Speak unto Aaron, and to his
sons, and to all the children of Israel, and say unto them,
Whatsoever he be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers
in Israel, that will offer his oblation for all his vows, and
for all his freewill offerings which they will offer unto the
Lord for a burnt offering, you shall offer at your own will
a male without blemish, of the thieves, of the sheep, or of
the goats. whatsoever hath a blemish, that
shall ye not offer, for it shall not be acceptable for you. And
whosoever offereth the sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord,
to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering in beeves or sheep,
it shall be perfect to be accepted, there shall be no blemish therein." or broken, or maimed, or having
a wind, or scurvy, or scab, ye shall not offer these unto the
Lord, to make an offering by fire unto them upon the altar
unto the Lord, either a bullock or a lamb, that hath any thing
superfluous, or lacking in his parts, that thou mayest offer
for a freewill offering, but for a vow it shall not be accepted.
You shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised, or
crushed, or broken, or cut, neither shall you make any offering thereof
in your land. Neither from a stranger's hand
shall you offer the bread of your God of any of these, because
the corruption is in them, and blemishes be in them, they shall
not be accepted for you." Blessed, blessed God in heaven.
Holy, holy, holy. And Lord, we read these scriptures
today and we see what's acceptable and what's
unacceptable. And so Lord, we bring the only
sacrifice, acceptable sacrifice, the only acceptable name, the
only acceptable righteousness, the only acceptable person. And
that's your blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We come in
His name, come in His righteousness, in His merit, in His worth, trusting
Him and Him alone to make us acceptable before you. And so, Lord Jesus, we pray that
you would speak to the hearts and minds of those who don't
have, and don't know, and have never, ever believed you, trusted
you, embraced you, and come into the presence of God through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray for those
among us who are greatly tried, who have afflictions of body
and mind. Pray for those who are not with us. Through their
bodies be weak, their bodies in pain, and those who are providentially
hindered. We ask for your great mercy and
strength and grace upon them. Again, we pray for those that
we love, our children, our grandchildren, great-grandchildren, Lord, do
for them what only you can do. So many young people in our midst
who don't know Christ, don't know Christ. They've heard
the gospel all their lives and yet never believed. God, enable
them to be believers. Enable them to embrace Christ.
And please, accept this offering of this service, this prayer,
what's said and done in this meeting. sanctified through the
blood and body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which in His name we
pray. Amen. Leviticus 22. Very simple sermon
today. Very simple. We've seen here what was acceptable
and what's unacceptable. How many times does it say, verse
21, shall not be acceptable for you? Verse twenty-three, it shall
not be accepted. Verse twenty-five, shall not
be accepted. What will be accepted? What will
God accept? Well, verse twenty-one tells
us, And whosoever offers a sacrifice
of peace offerings unto the Lord, people want peace with God. They
want to be reconciled to God. They want to have peace, and
when they face God, they don't have to worry about their sin. So whosoever offers the sacrifice
of peace offerings unto the Lord to accomplish his vow, or if
he brings a freewill offering because he's just so thankful,
he wants to be so blessed of God, listen to what it says,
it shall be perfect to be accepted. there shall be no blemish therein. And you read chapter 21 and it
talks about the priesthood. The verse, any imperfection in
any son of Aaron, he can't even be in the priesthood. The priest
has to be perfect. The sacrifice has to be perfect.
