I suppose all of us have a tendency
to exaggerate and overstate things that we wish to emphasize. Men and women who speak in public
certainly often do. Politicians commonly do. Sadly,
preachers very often overstate or exaggerate something they
wish to emphasize. My opening statement tonight,
I have weighed heavily and I recognize that it is a broad, broad statement,
but there is not a word of exaggeration in it. Listen carefully. Nothing is more glorious, more
mysterious, more instructive, or more comforting to believing
sinners than the identification of God's elect with Christ our
Redeemer. Nothing. Every saved sinner,
every believing soul is one with Christ. The scriptures reveal
this fact throughout the pages of inspiration, but we have a
terribly hard time believing it as we should. Preachers rarely
state it emphatically and clearly. Most are fearful of doing so. Every saved sinner, every believer,
every child of God has an eternal union with Jesus Christ. By that,
I don't mean the two are glued together. I don't mean the two
are attached to one another. I mean the two exist together. Every believer, all of God's
elect, have an eternal union with Jesus Christ, the God-man,
our mediator. We have with him an obedient
union while he walked upon this earth as Jehovah's righteous
servant, obeying and fulfilling the will of God in all things. We have with him a redemptive
union. When he suffered the wrath of
God upon Calvary's cursed tree, we suffered the wrath of God
in him. When he died, we died in him. When he arose, we arose in him. When he took his seat in heaven,
we took our seat with him in him. And we have with him an
experiential union. That is, when the sinner is born
again by God the Holy Spirit, we are made to live in Christ
as Christ is made to live in us. I defy anyone in certain
portions of Scripture to tell me with clarity, with good reason,
is this talking about Christ or is it talking about his people?
I'll give you one example. 1 Peter 4, verses 1 and 2. You can read them when you get
home. Please don't do so now. 1 Peter 4, verses 1 and 2. Is that talking about Christ?
Of course it is. Is that talking about God's elect? Absolutely. He that hath suffered in the
flesh hath ceased from sin. God's people and God's Son are
one. What a wondrous, blessed identification. And this union of ours is an
everlasting union. That which we come to experience
in time, in the new birth, in the regenerating, sanctifying
work of God the Holy Ghost, we shall forever joy in heaven's
eternal glory. My friend, Brother Tom Wooten,
Charles Road Church, many of you know him, went to be with
the Lord Sunday morning, Saturday evening rather. And we talked
about this union a good bit. That union he had with Christ
from eternity and sweetly tasted in the experience of grace. he
fully enjoys and shall forever enjoy now. An eternal union,
a obedience union, a redemptive union, an experienced union,
an everlasting union. In the word of God, you and I,
all believers are constantly identified with Christ. And by
God given faith, we identify ourselves with Him. That's what's
pictured and typified in the first five verses of the book
of Leviticus, our text for this evening. The title of my message
is Identification. Identification, our text, Leviticus
1, verses 1 through 5. Let's read the text together,
asking God the Holy Spirit, whose word we have before us, to be
our teacher and take the things of Christ and show them to us. The Lord called unto Moses and
spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation saying, speak
unto the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man of
you bring an offering unto the Lord, you shall bring your offering
of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock, If his offering
be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without
blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord.
And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering,
and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the bullock
before the Lord. and the priest, Aaron's sons,
shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the
altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, the picture we have before
us is that of a guilty Israelite during the days of the Levitical
priesthood, during the time of the Old Testament ceremonies
and rites and pictures given by the law. The man was a sinner
before God. Because he was a sinner before
God, atonement must be made for his sins and the atonement must
be made in the way that God had appointed by the sacrifice God
had appointed in the place God had appointed. The sinner, knowing
his sin, goes out into his fields and selects a lamb or a young
calf to be his sacrifice, his atonement. He does this himself
because God required that if he brings a sacrifice, if he
comes to God to worship God by a sin atoning sacrifice, he must
do so of his own voluntary will. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. No man has a free will. Anybody who reads the Bible knows
that. Anybody who is honest with himself
knows that. There's no such thing as free
will. But God's people are made willing
in the day of his power. And every sinner who comes to
God trusting his son comes to Christ with a willing heart.
He's tickled to death to do so. This man brings his sacrifice
to God's priest, and the priest inspects it to make sure that
it's perfect, a sacrifice suitable for atonement by the record of
God's law. And then the guilty man lays
his hands upon the head of this animal, and the sacrificial animal
is slain. The man laying his hands upon
the head takes a knife. and slits it throat. The very
hands that bring the sacrifice for whom the sacrifice is slain
are the hands that kill the sacrifice. And the priest catches the blood
in a basin and sprinkles it upon the altar by the door of the
tabernacle. What does all of this mean? What's
the symbol? What's signified by this ceremony?
