I want to talk about the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor. He talks about being a sacrifice.
Our Lord Jesus Christ. What Paul said, He's a sweet
smelling Savior. A sacrifice to God. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, when He offered Himself, He did
something that no other blood shedding had ever done. From
the first time that God shed the blood, and covered Adam and
Eve's nakedness. God himself had to dress their
nakedness. Closed them with animal skin
and from the shedding of that blood, the next blood shedding
in the scriptures was Abel's blood shedding when he offered
the lamb. And from that blood shedding, from the first time,
and all the blood shedding from that first time, until our Lord
Jesus Christ came, not one drop of that blood ever put away sin. Not one drop of the blood of
those animals, bulls, heifers, and goats ever put away sin. But when our Lord Jesus Christ,
and there's a red line of bloodshedding of sacrifice unbroken throughout
the scriptures. But they never put away sin.
But when it came to our Lord Jesus Christ offering Himself
to God, a sacrifice, a sweet smelling savor to God. All those
sacrifices that pointed to Him and pictured Him and prophesied
of Him, found therein their culmination in the bloodshedding of our Lord
Jesus Christ as a sacrifice. And that sacrifice of the Son
of God Himself on the cross put away all the sins of all of God's
people for all time and all eternity. As far as God was concerned,
sin don't exist anymore for those for whom Christ died. It does
not exist. And all the man-offered offerings
fell so far short of the requirements of God's righteousness. But in
mercy, in mercy and grace to a world of lost sinners, God
provided Himself a Lamb. And when John saw Him, There,
when he was baptizing on the shores of Jordan, he told all
his disciples that was following, he says, behold, the Lamb of
God. There's God's Lamb that God talked
about all the way through the scriptures. That every lamb before
that picture, there's the Lamb of God. Those other sacrifices
never took away sin, but behold the Lamb of God. who taketh away the sin of the
world. Takes it and it takes it away.
Takes it away. So let's look at this verse of
scripture. Verse 2. And see what we can
find out about the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. What
was this sacrifice? that was given. It says there
that Christ, in the middle of that verse, hath given it Himself. He gave Himself. I cannot get over this concept
of Himself. I've tried to say it and express
it, but when it talks about giving Himself, whatever He is, whatever
He was, When He was in this world, He gave Himself. All that made
Him, Him, is what He gave. Everything that made up His holy
nature, everything that gave up, everything about His sinlessness,
of His power, you know, not only His love, and how great was His
love, How great was the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not
only His time, He that inhabited eternity came and gave Himself
in time and gave 33 years of His life. Not only His power,
the power that created the world and upholded by the word of His
power, not only His wisdom, not only His blood, but Himself. And all the fullness of His life. All the merit of His wondrous
worth. I wish I could express it the
way it is. But Himself, whatever His self was, the fullness
of the God had dwelled in Him. Well, that's the fullness He
gave. Look over here in Hebrews chapter
9. Hebrews chapter 9. This will express it son. The scriptures express it much
better than I could. In all the fullness of his life.
That's why he said, which of you convinces me of sin? Here's
a sinless life, a holy life, a harmless life, an obedient
life, a just life, a righteous life, powerful life, gracious
life, loving life, wise if the wisdom of God was in him. And all that he is and was, that's
what he gave when he gave himself. Look what it said here in verse
13 of Hebrews chapter 9. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats and the ashes of a heifer, they took a heifer and they burned
it down and they put the ashes in water and they would sprinkle
the unclean, and if that sanctified to the purifying of the flesh,
if that's what that done to the purifying of the flesh, How much
more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit,
listen to it now, offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience, not your flesh, your conscience, where the guilt was,
where the sin was, where the disobedience was, purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the livid God. Look down
in verse 25. And here's where we're talking
about our Lord Jesus Christ again. Talking about offering sacrifices,
nor yet that He should offer Himself often. He don't have
to go back and offer Himself over and over again as the high
priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of
others. For they must have suffered,
often have suffered since the foundation of the world. I want
you to notice something. Now once in the end of the world. And you know how many times it
says once in verse 28 it says once. Our Lord Jesus Christ only
had to do something once. Those fellas done it every day.