Now what will God accept from you and me? Perfection. perfection. Whenever God gave
the law, the ceremonial law, with the priesthood, the sacrifices,
the altar, those who came to worship God, they understood
that they had to approach Him very carefully. They couldn't
just rush into His presence. They couldn't come with presumption,
thinking everything was all right. And the reason that is, because
there's two great errors in man's thinking. First, his thoughts
of God are altogether wrong. Because his mind is darkened,
it's a fallen mind. And second great error is his
thoughts of himself. He thinks way, way, way, way,
way too highly of himself. When God says that all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, So when you come before Him,
you couldn't, we wouldn't, when these people came, when they
understood who God is, and didn't say it, and in their ceremonial
awe, they came, they didn't come thoughtlessly. They came, when
they came before the Lord, they said, well, you know, God is
a jealous God. And what He says must be done,
and how He must be approached, we got to do it His way. And
he'll have no other God before him. He'll have no sacrifices
but what he's appointed. And he says if it's got a blemish,
if it's got a spot, if it's got a scurvy, it's got a scab, whatever
it is, even if it's bread, whether it's one that you must bring
for sin or else you come just because you want to bring it,
they didn't come without thoughtfulness. When a man came to the tabernacle
door, when he got to that tabernacle door, he thought of what he was
doing, because he knows that when he approached God and he
brought his sacrifice, that if he made an error, either in his
sacrifice or the reason for him bringing his sacrifice, his worship
would be in vain, be unacceptable, just useless. You know, when
he'd come to draw near to God, he came because he was careful,
he thought about God. And if he didn't think about
that and come with the right sacrifice, he would miss his
aim, which was first and foremost to be accepted of God. Secondly,
he would spend his sacrifice, the money that he spent on that
sacrifice, it would be wasted. And he would cause labor to the
priest because the priest had to be the one to offer the sacrifice.
And then on top of that, he would go home unaccepted after the
priest had offered the sacrifice, after the sacrifice had been
offered, and the money had been spent, and he had come to the
tabernacle door. And it was unacceptable because
God said it shall be perfect to be accepted. Oh my God, this is the rule that
God goes by with everything that anybody does. God will have the
thoughts, He'll have the minds and the hearts of men, or He
doesn't count on His true worshipers. And how about our worship? We
come here this morning to worship God. And in our singing, do you imagine
it was perfect? And I pray publicly here. Pray
privately before I come to the service, as many of you did.
You reckon it's perfect? What about the preaching today?
You think it's going to be perfect? And I'll tell you something,
beloved, those who did when they thought, when they thought, I
listened to a message here recently by Brother Henry Mahan and Pastor
Henry Mahan on thoughts for the thoughtful. Thoughts for the
thoughtful. And I tell you, you ought to
get that. Download it. Listen to it. Thoughts for the
thoughtful. And beloved, and here's the thing, if you're a
thinking person, and those who did faint under the ceremonial
law, when they came, they had great regard and great respect
for the holiness of God. You see, they saw that God required
everything in His service to be the very best The bird that
every sacrifice had to be without spot and without blemish. The
priest had to be without spot and without blemish. And so the
priest, he had to be perfect in his bodily presence. And when
he got old and he got to 50 years old, they retired him and then
a young man came in and they would inspect him from the top
of his head to the sole of his foot. And if there was a blemish
in his body, he could not serve in the ministry. He could not
serve in the sacrifice. He could not serve in the priesthood.
And then not only that, but the garments that he offered the
sacrifices in had every morning, he had to put on pure white linen
clothes and clean white linen breeches. Every morning, by the
time he got done, there'd be bloodstains, but there had to
be white stockings. And then the sacrifices. They
must be without blemish. And God didn't just say there
in verse 21, it must be perfect to be accepted. In Oral 11, under the law, and where there was guilt to
sin, every time they brought a sacrifice, it was vividly brought
to the mind of the worship. When they came there, there was
blood everywhere. And I mean, when you came to
a tabernacle, and you came up there to that priesthood, there
was blood everywhere. Blood on the altar, blood before
the altar, blood on the priest. Blood! Why was there blood? Because the soul that sinneth
in must die. or else a substitute must die
in his place. And when these people brought
a sacrifice, they came because they understood their guilt,
understood they needed an atonement. And so they brought an offering
