Jesus, who is the living
way, then I'll be accepted. And I say to any of you here
tonight, I say to all of you here tonight, and all who are
watching this, who want to be accepted by a holy God, if you
come to God the right way, by the way of the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, you will be accepted because
He is accepted. And I urge you to come to God
through Christ Jesus. I compel you to come to God through
Christ Jesus with every bit of my power. I beg of you, for your soul's
sake, for the glory of God, come to God through Christ Jesus and
you will be accepted. What good news for sinners? The Savior said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. So that means if I come to God
the Father through Jesus Christ the Lord, He will accept even
me and even you. So the burnt offering, the burnt
offering, It sets forth our Lord Jesus as the acceptable sacrifice. The substitute, dying for his
people. Now, when we get to the sin offering,
there's a different emphasis. You see, all of these offerings,
they set forth the Savior. They set forth who he is and
what he did. What he did for sinners. But
these different offerings view Him, as it were, from different
angles. You see, our subject is always
the Savior. But no one typology, no one picture
could set forth our Savior in His fullness. In fact, All of
them together couldn't set forth Jesus Christ in His fullness.
You go through every typology in the Old Testament, go through
every picture of our Savior, everything that figures Him,
put them all together, they all fall woefully short of setting
forth the glory and the wonders of this outstanding person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. In each of these, we just get
a glimpse of Him. And when we come to the sin offering,
we get a glimpse of the Savior who died in order for God to
deal with sin in a just way. The sin offering deals with an
awful thing that has come between God and His people. The sin offering
is about sin. Right here is the great evil
itself brought out. It's brought forth, it's exposed,
and dealt with. Aren't you glad that sin has
been dealt with by God? I mean your sin. You who believe
the Savior. Your sins have already been dealt
with. They've already been judged in
the Savior. Therefore there is now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. To every believer I say, there's
no condemnation for you. There's no judgment for you.
So as you anticipate your death, as you look toward the day that
you die and meet the Lord, you may look toward that day with
absolute boldness and without fear. Because as He is, so are
you right now even in this world. As God accepts His Son, so He
accepts all those who are in His Son. Now, it is a fact that we're
ignorant. There's a great deal of ignorance
about sin. And I showed you this morning
that one of the key words in this chapter is the word ignorance.
It's found in verse 2, verse 13, verse 22, and verse 27. Ignorance. Men are ignorant today, as they've
always been ignorant. They're ignorant about the nature
of sin. Sin, you see, is not merely a
wrong deed that's performed. Sin is not merely the failure
to do a right deed. Sin is an inward defilement. Look over it. Hold your place.
Look at Matthew chapter 15. Matthew chapter 15. See what the Savior says here in
Matthew chapter 15. Look at verse 10, Matthew chapter
15 verse 10. He called the multitude and said
unto them, Hear and understand. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of his mouth,
this defileth a man. Then came his disciples, Matthew
15 verse 12 now. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? And he answered and said, every
plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted
up. Let them alone. They be blind,
leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. and answered Peter and said unto
him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, Are ye also yet
without understanding? In other words, are you also
ignorant? Are you ignorant like these men?
Do you not yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the
mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draft? But
those things which proceed out of the mouth, they come forth
from the heart and they defile the man. In other words, the
man is defiled already. We are defiled within. Within,
for out of the heart. Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts, and murderers, and adulterers, and fornications,
and thefts, and false witness, blasphemies. These are the things
which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands defileth
not a man. The problem is not what you're
putting in. The problem is that the things
that are coming out come forth from a polluted fountain. The real issue is within. It's
not a matter of stop doing some things and start doing some things. The problem is in the heart. We have an evil heart of unbelief. There's a cesspool of iniquity
within us. So everything that we do is polluted
by, stained by that inward defilement. And men are ignorant of this.
