If you would open your Bibles
with me to Hebrews chapter 9. As you're turning, this is in
the bulletin, but I want you to hear it from my own mouth. How much I thank you for your
generosity and your care. It's very humbling. Very humbling. I just can't thank you enough. Your love, your faithfulness,
your care means a great, great deal to me. I thank you. And
I hope that you feel that in return. This is not a one-way
street. Our relationship is not a one-way
street. I love you and care for you all
so much and pray for you and thank God for you. Lord willing,
we'll have our New Year's Eve service on Friday. There'll be
no service on Wednesday, and as many of us as are supposed
to be here will be here. If you haven't tested positive,
you're not quarantining, come on and we'll have our service
and serve the Lord's table at time of fellowship afterward.
All right, Hebrews, excuse me, Hebrews 15, or nine, easy for
me to say. Hebrews nine, we'll begin reading
in verse 15. And for this cause, he's the
mediator of the New Testament. by means of death for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the
death of the testator. For a testament is a force after
men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth. Whereupon neither the First Testament
was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every
precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood
of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop,
and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, this
is the blood of the Testament, which God hath enjoined unto
you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and
all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is
no remission. It was therefore necessary that
the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with
these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices
than these. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are figures of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high
priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood
of others, for then must he often have suffered since the foundation
of the world. But now, once, in the end of
the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself, as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after
this the judgment. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall
he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. All right, let's stand together
as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship. Now may the Lord reveal His grace
and teach our stammering tongues to make His sovereign reigning
grace the subject of our songs. No sweeter subject can invite
a sinner's heart to sing, Or more display the glorious rhyme
of our exalted King. Grace reigns to pardon crimson
sins, And from the work it once begins,
it never once departs. T'was grace that called our souls
at first, by grace thus far we've come. Okay, if you would turn
to song number 470. Jesus is all the world to me. Jesus is all the world to me,
my life, my joy, my all. He is my strength from day to
day, without Him I would fall. When I am sad, to Him I go. No other one can cheer me so. When I am sad, He makes me glad. He's my Jesus is all the world to me,
my friend in trial so. I go to Him for blessings, and
He gives them o'er and o'er. He sends the sunshine and the
rain. He sends the harvest golden grain. Sunshine and rain. Harvest of grain. He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me,
and true to Him I'll be. Oh, how could I this friend deny
when He's so true to me? Following Him, I know I'm right. He watches over me day and night. Following Him, by day and night,
He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me,
I want no better friend. I'll trust Him now, I'll trust
Him when life's fleeting days shall end. Beautiful life with
such a friend. Beautiful life that has no end. Eternal life, eternal joy. He's my friend. Turn with me, if you would, to
Leviticus chapter four. Our pastors ask that we read
the first 12 verses of Leviticus chapter four. starting in verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses
saying, speak unto the children of Israel saying, if a soul shall
send through ignorance against any of the commandments of the
Lord concerning things, which ought not to be done and shall
do against any of them. If the priest that is anointed
do sin, according to the sin of the people that let him bring
for his sin, which he has sent a young Bullock, without blemish
unto the Lord for a sin offering. And 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 the priest that is anointed
shall take of the Bullock's blood and bring it to the tabernacle
of the congregation. And the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before
the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest
shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet
incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation,
and shall pour all the blood of the Bullock at the bottom
of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation. And he shall take off from it
all the fat of the Bullock for the sin offering, the fat that
covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards,
and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which
is by the flanks, and the call above the liver, with the kidneys,
it shall he take away. As it was taken off from the
bullock of the sacrifice of the peace offerings, and the priest
shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering, and the
skin of the bullock, and all of his flesh, with his head,
with his legs, and the inwards, and his dung, even the whole
Bullock shall he carry forth without the camp onto a clean
place where the ashes are poured out and burn him on the wood
with fire where the ashes are poured out. Shall he be burned?
We'll end our reading there. Pray that the Lord bless his
word. Let's pray together. Our holy high heavenly father,
We pray that you glorify your name in this place this morning.