to stand in their place, and the blood was shed. And without
the shedding of blood, there cannot be any remission of sin. And so when he brought that sacrifice,
that one without blemish, he saw the necessity of a sacrifice. When he did that, he was saying,
God is holy, and he must have a sacrifice before I can be accepted. And the sacrifice must be perfect. Huh? And I tell you, not only
was there great carefulness before God, It must be perfect to accept
it. They had a great regard for the holiness of God, but under
the law, under the ceremonial law, there was a deep, deep regard
for the law of God. And that Jew, every time he'd
come, his whole life was surrounded by law. He must do this, and
he must not do that. He can go here, and he can't
go there. If he touched it that way, I mean, he could be unclean
with just touching something. You see, beloved, the law is
just and holy and good, and God has the right. Now listen to
me, man. God has the right to demand every man's obedience
to His law. Do you see that? Does God have
the right to demand Your obedience? Your love? It's He that made us and not
we ourselves. Huh? And I tell you what, in
anything we do, it must be perfect to be accepted. Must be. Everything today that's offered,
it's got to be perfect. It's got to be perfect or God
won't accept it. And ain't that what it says there
in verse 21? And whosoever offereth a sacrifice
of peace offerings unto the Lord, or if we will offering in bees
or sheep, it shall be perfect to be accepted, there shall be
no blemish therein. May God, under the power of the
Holy Ghost, cause us to shut out all the faulty offerings
that men put their confidence in. Now you know there's people
that have confidence in their offerings. People that have confidence
in the things that they do. People that have confidence in
their relationship with God. But when you understand that
it shall be perfect to be accepted, it judges and condemns all self-righteousness. And what I mean by self-righteousness
is that you trust in your own righteousness, in your own thoughts,
in your own doings, in your own prayers, in your own merit, in
your own words, in your works. If you don't have the righteousness
of Christ, that means that you've got your own righteousness. And
if you've got a righteousness, it must be perfect to be accepted. Now, you may feel good about
your righteousness, Your neighbors may brag on you. Your mother
swear up and down that, honey, you're the sweetest thing I've
ever knew. And you're all right. Don't worry about it. But it
shall be perfect no matter what Mama says, no matter what your
neighbors say. It shall be perfect. You missed
the mark by a half breath. And you missed the mark. Let's
look in Isaiah 64 with me for just a moment. Isaiah 64. People want to talk
about their righteousness. You hear people talk about it
all the time. Oh, I'm without sin. If the Lord calls me today,
as far as I know, I'm ready to go. You wouldn't believe, preacher,
what good things I've done. You wouldn't believe how good
I treat my neighbor. Look what it says here in Isaiah
64 and verse 6. But we all are as an unclean. Now, how many is all include,
you reckon? And now watch this, in all of
our righteousnesses, not just our righteousness, our righteousnesses,
Every righteous thought you've had, every righteous deed you've
done, every righteous feeling you've had, all of our righteousness
are as a filthy rag. We fade just like a leaf fades.
They're fading right now. And our iniquities, like the
wind, have just driven us away. And, oh, beloved, this ought
to condemn. It shall be perfect to be accepted.
It condemns all self-righteousness and those who think they can
be saved by their own doing. You surely, surely don't think
that God would accept a doing that you've done, do you? You
surely don't think you've done something in your life that God
would look at and say, oh, that's wonderful. That's just absolutely
wonderful. I'll take that. Oh, my. You see, first of all, your nature's
wrong. Your nature's wrong. You started
out on the wrong—you know, David said, I was shapen in iniquity,
I was conceived in sin. So you started out from your
mother's womb wrong. Can a clean thing come out of
an unclean thing? How can he be clean? That's born
of a woman. If your mother was a sinner,
and your daddy was a sinner, what does that make you? People
think they're going to be lost, they're born lost. And if God
don't save them by His grace, they'll live lost, die lost,
and do without God throughout all eternity. You see, there's
evil in men's hearts. The very thought that man could
think that he could be accepted of God by something he did shows
you how evil the human heart is. Oh, your hands, the Scriptures
tell us over in Man that we do wickedness with both hands earnestly. So how, if your hands are unclean,
how can your work be clean? Can darkness produce light? Can dead produce life? So how can your thoughts, your
ways and your words be perfect? It must be to be accepted. It
must be. Have there ever been a blemish
in your motive? Has there ever been a blemish in your motive? Why do you do what you do? If you've done something good,
why did you do it for? You say, well, I want to be saved.
