Alright, let's look back together
here in Leviticus chapter 4. We want to talk about the blood
before the Lord. The blood before the Lord. There's
three times here that it talks about before the Lord. Down in
verse 4 it says, He shall bring the bullock unto the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. And shall lay
his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the
Lord. And then in verse 6, And the
priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle the blood
seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. And there's one thing that we
face often, often, often in the scripture. And that's the blood.
The blood. The Bible talks an awful lot
about the blood. You know, and God Himself, the
first shedding of blood in the Old Testament that we see was
what God's blood shed that He clothed Adam and Eve with. That's
the first one we know of anyway because there had to be the shedding
of blood to cover their nakedness. But when you talk about the blood,
without the shedding of blood, There is no remission, no payment
for sin. Sins can't be done away with
without the blood. Look in Leviticus 17. Look in
Leviticus 17 in verse 11. Leviticus 17, 11. You know, and if I tell you,
in our Lord Jesus Christ, it says about Him that He was a
lamb slain without spot and without blemish. We've come unto Christ,
that blessed Lamb of God, without spot and without blemish. Precious
blood of Christ is what it's called. But He said here, for
the life of the flesh is in the blood. We know that. We know that. People have to
sometimes take transfusions because their blood gets bad. Get an
automobile wreck. And something you know, you have
to have blood. Because if you lose your blood
or your blood quits flowing, your heart, you're going just
like that. You get an infection in your
blood. So the life of the flesh is in the blood. We know that
ourselves. But God says this, and I have given the blood. Here's
what he said, for the life of the flesh is in the blood. I
have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement or
sacrifice for your sins. It is the blood that maketh an
atonement. And when it comes to preaching
the blood, he talks about the speaking blood, the blood of
Christ through the everlasting covenant. And if there's any
apologies that we ought to make in reference to preaching on
the blood of Christ is that we don't preach on it enough. We
don't preach on it enough. We certainly don't. But when
you look in the scriptures, what does the shedding of blood mean?
What does it mean? Well, first of all, it's a reference
to sin offerings. What he's talking about here
are sin offerings. He said, if a man's through ignorance can
sit against any of the commandments of the Lord, things that ought
not to be done, and does them anyway. And if the priest that
is anointed do sin, according to the sin of the people. So
it's a sin offering. And when you refer to sin offerings
and a sacrifice for sin offerings, it don't just mean suffering.
It don't mean just suffering. It don't mean making the animal
uncomfortable. It don't mean making sinners
uncomfortable. It's not what it's talking about.
Sin just don't make it. For it to be put away and dealt
with, when you talk about the blood and the shedding of blood,
it means unto death. When you find the blood in the
Scriptures, it always means unto death. And that's what it means,
suffering unto death. And I'll tell you something,
it said here this is a sin offering for the priest and anybody else
that sins. You know, the sin deserves death. Sin deserves death. There's no
doubt about that. There's a lot of people who don't
believe it. And when you're talking about punishment for sin, it's
just not something that makes you uncomfortable. You know,
and makes you feel bad about some things. But I'm telling
you something. Sin deserves death. It deserves
punishment. Punishment. And there ain't a
place that you can go over your sin into a place called purgatory
and stay there for a while. And then if you get through with
your sin, suffering enough, you get to come out. There's nothing
like that God himself Told Adam in the day you eat of that fruit
of the knowledge of the tree and good and evil you'll die
And when Adam took of that fruit, he said told him he said in dying
thou shalt surely die So what he said was you're gonna start
dying today When he rebelled against God and took of that
fruit, he said you're gonna start dying today, and you know first
death he died separation from God That's the first day And
then beloved he started dying from that day on until the day
the scripture said and Adam died And I tell you the sin deserves
death And I know this that I God himself says this the soul that
sinneth shall surely surely die the wages of sin men want to
get God to pay them and be just with them and You mean God deal
with you justly outside of Christ? The wages of sin is death. Eternal
death. And there's no way in the world
to get around it. And so listen. Here's the thing. Sin deserves death. People don't
think it does. And that's why most people don't
know anything about sin. They don't know anything about
it. But I tell you, if God, in His sovereign mercy, and I was
telling Shirley about it, if He don't give you and make you
to see the Gospel, and make you see what sin deserves and the
only way sin can be put away, you could not believe it unless
God revealed it to you. Huh? And then here's the thing
about it. Our Redeemer, our Lord Jesus
Christ, our substitute, our satisfaction he had to suffer not only suffer
from the day he was born to the day he died but beloved he had
to suffer unto death he himself had to suffer unto death the
only way this is the most astounding things to me the only way that
God God Can uphold His holy law. He don't
lower His standard for nobody. It's still holy and just and
good. And I tell you, beloved, His
justice that says the soul that sins shall die. That justice
that demands the punishment for sin and the death of the sinner.