Get glory unto yourself as is due, your holy, matchless name. Give us a moment, according to
your will, that we take this time that we have here together. Those fleshly things of this
life, may they fade away, and may we see Christ's face in this
place this morning. May we worship your name. in
spirit and in truth. We pray for your presence, as
is promised, where two or three are gathered together. We pray
that you be with us today so that we meet not in vain. What
we pray for ourselves, we pray where your people are met across
the globe, even now, those places that we know about and those
that we don't. We pray for them, that your will be done, that
your name get glory. Father, teach us to pray. pray
so easily for those fleshly things that consume our minds and our
hearts. Father, rather, I pray that you
give us a heart to seek after you and to trust you. We don't bring anything before
your throne of mercy, nothing of ourselves, all we have to
offer is sin. But we do come. We do beg. By your grace, we're brought
to beg, and we do beg for mercy. We do thank you for Christ and
his finished work. We thank you that all sin in
Christ has been taken away as far as the East is from the West,
that there's nothing left, that truly it is finished. Salvation
is finished. Your purpose is finished in Christ. We have much to be thankful for,
and we do. We thank you that salvation is finished and that
salvation is of the Lord. Father, give us a heart to remember. Give us faith to see. We pray
that you'd be with our pastor at this hour. Give him clear
recollection of his studies, and most importantly, give him
a message from you. Give us that hear hearts and
ears to hear. we may truly glorify your name
and worship at the feet of Christ as the sinners and as the mercy
beggars that we are. Father, we pray these things
in Christ's name for his sake alone. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count
but loss and poor contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
go save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things That charmed
me most, I sacrificed them to His blood. See from his hands, his hands,
his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet, or thorns composed so rich a crown? That were a present far too small
Love so amazing, so divine Demands my soul, my life, my all Beautiful ladies, thank you.
All right, if you would open your Bibles now again to Leviticus
chapter four. I've titled the message this
morning, Christ the Sin Offering. And you know, we have just come
through the time where the world, at least in some way, recognizes
the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. And as I've told you many times,
I'm all for that, all for it. Whenever I get ready in the morning,
I've done it since I was a kid, I'd go downstairs and shave and
shower and things, turn on the radio, and I was disappointed
this morning that on the radio I wasn't hearing Joy to the World
and Hark the Herald Angels sing, you know. I'm all for the world
stopping to recognize the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Think about this. If Jesus is
not the Christ, it's really no big deal. If Jesus is not the
Christ, his birth is no bigger deal than the birth of Washington
or Lincoln. Less so really. If he's not the
Christ, if he's not the Christ, if Jesus is not the Christ, we're
in big trouble. I mean Hurricane Road Grace Church,
we are in big trouble because our message of grace is a lie
if Jesus is not the Christ. What we've hung our souls upon
is a lie if Jesus is not the Christ. If Jesus is not the Christ,
we better get back to keeping all the law and all the ceremony
of Moses. And generally speaking, People
try to keep the law of Moses. I mean, you know, people, people
know they ought not kill. They ought not commit adultery.
They ought not lie. They ought not, you know, do
these things. And they try not to do them.
At least they try not to get caught doing them, don't they?
People in our society, generally speaking, acknowledge that God
is at least their idea of God. Even if they don't know who he
is, they try to have some, you know, recognition that God is.
I know it's blasphemous. They call the man upstairs. They,
you know, pray only when they're real in trouble. They start their
prayer saying, no, no, I don't pray much. And if you're up there,
but generally speaking, people somehow acknowledge that God
is, they try to set aside some days, you know, for religion.
They think if they set aside one or two days a year, you know,
that they're, they're been religious, but tell you what nobody anywhere
is doing. Nobody's offering a lamb. Nobody's
sacrificing a bullock. And we better get back to sacrificing
lambs and bullocks. We better be building us an altar
out of 12 stones that aren't cut with a man's tool if Jesus
is not to Christ. If Jesus is not to Christ, that
law is still in full effect. And one thing that the Old Testament
law makes crystal clear, we need a blood sacrifice. If we're gonna
approach God, there has got to be a blood sacrifice. God cannot
be worshiped without a blood sacrifice. All of the Old Testament
scriptures make that plain. The law makes that plain. The
history of Israel makes that plain. The Old Testament scriptures
are full of sacrifices. Animal sacrifices upon sacrifice
upon sacrifice. Morning, noon, and evening. Monthly,
annually. Sacrifices are to be made. Sacrifices
are to be made for every kind of sin, for every kind of event,
for the birth of a child, for the death, for just, you know,
whatever. There's sacrifices for everything.