Well, then that means that you're selfish. You want to do something,
and then you want a reward for it. So that means you're doing it
for yourself. You're not doing it for the glory of God. Huh? Selfishness is the motive of
your life. If you're trying to be saved
by doing something, saved by being good, saved by thinking
right, then that's the motive of your whole life. It's based
on selfishness. You're doing it just for you. You don't care about anybody
else. But anything that's not a faith is a sin. I tell you,
beloved, no love to God. You know who you love better
than anybody else? Self. If the motive is imperfect, then
the life's imperfect. It shall be perfect, to be exact.
Oh, my. Listen to me now. Somewhere in
your life, in some act of your life, surely, surely you have
erred. You reckon you have? Have you
served God perfectly? Have you served man perfectly?
Have you been the perfect husband? Have you been the perfect wife?
Have you been the perfect child? Have you been the perfect parent? Is there anything that you say,
well, I could have done that better? Then you're saying it
wasn't perfect. Could you have been more generous? Could you have been kinder? Could
you forgive better? Could you have been more upright?
Could you ever be more honest? Could you be firmer, heavenly
minded? If you could have ever done anything
better, that tells you that it wasn't perfect. Are you still with me? And however self-righteous you
may be, Don't you have to confess? Don't you have to confess to
distinct acts of sin that you've committed in your life? Have
you ever flew off the handle with a hasty timbre? Is there no word that you've
ever spoken that you say, I wish I could take those back? Have you never murmured? Have
you never complained about anything, especially about God's providence?
You didn't like the way things were going in your life, so you
complained to God and about His providence. Were you ever slothful when you
should have been diligent? Have you always spoken the truth
with no exaggeration? Have you never desired evil in
your heart? Have you ever desired, never
desired evil? Have you never had an evil thought?
It's going to be okay, sweetie. And I tell you, beloved, this
is a death blow to your self-righteousness and self-confidence. It shall
be perfect, if you accept it. You see, all that people see
is the outside of the cup and the platter. But God sees right
down inside it. All men see when they go to the
graveyard is that gravestone and that green grass over it
and the flowers that's been left. But you don't want to go down
and dig up that body. Because that's what God sees.
He sees that death in the heart, that corruption in the heart,
that evil in the heart. Oh, my. No eye, let me tell you
something, beloved, no eye, thank God that this is so, no eye could
behold the horrible sight of the sinfulness and the wickedness
of the human heart as God sees it. The way I see it myself,
it's bad enough. But you imagine how God sees
it. We could not bear it, could we, Gary? We could not bear it.
We could not stand if God let us have a view of how He sees
us. And I tell you, you think you've
done the best and been the best? Your righteousness must be perfect
to be accepted. You say, boy, preacher, that's
hard doctrine. It is. It really is. It is. I know it is. But if you,
and if you hope, and I hope it'll undeceive you,
I hope it'll bring you to the place where you say, preacher,
I understand right now that my righteousness is as a filthy
rag, all of it. And I have no hope. I ain't done
a perfect thing in my life. I hope it undeceives you, because
it is hard doctrine. And if a man tries to go to heaven
by his works, they must be perfect, absolutely perfect. But if it's
not, what did he say there? It shall not be accepted for
you. It shall not be accepted for
you. Now, where in the world are we going to be accepted?
Not only does this shut out all self-righteousness, when God
Himself said there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
do a good, no, not one. That's Romans 3, 9 and 10. You
look it up yourself when you get home. Not only does this
shut out all self-righteousness, but it shuts out everything that
a preacher or a priest may think that he can do. People say, I
need a priest. Oh, if I could just get a priest
to pray for me and anoint me and sprinkle water on me and
accept me into the church. A priest? He has to be perfect
before he can do anything for anybody else. Then what about
a preacher? I need a preacher. Oh my, I need
a preacher. Oh, get me a preacher. I ain't
never known a priest, a preacher, a rabbi, or evangelist that's
ever saved one soul. I know a bunch of them that have
deceived multitudes and deceived multitudes. Because see, the
priest, the preacher, the rabbi, the evangelist, or whoever he
may be, his service must be perfect before it can be accepted. And
if his service ain't accepted, anything he does for you, it
won't be accepted either. You know how many people have
shook a preacher's hand? And had a preacher that said,
if I could just get preachers so and so to pray for me, I believe
everything would be all right. That's an awful, awful frenzy
nail and some awful, awful rotten wood to hang your soul on. You
put yours there, but I'm not going to. And I know some fine
preachers, men that I love, men that tell the gospel perfectly.
