And you know I read over there
in Exodus about the altar of incense. It was a golden altar. It was made out of sheet of wood. That's everything that was in
the tabernacle that had wood. And then they covered it with
pure gold. And then they put a crown around it, put four horns
on it. And it had a prominent place
in the tabernacle, right in the middle of the... When you walked in the tabernacle,
the first thing you saw was the brazen altar. And then you went
on behind it, and there was the altar of incense. Three feet
high, 18 inches square, solid gold. And it was a place where
they burned incense. And God even told Moses how to
make the incense. That's why it said, offer no
strange incense. No strange incense. But I want
to talk about blood on this golden altar today. And if you'll look
with me again there in verse six of Leviticus four. And the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before
the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. That altar set
right in front of the veil, right before the mercy seat. And the
priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar,
and sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle
of the congregation. And he shall pour all the blood
of the bullock at the bottom of the offering, which is at
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And I wanna talk about the blood
has a prominent place in the scriptures. And here's a high
priest, here's Aaron, first high priest, he's got blood. He's got blood and he has to
take that blood once a year, go up to that altar, that altar
of incense, and sprinkles blood on it, before it and on the horns
of the altar. And even while he's doing that,
the incense is still coming up. But the blood has a prominent,
prominent place in the scriptures. Hebrews 9 says, without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission of sins. There's no payment of
sins. There's no way to be rid of sins without the shedding
of blood. And the blood of Jesus Christ,
it says, cleanses us from all sin, all sin. And Paul, Peter
says, we're not redeemed with such corruptible things as silver
and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. We're justified by his
blood. And what does blood mean when
you find it in the scripture? What does it mean? What does
blood mean in the scripture? It means suffering. It means
suffering under death. If there's gonna be blood shed
and put on an altar, that means someone has to die to shed that
blood. It means suffering under death. It means the taking of
a life. You can't put blood any place without the shedding of
blood, without life being taken, without suffering, without death.
And sin against God deserves death. It does. The soul that
sinneth, God said, it shall die. Men forget that. When we see
crimes that people commit against other people, and they commit
crimes against children, crimes against other people, it angers
us. And if they don't get justice,
if they don't get, if they get by with it in some way, and it
angers us because we don't see justice being done. We don't
see people being punished right for the crimes that they've committed.
And how does God deal with sins? How does God do it? How does
God deal with crimes committed against Him? How does He do it? Well, God's not like our court
system. He's the judge of all the earth,
and He'll always do exactly what's right. And when He says that
He will by no means clear the guilty, that's exactly what He
means. See, His justice is not like
the justice of the United States or our justice. His justice is
perfect. If He sent a soul that's in a
Shabbat, that soul's gotta die. That soul's got to be punished.
That soul, because justice says it has to be. Well, how in the
world is it gonna be satisfied? It can't be satisfied through
the blood of an animal. It can't be satisfied through
the blood of a bull or a goat. Well, if he's just as gonna be
satisfied, well, death has to be inflicted, either in the sinner
or in someone taking his place, a sinner's substitute. And the
only way, the only way God could punish men with death for their
sins and do it in a way that honors him, and glorifies him,
and satisfies him, and brings glory to him, was for his son
to come into this world, and by his obedient life, and by
his substitutionary death, put away sin and satisfy God. That's
the only way it could be done. It cannot be done any other way.
You see, I have already, let me put it this way, I've suffered
death for my sins. God did not clear me from my
sins. He did not clear me from my guilt. And the only way he did it, in
a substitute. And so now I'm clear. Now I'm
not guilty. Now I don't have no sin. Cause
Christ bore our sin in his own body on the tree. God made him
a curse, and through that curse he redeemed us by his precious
blood. God made him to be sin. For us, he knew no sin. that we might be made the very
righteousness of God in Him. And I tell you, I'm so thankful,
I am so thankful God made a way, made a way, that by clearing the guilty,
He had to take somebody else in our room and place. To put
away our sins, somebody else had to do it. And I tell you,
all the sacrifices under the law were typical. They were pictures,
typical, of our Lord Jesus Christ giving his life for sinners. And Scott used to say it all
the time, in their room and in their stand. In their room and
in their stand. That's why Christ is called Christ
our Passover. Christ our Passover. Salvation
is by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ. His substitutionary
sacrifice, and there's no other way. As Scripture tells us, He
was wounded for our transgressions. He is bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. God made His soul an offering
for sin. And so you see, beloved, there's
no other way. Men think that they can come
to God any way they want to. They think that, I've heard people
say, you know, well surely, surely I've been good enough. Good enough
in my life. I've not hurt anybody. I've not
offended anybody. I've been good. I'm a good husband.