Those fellas done it once a year. Our Lord Jesus Christ did it
once. One life. One sacrifice. One obedience. One offering.
One blood shedding. Once. Hath appeared in the end
of the world, listen to this, to put away sin. By the sacrifice
of itself. Oh my, what did he give? He gave
himself. He gave himself. How many times
have you thought within yourself? You said, Oh Lord, I would sure
like to give myself to you. I'd like to be yours without
any reservation. Well, without any reservation,
without any hold back, without any thought, without any wonder
without He gave Himself. We don't have the ability to
do that. But He did. He did. He did. And look now,
look back over here in verse 2 of Ephesians 5. Look to whom
this sacrifice was made. Look to whom it was made. It
said He gave Himself for us and offering his sacrifice
to God. He gave himself to God. Now this
is the difference in preaching that God teaches a man to preach
and when man teaches a man to preach. When man teaches a man
to preach, when man is preaching what is natural to him, he preaches
Man's got all the power, man's got all the glory, man's got
all the strength, and man's got power over God. But here it says
we start with God. He offered himself to God. Why did he offer himself to God? Because God must do something
for himself before he can ever do anything for us. And our Lord
Jesus Christ gave Himself to God. Offered, it says here, He
made Himself an offering to God. You see, He was God's Lamb. Every
sacrifice that they gave under the Old Testament was appointed
by God. Our Lord Jesus Christ was appointed
by God to be that one final sacrifice. And to offer a sacrifice to anyone
or anything else is idolatry. And here's the thing, it's God
with whom we have to do. And let me ask you something,
do you honestly think that we as human beings, as fallen creatures,
sinful creatures, disobedient creatures, vain imaginations
and all that makes us us. Do you think for one moment in
time that we ever had anything that we could offer to God that
would satisfy Him? Could we ever be righteous enough
to offer a sacrifice that would satisfy His righteousness? Could
we ever be holy enough to offer a sacrifice that would satisfy
His holiness? Could we ever be good enough,
righteous enough to offer a sacrifice that God would say, oh boy, I
tell you, you really gave it to me. You gave me the best you
had today. Well, I tell you what, the best
we got is filthy rags and God said he offered himself a sacrifice
to God. God must be honored. God must
uphold his righteousness. God must uphold his holiness.
God must uphold his justice. Oh my! In the time of the sacrifice
was appointed. And listen to me now, there had
to be a sacrifice answerable to the debt that we owe God. The debt we owe God. What debt
do we owe Him? We had a mountain of sin. Sin, after sin, after sin, after
sin, after sin, after sin, after sin. Then how are we going to
pay that debt? How are you going to pay that
debt? People go bankrupt in this world because they get so overwhelmed
with debt they have to file bankruptcy because they can't pay their
debt. Well I tell you what, we were not only bankrupt, we was
born bankrupt. We was born so poor that God
has to clothe us. We was born so poor that God
had to save us. We was born so poor that God
had to do everything for us because we had nothing of our own to
give. We were so naked when we come into this world and we stand
naked before God until God himself makes us to understand who we
are and then we'll say, Lord, clothe me with the righteousness
of Christ. Oh, my. And I tell you, if you
don't, if Christ don't pay this debt and he's the one that offered
himself a sacrifice to God, there's a debt that we owe and we could
not pay. Christ paid a debt that he did
not owe. And so He took our debt, He took all our sin, all our
disobedience, all that we failed to be a thousand times, He took
both soul and body and offered Himself to God as sacrifice. Made His soul, the scripture
tells us that He made His soul an offering for sin. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It was the Lord that laid on
him the iniquity of his soul. This was God's doing. He provided
it. It was God who accepted it. It
was God who required it. And God was the one that was
satisfied. And now if you want to approach
God, you can only approach Him by whom God appointed. The Lord
Jesus Christ. The last and final sacrifice
for sin that only put away sin. The only one in this universe
that ever did. Huh? Look in Luke 22 with me. Our Lord suffered in His body
and in His soul. Look in Luke 22, in verse 44. Oh, you're talking about a suffered
Savior. Oh, our blessed Lord. Oh, no wonder He said in Luke
22, 44, Now he's in the garden now. He's
in the garden. And talking about he offered
himself for sacrifice answerable to our debt. To pay God what
we owed. And being in agony. Do you hear
what it says there? Being in agony. Being in agony. The sinless Son
of God? The holy eternal Son of God? The blessed Lord Jesus Christ, one who had no sin of his own, one that the Father always said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. And it said
here, Ben, in agony. Now, you and I, people going
to be in agony when they go to hell without God, without Christ.