Oh, my, I mean, they preach the gospel so clear and so plain.
But I'm not going to hang my soul on anything any preacher
did, priest did, or evangelist did. I'm hanging my soul on a
place that can be hung. It's on that nail in a sure place.
The place where God hung all his glory. And that's on that
nail, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you this message that
I'm talking about, it shall be perfect to be accepted. It shuts
out all human confidences. And I mean, you know, some of
you've got some confidence. I know you've got some confidence
in yourself and your abilities and the things that you've done.
And I know you'd say to me right now, say, I don't trust my works.
I go to church fairly regularly. I have faith in Jesus Christ
and myself. No, you've just said the wrong
thing. If you'd have thought I had faith
in Jesus Christ, you'd have been all right. But when you said
I've got faith in Christ and myself, People think, you know, that
Jesus just helps you out. He's a fire escape from hell.
He's a doormat whenever you get ready to die. You wipe your feet
on Him, wipe the uncleanness on Him, and then you get ready
to die. But the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved, He is holy and righteous
and glorious and perfect. And he will have perfection.
And beloved, I'm telling you, circumcision won't do you any
good or uncircumcision. You say, well, I'm poor and hardworking.
I'll do the best I know. And I've suffered. Oh, I've suffered
a lot. Well, poverty doesn't work perfection. Sickness doesn't
work perfection. People think that's suffering,
and I've heard preachers teach this and preach this. And people
believe this for years, that if God saves you, you've lived
a pretty good life, but you've got some sin in your life, so
what happens if God calls you to suffer greatly, to purge you
from all your sins before you leave this world? No, no. The only sufferings that God
has ever looked at and accepted, and does anything good for anybody
else, is the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're born to suffer. I mean,
my soul, we've got sin in us. Why shouldn't we suffer? We're
born under a curse. Why shouldn't we suffer? We're
going to suffer. But beloved, suffering will not
bring any perfection. Oh, she's going to rest now.
She suffered so much, such a good woman. You ever hear anybody say something
like that? You don't admit somebody don't know a thing in the world
about God, about suffering, about Christ, and about salvation. All right, now, you say, preacher,
don't leave me there. I'm not. I'm going to tell you
with perfection, son. This shuts us up. Bless His holy
name. This shuts us up to the sacrifice
and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is absolutely
perfect. He is perfect in His nature.
He was perfect in His nature as God is perfect in His nature
as man. You know, when our Lord Jesus
Christ was first born, He was born of a virgin conceived of
the Holy Ghost in the womb of that virgin, so He didn't have
our nature. He was the seed of the woman.
And, oh beloved, he was tempted at all points like as we are,
yet without sin. He was perfect in his life. He
said, which of you convinces me of sin? That was nothing to
listen to me. People talk about whether the
suffering, you know, the temptations of Christ was real, if he could
have sinned or not sinned. I tell you something, Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, could not possibly, possibly have sinned. As a man
on this earth, he could not possibly have sinned. He had a sinless
nature. And he got that sinless nature
from God Almighty, though he was a man in the flesh, there
was no possibility of him sinning or no evil upon his blessed character. And I tell you, not only is he
perfect in his life, but he is perfect in his motives. We talked
about motives a minute ago. You reckon our Lord Jesus Christ
ever did anything without a pure motive? He said, I do always those things
that please Him. You reckon He loved God perfectly?
He said, herein does my Father love me, because I always do
the things that pleases Him. You reckon He loved man perfectly? All He has to do is look at you
or me. It was love that brought Him
from glory. It was love that took Him to
the cross. It was love that brought Him down and manifested His blessed
person to us. Huh? And you know, here's another
thing. He didn't seek His own honor.