The tabernacle and the temple were bloody, messy places. There are places where blood
was spilled constantly, where the blood of those animal sacrifices
were shed constantly. And we do none of that today.
We do none of that today. And you know why we don't do
it? Because Jesus is the Christ. Because he is the Christ. Because
he's offered the one sacrifice for sin forever. He sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. There's no need for
another sacrifice. See, all those animal sacrifices
that they had to offer continually were just pictures of the sacrifice
of Christ. Not only did they not put away
sin, all those sacrifices did is remind people we're still
sinners. Our sin has not been put away.
They reminded people they're still in their sin because they
had to offer another one. These animal sacrifices are not
putting away any sin, but the sacrifice of Christ, that's offered
once. He didn't need to suffer many
times. He offered once and that makes it unnecessary for us to
offer any more sacrifices for sin. I want to look at one of
these pictures of the animal sacrifices this morning and see
if we might learn something more of Christ, our sin offering.
And we might be encouraged to trust him more fully. Leviticus
chapter four, verse one. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, speak unto the children of Israel, saying, if a soul
shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the
Lord concerning things which ought not to be done and should
do against any of them, if the priest that is anointed do sin
according to the sin of the people, that let him bring for his sin,
which he has sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto
the Lord for a sin offering. Now the sacrifice here, Leviticus
chapter four is speaking of a specific sacrifice for sins of ignorance. Now, most of our sin is willful,
open rebellion against God. We know right from wrong and
we just don't do it. It's willful sin. We know what
we're supposed to do, and we don't do it. We know what we're
not supposed to do, and we do it. We just can't even help it.
I mean, we think about sin. I mean, we just think about it.
I mean, it's not just that, oh, a sinful thought flies through
your head, and you know, you can't stop it. Once that sinful
thought's in our head, we just think on it. We just dwell on
it. Because we have a sin nature. That's an open, willful sin.
But we also have sins of ignorance. I mean, you know, the, the biggest
sin of ignorance we have is we're born not knowing God. How can
we worship God if we don't know him? How can we call on him if
we don't know him? We're ignorant of who God is.
We're ignorant of how God saves sinners. We're ignorant of how
God is to be approached, not by the best that we can do, but
by the best God can do. So it's a, you know, we try to
approach God with our works in that way. That, that, that's
a sin of ignorance. You know, we have most of our
sin is open willful sin, but we have our nature that's fallen
in sin that's just so used to sin that drinks iniquity like
water that a lot of times we don't even know we've sinned.
We don't even recognize it because we just sin all the time. There
can be things we truly didn't mean to do and we still yet do
it. So in that way, it's a sin of
ignorance. But if you look over the next chapter, Leviticus chapter
five, ignorance is no excuse. Verse 17 of Leviticus chapter
five. And if a soul sin and commit
any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments
of the Lord, though he wished it not, even though he didn't
know he did it, it's a sin of ignorance, yet he's guilty and
he shall bear his iniquity. See, God told us right there,
ignorance of the law is no excuse. Ignorance of your sin is no excuse.
You're still guilty. and you bear the guilt of it.
You must bear the punishment of it. And even though it's a
sin of ignorance, we didn't even know what we did was against
God's law. There still must be a sacrifice. Verse 18, and he shall bring
a ram without blemish out of the flock with high estimation
for a trespass offering unto the priest and the priest shall
make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred
and whist it not and it shall be forgiven him. It's a trespass
offering. He has certainly trespassed against
the Lord. He has certainly trespassed against
the Lord. He certainly sinned against the
Lord and there must be a sacrifice. And that sin is forgiven by the
sacrifice, by the blood of the sacrifice. But now if God's going
to forgive sin, our sacrifice has to be a sacrifice that God
will accept. God's got to say that sacrifices
is payment that I will accept payment in full for the sin that's
against me. And that sacrifice, the only sacrifice that God will
accept, is the sacrifice that God has provided. You and I can't
provide a sacrifice that will put away sin. So you know what
God did for his people? He provided a sacrifice for them.
A sacrifice that he would accept. A sacrifice that would put away
the sin of his people. And that sacrifice, according
to this law here, must be brought to the priest. And the priest
will offer the sacrifice for the sin of this man. That's what
God's done for his people. Not only did God provide the
sacrifice, he's the high priest who offers the sacrifice, that
makes that sacrifice accepted to the father, that puts away
the sin of his people. Now the rest of these verses,
I want us to see six pictures of the sacrifice of Christ in
our text. And I want us to see, I hope
the spirit will show this to our heart, that these six things
make the sacrifice of Christ exactly what we need. that He's everything that we
need. And number one is this, the sacrifice must be perfect.