They're ignorant. The heart is evil. The inward
man is defiled. And then men are ignorant about
the extent of their sinfulness. Look over at Psalm 19. Look at
Psalm 19 and verse 12. Psalm 19 verse 12. Who can understand his errors? Psalm 19 verse 12. Who can understand
their errors? Understand. Who can discern their
errors? That is exactly where we've gone
astray. He says, who can understand his
errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Oh Lord, cleanse me. That is,
let me be found guiltless. Let me be purified in thy sight. And then he talks about secret
faults. Sins that I don't even know about. You know, the fact of the matter
is, we're ignorant of the vast numbers of times we sin every
day. I've had people say, I've heard
people say this, well if I've sinned today, I pray the Lord
forgive me. Well you can just leave that
if off. Because really, everything you do, everything you say, everything
you think is defiled by sin. And there's not very many people
that understand that. Those who say I'm living above
sin, they're ignorant. They're ignorant of what sin
is. They're ignorant of their inward
defilement. We are a mass of sin and we don't
even know it. We're sinning continuously. There's no let up. Now before conversion, sin goes
unrecognized. But even after conversion, there
are still sins that go unrecognized. The sin of inward jealousy and
pride and arrogance, selfishness, self-centeredness, and just everything
that we do is defiled. It's marred, polluted by sin. I know our outward sins are sometimes
recognized, but inward sins, most often they go unrecognized. Sins of thought, sins of imagination,
sin of the motive. What's your motivation? And you
know, most of the time, ours is a sinful motivation. Because
we're doing, you know who we're concerned about? You know who
you're concerned about. You're concerned about yourself.
Well that's first and foremost. I'm interested in my survival.
I'm interested in what makes me happy. I'm interested in the
things that make me, that make me contented in this world. I'm self-centered. Well, but
that's not anything new to you because you're self-centered
too. And we ought to love one another as we love ourselves,
but we don't. I need to love God. I ought to
love God. And I want to love God with all
my heart, mind, soul, and strength. And I want to love you as I love
myself. But let's be honest. We're failures. We are just absolute failures. Well, what is our problem? Sin
nature. Sin is still there. It is still
there. I know God has forgiven me of
all my sins. And in the eyes of divine justice,
I am in Jesus Christ and I am without guilt. In fact, I am
made the righteousness of God in Him. But in the experience
of my life, I daily need to be washed because I'm just so defiled. And aren't you? Sure you are.
You know that. We're defiled. Men are ignorant
about what sin is. And men are ignorant about how
awful sin is. And the only way I can set before
you just how awful sin is, is to set before you the only
sacrifice that could put it away. You judge the awfulness of sin,
judge the horror of sin by what it took to put it out of God's
sight. It took the death of His lovely,
darling Son to do it. God had to kill His own Son to
get rid of our sin. That's how horrible sin is. He
could create the world by saying, let there be light. There was
light. He called into being the sun,
the moon, and the stars, the heavens and the earth, and all
that is in the midst. He did that by the word of His
power. But He can't forgive sin that
way. The only way He can forgive sin is the death. of a suitable
sacrifice. And the only one who would satisfy
God's every demand was His only begotten Son, that one who was
with Him from old eternity. And God said to save them, you've
got to die. I'm going to pour all my wrath
on you. And the Son of God volunteered
for the job because He, like the Father and the Spirit, loved
us with an everlasting love. He said, Father, I'll do it.
I'll do it. And He was obedient to the work
that God called Him to do. And when the Savior came into
the world, He said, I delight to do thy will, O God. and he performed God's redemptive
will. In light of our ignorance, that
which is needed is knowledge. The word knowledge is used in
verse 14, chapter 4, back here in Leviticus. Knowledge is used
in verse 14, verse 23, and verse 28. Knowledge of the dilemma
we're in. Knowledge of our inability to
put sin away. Knowledge of who we've sinned
against. Knowledge. You see, when sin
is unknown, the sacrifice goes unheeded. We don't pay attention
to sacrifice. If you don't know about sin,
you don't have any interest in sacrifice. Preacher, I've talked
to my brother, my sister, my husband, my wife, my children.
I've talked to them about the things of the Lord, but there's
no interest. Where sin is unrecognized, where
there's ignorance concerning sin, there will be no real concern
about the solution for the problem. So there has to be knowledge. God's got to give knowledge.