I'm a good wife. I'm a good child. It's good,
good, good. But if you're gonna be saved
by being good, you got to be as good as God himself. And how
are you gonna be as good as God himself? There's only one place
that you can be made perfect. Only one place where you can
have the righteousness of God, where God can look at you and
look on you, and that's in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? Oh, in the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the shedding of blood was very, very conspicuous. I mean, it was obvious that he
shed his blood on that cross. It's obvious. They scorched him. He said his visage was more marred
than any man. They scorched him till his back
was bleeding, bloody and raw. They said that his bones were
seen. And then they took a crown of
thorns and shoved it down on his head. And thorns, of course,
got into his head and got into his brow. And blood started coming
out where they stuck the crown of thorns on him. They nailed
his hands and his feet to the cross. And you know blood came
out of them. And then when that Roman soldier
took the cross and stuck it in his side and ripped it open,
the scripture said blood and water came out of it. Oh my. So in the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the shedding of blood was very, very, very
conspicuous. Many ways a man can die without
shedding of blood. The last two people that you
know, the funerals that Bruce is preaching, they died without
shedding any blood. They just died. Rick's father
just died. No blood was shed. There's a
lot of ways a man can die without shedding of blood. But our Lord
Jesus Christ was ordained to die. and by his death that his
blood should be served to show that he was the fulfillment of
every other sacrifice that was ever offered. Do you know that
all the blood shedding, all the blood shedding under the law,
every lamb that was slain, every goat that was slain, all the,
every robin, every, I mean, excuse me, every dove, every sparrow,
Every bullock never put away one sin, not one. You know why? Because they all appointed to
one that would come and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And it tells us here that the
priest was to take that blood and he's to walk up to that altar
and say, this is that altar. He's got a pan of blood. And
he poured that blood when he slaughtered that bullock and
that blood was poured out and put in a pan. And he takes that
pan and he walks up to that altar. And this is that altar. And over
here is horn here and horn here. And here's that altar, a golden
altar. He dips his finger in that blood seven times. Seven times. One, two, three,
four, five, six, seven. You know why it was seven? That's
perfection. Seven days God created the heavens
and the earth. And so seven is perfection. And
I'll tell you what, he sprinkled that blood on that altar, and
then he took that blood, put one on that horn, put some on
that horn, put some on this horn, put some on that horn. And oh my, and he smeared that
blood on that altar sweet incense. And that blood was put on the
four horns. What did all this mean for you
and me? First of all, it says there in
verse six. And the brush shall dip his finger
in the blood and sprinkle the blood seven times. Look what
it says, before the Lord. Everything that has to be done
is done before the Lord. It says that four times here
from verse four down through that. He has to do it. It's always
before the Lord. It's unto the Lord. Seven times
it says you do this before the Lord. Look down here in verse
15 of chapter four. And the elders of the congregation
shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullet before the
Lord, and the bullet shall be killed before the Lord. Now in
verse 24, look what he says. And he shall lay his hand upon
the head of the goat and kill it in the place where they kill
the burnt offering before the Lord. Everything was before the
Lord. And that tells us something,
beloved, that God has to be the one to see the blood. The bringing
of the sacrifice, the killing of the sacrifice, the sprinkling
of the blood was to be done before the Lord. It was done when, you
know, the congregation You know, they had a way open there, and
they could see in there if those curtains were open, those pillars
were open, and there they saw when he was standing there, and
he was before that altar. It was in the presence of the
congregation, but it didn't matter if they saw it or not. The scripture
said it was before the Lord, whether the congregation ever
saw it or not. It's like during the Passover.
God said, when you know you take that blood of that Passover,
and you sprinkle it on, put it on this doorpost, put it on that
doorpost, and put it over the little. And he said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. Everybody that put that blood
there was behind the door. They was inside the house. And
this, they didn't see the blood. It was the fact that God saw
the blood. You know, there's, there's people,
you know, Like Rick's father. I mean, he had dementia. He didn't
know anything about it. You know, he was a preacher for
years. But here's the thing about it. He forgets about the blood. He forgets about Christ. As a
young man told me, there's a Clyde Brewer's son. I met him up there
in Kentucky, and he was telling me about his mother and his daddy.