It has to be, the Lord says here, a young bullock. And that young
bullock must be without blemish. All the sacrifices offered to
the Lord, they must be without blemish, right? The Passover
lamb, it had to be without blemish. They had to set up and watch
it for a number of days to make sure it had no hidden blemish
or sickness. That lamb is a picture of Christ. He must be without blemish. because
the Lord Jesus Christ is the perfect man. He always obeyed
God's law, not only outwardly, but inwardly, in desire and thought
and motive. He never committed any sin. He
never committed a sin of ignorance. He never committed a sin knowingly.
Peter described the Lord Jesus as he did no sin, neither was
any guile found in his mouth. The writer to the Hebrews describes
him as holy. harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher than the heavens. He's the perfect
glorious sacrifice. Here's another way. This Bullock,
this young Bullock is a, and his sacrifice is a type of Christ.
A bull is valuable, valuable. You know why? Because a bull
can produce more cattle. Can't get more cattle without
a bull and a young bull, A young bull in the prime of life, he's
even more valuable. He got longer, he can produce
even more cattle. He's powerful, he's virile. This
is a valuable animal that they're sacrificing to the Lord. That's
a picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
prized bull. His prized bull, his blood is
so valuable. His blood gives life to millions. His blood is so precious, it
cleanses God's elect from all sin. All original sin in Adam,
willful sins against God, sins of ignorance, sins of our nature,
sin of what we are. His blood cleanses us from all
sin. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
eternally young. He always has the strength of
youth. He's just like a young bullet.
in the prime of life, in the strength of life, that's when
he was sacrificed, in the prime of life. Christ, our sacrifice,
is able to save. He's got the power to save. He's
got the perfection to save. He's got the blood to save. He's
the perfect sacrifice. And it must be perfect to be
accepted. That's why the father accepted
his sacrifice, his payment in full for the sin of his people.
You have to have a perfect sacrifice, but here's the second thing.
That sacrifice has got to die. Verse four. He should bring the
bullock under the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
before the Lord and should lay his hand upon the bullock's head
and kill the bullock before the Lord. Now, why did, before we
get to the bullock dying, why did the priest lay his hands
on the bullock's head? Well, that was a symbolic thing,
to symbolically transfer the guilt of the sinner onto the
sacrifice. Well, that's what happened to
Calvary, but not symbolically. God the Father made his son sin
for his people. He literally transferred the
sin of his elect onto his son. And when he did that, the son
was made guilty of that sin. Not symbolically, but literally. Now the Lord Jesus Christ never
sinned. Please don't misunderstand me, misquote me and say, oh Frank's
saying that Christ was a sinner. No, the Lord Jesus never sinned. But when the father made him
sin for his people, he was guilty of that sin. He called it mine
iniquity. He talked about the shame and
guilt of that sin because he was made guilty of that sin.
Now the father didn't do that for the sin of the whole wide
world. To give every son of Adam a chance to be saved. See this
sacrifice, this young bullock that was brought to the priest,
that sacrifice is for a specific sin of a specific person, isn't
it? Christ died for a specific sin. The specific sin of a specific
people. His people, the elect, those
people that the father gave him to save. Now the father chose
a people to save. He said his love, he said his
compassion on those people. But their sin, must be paid for. God's justice must be satisfied. God is holy. He cannot overlook
sin. Sin must be punished. It must
be put away. And I tell you what sin deserves
is death. That's why God said the wages
of sin is death. And that's the reason the sacrifice
must die. It's not good enough just to
transfer the guilt of sin to the sacrifice. The sacrifice
must die. because the wages of sin is death.
And that's the reason that Christ died. Christ died because the
father made him guilty of the sin of his elect, and he must
die. He must die to put away that
sin that the father laid upon him. Now, do I understand that? Absolutely not. But you know
what's coming? And you don't understand it either.
If anybody tells you, they understand. Howdy is that the father made
the son sin for his people, yet he remained the sinless sacrifice. If somebody tells you they understand
that, they're lying. No, they don't. But here's the
comforting thing. I don't have to understand that.
