In Leviticus and chapter 7 we
come to consider again the trespass offering. Leviticus 7 verse 1
reads, likewise this is the law of the trespass offering, it
is most holy. In the place where they kill
the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering and
the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar. And
he shall offer of it all the fat thereof, the rump, and the
fat, the cover of the innards, and the two kidneys, and the
fat that is on them which is by the flanks, and the coal that
is above the liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And the
priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by
fire unto the Lord. It is a trespass offering. Every
male among the priests shall eat thereof. It shall be eaten
in the holy place. It is most holy. As the sin offering
is, so is the trespass offering. There is one law for them. The
priest that make of atonement therewith shall have it. And
the priest that offereth any man's burnt offering, even the
priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering
which he have offered. And all the meat offering that
is bacon in the oven and all that is dressed in the frying
pan and in the pan shall be the priest that offereth it. And
every meat offering mingled with oil and dry shall all the sons
of Aaron have, one as much as another. Likewise this is the
law of the trespass offering. It is most holy. Most holy. We've seen as this
book of Leviticus comes to consider these five offerings again. and
the various instructions and laws given to the priesthood
in terms of how they should offer them, there is something which
stands out about each of these offerings. Considered those fires
that shall ever be burning upon the altar, the eternal fires
of God's wrath against sin, as we saw with the burnt offering.
And here, with the trespass offering, What stands out here as it's
enveloped, as it were, enveloped at the beginning and the end,
is the holiness of the offering and where it is offered. Likewise,
this is the law of the trespass offering. It is most holy. It is most holy. And verse six, every male among
the priests shall eat thereof. It shall be eaten in the holy
place. It is most holy. The trespass offering is most
holy. In contrast with that for which
it is offered. Our trespasses and sins are anything
but holy. They are the very opposite of
holiness. They are those things which utterly
defile us and make us abominable in God's eyes. They are that
which defiles man. and that which demands that man
as a sinner, as one who was born in trespasses and sins, that
man as a sinner cannot approach into the presence of a holy God. Our trespasses are those which
set us at a great distance, a great gulf from God. It is because
of the trespass of Adam in the garden, his disobedience, his
rebellion, that he and his posterity were cast out from the presence
of Almighty God. Cast out from the garden. Cast
out from daily communion with God. Cast out, as it were, from
the holy place. and set at a great distance. And the scale, the vastness,
the gulf between us and God, the scale of that distance between
us is highlighted here by the stress on how holy the offering
is for our trespasses. If those who are so corrupt,
those who are so far off from God are to be brought into his
presence again, if we're ever to be reconciled, if we're ever
to be united again, then we must be brought so far that we can
come into the very holy of holies, that we can come into the very
presence of this holy God. And if we're to come into his
presence, we need a sacrifice, which is most holy. As we see in these things, how
holy, how righteous our God is, and how corrupt, how defiled,
how awful we are by nature in his sight. How awful one trespass
is. God says of the law that the
man that would do the law is a debtor to do the whole law.
If he offends in one point he is guilty of all. God gave a
law to Israel. He commanded how they should
be. He commanded how they should both worship Him and live before
their neighbours. How they should love God and
how they should love their neighbour. And you could set yourself to
that law and keep every point of that law. But should you break
one, then that one trespass One trespass was enough to set you
at a great distance and bring the everlasting eternal wrath
of God upon your head. By nature we are so utterly self-righteous,
you can speak to many of the law of God, of the demands of
God, of the uprightness that should be seen in us. And many
will think of themselves as being very upright. Many will feel
that God should be pleased with them. Many will feel that they've
done no great sin. But the majority will confess
that they are not perfect. that yes they've done perhaps
this and perhaps that and perhaps they could have done this better
and that better and perhaps no they haven't worshipped God with
all of their heart and all of their soul and all of their mind.
And yet they still think God should receive them. And yet God makes plain that
one point, one offense, one bit of leaven, will leaven
the whole lump. One trespass will keep you out
of the holy place forever. One iniquity will bring upon
your heads the everlasting, relentless, ongoing judgment of God in hell. The fires will not be quenched
where there is sin. Paul tells us in Ephesians of
what we are like when we are born. Not what we're like after
a lifetime of sinning, but what we're like when we're born. That we are born dead. Says in Ephesians 2, and you
have he quickened, he says to believers. You have he quickened,
you have he brought to life. who were dead in trespasses and
sins. You were born a sinner. You were
born dead. Dead in trespasses and sins.