You think, listen, the only agony we're ever going to suffer in
this world is what our Lord suffered. When it comes to facing God.
And look what he said here, in being in agony, he prayed more
earnestly, and listen to it, and his sweat were as it were,
gray drops of blood. falling down to the ground. When He talks about Him being
a sacrifice to God, that's what it took. It took
His... He suffered. His whole person suffered. And for God to save us, to save
us, He has to first be just. He may show mercy. He may show
grace. But one thing I know He's got
to be. He's got to be just. He cannot let His justice...
He's got to always treat everybody just right. Everybody's going
to get justice from God. Every soul on this earth is going
to get justice from God. God's going to treat them exactly
right. And what he done, he put his son in the place of his people
and his justice, he gave him everything that was due us. Wrath,
death, Punishment, justice, righteousness, holiness, everything that obedience,
everything God required from us, Christ gave it to His Father. Offered Himself a sacrifice.
Now, I'll never be in agony before God. I may be in agony in my
soul in this world over something that may happen by a loved one
or somebody that I know, or losing a limb, or not knowing who I
am in this world. But when it comes to facing God,
I'll face God in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only sacrifice that
satisfied God. And if we cannot approach God,
this is the only way we can get to Him. He gave Himself to God. Every preacher wants to tell
you, though, He gave Himself for you. He loves you. God so loves you. And they want to
make it all about you. But when you understand that it was
first about God, He was God's Lamb, He was God's Providing, And when you understand that
this was for God, first and foremost, your conscience can go to rest. Then you'll understand what it
means when you do understand that He did it for you. Oh, listen. Look what it says now again in
our verse. Not only for whom it was made, He gave Himself
to God. to whom it was made, look for whom, for whom, not
to, but for whom the sacrifice was made. It said here that Christ
also hath loved us and given himself for us. Gave himself
for us. He gave himself to God for us. Now who's us? You'll find out who us is. Are you an us? Huh? God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God made Him to be sin for us. Him who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Who is us? Well, I'll tell you who us is.
Blasphemers. Persecutors, liars, disobedient,
unthankful, unholy, self-righteous, full of pride, full of sin from
the top of our head to the sole of our foot. The best we ever
done is called a filthy rag. And we had absolutely no abilities,
no powers, no right. We had nothing to offer. So He
gave Himself for us. Look at Matthew 15. Look at the
people He gave Himself for. And I tell you something, if
he ever makes you a sinner, I'll know one thing about it. If he
ever makes you a sinner, you're a safe sinner. You come from
being one of those to one of us. That quick. Is that right? That's right. I'm telling you
the truth. The minute you become... Shirley was saying that this
morning. She says, you know, when the Lord... When I found
out who God was, all I know to do was just lay at mercy's door.