I just have to believe God. Just believe what God said. The
father, who is holy, who's always holy, who's always just, never
would have put his son to death unless he was guilty. The just
judge would not have put an innocent man to death. And that's how
God provides for his people everything that he requires of them. He
requires a sacrifice that puts away sin. God provided it. He
provided the perfect sacrifice. Sin must be taken off of us.
God provided the sacrifice who was strong enough, this John
Bullock, strong enough to bear the sin of his people and to
take it away. God took the sin of his people
away from us by putting it on Christ our substitute. And he
paid the debt by his death as the sacrifice for his people.
And by his death, God's people live. They go free and they live
in justice. But that sacrifice must die.
And there's a key phrase here. It must die before the Lord. Before the Lord. The sacrifice
must be killed before the Lord because this thing is being done
to satisfy God. To satisfy God's holy justice,
the phrase before the Lord appears in the book of Leviticus 61 times. That tells me this phrase before
the Lord has to be important. I'll tell you what it means.
The blood before the Lord, the sacrifice must be killed before
the Lord. It must be this way because God is the one who must
be appeased. This offering for sin is not
offered to you and me. Any preacher that starts telling
you, now this sacrifice is offered to you, see if you'll accept
it. Won't you accept it? Won't you let Jesus in? You automatically
know he don't know God. He doesn't know the gospel. He's
not speaking for the Lord. He's not speaking according to
the scriptures. The sacrifice is not offered
to you and me to see if we'll accept it. The sacrifice is offered
to God. And you know why the sacrifice
must be offered to God and not you and not me? Because God's
the offended party. We're not the ones who's offended.
We're not the one God's got to appease. He must be appeased. That's why when the Lord gave
Moses the instruction for the Passover, that Passover lamb
must be perfect. It must be selected from the
flock in the prime of life. It must be set up and watched
to make sure there's no hidden sickness or blemish in it. And
the sacrifice must die. But the father of that home couldn't
stop there, could he? He must catch the blood of that lamb,
that Passover lamb. He must catch it in the basin.
He must get a bunch of hyssop and he must go put it on the
doorpost, on the lintel, outside. Go inside and shut the door.
Now he didn't put the blood on the inside of the door so when
the Lord was passing through, he could sit there and look at
the blood and say, okay, I'm safe because I see the blood.
He didn't do that, did he? He put the blood on the outside
of the door. He went in and shut the door. He couldn't see the
blood anymore. That firstborn sitting there, he's just eaten
that first Passover, and the Lord's passing through, and he's
gonna come in every home that's not under the blood. He's gonna
kill that firstborn. There the firstborn sits. How
does that father know his firstborn's safe? When the Lord sees the blood.
When God sees the blood on Passover, You know why God will pass over
that home? Because when he sees that blood, you know what that
means? There's been death in this home tonight. The substitutes
die. So the firstborn lives. The blood
must be offered to the Lord to appease the holy anger of the
offended God. It's the blood that makes atonement
for the soul. And that blood must be offered
to the Lord. And that's why I say the sacrifice
of Christ was not offered to men to see if we decide to accept
him or reject him. The sacrifice was offered to
the Lord. And since he's the perfect sacrifice,
the sacrifice that the father provided, there's no doubt. Is the sacrifice going to be
accepted? Of course it's going to be accepted. The father provided
it. He provided the perfect lamb.
He's the one that sacrificed the perfect lamb. It's perfect
blood. He's the lamb come to take away
the sin of the world. Of course his sacrifice is going
to be accepted. It's something else for us to
understand. The sacrifice of Christ didn't
come at a time when it could change God's mind, when it could
change the character of God. The sacrifice of Christ didn't
make God start loving his people. Christ came as the atonement
for sin because God already loved his people. God loved his people. That's why he sent his son to
be the propitiation for our sins. And the result of the sacrifice
was never in doubt because the high priest who offered it was
perfect. And the sacrifice was perfect. I look at verse five
and the priest that is anointed shall take of the Bullock's blood
and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation. Now the
sacrifice must be killed. You know, we talk about that.
There's blood here. Doesn't just mean that there's been suffering.
It doesn't just mean, well, there's been a big gash and there's been
a loss of blood, but the person's suffering, but he'll still survive.