And he went to see his mother, and he said, his mother don't
know who I am. She don't know where she's at. She don't know
nothing. Now, how in the world is somebody going to be saved
if they don't know nothing? Because God said, when I see the blood. And if you've seen that blood,
and if God done that blood before the Lord, then I'll tell you,
blood that bless his name, we are all, God's side of the blood,
that's what counts. I can't see no blood on me, but
God says that he shed it for me. Oh, my, it's before the Lord. You know, they were behind closed
doors. It's God's sight of the great
sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ that saves us. It says in Isaiah
53, 10, God saw, God saw the turmoil of his soul. And you
know when he saw it? He said, I'm satisfied. I don't
want no more. Don't want no more. Oh my. And let me tell you something.
That God sees the blood in reference to us. In reference to us. Now let me tell you something.
The blood that was shed, the blood of the atonement didn't
change the nature of God. He is immutable. He cannot change
in his nature or change in his purpose. So God sees the blood
in reference to us. Now, what I'm saying is this,
a lot of people says, you know, Jesus died so God could love
you. No, no, Christ didn't die to
enable God to love us. Christ died because God did love
us. Ain't that right? Do you know,
I want you, you keep Leviticus, and I want you to go over here
and look with me in John chapter three and verse 16. I want you
to look with me over here in John. I think this needs to be
dealt with. You know, people, the love of
God, it absolutely means nothing anymore. Absolutely means nothing
anymore. Men has hurt us so much. God
loves you. We do too. Christ died for you
because he loves you and all this and that and the other.
But I tell you what, I'm gonna tell you what the gospel is in
this, in John 3, John 3, 16. I'm gonna tell you what the,
God loved us with an everlasting love. God's eternal, and everything
God does is eternal. God does, God made time, he gave
us watches, he made time for us. Lord, make me to know the
end of my days. Make me know that my life is
swifter than we wish of it. God don't have time, they don't
need time. He gives it for us to show us
how quick time goes by, how swiftly time goes by, how swiftly life
ebbs away. Did you ever think you'd be old
as you are now? Did you ever think you'd be as
slow as you are? Did you ever think that you would
be, your mind would be as slow as it is? You know, that's what God lets
these things happen to us to let us understand. Listen, time
goes on and on and on and on. That when He shed that blood,
He shed that blood, beloved, in reference to us. It didn't
change His nature. He shed the blood, beloved, because
we needed the blood. And I'll tell you, in John 3,
look what it says here in John 3, 14. This is where the gospel's at
right here. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Now we know why that
serpent was lifted up, because men was bitten with fiery serpents
and they were dying. And even so Christ must be lifted
up. Because we got bad blood. We've
been bitten with sin. That whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting eternal life. And here's the
reason why Christ was lifted up. The reason was for God so
loved. I had him lifted up because I
loved. I loved my holiness, I loved
my justice, I loved my righteousness, I loved my truth. And God so
loved the world. Now what world is he talking
about? He said in one place the whole world lies in wickedness.
He said in another place there's three worlds in one verse of
scripture in John, I believe it's one chapter one verse ten.
So what world is he talking about here? Is he talking about everybody
in the world? If he said that you know that, that Christ was
lifted up for the whole world and everybody in it, then I'll
tell you something, everybody in it would be saved. But he's
talking about the world of every character, every nature, every
nation, every tongue, every kind of people, educated people, ignorant
people, white people, black people, smart people, dumb people, rich
people, poor people. God's no respected person. He
deals with every man on the same basis, and that's what it means
there. And I tell you, He gave His only
begotten Son, and here's the thing, if you have to believe
on Him, you should have everlasting life. And so listen, the gospel,
the gospel's not in John 3.16. John 3, 14, and 15 is because
God did love. He lifted Christ up. You know
why? He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. All right, now go back over in
our text. This blood being shed has reference
to God's dealing with us. God's dealing with us through
and by the death of his blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
here's his great, great sacrifice. And oh, when you talk about the
blood, God's reference with us has to do with God's dealings
with us through his death, through his sacrifice. The judge of all
the earth must do right. You know, his sin must be punished.
And I tell you, if you think God's gonna let anybody get through,
he's not gonna do it. He never has and he never will. You know, if you ever, people
don't even consider the death of Christ. He's just presented,
oh listen, come to Jesus, come to Jesus, come to Jesus. Just
come to Him. Come to Him anywhere you can.