He must justify that justice has to be satisfied. His righteousness
and the sentence passed upon the sinner must be executed. But how in the world is God going
to execute sentence upon sin, execute death upon sin, and execute
the sinner for his sin, and at the same time turn around and
uphold that law and magnify it, satisfy His holy justice, declare
His righteousness, and at the same time save people like us? How can He do that? Christ. Christ. That's why I tell you,
if God didn't reveal it to you and teach it to you, you couldn't
believe it. Huh? Oh my. And I tell you what, for
God to forgive us and justify sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God and man. Only God can satisfy God. Man can't satisfy God. And only God can do what God
needs done for him. But the God-man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, being God, He can satisfy God. Being man, He can die. Being man, He can bear sin. He Himself bore our sins in His
own body. He was the just for the unjust,
being put to death in the flesh. Christ was made a curse for us. Oh, there's the reformer. And
I was talking to Bruce. There's these reformed guys that
they just can't get over the idea that how do you make people
live right if you don't bring them back under the law? If you
don't give them the Ten Commandments to show them how to live? You
know what the Bible says about that even in the Old Testament?
The just shall live by faith. And if Christ was made a curse
for us to redeem us from the curse of the law, why in the
world would you want to go back under that curse? Christ bore
that curse. That law said, Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things to do it. Well, Christ came and
did it all. And then He took the curse upon
Himself. Oh, that's why God, God can be
just, bless His holy name. He can still be just just like
He's always been throughout eternity as long as He's been. And then
when a man comes to Christ, God can look at that sinner and say,
I justify you, I clear you of all guilt before me in the thrones
of heaven and in heaven's portal itself. And I tell you, all those
blood sacrifices under the law and under Moses was just typical,
typical of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ in the place
instead of sinners. You know, our Lord told them
in Luke 24, He told them, I don't have any time. He said, He started
that in Moses. And all the prophets, He opened
their understanding concerning the scriptures concerning Himself. concerning himself, starting
in Psalms. And oh, he opened the scriptures
to their understanding. And I tell you, I want you to
see this. I quote it all the time, but look at it with me.
Isaiah 53. Look here in Isaiah 53. We quote
these verses, the scriptures, and then we never actually look
at them to see what they say. This would be my creed, this
would be my doctrine, this would be where I'd hang my hat to face
God on eternity, right here on Isaiah 53. Huh? Look what it
says here in verse 4. Oh, they all just, what's typical
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And look what it says, surely,
surely, I mean, without a doubt, He hath
borne our griefs. What griefs? The griefs that
our souls would endure throughout eternity had not Christ borne
them for us. That's the grief He's talking
about, being separated from God. And then not only that, but He
carried our sorrows. Oh, He carried our sorrows. And He was acquainted with grief.
And oh my, carried our sorrows, borne our grief and carried our
sorrows, the sorrows that we would not be accepted of God.
And then we know that God esteemed, God stricken him, we esteem God
struck him, and God stricken him, God has smitten him, and
God afflicted him. How do we know he did that? The
next verse says, but he was wounded. Why God smite him? Why God strike
him? Why did God afflict him? Because
he was wounded. for our transgressions. Huh? He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. Upon Him! And with His stripes
we are healed. And all we, all we, like sheep
have gone astray. And you know who He came to find? You know who He came to save?
All them sheep that was gone astray. And look what it says,
we all like sheep have gone astray, we turned everyone to his own
way. And you know how God brought us back? The Lord Jehovah God
laid on him the iniquity of us all. Oh my, huh? Well, all those blood
sacrifices under Moses were just typical of the sacrifice of our
Lord Jesus Christ to place to the stead of sinners. And I'll
tell you something else about this blood before the Lord. The
animals that were sacrificed were always tame. Always tame. They didn't have to go out and
catch a wild beast, throw a rope around its neck, put a chain
around it and drag it. to where they could kill it.
Drag it up there where they could kill it. No, no. They wouldn't
have got lambs. They wouldn't have got baby goats.
They even got bullocks and had been kept in the stall. I mean
all these. It's like our Lord Jesus Christ,
He was led, led as a lamb to the slaughter. He freely gave
Himself up. And for our Lord Jesus Christ,
He willingly, willingly laid down His life for His people. He did not resist it. He did not say, Father, Father,
if this cup won't, I'll take it. I want it. I gotta have it.