The blood means that they're suffering. Not only is there
death, there's suffering. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And that's what the blood tells
us. There's been death for sin. There's been death. But not just
any blood won't do the job. The blood of bulls can't take
away sin. Animal blood cannot take away
the sin of a man. The only way that animal sacrifice
was of any use to anybody is as a picture of Christ, a picture
of His blood. And we make much of the blood
of Christ here. We make much of it. We don't
have a gospel to preach without blood. We don't have a gospel
to believe without blood. The blood of Christ is sin atoning
blood that satisfies the father. I only give you about four things
here on this blood. Look quickly at John chapter
six, the blood of Christ. This blood is everything that
we need. It's a life giving blood. It's quickening blood. John chapter
six, first 53. Then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the son of
man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. It's drinking this blood, having
union with this blood, being washed in the blood, it's life-giving
blood. Now look at Colossians chapter
one. The blood of Christ is reconciling
blood. And we need to be reconciled
to God, because we are separated from God and Adam, which the
blood of Christ is reconciling blood that brings us back to
God. Colossians 1 verse 21. Well, look at verse 20. And having
made peace, how did he make peace? Through the blood of his cross.
Through the blood of his cross, by him, to reconcile all things
unto himself. By him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven and you, even you, they
were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works.
Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death, death to present you wholly and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight. He has reconciled us to God by
his blood. It's reconciling. Now look at
Hebrews chapter 10. The blood of Christ, the blood
of his sacrifice, that blood does two things. It satisfies
God and it clears the conscience of a sinner because it's taken
sin away. Hebrews 10 verse 22. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. How? Having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water,
having our hearts sprinkled with the blood of Christ. The blood
of Christ, when it's sprinkled upon us, we know His blood has
taken our sin away. And that's why our conscience
is clear. Oh, yes. Yes, I sin. Yes, I see my sin. Yes, I have sins of ignorance,
but my conscience is clear. Because the blood of Christ is
paid for. Then last, look at 1 John 1. The blood of Christ is cleansing blood. Cleansing
blood. Your sin is not just a violation
of God's law. It is, it is a violation of God's
law. But sin is worse than that. It's
a filthiness. It's a defiling thing. And it's
the blood of Christ that cleanses us. First John one, verse seven. If we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship with one another And the blood
of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. And that's why we make much of
the blood of Christ, because his blood is everything that
a sinner needs. It's sin atoning, it's quickening,
it's reconciling, it clears the conscience, and it cleanses us
from all sin. That's why the sacrifice must
die. We need that blood. All right, here's the third thing. The sacrifice of Christ enables
us to come into the presence of God himself. Back in Leviticus
4 here, verse 5. And the priest that is anointed
shall take of the bullock's blood and bring it to the tabernacle
of the congregation. And the priest shall dip his
finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before
the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. Now the veil that
he's talking about there is the veil of the tabernacle. Remember
the tabernacle had two rooms in it, The holy place and the
holy of holies. And the veil is what separated
the holy place from the holy of holies. Out here in the holy
place, that's where the priest worked. There was the table of
showbread, the candlestick, the altar of incense. That's where
the priest went about his daily activities. But the holy of holies,
that's where God dwelt. That's where the mercy seat was.
That's where the ark and the mercy seat was. And God dwelt
there. Between those wings of the cherubim,
the Shekinah glory of God dwelt there. And nobody went into that
room. Neither the holy of holies. Nobody
went into the presence of God. Except the high priest once a
year. And not without blood. See, if
a sinner's going to come into the presence of God, it's got
to be through the blood. Through the blood. It's got to
be through the veil, which is a picture of Christ. is the picture
of His body. It's got to be through Christ,
through the veil. And in Christ, through the blood
of His sacrifice. I want to say this just right.
We don't come timidly, sneaking around the veil. We don't come... Now, we come reverently. Please
understand, we come reverently. But we come through the blood
of Christ. We don't come into the Father's
presence. Sneaking up to talk to him, afraid
he's gonna whack us at any moment. Rosalie, if something's wrong
with you, you need help, do you go up to your daddy just afraid
if you ask your daddy for help, he's gonna whack you upside the
head? You don't, do you? It's okay, you can say. You don't.