That's not true. That's not right. God has a nature. He has a holy nature. He's righteous
God. He's a just God. And I tell you
what, his law, his law and his moral law and all of his word
got to be upheld. And so you say, well, I thought,
you know, I haven't been too bad. You don't have, you mess
up once, you miss one law of God. You miss one law. You lie one time, just lie one
time, and right then and there, you're under the judgment of
God. mistaken evil thought, and you're
under the judgment of God. And people think, well you got
to be, you got to be a really, really wicked person. Outside
of Christ everybody's wicked. They may not know it, but if
God ever let you know that, you know what you'll do? You'll run
to Christ so quick. And here's what Todd said the
other night, and I loved it. He says, you know, when you come
to Christ, when you start to Him, you get right there, just
as quick as you head toward Him, you already arrived. But I listen, I'm telling you.
God, He's just. Well, how in the world are we
going to satisfy His justice? I can't. Sing that song, I wonder
if my Lord will be satisfied with me. No, He won't. He's satisfied
with Christ. His holiness has to be honored. His righteousness has to be established. And this was all done when death
was executed upon our Lord Jesus Christ. And now this is what's
so wonderful. God can stay just, a just God,
sitting on his throne, sitting in his glory, sitting in his
power, sitting in his immeasurability, sitting in his sovereignty. God
can be just. and now he can come here and
take somebody like you and somebody like me because of what Christ
did and the shedding of his blood that he upheld and satisfied
God in such a glorious way that if you believe Christ, own Christ,
come to Christ and what he did Then God, He'll clear you, He'll
say, I justify him, he has no sin. Not only does he have no
sin, and I look at him justified, I look at him as he never had
any sin, and will never have any sin. That's what Christ accomplished
for His people. You know what He says about us? He says we're
perfect in Him, complete in Him. Can you? And oh, God looks on his son.
God looks on his blessed son with great, great, great delight.
And he has, as having suffered for his people. Because when
he sees his son, his blessed, blessed son, suffering, suffering
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his holiness is honored. Our Lord
Jesus would rather die on that cursed, cursed tree as to violate God's word, God's
justice, or impugn God's holiness or righteousness anyway. No wonder,
no wonder The love of Christ and the death of Christ and His
resurrection is such a sweet savor unto us and is to His Father. That altar of incense, that's
what it was. That's why I put blood on it.
That incense, it went up. And let me tell you this, that
blood shedding, that atonement that was made that day on that
golden altar, that blood that was put on that golden altar,
You know, the blood, the atonement gives power to the intercession
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The salt of incense was just
a type of our Lord pleading for sinners, making intercession
for transgressors. Aaron went in the tabernacle,
and when he went in there, over on the right, there was a lampstand. And every morning he'd go in
there and he'd trim them lamps, and put new oil in them, and
so they'd be burning perpetually. And he'd go back in the evening,
he'd do that, then he'd always go over, and they kept a fire
under that altar of incense, and there was his sprinkled incense
in the morning, and he'd come back to sprinkle incense in the
evening, and there was a perpetual smell that went up all the time. And that altar of incense was
representative, typical, of our Lord Jesus Christ's prayers going
up to God, interceding for those sinners before God. And I'd look
over here in Exodus 30 with me, in verse 7. You know, that altar, that atonement
gives power to the intercession of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
what he said here in verse 7 of Exodus 3. And they shall burn their own
sweet incense every morning when he dresses the lambs. He shall
burn incense upon it. And when the lambs are linten
at evening, he shall burn incense upon it, perpetual incense before
the Lord. You see, that smell, fragrance,
went up to the Lord. Went up to the Lord. And I want
you to see in Isaiah, look with me in Isaiah 53. I know I'm moving
you around here, but I think you need to see this. You're
talking about Christ making intercession for us. That's what He talks
about, every living to make intercession. But you know what gives power
to His intercession? His blood, the atonement. His
blood does. Look what it said down here in
verse 12 of Isaiah 53. Go down there in the middle of
the verse where it said, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgression, and he bared
the sin of many, and listen to this, and made intercession for
those transgressors he is numbered with, made intercession. The
power of our Lord intercession lies in his sacrifice, in his
blood. You know when the son is pleading
with the father, he pleads his own blood, he pleads his own
merit, he pleads what he did, pleads what he did. And that's
what we do when we come to him, we plead what he did. And I tell
you something else about the blood, not only does it give
power to our Lord praying for us, interceding for us, But His
blood, the shedding of His blood shows that He's a near kinsman
to us. That He was bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. You know only a man can shed
blood. And Christ came here and so identified with us. And so
was made like unto us without sin. And that's why he could
shed blood. He was God, so he could satisfy
God. But as man, he could shed his
blood and put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Oh, here's
proof that he's truly man. His blood on the horns of the
altar shows that he was a man. And his blood pleads this fact
also. that all sin's been removed,
all sin's been removed. He put away sin once and for
all by the sacrifice of himself. You know, if our Lord left one
sin, one sin that he didn't atone for, said, now listen, I've done
everything for you but this one thing, you do it, you do it. If he left us one thing to do,
every soul would be lost. Every soul. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, His blood pleads the fact. It's like they put it on
that golden altar seven times. That proves the fact that He
removed sin once and for all. Removed it once and for all.