Where sin is unknown, the blood is not precious. When sin is
unknown, there is no appreciation of what was required to put sin
away. Oh, God give us knowledge. The
reason men have low opinions of the grace of God is because
they have low opinions of the seriousness of sin. The reason men have a low opinion
of the substitutionary sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ is because
they have a low opinion of sin. They have little regard for the
justice of God. Oh, the only cure for ignorance
is knowledge. Knowledge of my condition. Knowledge
of the one I've sinned against. Knowledge of the only way God
could put sin away. I know this. There can be no settled peace
in my heart and within my conscience. until I am assured, until I have
been informed and taught by the Spirit of God that my sin has
been dealt with by a holy God. I can't have any peace in my
conscience. I can't have any peace in my heart. Isn't that
right? If I am uneasy in reference to
whether sin has been put away or not, I can't really worship. I can't really commune with God.
You see, the heart must be at rest concerning this issue of sin
being dealt with. And when the Spirit of God convinces
me that God Almighty in the person of His Son has settled forever
this business of sin, He has slain sin, He has drowned sin
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, when I am assured of
that, then I will have peace within. Peace within my conscience. You see, if there is guilt on
the conscience, It's because I don't understand
or I don't fully believe what happened at the cross. You say, Preacher, I think I
believe this, but I'm still, oh, I'm such a sinner. I worry. I worry about the awfulness
of my condition. Well, that means you're not really
settled in your heart that the sin issue has been dealt with.
And in some way, you're still looking to yourself. Here's what we need to do. Oh,
God help us to do this, because we're not going to have any peace
within unless God enables us to do this. It's to look by faith. on the Lord Jesus. And in all
of these offerings, the offerer, the worshiper, leaned his weight
upon the offering. And then he left it. Convinced by God that everything
had been done the way God commanded. And he goes away having peace.
When God convinces me in my heart that Jesus Christ has forever
settled the issue, that's when I'll have peace. You see, He
who is my salvation is also my assurance. It's not wrong to
have assurance. In fact, it's wrong not to have
assurance. Do you know that? It's sin. because you do not believe in
God. Well, preacher, I do not feel safe. It is not about how
you feel. It is not about your feelings. Is God satisfied with the death
of Jesus Christ? Yes, He is satisfied. Do you
believe Him? I do. I do not believe Him like
I ought to. I do not believe Him like I am going to, but I
do believe Him. And I know this, you know in your heart whether
you believe Him or not. You know. If He's your only hope
of forgiveness and righteousness and life and salvation, the issue
was settled 2,000 years ago at the cross. Be at peace. Be at
peace. Oh God, speak peace to my heart.
Send peace to me. Give me some rest. Oh, most people
don't have any real peace. They don't have any rest in their
heart. They're wrestling all the time. They're struggling.
Cease from your struggles. Can you just rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ? Can you just lean on Him? You
know He was manifested to take away our sins. That's why He
came into the world. And in Him is no sin. And if
you're in Him, you don't have any sin. Your sin has been dealt
with. Before God we are sinless. We
have the righteousness of the Son of God imputed to us. Well, in this passage, chapter
4, we read of the sin offering for the anointed priest. That's
in verses 3 through 12. That's for the high priest. It's
described in great detail. It proceeds then to verses 13
through 21 to give the sin offering for the whole congregation. And
you'll notice the sin offering for the high priest and for the
whole congregation is virtually identical. Now, I want you to notice in
this sin offering, a great difference from what we've seen before.