I know you don't, because I know him. I know you don't. If a child
doesn't come to their father when they need help, and they're broken-hearted, and
they're afraid, and they're full of fear, maybe they don't even
know what's wrong. They just need help. And they
don't come to their daddy just afraid, if I ask for help, he's
going to whack me upside the head with a stick. Why would a child of God come
to our Father that way? Huh? There's no need to if you
come in the blood, in the blood of Christ. Through Christ, through His blood,
the writer to the Hebrews says, we come boldly. Reverently, but
boldly. You know why? Confident I'll
be accepted for Christ's sake. I better come full of fear, afraid
God's gonna whack me with His justice if I'm coming in what
I've done. If I come in the blood of Christ, I come confidently,
knowing I'll be accepted for Christ's sake. That's just believing
God. That's just believing that Christ
is all I need. That's why the priest sprinkles
his blood before the veil seven times. It's the number of perfection. And it's the perfect blood of
Christ that gives us boldness to come into the presence of
God himself accepted. All right, here's the fourth
thing. It's the sacrifice of Christ
that gives power to the intercession of Christ. It's the blood of
Christ that enables him to make intercession. In verse seven,
the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the
altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle
of the congregation, and shall pour all the blood of the bullock
at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now that
altar of incense, you may remember when we've studied in the past
the tabernacle and its pieces of furniture. The altar of incense
is a picture of the prayers of Christ for his people. And the
high priest would put specific ground up incense and put that
on the coals of that altar and the smoke would go up and fill
the place. And that's given to us as a picture
of the prayers of Christ going up to the Father, his intercession
for his people. And that was a relatively small
altar. It had four horns, one on each
corner. And when you read about horns
in scripture, horns are pictures of power. That's why the bullock
has horns. A ram has horns. It's a picture
of its power. And the priest took the blood
of that sacrifice and put that blood on those four horns, the
horns of the altar. That's given to us as a picture.
It's the blood that gives power, power to the intercession of
Christ. When Christ makes intercession for his people, ask the Father,
Father, forgive them. Father, forgive that sin. Father,
accept them. He's not asking God for a favor.
He's not asking the Father, well, just ignore this and lower your
standards. No, he's praying with power. He's making intercession
with power. He's praying for justice. See,
if he's asking for a favor, you don't know if you're going to
get it or not. You can't really talk with a whole lot of power,
a lot of authority. But when you're praying for justice,
now that's authority. That's power. It's the blood
that enables him to do that. The blood's already been shed
before the Lord. The blood has been applied and
there's power in that blood. There's power. It's already put
away the sin of his people. That's why Christ always gets
what he prays for. And the rest of the blood, was
poured out at the bottom of the brazen altar where the sin offering,
the burnt offering was made. Now remember, all this is given
to us as a type and picture of Christ. The blood of Christ was
not spilled. You know, if you talk about the
blood of Christ being spilled, that almost makes it sound like
an accident. That makes it sound like, well, some of that blood
could be wasted, baby. The blood of Christ wasn't spilled. The
blood of Christ was, was poured out. It was shed on purpose. for a specific people, for a
specific sin. The blood of Christ was voluntarily
poured out for the sin of his people, and that offering was
accepted. And that's why, that's what gives
the intercession of Christ power. He always gets what he asks for
his people, always is effectual because of the blood, the power
of the blood. All right, here's the fifth thing.
The sacrifice of Christ was the real suffering of a real man. Verse eight, and he shall take
off from it all the fat of the bullet for the sin offering,
and the fat that is covering the inwards and all the fat that
is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys and the fat that
is upon them, which is by the flanks and the call above the
liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away. Now this animal's
got to be cut up. All those n-words of that animal,
all the things that's got to be done with it. This is showing
us the physical suffering. I mean, this is real. It's really
gross, isn't it? Just taking all these n-words.
Maybe some of you hunters don't think it's all that gross. It
sounds gross to me, taking all these n-words out and separating
the fat and doing all this stuff. I mean, there's real blood and
gore and guts going on here. Well that's a picture of the
physical sufferings of Christ. I mean how he suffered. It's
unimaginable how he suffered. But nobody saved because of the
physical sufferings of Christ. Now I'm not making light of them.
His physical sufferings had to happen. He had to suffer that
way or our sin could not be put away. But those sufferings were
just the tip of the iceberg. His physical suffering was before
men. The real suffering happened where
men couldn't see it. In those three hours of darkness.