Why was it done? There are many, many lessons
to be gathered. The various sacrifices of the
Old Testament, the burnt offering, the meat offering, the peace
offering, the sin offering, all have distinct methods by which
they give some reference to the person and work of Christ our
Redeemer as our sin atoning sacrifice. If the minds of the priest and
the worshiper were simply occupied with the ceremony, and the animal,
and the way things were done. That's all they had in mind.
The ceremony was nothing but a ceremony. Nothing but a ritual,
just a superstitious religious performance. And God tells us
in Isaiah chapter one, and again in Isaiah 66, that's precisely
what they became ultimately in Judaism in Isaiah's day. And that's what they are to this
day. But the worshiper came with his eye upon Christ, he who worshiped
God in the sacrifice. The priest took the sacrifice
with his eye upon one who was coming who would redeem and save
his people from their sins. Those sacrifices, those rituals,
those ceremonies required by God's law, the things we've read
here in these first five verses of Leviticus, show us how that
men and women, by a God-given faith, identify themselves with
Christ as their sacrifice. that one with whom God identifies
them. Now, I want to be crystal clear.
As I preach, I try my best to be crystal clear. Years ago,
I read about a little boy who, as he prayed with his family,
mom and dad knelt with him before he prayed, or before he went
to bed and prayed one Saturday night, and he prayed, Lord, help
the preacher to say something tomorrow that I can understand. Oh, God, help me to speak with
the plainness of a first grade reader when I speak to you about
faith in Christ, about the sin-atoning sacrifice of God's Son, so that
it's not possible for you to be confused by the words that
I use in describing these blessed things. There are some things
that are essential, vital, and some things that are not. Shelby
and I were talking today as we sat back here and had lunch together
about these very things. Over the years, I have had a
good many men who got upset with me and decided to have no fellowship
with me or have nothing to do with me. Sometimes they talk
kind of nasty or write kind of nasty things and I ignore them,
but I've made it my practice never to break fellowship with
any man who believes the gospel of God's free grace. There are
some things about which men may be confused, and I may differ
with them, that really are not vital. What are they, Pastor?
I don't mean by that that the revelation of God at any point
is not vital. What I know the Scriptures teach, I'm going to
preach with boldness and plainness no matter who's sitting in front
of me. But there are some things that are not vital to our soul
salvation. My, I'm almost hesitant to use
the word, but you'll understand what I mean. My patron saint
since I was 18 years old has been John Gill. I read Mr. Gill every day. I have read him
every day. There may be a few exceptions.
I've read something by Gill every day since I was 18 years old.
His theology is the best theology book I've found other than the
scriptures themselves. His commentaries, the best commentaries
I've found other than the scriptures themselves. And Mr. Gill was a pre-millennialist. I don't understand that. And
you know what I say when folks ask me about it? If that still
bothers me when I see him, I'll ask him about it. but somehow
I don't think it will bother them. Mr. Gill believed in closed
communion. You know there are whole denominations
that split one from another because some folks believe you ought
to have the Lord's table for all God's people, and other folks
say no, or you ought to have it just for folks in that local
church. I mean, whole denominations. Some of them won't even talk
to each other, won't go to church together. They just, oh no, those
folks, they believe in open communion. Well, Mr. Gill believed in strict,
closed communion. And if that still bothers me
when I see him, I'll ask him about it. Those things are not
essential. They're not essential. Do you
understand that? But faith in Christ and Christ's
sin-atoning sacrifice, those things are essential. They are essential not only for
the well-being of our souls, but essential to life eternal. And I am determined to leave
it to other folks to fuss and fight about things that really
don't matter in the long run. I said to Shelby this afternoon,
if they don't matter in eternity, they ought not much matter now.