As you think back, and I'm sure you remember every single thing
I've said in these previous messages regarding the burnt offering
and the meat offering and the peace offering, but you'll remember
this. Those offerings, they were presented
to God at the door of the tabernacle. They were all presented to God
at the door of the tabernacle. And then they were put up on
the brazen altar, which was the very first piece of furniture
you would see, that you would encounter as you walked into
the tabernacle or later into the temple. But things are different now. When you get to the sin offering,
and especially the sin of the high priest, or the sacrifice,
or the offering of the high priest, and the offering of the entire
congregation, things are different. Look at verse 4 again of chapter
4. He shall bring the bullock, here's
the high priest, chapter 4 verse 4, He shall bring the bullock
under the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the
Lord, so far the same. shall lay his hand upon the bullock's
head and kill the bullock before the Lord, the same, virtually
the same, and the priest that is anointed shall take of the
bullock's blood and shall bring it, bring it to the tabernacle of
the congregation. He takes it into the holy place. That hasn't happened before,
has it? No, that hasn't happened before. He goes into the holy
place, and the priest shall dip his finger in the still warm
blood, and he sprinkles of the blood seven times before the
Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. This is altogether
different from the burnt offering. It's altogether different from
where the meat offering was offered to the Lord, and altogether different
from where the peace offering was offered. Those were much
more public. The Israelites who walked by
could look inside the gate of the tabernacle and see everything
that was going on. But the average Israelite cannot
see this. Only a priest could see this.
Because a priest takes blood. And he goes back into the holy
place, not the holy of holies, only the high priest could go
in there once a year, and you know about that, not without
blood. But he goes back into the holy place, and he faces
the veil, the veil that separates him from the very presence of
God. And he dips his finger in the blood and he sprinkles that
veil, that beautiful, extravagant, exquisite, great curtain that
God instructed Moses to hang there. And he throws blood on
it seven times as though to say, Oh God, this blood is for you. This blood is for you. You see, it says He sprinkles
the blood before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. This is for God. It's not for
men to gaze at, because, hey, if we had lived back then, we
couldn't go in there. We'd never see that. Well, what's
the use in a man going there and sprinkling the veil when
all of the Israelites couldn't see what's going on? It's for
God! That's why. It's for God. And this exposes a fatal flaw
in religion today that is so man-centered. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ,
first and foremost, the blood is for God. And I've said this before, and
I don't know how long the Lord will leave me alive to preach
to you, but I'll say it a lot more times before I'm done, unless
tonight's when I'm going to be done. But God had to do something for
Himself before He can do anything for us. And that priest goes
into the holy place and he sprinkles of the blood seven times, number
of perfection. He is testifying in essence,
Oh Lord, this blood is for You. An innocent victim has died in
my stead, especially the high priest here, the first one. This
animal, this bullock has died in my stead. This is what you
commanded. I bring to you that which you
demanded. And now, O God, purge away my
sin by the blood of the sin offering. This is the blood of sprinkling. That's what it is. It's the blood
of sprinkling. The veil is sprinkled with blood.
Now get this, this is the same veil they hung for years and
years and years. And every time there is a sin
offering, for the high priest or for the congregation, same
thing. Blood caught, priest goes, the
high priest goes into the holy place, dips his finger in the
blood, sprinkles seven times. Don't you know that veil was
covered with blood? But let me tell you something.
The blood of bulls and of goats can't put away sin, so they never
ripped open that veil. It never tore open the way to
God. But our Lord Jesus, He died. And if I may put it this way,
he sprinkled the veil with his blood seven times, and his blood
did what the blood of bulls and goats could never do. His blood
ripped it in two. From top to bottom! Come on to
God! Oh guilty sinner, just come on! Come on in! have fellowship with
the Holy God because of the death of Jesus Christ, God's Son. His blood ripped that veil open.
Well, then the next thing the priest did, he took a few steps
back. There's the altar of incense,
the golden altar of incense. On every corner of that altar,
there's a golden horn, the horns of the altar. And He took blood
and He rubbed it around each one of those horns. What does
that picture? What does that altar of incense
with the incense burning picture? It pictures the mediation of
Jesus Christ, the intercessory work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, what's the significance of the blood? He has power to
be our advocate and to be our intercessor on the basis of His
blood. His blood. Then the priest goes,
then he goes back out. He goes back out to the brazen
altar. He takes the rest of the blood
and he just pours it out. Do you get the picture? There's
blood everywhere. There's blood all over him. There's
blood on the veil. There's blood on the golden altar. There's blood at the base of
the brazen altar. There's blood everywhere. Because
God ever keeps the blood in view. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. I'll pass over you. You think
about that Passover. God didn't say, when you see
the blood, I'll pass over you. He said, when I see the blood.