Where in time past ye walked according to the course of this
world, according to the print of the power of the air, the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. That's what we are by nature
when we're born. We're born children of disobedience. We see it in the natural realm. How soon our children disobey. How willing we are to disobey
our parents, to disobey teachers, to disobey authority, to disobey
God. We're children of disobedience.
You don't need to teach a child disobedience. You need to teach
them obedience. You do not need to teach men,
women and children how to get angry. You need to teach them
to forgive. You don't need to teach them
to go to war with their brothers and sisters and neighbours. You
need to teach them to turn the other cheek. You don't need to teach them
to serve themselves. You need to teach them to serve
God. We are by nature children of
disobedience. And among those children, among
whom we all had our conversation, we all had our lives, we all
had the whole pattern of our lives in times past. in the lusts
of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind
and we're by nature the children of wrath even as others you see
we're captive to what we are by nature we are born with fallen
flesh as a consequence of the rebellion of our forefather Adam.
We're born in sin. We're born with a nature which
wars against God. We are by nature the children
of wrath. We fulfill the desires of the
flesh and of the mind. We seek after this and we seek
after that and it's all in the here and the now and it's all
for our own pleasure and our own glory and our own satisfaction. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. Oh the great fallacy of the majority
of religion And the majority of that which calls itself Christianity
is that it treats people as though they're alive. It treats people
as though they are born somehow neutral, with the ability to
choose to either live right or wrong, with the ability to choose
to follow God or follow man, with the ability to accept and
receive a Jesus who loves them. But this is a lie because you
are born dead in trespasses and sins and dead men don't see,
they don't believe, they don't follow. They are slaves. in the deadness of their sin,
unto that in which they're born, unto the desires and the lusts
of their own flesh. They're dead in it. All they
do is serve the flesh, which slays them. But God, despite
what we are, but God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, have quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. Paul writes here to believers,
those for whom Christ died, those at Ephesus here who have come
to know of what Christ has done for them, and come to believe
on him because he opened their eyes to see, because the Spirit
of God set his love upon them and taught them what they are
by nature and pointed them unto one who had died for their sins. Yes, Paul says under these, God
who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, have quickened us together
with Christ. By grace he has saved and has
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace ye are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship. created
in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. In Christ he has raised his people
up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. These
who were born sinners, these who were born in rebellion, these
who were born as children of disobedience, these who were
dead in trespasses and sins, are now raised up to sit together
in heavenly places, in a holy place, in a most holy place. Well how could these who were
born in sin, these full of corruption, sit in a heavenly place, a holy
place? Only if their sins and their
trespasses have been taken away forever. Only if there is an
offering offered up for them, for their trespasses, which is
most holy. Only if there is an offering
which can take these who are most unholy, most wicked, most
corrupt, most sinful, and make them in Christ to be the very
righteousness of God. only if they have an offering
which is most holy. Speaking of this same gospel,
in Colossians in chapter two, Paul speaks of how we are we
were buried with Christ in baptism wherein also ye are risen with
him through the faith for the operation of God who have raised
him from the dead we're risen and you being dead in your sins
and the uncircumcision of your flesh having quickened together
with him having forgiven you all trespasses. that's why we have risen because
he was our most holy trespass offering and because we died
with him when he died because we were buried with him when
he was buried and because we rise again with him when he rose
again we have been forgiven of all trespasses God blotted out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross. He took this law. He took this law we see in Leviticus. He took all these judgments against
us. all these judgments for which
we needed all those offerings. He took the judgment of the law
of Moses, the law of God against us, the handwriting of ordinances
and he nailed it to the cross and he poured out the penalty
that that law demanded because of our sins. He poured it out
upon his own son who was offered up as a trespass offering in
the stead of his people. that they in Him should be made
most holy. And having spoiled principalities
and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over
them in it. He said, look what I have done. I, Almighty God, the Son of God,
the Saviour, have come into this world of sin for my people. I've
taken these people, these children of disobedience, I've taken these
born in sin, I've taken these dead in trespasses and sins and
I've taken them to the cross in myself and I have slain them
with me and I've slain their sin and I've slain their rebellion,
I've slain their old man, I've judged it all and I've taken
the judgment upon myself that they should not feel it. I've
drunk the cup of God's wrath for this one and that one and
everyone whom I love because my father gave them unto me.