And I'll tell you this, His blood shows us that with power that
He fulfilled all of His covenant of engagement. You know our Lord
Jesus, when He cried out, it is finished, God gave him a work
to do. God gave him something to accomplish.
You know, when Moses and Elijah came to him, they talked with
him about the death that he should accomplish and what that death
would accomplish. And our Lord Jesus Christ, his
blood shows us that he fulfilled all of his covenant engagements.
What was it? First and foremost, he had to
honor God and satisfy God. The blood before the Lord is
what's necessary. And then that blood is made effectual
to us because of what Christ did. And I tell you, when he
said it is finished, that means he finished what is done. And
you know, when Paul says, you know, Who's to lay any things
to the charge of God's lick? It's God that justifies. And
you know what else he said? How God justified us? It was
Christ that died. That's why Christ had died. And
I tell you, beloved, His blood, His blood gives power to His
interceding for us and claiming His own for whom He died. You
know, When He goes to the Father, and
He goes there and He put that blood on that altar in glory.
And when He put that blood on that altar, that meant that He
laid claim to everyone the Father gave Him in the eternal covenant
of grace. Oh, my. Yeah, He said, they're
mine. Somebody read that last night,
I forget who read it, yesterday afternoon. Oh, it was out of
Isaiah, Ward 20. He says, you know, he says, Isaiah
43, he says, because thou art mine. Thou art mine. And that's what Christ said.
Father, they was there, not yours, and you gave them to me. And
all that you've given to me, I've kept. I've not lost a one
of them. And our Lord Jesus Christ, in
John 18, it says when they came to get him, and all those men
came to get him, to take him and try him, and he was out in
the garden of Gethsemane, and all that great big mob come to
get him, our Lord Jesus Christ, they said, if you come to take
me, if you got me, his disciples with him said,
let these go. And that's what God, that's what
he said before God. Father you got me, let these
go. And whom the Son sets free, he's
free indeed. Oh my, let these go, let these
go. Because Christ our Lord took
the place of guilty, guilty, guilty sinners. That when he
takes up a man's case, before God. You know, you hire a lawyer to
take your case. Well, we all got a sorry case.
We're sorry. We got a case. We need somebody
that's got some power. We got somebody that's got some
merit. We got to have somebody that's got some authority. We
got to have somebody that's got some wisdom. We got to have somebody
that can go in front of the judge and tell that judge and convince
that judge He's innocent. Not only is he
innocent, but he justified in what was happening. How? Our Lord says, I did it. Look
at me. Look at my hands. Look at my
feet. Oh my. And I tell you, he takes up man's
case before God. He don't plead anything about
the man. He pleads himself. He pleads his own blood, pleads
his own merit, pleads his own worth, pleads his own work. Oh
my. Look over here with me, Psalm
35. You know, our Lord Jesus told Peter, he said, Satan is
sought to sift thee as wheat. And why didn't he said, in our
faith, will not fail. Why didn't Peter's faith fail? Because Christ said, I prayed
for you. I prayed for you. I prayed for
you. And you know why our faith don't
fail? You know why we don't go back to the world? You know why
we stay faithful to the gospel? Do you know why we keep coming
year after year, week after week, hearing the same preacher over
and over and over and over again say the same thing over and over
and over and over again? You know why you do that? Because
Christ prays for us. If he did not pray for us, you
mean you wouldn't last? Oh my, all he gotta do is, We
said in the service, and here in the gospel, and I'll do this
myself, I'll do this myself. I'll be sitting there listening,
and then my mind will go, whew. And then I'll hear something,
get out a pencil, start writing. Yes, listen. Ain't you grateful
that God, Christ, intercedes for us right this minute where
we are, what we're doing, what we think and what we feel, right
now. Right now. Oh my. And I tell you, he pleads
his own blood and God will hear him. And I said, I was at Psalm
35. I've lost it. I ain't forgot. I ain't forgot. Let me get back
over there. Are you still there? Okay. Look what he said. Look what David said. Lord, plead
my cause. Plead my cause, O Lord, with
them that strive against me. Sin strives against me, the world
strives against me, my flesh strives against me. Fight against
them that fight against me. Take hold of Sheldon Buckler.