Say a firstborn son. And his daddy has killed a lamb
without spot, without blemish. Went outside and put the blood
where God told him to put it. Over the top and on the side
post. Come back inside. Don't worry, son. You're alright. Daddy, I'm so afraid. God said
he's coming through tonight. Rest easy, son. Daddy, I can't
see the blood! I can't see the blood, daddy!
Son, your safety is not dependent upon you seeing the blood. is
dependent upon God seeing blood. And God comes through. God sees
the blood. He passes over that house with
His judgment because He's already got death at that house. You
see, God got death at every house. Right? He got death at every
house. He got blood at every house.
Either the blood, the death of an innocent victim, a suitable
sacrifice and substitute, or the death and the blood of the
firstborn. I'm sure the next morning, probably
the boy fell asleep, wakes up the next morning and says, I'm
alright! I'm alright! And he goes outside
and then he sees the blood and he rejoices. But his safety is
not dependent upon him seeing the blood, it's dependent upon
God seeing the blood. And God sees the blood of His
dear Son. Now, yes, yes, we see the blood
and we rejoice. Oh, thank God for the blood that
makes atonement for my sin, that washed all my sins away. But really, the forgiveness of
your sins and your righteous standing before God is not dependent
upon you seeing the blood. It's God seeing the blood. That high priest is saying, Lord,
the blood's for you. And I'll tell you, that golden
altar of incense, I said our Lord's advocacy, His mediatorial
work, the success of it is based upon His blood. Well, I'll add
this to it. God hears our prayers and He
answers our prayers because of the death of Jesus Christ. So
let your altar of incense be smeared with His blood. The song I wrote for you this
morning, when we pray unto the Father, cleave the merits of
the Son. May He be all your claim before
Him. What the Lord has done. If you
want to have prevalence in your prayer, you want to prevail with
God in your prayer, Don't bring up what you've done. Lord, I
have been faithful, therefore I'm asking you to do thus and
so. Why only a fool would do that.
Lord, hear me, hear my request and answer my prayer based on
the blood of your dear Son. Ah, then your prayer will have
some power. Have some power. But notice, I'll give this to
you quickly. What happened with the carcass
of the animal? Look down at verse 8. Okay, he's
done this with the blood. Now verse 8 chapter 4, he shall
take off from it all the fat of the bullet for the sin of
him, because the fat goes to God. The best is for God. The
fat that covereth the inwards, all the fats that is upon the
inwards, The two kidneys, the fat that's upon them, which is
by the flanks, the call above the liver with the kidneys, it
shall he take away as it was taken off from the bullock of
the sacrifice of the peace offerings. And the priest shall burn them
upon the altar of the burnt offering." Now watch this, and the skin
of the bullock and all his flesh with his head, with his legs,
with his inwards and with his dung, Even the whole bullock
shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place where
the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire
where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt." Mr. Spurgeon says that this was a
four mile walk, four miles away from the camp where this carcass
was to be burned. This is a picture of the shame
and the humiliation of our great Savior. Hebrews tells us in chapter
12 or chapter 13, wherefore Jesus also that he might sanctify the
people with his own blood suffered without the gate. Well, this sin offering for the
high priest and the sin offering for the congregation I said are
virtually the same. The last couple of sin offerings,
one for the ruler and one for the common Israelite, they're
different. But here's what's the same. Death. Death is always before them. The blood is always before them. The fact that the guilty live. because an innocent victim has
died. That is always kept before the
Israelites and we've always got to keep that before us too. We're
the guilty ones and we live. We live forever because the innocent
one has died in our stead. Let me give you this and we'll
go home. Because this is encouraging to
me. Look at verse 27. If anyone of the common people
sin through ignorance. The common people. I just love
the wording of that. The common people. That encourages
me for I'm just a common man. I'm not a ruler. I'm not a judge. Certainly not a high priest. I'm just one of the common men,
one of the common people, unknown by most. You take all
of us. We have our circle of friends
and acquaintances and we're known by a few people, but by and large,
as I look over this congregation, unless you're hiding something
from me, we're just common folks. We're just common people. And
outside of our circle of friends and relatives, we're unknown.