And oh my. And I tell you what, He laid
down His life so willingly. And here's the thing, when He
laid down His life, that means that He's gonna be separated
from His Father. He was gonna be punished for sins, not His
own. He's gonna die for sins, not
His own. But for all whom he represented
as a substitute. And then these animals had to
be young males. Young males. Showing their strength
right in the prime of their life. This bullock was a year old when
they brought him in there. Young boy, year old, signifying
the strength of our Lord Jesus Christ, the might of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the excellency of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
here's another thing, they must be without spot, they must be
without blemish. And that shows us that our Lord
Jesus Christ is holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. Sinless and perfect
in every way. And that's what he's talked about
over in 1 Peter 1.19.18 it says this, we've not come We are not
redeemed with such corruptible things as silver and gold, but
with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and without
blemish. And you know what else it tells
us? Over in Ephesians 4 and several Colossians, it says that He will
present us holy and without blemish and without blame. He was without blemish and without
blame and He is going to present us holy and without blemish and
without blame. You know if we know Him naturally
we got to be without blemish. You know the scripture says if
the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkle
in it sanctifies to the purifying of this flesh Just when you bring
that offering, he said, how much more shall the blood of Christ, the blood of Christ save you? And here's another thing about
this blood before the Lord. The blood of the sin offering
was to be poured out. Look down here in verse 7. Look
in the middle of that verse. He said, which is in the tabernacle
of the congregation that shall pour all the blood of the bullock
at the bottom of the altar for an offering. When he says the
blood of the sin offering was to be poured out, you know what
it said about our Lord Jesus Christ? He poured out His soul
as an offering. poured out his soul as an offering. And his blood had to be poured
out. In order to be a true sin offering, his blood had to be
poured forth. When that Roman soldier walked up to him and
took that spear, about that long, sharp, sharp, walked up to Christ
and stuck it in his side and went up with it. You know what
come out of it? Blood with the poured out. blood
and water and it wasn't just a trickle you see these pictures
you know of Wild Bill Hickok as Tim Jane called him but you
know you got that he did have this little rip and little blood
on his side when that he did that that blood just gushed out
just like pouring it out taking a bucket just So you're talking about poured
out. Poured out. And I tell you it was poured
out to where he had no life left in his body. And then I'm going to tell you,
let's look at this here. The blood shed before the Lord.
Three times in these verses, the blood is said to be before
the Lord. And here's the thing about it. Whether any man saw
it or not, That was a very, very small account. You know why? Because it was before the Lord.
Because it was before the Lord. When the Passover lamb was slain,
and they put that blood over the little of the doors and on
the side of the post, you know those people inside, they couldn't
see that blood. They couldn't see it. But you
know who could see it? God said, when I see the blood,
I will pass over you. It was God's side of the blood
and that's what it is right here. You'll shed this blood before
the Lord. And that's where it's necessary
to be before the Lord. And God said, and I'll tell you
what, and this is the thing about it. God, He has to see the blood. You know I was talking to a man
today and he said his wife was getting pretty bad shape with
some things wrong with her mind and things like that and I said
I'll tell you one good thing about it. She may get to where
she don't know herself or anybody else but I said the Lord knows
her. You see that blood has been shed before the Lord. Christ shed his blood You know
where He took it, the first place He took it. Everybody wants to,
and we do, we relate it to ourselves. But here's the thing that blesses
my heart more than anything. Before God could do anything
for us, He had to do something for Himself. And that's why Christ
came into this world, so God could do something for Himself.
Satisfy Himself, honor Himself, glorify Himself. And He did all
that in His blessed Son. And I tell you what, in that
blood that was shed on that day, it was before the Lord. And God
sees that blood. And I tell you, the suffering
of our Lord and death of our Lord Jesus on behalf of His people
was before the Lord. And this is what happened when
Christ died before the Lord. And this is what happened. God said, I'm going to declare
I'm righteous. Where am I going to declare that?
In the death of my son. I'm going to honor my holiness.
Where are you going to honor that? In the death of my son.
I'm going to satisfy my justice. How are we going to do that?
In the death of my son. I'm going to fulfill my purpose,
my eternal purpose. Where at? In the death of my
son. And I tell you, God, God put
Him on that cross. God Himself by His determinate
counsel and foreknowledge delivered His Son up to the cross so that
God could be just and justify sinners like ourselves. God Himself
said, I'm a just God. If that's all He said, if He
didn't have to say anything else, I'm a just God. He didn't say
anything else. But you know what else he said?
I'm a Savior too. I'm a Savior too. You know, if all he had ever
done was told us he was just and dealt with us on that basis,
no hope. But oh my! He justly put his
son to death. And now, that soul that comes
to Christ, God said, I'll justify them. I'll receive them. I'll
receive them. Oh, listen. Let me tell you something else.