I've drunk the cup of God's wrath, I have delivered them and I have
taken these who are so filthy, these who are at such a distance
and brought them with me. into heavenly places, brought
them with me into the holy place. Every male among the priests
shall eat thereof. It shall be eaten in the holy
place. It is most holy. Christ took
the trespass off of it. He took our corruption. He took, as it were, the fat
thereof of our flesh, the rump that covereth the innards. He
took the kidneys of our flesh, and the fat that is on them,
which is by the flanks, and the coal that is above the liver
with the kidneys. He took it all, all our flesh,
all our corruption, all our sin. He took it away and burnt it
upon the altar. as an offering made by fire unto
the Lord and he consumed it, he ate it in the holy place to signify his eating of our
flesh and his taking of it away that it should be seen no more
and that we in him should be made the righteousness of God.
Oh what an offering he is, what a trespass offering. He is most
holy, most holy. Most holy. This is what stands
out in this passage. The holiness of this offering
and the holiness of the place in which it is consumed is taken
into the holy place. The offering is most holy because
it brings a defiled and a sinful people into the very presence
of an almighty, righteous and holy God. It brings a people
who are far off nigh unto God. Nigh unto God. And only the blood
of the trespass offering, only the trespass offering, only an
offering most holy can bring such a people so nigh unto such
a holy God. We read of something of this
holiness earlier in the meeting, when we read from 2 Chronicles
and chapter 3 regarding the building of the temple. Solomon began
to build a house of the Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah.
and we read of his building of it the great porches, the great
height of the house the stones of which it was built, the wood
of which it was built and all the gold overlaid on every part
and the cherubims of gold those cherubims which elsewhere
we see above the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. Oh this
holy place, gold set it forth in a figure
in this world, a sight to be wondered at by the Israelites
of old, a wondrous building unlike any other, but a mere figure
of the presence of Almighty God. a mere figure of the purity and
the perfection and the holiness of God when you're where God
is you're in a most holy place when Moses came before that fiery
bush that flaming bush on the mount he had to take the shoes
off from his feet because he was on holy ground Christ was before him that bush
he saw burning was Christ and the bush was never consumed Christ
the vine of his people I am the vine and you are my branches
in Christ We shall never be consumed. The fires may rage, but they
will never touch us. Because he's taken away the trespass.
He's taken away the iniquity. He's taken away the cause of
God's wrath. And in him, we are holy. Holy. We are on most holy ground. He brings us nigh unto the Father. Holy. What makes this holy place
of the temple holy? What makes the holy of holies
within the tabernacle holy? Not the place itself. Not the building. Not the gold. All these are but emblems, but
a picture, but a signification of why, and a signification of
what is therein. It is not the gold that made
the temple holy, it is not the separation that made the holy
of holies holy. It is the God that dwelt within. She's the one who is there. Separated from a sinful people. By an outer court and an inner
court and a holy of holy, separated. Sinners had a great gulf. God
in the midst. But because of that blood, of
the trespass offering which is most holy, which was shed upon
the altar, which was sacrificed and poured out and taken into
the Holy of Holies and sprinkled upon the mercy seat, that people,
sinners, can enter in. Because Christ has entered into
the Holy of Holies, because he's entered into this most holy place,
his people can have boldness. to enter in with him, treading
on blood-sprinkled ground, unto a mercy seat, upon which his
blood is sprinkled. Into the holy of holies, into
the presence of God, unto the one who is holy. Yes, it's the one who is holy
that makes this place holy. Daniel 9, 24 speaks these things. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Oh what a summary of the gospel
in one verse. What Christ did when he sacrificed
himself in the place of sinners. He finished the transgression. He made an end of sins. He made
reconciliation for iniquity. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He sealed up the vision and prophecy. And he was anointed. as the most
holy the most holy oh how holy our god is and how holy is his
son who has the holy one of israel the holy one entered into the
darkness of this world and walked amongst sinners. He who knew
no sin, he who was without sin, he who was pure, he who was holy,
came and walked amongst sinners and touched sinners and loved
his own. He looked on compassion He looked
with compassion upon sinners. He was accused as eating and
drinking with sinners because he did. He came to save sinners
and he received sinners and he said, I come not to call the
righteous but sinners unto repentance. And yet who was this that ate
and drank with sinners? Who was this who touched lepers? Who was this who had such compassion
upon the guilty? Who was this who received that
woman found in adultery? Who the Pharisees were prepared
to stone to death and said, I forgive you. Who was this? He was and is the Holy One of
Israel. The Holy One. The Almighty. The One in whose presence Moses
stood and had to take the shoes off from his feet. The Holy One. In Isaiah chapter 6 we see something
of the awe and the wonder and the glory of such a Holy God. We can speak of it. But unless
God opens your heart, unless He shows you, unless He reveals
unto you something of His holiness, it's but words. But when you
see His holiness, when you have some glimpse of how divine God
is, how righteous He is, how separate from sinners He is,