The world doesn't even know we exist. We're nobodies. We're an unknown people. But I'll tell you what, we may
be unknown to men, but we're not unknown to God. We're just
common people down here, but we're sons and daughters of the
Most High God. I might be one of billions upon
this earth, yet I am known, and I am loved, and I am cared for,
and I am provided for by the Lord of glory. Now for a ruler
or common man, they could bring a female offering. And I'll be
the first to admit, I'm not exactly sure what all that means. What's
the significance of it? It may be that to show that the
sacrifices were for male or female. Or maybe this, and I've given
this a lot of thought, maybe this female goat or sheep is
brought for a common man because a female goat or sheep was more
readily accessible and more easily obtained. You see in this list
of offerings, the bullock stands the most expensive. It stands
out as being the strongest, the most valuable, the most expensive. And then you get to a male goat.
Pretty expensive there. Less expensive, a female goat. Least expensive, a female lamb. And I'll tell you what it speaks
to me of. The sacrifice is available to whoever wants it. Whoever fills the need. Christ
Jesus is a Savior who is readily accessible. He doesn't say, you
can't come to me. He says, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden. And here is what he says, I will
give you rest. Isn't that what he said? I will
give you rest. Come to me. Come to me. And having come to him, we can
rest assured of this. In verse 35. He shall take away
all the fat thereof, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from
the sacrifice of the peace offerings, and the priest shall burn them
upon the altar according to the offerings made by fire unto the
Lord, and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that
he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him." Oh, how sweet is that word, forgiveness. We're fully and freely forgiven
by the Lord. You know, I said I was going to give you
that and quit, but I'll give you one more thing here. If you'll notice as you read
through here, and I've read it lots of times,
Just get it in my mind and in my heart what it's saying. But the offering for the high
priest and the offering for the congregation, that the one who
offered it, the high priest, he went back into the holy place
and he sprinkled the blood. But the offering for the ruler
and for the common man doesn't say anything about he goes back
into the holy place. It's right back to everything's
done right there at the brazen altar. And one writer made this
observation, and I think it's a good one. He said, here with
the ruler and with the common man, this is people who, unlike
the high priest, unlike the high priest, they don't have a full
understanding of all that goes on. They just know They need
an offering. They need an offering for sin.
And the observation that I particularly liked was this. Let's don't expect new believers to know what we
know, that is, those of us who've been around a long time. You've
got to give people room for growth. You say, well, How much does
a man have to know to be saved? Well, are we going to require
a man to be a theologian? With the ruler and with the common
man? His offering wasn't the blood of his offering. It wasn't
taken inside into the holy place. He didn't understand all about
that. He only knew this. I need to see an offering. I
need something to die in my place." And if you're here tonight or
you're watching, you say, preacher, how much does a man have to know
to be saved? You don't have to dot every I
and cross every T in theological things. Do you know you've sinned
against a holy God? Do you know you're defiled? You
know what God demands? Perfection. Will you come to
God through Jesus Christ, the only substitute and sacrifice
for sin? Yeah. You'll learn. You'll learn more. But it's basically
this. We have found out we have a need. We have a need for the Savior.
Let's don't expect everybody to know everything there is to
know, otherwise it can't be saved. Salvation is not in how much
you know. Now, there is knowledge involved. Because I've talked about that,
we've talked about that in this passage of Scripture. Ignorance.
God gives us knowledge for ignorance. But it's not how much we know,
it's who we know. And to go even a step further,
it's who knows us? We know the Lord. But more than
that, He knows us. So, I say come to Christ Jesus. I compel you to come. A lot of
the knowledge, it will come later. Do you need the Savior? Do you
need righteousness? Oh, yes. Well, come on then. What are you waiting for? Old
Scott Richardson used to say, you come to Jesus Christ and
don't move a muscle. You come in your heart. Come
in your heart. The peace comes in believing
Him and resting in Him. I hope you understand what I'm
trying to say there. Wow, I preached a long time.
But it's the truth. It's the truth.