This blood before the Lord, it doesn't change the character
and doesn't change the nature of God. God's immutable. He's
unchangeable. But it honors His holy nature. It honors His character. Ray
honors His nature. And let me tell you something,
the death of Christ is not the cause of God's love for us, but
it's the result of it. God didn't say, well I'm going
to give my son so I'll be able to love people. He gave his son
because he did love his people. Oh my. And God is not merciful
to sinners because Christ died. Christ died because God is merciful
to sinners. God said, I'm going to express
my mercy, I'm going to express my love, I'm going to express
my grace. And I'm going to express it in
a way that will make the sinner so grateful and so thankful and
give me all the glory for it, because I'll do it all in my
son. I love the world, I love people
across from Tennessee, I love men, I love women, I love blacks,
I love Chinese, I love sinners! So I sinned my son, and I sinned
him. And oh why? So whoever believes
on him might have life, eternal life. Oh my, this idea that God
loves everybody and Christ died and now God can be merciful because
Christ died. Oh listen, Christ died because
God was merciful. I intend to show mercy to whom
I'll show mercy. I intend to have compassion on
whom I'll have compassion. And I'll do it in a just way
through my blessed Son. God is love. God is merciful. God is gracious. But God is holy. God is just and God is righteous.
and all his attributes was honored in his blessed son on that cross
and I tell you he became a sacrifice and a sin offering for all his
people I want you to notice something there in verse 1 it said if a
soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments
of the Lord which ought not to be done and shall do any against
of them Now you know how many sins we've committed and we're
not even conscious that we've committed them? But it says there that that sinner
has to have a sacrifice just like anybody else has one. He's
ignorant of what he was doing. But he had to have a sacrifice.
So all the sins we're ignorant that we've committed, not conscious
that we've committed, Just getting out of bed and going through
our day. How many times? Well, God had an offering for
that too. Oh, bless His holy name. Now
I want to show you a few things and wind this thing up. The blood,
second thing, the blood was brought into the tabernacle and placed
on the altar. Look what it says here in verse
5. And the priest that is anointed
shall take of the bullock's blood and bring it into the tabernacle,
the congregation. And now listen. And look what
happens. First thing he did, he shall,
well verse 4. And first thing he has to do
is he brings the bullock under the door of the tabernacle of
congregation before the Lord. And he lays his hands on the
head of that bullock. And kill the bullock before the
Lord. First thing he has to do is he
has to put his hand on. He got identified with that victim. He got identified with that dying
bullock. So he laid his hands on the head
of that bullock. And the symbolism of that, the
emblematic of that, is that his sins was put on the head of that
bullock that was going to die. Now he got his sins on him. He's
identified with him. And then he kills that before
the Lord. And this teaches us this, that our sins were laid
on Christ. And now what do we do? Oh, Scott,
I've heard him preach on this. Oh, my goodness. He said, you
know when you put that hand on the head of a sacrifice, press
down on it. Put your hands on it, press down
on it. Oh, listen, make sure all your
sins are there. Make sure they're all on Christ. Oh, listen to me, it's the only
place they can be. And then we turn around, and
since He's our sacrifice, now we put our hands on Him by faith.
Our hands reach out to Him by faith. We touch Him by faith. We're like the woman come up
behind Him with the issue of blood. She touched Him by faith.
It's like that. And I tell you in the shedding
of that blood actually shows our Lord Jesus Christ's oneness
with us. Did our Lord Jesus have human
blood? He did. Yes, He did. And He is truly
man. And as a man, He died. He died. And the shedding of
His blood, the shedding of His blood, shows the full payment
of the debt. But you know why I know? Because
all that blood, just like in that bullock, they drained the
blood out of that bullock. And our Lord Jesus Christ's body
was drained of His blood, showing that His blood paid all the sin
debt and all the debt that we could have possibly owed to God
Almighty. And I tell you, it's no longer
in His veins. Where's it at? It's on the altar, in the presence
of God. And then he took that blood of
the bullock, brought it into the tabernacle. Ain't that what
he said? He said the priest shall bring
the bullock into the tabernacle. Take it in, bring it in. Take
the blood of the bullock in verse 5 and bring it into the tabernacle.