He said, I seek not the honor from men, but I seek that honor
from above. I seek not mine own glory, but
the glory of Him doth set me. Oh, my. There was never no thought
of self. Never no sinister motive. He
always went about doing good. This is my beloved son, in whom
I'm well pleased. And what about his spirit? His
spirit was perfect. He never, ever, ever said a harsh
word. untrue word or an idle word, never sinfully angered, there's
no guile in him. And I'll tell you something else
more about his life. Out of the day of his life, watching from the day he's born
until the day they nailed him to that tree, how perfect was
his life. Was there any commandment he
ever wrote? Did he ever break one of God's
commandments? In fact, when he yelled out, he says, you go to
the law and show them. He had the law to examine his
work so that the law could say, it's perfect. He's clean. Oh, which duty did he ever neglect? Did he ever fail to pray? Did
he ever fail to love? Did he ever fail to tell the
truth? Did he ever fail one of those that was given to him?
And when you lost all him, you saw God. He was the express image
of God. It's like if you could look in
a mirror and you see yourself, you see the express image of
yourself. You see your body, you see what you are, you see
who you look like. Well, when you saw Jesus Christ, you saw
the express image of God himself. You're looking in the eyes of
God, hearing the voice of God. And when he prayed, you heard
God praying. When he done a good work, it
was God doing the work. When he raised the dead, it was
God raising the dead. When you're talking about love,
it was the love of God. When you're talking about omnipotence,
it was the omnipotence of God. When you're talking about wholeness,
it was the wholeness of God. He is God. Expressed image of
God. And that's why it says, you know,
he by himself purged our sins and sat down on the right hand
of God. Oh, my. And let me tell you something.
Look with me in Philippians chapter 2. You've got to see this. Oh,
my. This is the gospel. This is the
gospel. Philippians chapter 2, verse
6 with me. See the perfection in His sacrifice.
You know, it shall be perfect to be saved. You bring a sacrifice,
it shall be perfect to be saved. When John said, Behold the Lamb
of God, what was that he talked about? He said, This is God's
Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Lamb offered. He was
the Lamb given. He was the Lamb personified.
He was the perfect Lamb. There's the one that takes away
the sin of the world. But look what he said here in
verse 6. Christ. Perfect in His sacrifice. Who
being in the form of God, God took on a form that you could
see. Thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He never took
anything from the glory of God, the person of God, the power
of God. And watch what he says now. But made himself of no reputation. He gave God the glory for everything.
Took upon Him the form of a servant. I come here. to minister, to
give my life a ransom for many, and to minister, and was made
in the likeness of me." And when you looked at him, you saw a
man. And being in foundling fashion as a man, listen to it now, he
humbled himself, and here's what I'm talking about, and became
obedient unto death. What death? The death of the
cross. He became obedient unto the death of the cross. All that
the law could ask. Said, he's got to be without
spot, got to be without blemish. Janitor him, look at him. God
looked at him. The law looked at him. Man looked
at him. Satan looked at him. And they could find no spot in
him. In fact, Isaiah 40 verse 2 says, Tell Zion that her warfare
is accomplished. She has received at the hands
of the Lord, the Lord's hand double for all of her sins. How
in the world He gave the Father double for all our sins? What
did He give? How did He give Him double? First
of all, He gave perfect obedience to the law. So see, if you're
in Christ, then you've been given perfect obedience to the law.
Now watch this. Not only did He give perfect
obedience to the law, But He gave His suffering, He
gave His body, He gave His soul, an offering for sin to atone
for all of our sins that were committed in thought, word, and
deed, motive, and desire in every way. And not only our past sins,
but all of our future sins. When He says He put away sin,
that means He put away all of them. Now look right over to
your right, and look in Colossians, and let me show you something
here. Colossians 2, verse 9. You see, beloved? Colossians 2, 9, for in him.
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All that God
is dwelt in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen to the next verse.
And ye are complete in Him. That word complete means perfect. You see, in Him the Father is
well pleased in the Son of His love. He is satisfied. Now, you
know, I want you all to look with me in Isaiah 53. I'm taking
too long. I don't mean to take long, but
we need to understand this. You know, it's got to be perfect
to be acceptable. And if you don't have perfection,
if you ain't got a perfect offering to give to God, if you ain't
got a perfect sacrifice to give to God, you're unacceptable.