Does that make sense to you? If they don't matter in eternity,
they ought not much matter to us now. Now here are two vital
things. They're both in our text. He
shall put his hand upon the head of the offering. That is a picture
of a sinner expressing faith in the atoning blood of God's
appointed sacrifice. He shall kill the bullock before
the Lord. That is a picture of the sin
atoning death of God's darling son as our sacrifice, our sin
atoning sacrifice. Those two things, David Burge,
you must have or you'll go to hell. You must have God's sacrifice
and you must believe God's son. You must have faith and you must
have the sacrifice. God will never receive or accept
anyone except through a sacrifice. God Almighty requires blood,
either yours or that of a substitute. Now here is the marvel of God's
wonderful grace. God himself has provided himself
a sacrifice for our sin. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ, God's own beloved
son, is the sacrifice, the only sacrifice God will accept. He is the sacrifice the triune
Jehovah set apart and appointed and accepted. Christ, the Lamb
of God, was inspected by everyone, especially by the priest in Israel,
and they found no blemish in him, inspected by the governor,
and they found no fault in him. inspected by God and it found
nothing in him, inspected by Satan himself and it found no
fault in him. This lamb was slain, slain by
men for whom he was slain. slain by men for whom he was
slain. Under the wrath of God Almighty,
he died and he was accepted by God himself and is forever accepted
as a sweet smelling savor. The sacrifice was provided. He was slain under the penalty
of the law and God has accepted him. And yet there is one thing
essential that remains, without which we must perish. We must lay our hands upon the
head of God's sacrifice. That's what faith is. Leaning on Christ, that's what
faith is. We hear people today talk about
faith, and they say, oh, he's a man of such great faith. Faith, Merle Hart, has to do
with one thing, Jesus Christ. That encompasses everything,
but faith has to do with one thing, Jesus Christ. is the leaning
of our souls upon Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Faith in Christ
was symbolized in this Old Testament portion of Scripture by a man
laying his hands on the head of a sacrificial lamb. This is
the one thing we must do. We must lay our hands of faith
upon the head of Christ God's sacrifice. And laying our hands
upon the head of God's sacrifice means four things. I'll give
them to you very briefly. Picture the man now that's set
before us here. He's standing beside the sacrifice
at the door of the tabernacle before God's priest. And he lays
both hands on the head of that sacrifice. I know our text says
lay his hand. If you go over to Leviticus 16,
you will see that Aaron was required to lay both hands, but he's laying
heavily upon the head of that sacrifice. What does that mean?
Number one, it meant that he was making a solemn, sincere,
public confession. This is what we do when we come
to Christ. Leaning upon the Savior. We're
making a confession. Laying my hands upon the head
of God's sacrifice, I am confessing my sin. I am confessing my sin
and I am confessing my sins. Now that needs perhaps some clarification
because you get a picture of a man going to a confessional
booth and talking to some other man dressed in drag with a cross
around his neck and he confesses that he's done some bad things
and he's told to go do other things to make up for his sin.
Or you get a picture of a man or a woman or a boy or a girl
coming down to the front of a Baptist church confessing that he's done
some things wrong, or confessing to someone else the evil that
they've done. None of those things are what
I'm talking about. It's easy enough, though embarrassing,
to confess your sin to this preacher, or to this congregation, or to
another like yourself. But that's easy enough because
you're just talking to another sinner. The confession of sin,
Bill, has to do with honesty before God. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. I've said this to you countless
times, and I hope as I preach the gospel, whatever Many times
God has appointed for me yet to do so. I'll not fail to remind
you. To confess your sin is to stand
with your heart deliberately ripped open and naked before
God. Acknowledge to God what you are. Quit pretending to be what you're
not. Acknowledge to God what you are. This was the first foremost thing
in the mind of the ancient Jew when he brought a sacrifice of
any kind to the Lord. He was acknowledging his sin.
You see, the only reason I need a sacrifice is sin. That's the
only reason I need to sacrifice my sin. I need no other reason
and I have no other reason for a sacrifice except my sin. Hold your hands here and turn
to Leviticus 16, where we have instruction concerning the day
of atonement. Verse 21. We'll look at this text again
in a little bit, but I want you to see it now. Leviticus 16,
21. Aaron shall lay both his hands
upon the head of the live goat and confess over him," now watch
this, all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their
transgressions in all their sins. Those three words are used throughout
the scripture to identify our sin. Iniquity, transgression,
sin. failing to reach the standard
of God's law, deliberately violating God's law and our nature and
all the acts of nature arising from our corrupt hearts. This
is what I'm saying. You and I must come to God confessing
our sin. Those who lay their hands upon
Christ must acknowledge their utter sinfulness. not sin here
and there, not sin now and then, utter sinfulness. Will you hear
me, you people who are dearer to me than any people in the
world? Will you hear me? Will you hear
me? Will you? Will you? You are nothing but sin. No exclusion. That's all you are by nature. And the man talking to you knows
that's all he is by nature. By the fall of our father Adam,
by nature, by practice, by choice, nothing but sin. You aren't good
and there's nothing good in you and you can't do good. You aren't
righteous, there's nothing righteous in you, and you can't do righteousness. You aren't holy, there's nothing
holy in you, and you can't do holiness. Those things are the
gifts of God. If you possess them, God gave
them to you, and God put them in you, but he made you partakers
of the divine nature in the new birth. and every believer confesses
it so. He sincerely, honestly acknowledges
before God his sin, his sin. Preacher, I just can't do that.