Man can't see what's going on there. That's his soul suffering. That's when the Savior suffered. He made his soul, Isaiah said,
an offering for sin. And it's the soul sufferings
that saves the souls of God's elect. There's no help for this
body of flesh. There's no help for it. Sean
and I were talking about these vitamins he's taking. He starts
feeling better. Buddy, do it. Text me just exactly how I want
to feel better too. But one day, you and me are going
to die. I mean, there's only so much you can do with this
flesh. Christ didn't die. His bodily suffering to do something
for this body. He made his soul an offering
for sin. That he might save the souls
of his people. At Calvary, God wasn't playing
games. Calvary, the time for pictures,
the time for types, the time for shadows was over. God's holy justice was being
satisfied. The wrath of God Almighty was
being poured out in all of its fury, unmixed with any love,
any compassion, any mercy, or any grace. It was all being poured
out upon God's son. The father took the sword of
justice and plunged it into his fellow. plunged it into the heart
of his son, and he did it without remorse, because his justice
must be satisfied, his anger and hatred of sin must be poured
out. And Christ, our sin offering,
suffered everything the sin of his people deserved. He suffered
until the sin that caused God's wrath was gone. And when the
reason for God's wrath was gone, then our Lord cried, it's finished. and he could cry, Father, not
my God, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Now that ought to humble us and
that ought to fill us with thanksgiving. This was the suffering, real
suffering of a real man that put away the sin of his people.
And then here's the last thing. The sacrifice of Christ completely
removed the sin of his people and took it out of sight. Verse
10, as it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice
of the peace offerings. And the priest shall burn them
upon the altar of the burnt offering, and the skin of the bullock and
all of his flesh, with his head and his legs and his inwards
and his dung, even the whole bullock, shall he carry forth
without the camp unto a clean place where the ashes are poured
out, and burn him on the wood with fire, where the ashes are
poured out shall he be burned. Now the carcass of this animal
had to be taken outside the camp, whatever was the parts that were
burned and offered on the brazen altar, those things were burned
there, but the rest of it had to be taken outside of the camp.
And I read this place was at least four miles from the camp,
had taken out of sight. It was unclean, could not stay
in the camp. It had to be taken away from
the people. And that was done because symbolically that animal
had become unclean. The sin of ignorance was transferred
upon this animal. It was unclean. It had to be
taken outside of the camp and reduced to ashes and put away.
Well, that's the reason when Christ came to Jerusalem, He
suffered outside the gate, outside the wall of the city. He didn't
suffer inside the wall. He was outside the wall. That wasn't just happenstance.
You know why He suffered outside the wall? He'd been made unclean,
unclean by the sin of his people. And he had to suffer outside
the wall. He had to suffer outside the presence of his father. My
God, my God, why is that forsaken me? He suffered outside the loving,
gracious presence of his father because he'd been made sin for
his people. Christ was made unclean so that he could make his people
clean by his sacrifice for them. And it's that sacrifice. that
draws all of God's people to Him. In closing, look, Hebrews
chapter 13. It's that sacrifice that pleases
the Father, that satisfies the Father's justice, satisfies His
holy character. And it's that sacrifice where
He suffered for us outside the camp, His untold suffering that
draws Christ's people to Him. Because He, in that sacrifice,
is exactly what we need. Hebrews 13, verse 11. For the bodies of those beasts
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin are burned without the camp. Or for Jesus also, that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. That's why he suffered without
the gate. Now let us go forth therefore unto him without the
camp bearing his reproach. Oh, that God would reveal to
our hearts that sacrifice. and withdraw us to Christ. All
right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for the sacrifice of Christ our Savior. How we thank you that
you provided the perfect sacrifice, the perfect pure blood, the perfect
high priest to offer the sacrifice, the perfect altar upon which
the sacrifice was offered to put away the sin of his people.
And Father, I beg of you that you bless your word as it's been
preached, that you bless it to your glory, that you would enable
each one of us here to, by faith, see that sacrifice, to see our
Lord Jesus Christ and to see your glory, to see that he's
everything that we need and cause us to run to him, to rest in
him, to find in him all that we need. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory and his sake, All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 75, and stand as we sing, Abide With Me. Abide with me, fast falls the
eventide. The darkness deepens, Lord, with
me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me! Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day, Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O through who changes not abide
with thee. I need thy presence every passing
hour. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? like thyself my guide and stay
can be through cloud and sunshine oh abide with me hold thou thy
word before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks and earth's
vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me.