And I just showed you, you see, that Christ offered the perfection
of His sacrifice. And in him the father was well
pleased. He is satisfied with him. Look what he said in Isaiah
53, in verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That word pleased means it satisfied
God to bruise him. God put him to grieve. Why did
he do that? When thou shalt please the Lord
to bruise him and put him to grief? When you made his soul
an offering for sin. God made his soul an offering
for sin. God demanded perfection, a perfect
sacrifice, a perfect offer, so he provided one for himself and
his blessed son. And oh, listen, and he shall
see his seed. Look down at verse 11. He shall
secede, God shall see of the travail, the burden of his soul,
the agony of his soul, and shall be satisfied. Why? Because he shall bear the iniquities
of those whom he justifies. Oh, my. When I, Lord Jesus Christ,
hung on that cross and cried out, It is finished! Perfection was rendered. Satisfaction
was given. And God said, I can't demand
no more. Huh? I want you to look within,
and I'm going to close up with this right here in Hebrews chapter
10. I'm going to close up with this. I'm going to show you this
perfection now. It shall be perfect. And it was.
My soul can rest here. My soul can rejoice here. You
see? And I tell you today, By faith,
by faith, you take this sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, this perfect
sacrifice, say, I want Him to be my sacrifice. I want to approach
God. And you say, He's perfect? Will
God accept me if He's perfect? The only way He will accept you
is in His perfection. And go to the Father with this.
He's satisfied with Him. He has been accepted. He sits
now, how do we know He sits right now? On the right hand of God.
Look what it says in Hebrews 10 verse 11. Now we're talking, this is under
the law now, and every priest standeth daily ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins. They stand and keep offering
sacrifices, and they never take away sins. But now listen to
this. But this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever Sit down on the right hand of
God. You see, those fellows stood
up every day. They didn't have no place to sit down because
their work was never done. But this man sat down because he
put away sins by the sacrifice of himself forever. And he sat
down. From henceforth expect until his enemies be made his
footstool. Now listen to this. For by one
offering, that one offering, he hath perfected. You see that? He hath perfected forever. Him
that are sanctified. He did. You want perfection? There it is. He did it. By the sacrifice of His own sins.
He put away sin. You know, the Scriptures, you
know, in the day of the Passover, and they took that Lamb's blood
and they put it on the limb of the door and on the doorpost.
God said, Do not pass over. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. You see, they were on the inside.
The blood was on the outside. They couldn't see the blood. But it was God's sight of the
blood that caused him to pass over. And it's God's sight of
the blood of Christ. It's God's sight of the sacrifice
of Christ. It's God's sight of the satisfaction
of Christ. That's our everlasting hope and
safeguard. You see, it's the perfection
of His sacrifice, not the perfection of our sight. It's the perfection
of His sacrifice, not the perfection of our faith. And that's why
we go to Him. Because in Him, everything's
perfect. Everything's done. And that's
why we don't tell anybody anything to do. But look to Christ. Come to Christ. And Ephesians
1, 6 says, you know what it says? We're made accepted. We're at
the end of the line. Oh, my. God help you. God help you. In
your heart, in your soul. You say, Preacher, you just tore
my playhouse down today. I didn't. I hope God did. I hope
God did. I hope He tore your playhouse
down. I hope He exposed your heart the way it really is. I
hope He exposed your motives. I hope He exposed your false
profession. I hope He exposed your hypocrisy.
I hope He exposed all your false hopes. And if He did, He did it for
one reason. to turn your eyes to the Lord
Jesus Christ to make you see your great, great need of Him.
Ain't that right? Oh, Father, Father, Father, Father,
Father. Oh, blessed Father. Lord, I'm in your hands and this
congregation's in your hands. You're the judge of all the earth,
and you'll always do what's right. Always do what's right. And if
you'd be pleased to take what's been said today, cause it to
be a blessing, cause it to be enlightening, cause it to be
understandable, I bless you, Holy Name. The Lord is in your
will to do what you will. We know that your word will not
return unto you void. It'll accomplish for until you
sin it. Father, save your people in this place. Make Christ known
to hearts and minds and wills and affections. We ask these
things in His holy name. Amen.