I can't do that. Well, you'll go to hell then.
I'm not like other people. You'll find out in hell that
you are. I'm not as bad as other people. You'll find out in the
pit of the damned that you are. Unless you find out now by the
gift of God's grace that you are. Like the leper, altogether
unclean. So that everything you touch, you pollute. Everything affected
by you and by me is affected for evil. air the leper breathed was polluted
air and all we affect is sin. That's all. That's all. We must
confess our sin sincerely. God's Lamb was given as a sacrifice
for sinners. And God's Lamb today makes intercession
for sinners. And God's Lamb today forgives
and washes away the sin of sinners, not the righteous, not the righteous
sinners Jesus came to call. This is to take our true and
rightful place before God. This is also an act of impotence.
Not only am I a sinner, I'm a helpless sinner. There's not one thing
I can do to help myself. I must have Christ the sacrifice
for my sin. I cannot keep God's law. I cannot
make atonement for my past transgressions. I cannot by anything I say, do,
think or experience make any future acceptance with God possible
by my obedience. Christ is precious to you who
believe because that which we must have
is precious. and nothing is really precious
that you don't absolutely have to have. Not really. I don't know how to say that
in a way to make it stick. Maybe I can make a stab at it. I heard some of you ladies ask,
two or three ladies ask Susan Sunday at lunch if she ever found,
I forgot even what it was, some kind of dish that her, was it
your grandmother had it? got mixed up in dishes for one
of our meals, and she had it and got it back. The dish was
important. Grandma gave it to me. Might
be the only thing from Grandma she's got, I don't know. Important,
makes it something you really want to hang on to, but not precious. You could get along without it. When you can't get along without
Christ, he'll be precious to you. Not until you can't get
along without him. Unto you therefore which believe
he is precious. I stand before God, laying my
hand upon the head of God's darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ, my
substitute, leaning my entire soul upon him because I'm dirty,
I'm sinful, I'm impotent, I must have Christ. And laying my hands
upon this sacrifice, the Lord Jesus, I confess that I deserve
to die. That man brings his calf or his
lamb and he lays his hands on that and he slits his throat. And this is what he says, my
God, I deserve this death. Your wrath against me, your justice
demands my death. I justly should perish under
your wrath. You see, if God had been pleased
to send me to hell, it would have been no more than I fully
deserve. He would have been both righteous
and just in doing it. Just when he spoke, depart from
me, and clear when he judges. And should God send you to hell,
it will be nothing more than you fully deserve. Therefore,
we come to God bringing a sacrifice, upon whom God poured out all
of hell. All the blackness and darkness
and fire and torment and separation of hell. God's Son suffered as
our sacrifice. This is our confession. Second, when a man laid his hands upon
the head of the sacrifice, he was saying, I now bow to and
accept God's remedy for sin. In other words, I repent. Now you can read large volumes
of theology on repentance. And the more you read, the further
astray they become. Repentance is not a feeling,
though it certainly may and does involve feeling. Repentance is
not an emotional thing, though certainly it involves emotion. Repentance is a change, a turning,
a change of mind, a change of mind. A change of mind about
what? Well, it might include many things,
but in its essence, it is a change of mind about God's salvation. A change of mind about how men
and women like you and me can be accepted of God. A change
of mind about how sinners can come to God. You see, every man
by nature I don't care how well instructed the man is. I don't
care if he was raised on the knee of a faithful mama who believed
the gospel, who heard her pray for him day and night all his
life. I don't care how much he knows. Every man, every woman by nature,
though he may recite the five points of Calvinism as clearly
as anybody, every man, every woman by nature, thinks he can
do something to make up to God. Everybody thinks we have got
to do something. I have got to contribute something. I have got to make some effort.