Lay at mercy's door. And if God didn't open that door,
I certainly couldn't open it myself. I had no power. I had no ability. I had nothing
to give. And if the Lord didn't give me
the mercy, then I had no right to it. And he had to do it all. He had to give it to me. And
she said, you know what? That's where I stay now. Ain't
that right? Look what he said here in Matthew
15, verse 29. And Jesus departed from thence,
and went up into the Sea of Galilee and went up into a mountain and
sat down there. And great multitudes came unto him,
having with them those that were lame. Lame people can't walk. Blind
people can't see. dumb people, people who can't
speak, can't offer praise, maimed, and many others. And listen to
what they've done to them. And cast them down at Jesus'
feet. And what does it say? And He
healed them. Who? The lame, the blind, the
maimed, the whore. In so much that the multitude
wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the lame to be made
whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see, and listen
to what it says, and they glorified the God of Israel. Now the only
people that Christ healed was somebody that had something wrong
with them. Now you got anything wrong with
you? I tell you what, when you know
you ain't got nothing, you got to get everything you got from
somebody else that's got it all. And that's what we do. We don't
have anything. So what do we do? We get everything
from Him who has it all, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, we
were aliens from God. Without life, without merit,
without righteousness. And He gave Himself for us. Who
He was, gave Himself for us. He was our substitute, a real
substitution. A real substitution. And I want
you to see this in Genesis 22. Look at this in Genesis 22. You've
seen this so many times. I know most of you know right
where I'm going. But look here in Genesis 22. Talking about our Lord Jesus
Christ was a real sacrifice. And when a person is a real substitute,
that means the one who he was a substitute for, in his substitution,
that he was there for them and them alone. Now here, look in
verse 6 of Genesis 22. Abraham took the wood, him and
Isaac, going up on the mountain. Abraham took the wood of the
burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. And he took the
fire in his hand and the knife, and they went, both of them,
together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said,
My father. And he said, Here, son. What
is it, son? He said, Behold the fire and the wood. But where
is the lamb for a burnt offering? A lamb that God's fire is going
to consume. Look what he said in verse 8.
Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Now look what happens. Down in
verse 12. Isaac is laid on the altar. God
spoke to him and said lay not thine hand upon the lad neither
do anything down to him for I know that thou fears God Seeing that
thou has not withheld thy son that only son for me and Abraham
lifted up his eyes and looked and behold behind Where'd this
lamb come where'd this ram come from male lamb male male lamb
and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns and Oh, where'd this thing, where'd
it come from? It's just like our Lord Jesus
Christ when he called his disciples to come when they'd fished all
night and they got done, there was fire and fish on the fire
already cooked. Where'd the fire come from? Where'd
the fish come from? Look what he said here now. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. Now the only person that lamb
was offered for that day was for his son. And when that Passover
was offered in Egypt, it was only for Israel. Everybody who
that lamb was sacrificed for was saved by that Passover. Is
that not right? And everybody whom the Lord Jesus
Christ offered himself for, and for us, everyone that's us, that
substitution was real. I guarantee you that everyone
for whom Christ died, and I can say this on the basis of God's
holy word, everyone for whom Christ died will be saved. They will be saved. Was all the
first born in Israel saved that night on the Passover lamb? Did
not ever a single one of them go through the Red Sea? Did not
Isaac come back down off that mountain because that Lamb of
God was put in his place? Well, how in the world do you
think those would save somebody and the Lord Jesus Christ not
save all for whom He died? Gave Himself for us. I would
heart, I would say, everybody that's in us, raise their hand.
I don't want to do that. Oh my. And let me hurry on. I've got to move on. Look back
over in Ephesians 5, verse 2 again. Oh, it was made to God. He gave Himself. Gave Himself
for us. And then how this sacrifice was
made. Look how it was faith. And it
said, he gave him, he gave, gave himself. He had given himself.
He gave it. He gave himself. It was a gift. Now, so that means it was voluntary.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, John 10, 16 says this, I lay down my life
for the sheep. No man takes my life from me. No man, he says. Do you understand
that? He says, no man takes my life from me. I have the power, I have the
authority, I have the right, I have the ability to lay it
down on myself. And not only that, but I have
the power and ability to take it up again. So he says, if I
die, I'm going to die on my terms. I'm going to die when I will.
And there ain't nothing that nobody's going to do to make
me take my life from me. When I give it, I'll give it.