Showing that our Lord Jesus Christ, He was that perfect tabernacle.
and he entered into that tabernacle not made with hands, not like
this one but he entered into heaven itself with his own blood
now, right now, and every time I love this word now it's like
there's now no condemnation, wherever you find the word now
every time you read it it's now and he entered once now, now
to appear in the presence of God for us right now right this
moment, entered into the presence of God for us, with his own blood,
having obtained the eternal redemption for us. And then look what the
priest did here, in verse 6, and the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times here
we go again before the Lord before the veil of the sanctuary now
here's what happened he took that blood in a basin he went
up right up to the veil where the holiest of holies at where the holiest of holies at
and not altar of incense at he walked up to that veil and he
dipped his finger in that blood seven times one two 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 9. That shows us the perfection
of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what 7 means?
means perfection, completeness, perfection. Well, I tell you,
our Lord Jesus Christ, death is effectual, it's perfect, and
it satisfied God, and it satisfies us. And let me show you something
else here right quick. Look in verse 7. And the priest
shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet
incense before the Lord. Oh my! You know, when they made
that ark, that censer, that golden ark with the fragrance on it,
they made corners on it that stood up. And what he would do
is he'd take that blood and put it on that altar. You know what that tells us?
That sweet altar of incense, ain't that what it calls the
sweet altar of sweet incense before the Lord? You know what
that tells us? that the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ on behalf of His people, you know what that means? That
means the sweet incense of His prayers and the intercession
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that blood on that ultra-sweet
incense shows us the power of that intercession. You know what
He pleads before God? He pleads His own blood. Pleads
His own sacrifice. And the only way in the world
our sin could be put away was that. And His blood speaks for
us now in the presence of God. And His blood on the altar shows
this. the fulfillment of the covenant
of blood Hebrews 13 20 says this now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead that great shepherd of the sheep the Lord
Jesus Christ through through the blood of the everlasting
covenant oh my let me say look over here with me I want you
to see this Hebrews 9 16 You need to see this. I know we've
looked at this before, but this is worth looking at again so
we can understand it a little better. You know, a covenant
is a testament. Same thing as a testament or
a will. And you know that all of us have
probably got a last will and testament. All of us got one. You know, and they have powers
of attorney and all that kind of stuff to take care of people
when they get in bad shape. But now, I'm going to tell you
something. Your last will and testament is just nothing but
paper and ain't worth nothing until you die. And when you die,
they say, where's the will at? Let's find that will and see
what we're going to get. Got to look at that will, see
what we've got coming. well listen to me now Christ
died now listen to me now look what it says here verse 16 for
a testament is or a will is there must also of necessity be the
death of the testator the one who made the will and the testament
for a testament is a force after men are dead otherwise there's
no strength at all while the testator lives And I tell you
what, you know what our Lord Jesus Christ did? He fulfilled
God's will and testament. And you know what? He lives,
He inherited everything. And He lives to make sure we
get our inheritance. He lives to make sure we get
just exactly what was in that will of God for us. You reckon we'll get it? And you know what? He says in
God's right hand, the guarantee, guarantee, that we'll one day,
our inheritance will truly, truly, truly be there. And so let me
tell you this in closing. I told you not to say in conclusion,
but this will help you a little bit. I'll just do that for your
sake. In conclusion, His blood, His sacrifice gives acceptance
to our persons and gives acceptance to our worship. We come in here
to worship tonight. You're the only reason why our
worship is acceptable. Because of Him. You see, His
blood removes the sin of our worship, the sins of our prayers,
the sins of our works. All of our righteousness are
as a filthy rag. And He takes all of our righteousness
and throws them away and we have His. and His blood enables us. The high priest don't want to
go behind the veil, but now we ourselves can enter into the
holiest of holy, into the presence of God by a new and living way,
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every prayer, every act
of worship, every praise, every work of faith is only acceptable
to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. When you ask why God
blesses us, there can only be one reason. Only one reason. You know, preachers tell people
all the time, if you'll do this, God will bless you. If you do
that, God will bless you. But I know this, God only blesses
us for Christ's sake. And that suits me just fine.
I don't have to go out here and earn one. I don't have to muster
one up. Our Father, oh, our blessed Savior,
thank you for your gospel. Oh, the wonderful gospel of blood,
the gospel of righteousness, the gospel of righteousness declared,
the gospel of a just God that can come. And you said yourself in your
word, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect,
And why no one can lay a charge to God's elect is because Christ
died. Not only did he die, but Lord,
he rose again and even now sits at your right hand with all power,
all authority vested in him. And Lord, we gladly bow to him.
and accept everything that you have for us in Christ and believe
that all we ever have and all we ever will have is in our blessed
Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless these dear saints as
they go their way. Keep them, preserve them, keep
them healthy, keep them safe, and keep us all loving you, needing
you, and cleaving to you for Christ's sake. Amen. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
blessed Lord, how merciful Thou art to me. how merciful, how merciful, blessed
Lord, how merciful thou art to me. See you Sunday morning, God
willing.