I've got to make some change. Except the man who comes to God leaning the weight of his soul
upon God's sacrifice. The sinner coming to God, trusting
Christ, says now, God, by the sacrifice God in the flesh. God, by God dying in my place. God, by God slaying his own son. God, by God suffering all the
fury of his wrath and justice in the person of his son. Now
God can be just and justify the ungodly. Now I see the righteousness
of God. Now I see how God can be both
just and justifier of any sinner and every sinner who believes
on his son. Jesus Christ has been set forth
by God, a justice satisfied, righteousness maintaining, propitiation
for our sins. Now God has fully punished sin
and forgives sin. who can by no means clear the
guilty has made the guilty clear of guilt by the sacrifice of
his darling son. The believer comes to Christ
laying his hands upon Christ and he finds himself bowing to
Christ as his only Savior, his only acceptance with God, his
only righteousness. I accept bow to and receive Christ
my substitute. Now listen to me. Salvation is
not in a plan. It's in a person. Salvation is
not in the doctrine of substitution. Salvation is in the substitute. We rest our souls not upon a
doctrine or upon a creed, but upon Christ himself. We lean
our souls upon him who died in our stead and lives for us at
the right hand of God. And only those who do so, only
those who receive Christ are saved by Christ. received Him, to them gave He
power to become the sons of God." I wonder if I can have that. I wonder if that'd be cool and
refreshing. I wonder what it'd be like to
drink from that glass of water. I'm fixing to find out. I've taken it by my hand and
received it. As many as received him who by
the hand of faith take him as their own. them gives he power,
the right, the authority, the confidence to become the sons
of God. So that when God pours out on
you the spirit of adoption, sprinkling the conscience from dead works
by the blood of Christ, suddenly you find yourself crying and
Abba, Father, with the authority, the right, the privilege of God-given
faith, you call God your Father, believing on his Son. Third,
when the sinner laid his hands upon the head of the sacrifice,
he was expressing his faith in a marvelous transference. Back
at Leviticus 16 again, that 21st verse. Look at the end of the verse.
He confesses, Aaron does, the iniquities and the transgressions
and sins of all Israel, putting them upon the head of the goat. Putting them upon the head of
the goat. Putting them upon the head of
the goat. Ceremonially transferring them. from all the nation of Israel,
gathering up all the sins of all the people, of all the nation,
of all the tribes, of all Israel. And by one mighty transfer, he
takes both hands and lays them on that goat. Laying my hands upon my Savior's
head, I acknowledge a marvelous, mysterious
transfer. God took him who knew no sin,
and had no sin, and did no sin, and made him sin for me. made Him sin for me. God in my flesh became everything I am. And for it suffered all the vengeance
of an angry God in my stead. and fully satisfied the fury
and anger of God. And now God has made me to be
all that His Son is, the very righteousness of God in Him. Christ was made sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. What a marvelous
transfer. Aaron offered the sacrifice,
and he would come out of the tabernacle and take off those
white linen garments, all splattered with blood, put on those gorgeous
priestly garments again, and the breastplate, and the crown,
everything. And he'd come out, and I could
almost picture him holding his hands up over the children of
Israel and say, now! on the basis of what shall take
place at Calvary, on the basis of what's represented in the
sacrifice. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and make his face shine upon you and the Lord be with
you. That's called substitution. And the sinner laying his hands on the head
of the sacrifice, identifies himself with the sacrifice. Laying our hands upon the head
of Christ, our substitute, we identify ourselves with the substitute. He bear our sins in his body
on the tree. And thereby fully identified
himself with us when he stood in our room instead at the bar
of divine justice and paid the debt. We come to God believing
his son. And when God demands obedience, what we give. And God demands
satisfaction, this is what we give. God demands holiness, this
is what we give. God demands perfection, this
is what we give. Jesus Christ, our substitute. He really is one with me. and I really am one with him
forever. And that's all my hope, all my
joy, all my confidence, all my peace. Come then, my brother. Come,
my sister. Come, needy soul. and lay the
hand of faith upon the head of God's sacrifice, Christ Jesus,
confessing your sin, turning to God by his sacrifice, believing
him, identifying yourself with him. Oh, this is more then I have
the ability to believe as I ought. I keep asking God to give me
grace to believe this as I ought. His obedience is my righteousness. His death is my death. His satisfaction is my satisfaction. His life is my life. His acceptance is my acceptance. That's called grace. That's called
atonement. That's called redemption. That's
called salvation. I have been reconciled to God.
Oh, sweet salvation this. Redeemed and reconciled by blood. This is my joy and peace. By
nature and by Adam's fall, by choice, far off from God, but
God stepped in and all is well. I'm reconciled by blood. I'm
near, so very near to God, nearer I cannot be. For in the person
of his Son, I am as near as he. Yes, dear, so very dear to God,
Dearer I cannot be, for as the father loves the son, so God
my God loves me. Why should I fear or anxious
be? With God's own son I'm one, holy,
beloved, accepted, and forever with him one. Amen. then you become leaders in the
hill.