And when I get ready to take it up again, I'm coming out of
the grave. That's exactly what he's saying. And so he gave himself,
the scripture said in Isaiah 53, he was led as a lamb to the
slaughter. And you know what about our blessed
Savior? He knew his sufferings before
they ever came. He knew what the wrath of man
would do to him. He knew that he was going to
have a crown of thorns thrust on his head. He knew he was going
to be beaten with 39 stripes. He knew that he would have to
carry his own cross. He knew that they would lie on
him. He knew that they would slap
him. He knew that they would take his beard and pluck it out.
He knew that they were going to put a scarlet robe on him
and mock him. He knew that he would be betrayed
by Judas. He knew that Peter would deny
and all the other disciples would flee. He knew that God had a
cup full of his unmitigated wrath And thy Lord Jesus Christ says,
Father, nevertheless at thy will, I'll drink this cup. And thy
Lord Jesus Christ took the cup of God's wrath and turned it
up and drained it dry and took the dregs out of it. And I tell you what, I'm going
to show you this in Luke 23 and verse 46. The cry from the cross. That last cry from the cross,
our Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 23, 46, that last cry shows that
everything our Lord Jesus Christ did of His own will, did it voluntarily. That's what makes it so blessed
and precious to us, is that He did it Himself. Look what He said in Luke 23,
46. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, look what
it says, he gave up the ghost. He said, if the hour has come
now He willingly yielded up his life. He gave it up. He said,
Father, I'm gonna give you my spirit. And he ceased to live. Just like that. By his own will. By his own power. He was willing to do this or
it hadn't been done. Bless his name. He gave him. He gave. He gave. He gave him
sin. And let me show you quickly the
nature of these offerings back over here in Ephesians 5. Look
at the nature of these offerings. The nature of this offering and
sacrifice. He says, and walk in love as
Christ also has loved us and hath given himself for an offering
and a sacrifice to God. See, it says an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling Savior. There was an
offering given and a sacrifice made. Now that tells us that
there's two offerings that was given under the law. The first
offering was a thank offering. And what a thank offering was,
was that you thank God. You bless God. You were thankful. And this offering was given at
the offering of the firstfruits. It was a feast they gave. And
they brought their firstfruits from all of their vineyards and
olive gardens and from their cattle and everything they had. They brought the firstfruits
of all their harvest when they come to bring the harvest. They
brought God the firstfruits. Before they ate anything out
of it, they brought Him the first. And they've done that to offer
Him thanks, to bless Him, to cause Him to have some first
fruits, to cause Him to be blessed in their offerings and their
sacrifices. And then the second one was sacrifice. That offering was a sin offering.
And the sin offering made an atonement. And let me show you
that from the scriptures. You know the meal offering was
a thank offering. The sacrifice was a sin offering.
Look back over here in 1 Corinthians 15. Let me show you what I'm
talking about. 1 Corinthians 15. In verse 22, here's the offering. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He was
our thank-offering. He was the firstfruits. He was
the beloved Son. He was our thank-offering. And
no, listen to what it said here. For as in Adam all died, died
in sin, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But listen to this, every man
in his own order. People just, you know, if we
die, every man's got to come in his own order. There's a time
for us to go to God. There's a time for us to have
this offering. And look what it says. And every man in his
own order. Christ was the firstfruits. What
does that mean? That Christ was the firstfruits
from the dead? He was the firstfruits to God? He was the firstfruits of a multitude
that would follow him afterwards? He would take many sons unto
glory. He's the firstfruits. And when
He offered Himself to God, He was the firstfruits from the
dead. He was the firstfruits of a holy life. He's the firstfruits
of a bloodshedding. He's the firstfruits of everything
that we offer thanks to God. And now we offer spiritual sacrifices
unto God through Him. And then the Lord said, Christ
is the firstfruits, and afterward, That's the rest of us. We're
the harvest. We're the harvest. We're Christ's harvest. Ain't
we? We're Christ's harvest. He harvested
us. Oh, the fields are white, ready to harvest. And oh, He
said He'll put in the sickle and He'll harvest it. And we'll
be gathered into Christ's garter and Christ's barn. So that's
the first fruit. No wonder the Apostle said, thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift. And the second one, the
sacrifice, the sacrifice to God was our atonement. was our atonement,
was our sin putting away. An offering, a sacrifice to put
away sin. Our Passover, our Redeemer made
a curse for us to redeem us out for under the law. The first
offering was the blameless life of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
our thank offering. The second is the blood shedding,
the atoning death of our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And oh, let me give you the preciousness of it. Look here, again in verse
2 of chapter 5. Let me give you the preciousness
of it. He made Him, giving Himself to us for us an offering and
sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. You know, God, God, God smelled
Him and said, Oh, what a fragrance is my Lord. What a fragrance
is my son. You know, they had the incense
and how they made the incense, they put all these ingredients
together and they all had to be crushed. And you couldn't
get the smell out of that incense that they offered in the altar
of incense without all those spices being crushed together.