Stand up, stand up, O Lord, for me. Draw out the spear and stop the
way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I'm your
salvation. Everything that strives against
us, stand up for me, Lord, plead my cause, plead my cause. And our Lord Jesus Christ, when
he prayed in John 17, He said, Lord, Father, I not only pray
for these that are here, right here listening to me, but I even
pray for them that shall believe on me through their name. He
prayed for us before we ever existed. And I tell you, Christ
interceded for Peter, and that's why we don't fail. And let me
tell you something, and I want you to see this over here in
a minute, but here's my third point. I ain't even told you
my first point yet. Well, I'm on my third now. The
blood gives acceptance to our worship. Our worship wouldn't
even be accepted of God without the blood and work of Christ. Our worship wouldn't be. It is
his sacrifice, the blood's on the horns of the altar, that
gives prayer, that gives praise, that gives service acceptable
in the sight of God. The blood is on the altar before
we ever begin to pray. And look over here in Exodus,
I think it's 28, Exodus 28. You know, the blood on the altar
removes the sins of our worship. Peter says, you know, that we
offer spiritual sacrifices. That's not a sacrifice. Every
sacrifice that we make is called a spiritual sacrifice. We ain't got anything that God
needs that we could ever possibly give him. And the blood on the
golden altar, that removes the sin of our worship. And our praises,
our praises for the Lord, how weak are they. How feeble are
our best prayers. How we wonder and how we waver
even when we pray. And when we feel like we're near
to God, I wonder how far off we really are. When we're most like him, how
greatly unlike him we still are. My tears, my tears need to be
wept over. My repentance needs to be repented
of. My faith has so much unbelief
in it. And this is what, look here in
Exodus 26 and verse 36. Listen to what it says here now.
It's what Christ did that makes anything we do acceptable to
God. Exodus 28, 36. And thou shalt
make a plate of pure gold Engrave upon it, or engrave upon it,
like the engravings of a signet, holiness to the Lord. And thou
shalt put on it blue lace, and thou shalt put it, that it may
be upon the miter, and upon the forefront of the miter it shall
be. Now listen to this. And it shall be upon Aaron's
foreheads, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things. We're here this morning, worshiping.
We're here to hear the gospel, but it says here that Aaron may
bear the iniquity of the holy things, their prayers, their
offerings, their praise, their worshiping, which the children
of Israel shall howl in all their gifts, and it shall be always
upon his forehead that they may be accepted. What may be accepted? Their gifts, their prayer, and
their praise. And I tell you, and I'm gonna
say it and keep saying it until the Lord takes me home. Keep
your eye, keep your eye, keep your eye fixed on the Lord Jesus
Christ and His great sacrifice for sinners, for His blood shedding,
for His blood shedding and who He is, is the only thing that
makes anything we do acceptable. My preaching is not acceptable
without Christ. Your prayers are unacceptable
without Christ. He makes them acceptable. No matter how sorry and how feeble
and how weak they may be. Bless his holy name. Ain't you
grateful that? I won't even mention, in two
weeks, next week I won't even be able to preach today. I'd
start all over. So that's how sinful I am. But
Christ, he said, I made it acceptable. Oh, our Lord Jesus, our blessed,
blessed, blessed, blessed Savior. Thank you for allowing us to
meet here today. Thank you for your glorious gospel
of Christ. Thank you for that blood shedding.
that bloodshedding that takes care of all of our sin, that
bloodshedding that makes us perfect and acceptable, that bloodshedding
that makes Christ power, His intercession for us, gives power
as He pleads for us and prays for us, takes up our case and
calls before Lord when we stumble, when we fall, when we falter,
when we sin, when we murmur, when we complain, when we're
so full of unbelief, when we're so weak and we're so weary, when
we're so confused and we're so down, when we're so full of pride
and self-righteousness. Lord, your blood shedding makes
intercession for us in whatever shape we're in. And blessed be
your holy name for that. God bless these dear saints.
Make the gospel effectual. Make it powerful. Make it real.
Make it alive and do it for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. What page is near the cross?