And when they were crushed together, they gave off this wonderful
fragrance. And they took this wonderful,
all these different things that they put in that. And you can
look in Leviticus and Exodus and find out what they were.
And they took that and they would put that in the altar of incense
and they would light that thing and that smell would go out.
And oh, it was such a sweet smelling savor. Smells so good. And that's
what the Lord Jesus Christ was to God. Not only to God, but
to us. But he was a sweet smelling kid.
And you put all of them in by crushing, put all the ingredients
together. And our Lord Jesus Christ was
crushed, crushed by God. His humanity and His deity, His
perfections and His work and His person and His worth and
His blamelessness, all of them together, God crushed them and
crushed them. And then when He smelled them,
He said, Oh, I saw the travail of his soul. And I'm satisfied. Oh, I'm satisfied. Oh, yeah. Oh, he says, you know, Christ
unto us is a sweet smelling Savior. Oh, my. And that Passover lamb,
you know what it was? It was roast with fire. And when he was roast with fire,
made it smell good. Made it taste good. And then
let me show you last of all, look at this constraining motive.
Look at the motive our Lord had. It says, as Christ also hath
loved us. That was the motive behind it. That was the constraining motive.
Christ having loved us. You know, they come to get him
that night coming out of the garden. Over 500 men come out
there. And they said, he said, who are
you looking for? And we said, they said, Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, I am. I am. That's me. That's I am. They fell backwards. They didn't expect anybody to
walk up and say, you're right. And they fell backwards. And
then they got back up and said, We're looking for Jesus. I told
you that I am. He said, if you take me, if you
take me, you can't have these over here. Let them go their
way. And having loved his own, how
long did he love them? To the end. You know how long
he'll love us? I'm going to tell you something. He has loved us with an everlasting
love. And you know, We experience the
love of God here and the love of Christ here in our hearts
and in our lives. But boy, what an experience it
will be when we get into eternity. You know, He'll never cease to
love us. You know why? Because He's unchanging. He's
immutable. He can't change. His love can't
change. You say, boy, I've known love. Well, I know you are. I
am too. But He loved us anyway. I know, oh, you just don't know
how sorry I am. Yes, I do. I am too. But He didn't love us because
we were sorry. He didn't love us because we
don't feel like we're worthy of it. He loved us because He
willed to love us. And He loves us with an everlasting
love. And you know what? It will never
ever stop. Never stop. Now that's love. Oh, our gracious, gracious Father
in heaven. Thank you for your great love. We're with you, loved us. Thank
you for our Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus, thank you
for giving yourself, for giving yourself a sacrifice to God for
us. And Lord, I pray that you would
make someone to experience this in their hearts, experience this
in their soul, what it is to know Christ, to love Christ,
to need Christ, to want Christ, to desire Christ, to know that
sacrifice was made for them. That God is satisfied with him,
not them. Oh Lord, bring glory to yourself. Save your sheep, save your people.
Cause this gospel to be powerful and effectual. Only you can. Only you can. We bless you in
our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Well, we're going
to sing the one we love so much. 125. Stand with me. This tells it all right here. All to Him I owe Sin had left
a crimson stain He washed it white as snow Lord, now indeed
I find God's power can't change He left the crimson stain He
washed it white as snow For nothing good have I Whereby I praise
to claim I'll wash my garments white Just do it.