how holy He is, oh, how corrupt you feel. how you see yourself
as nothing. In Isaiah chapter 6 we read,
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the
temple. Above it stood the seraphims,
each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, and
with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth
is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke, Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken
with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth,
and said, Lo, this have touched thy lips, and thine iniquity
is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then
said I, here am I, send me. Oh the sight that Isaiah had
and oh what he was told about that altar, about that sacrifice,
about that which touched his lips and took away his iniquity
and purged his sin. Oh the holiness of God that he
saw and how wretched he felt. Has God shown you something of
his holiness? Has he shown you something of
what you are? A man of unclean lips. A woman of unclean lips. Who
dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Can you, like Isaiah, say that
by faith, with the eyes of faith, you have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. The Lord is holy, holy, holy. He has a holy spirit, whom he
sends forth with his gospel. to speak of things most holy,
to speak of a most holy sacrifice, a most holy offering for trespasses,
to speak of a holy place, to speak of a holy one. He has a
holy mountain in which he sits, from whence he sends forth his
gospel into an unholy, a sinful world. This Lord, this God is
the Holy One of Israel and He has a Holy Name, a Holy Name. In Mark chapter 1 and verse 23
we read that there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean
spirit who cried out when he saw Christ saying, let us alone,
what have we to do with thee thou Jesus of Nazareth? Are thou
come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the
Holy One of God. This unclean spirit knew who
Christ was. The devil and his angels believe
and tremble. They know who Christ is. Do you? He knew who Christ was,
the Holy One of God. The Holy One. Christ, as Luke
1 verse 72 tells us, has a holy covenant. His offering up of
himself as a sacrifice for sins, a sacrifice most holy, is the
consequence, the fulfilment of a holy covenant. Before time
began, God covenanted the Father with the Son and the Spirit,
covenanted, they promised, they agreed to deliver a people. And the Son promised to be the
sacrifice. He promised to be the priest
who would offer up himself as a sacrifice, to take his people's
sins upon himself, to take the judgment and the wrath against
them, and to deliver them. He made a covenant, a testament,
and because of his death, the benefits, the inheritance,
is granted. unto those who are named in this
testament, this covenant. All for whom Christ died will
inherit in him the kingdom to come, everlasting righteousness,
eternal life, a glorious inheritance, they
will have Christ. glory to come because of that
holy covenant and because of that holy covenant christ sends
forth today holy prophets as he has done from the beginning
of time he sends forth preachers who come preaching the gospel
Preaching of the holy covenant. Preaching of the sacrifice most
holy. Preaching of the holiness of
God and the presence of God in the most holy place. And preaching
how Christ through his death can take those who are most unholy,
those who are most corrupt, sinners like you and I, and bring them
into the holy of holies. He sends forth holy prophets.
And when He brings that gospel unto sinners, and when by grace
He quickens them to believe on the Son of God, and to look at
that sacrifice most holy, He puts within their hearts faith,
a most holy faith, as Jude verse 20 tells us. When you believe, if God quickens
you from being dead in trespasses and sins into everlasting life,
if he quickens you unto life and puts faith in your heart
to believe, you will believe on holy things with a most holy
faith. Jesus says, but ye beloved, building
up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of
our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Most holy faith. What does this
holy faith look unto? Does it look unto a Saviour who
stands with His arms open wide pleading for sinners to receive
Him and accept Him if they but will? Does it look unto a Saviour
who has done His part, and now it's for you to do your part.
Does it look unto a Saviour who has taken the nine steps and
now you must take the tenth and come under Him? Well, how can
you when you're dead in trespasses and sins? The faith of man, so-called,
the presumption of man, may presume upon things so foolish. but that
way which seemeth right unto a man leadeth unto destruction
and the wise are delivered from it they're delivered from all
the foolishness and the folly of this world and its religion
and its lies and its corruption and its damnation and they are
brought into life and given faith most holy to look unto a sacrifice
slain for them by the grace of God who they never sought and
they never purchased and they never earned and they never deserved
but God in grace comes unto them by his holy prophets by his holy
ghosts with a holy covenant and a holy gospel and opens their
eyes and turns them around from running afar off and points them
unto that most holy sacrifice and says look and live look and
live look and live as the ninth chapter of Hebrews
sets forth Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances
of divine service and a worldly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle
made, the first wherein was the candlestick and the table and
the showbread, which is called the sanctuary. And after the
second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the holiest of
all. which had the golden censer,
and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein
was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded,
and the tables of the covenant, and over it the cherubims of
glory, shadowing the mercy seat, of which we cannot now speak
particularly. Now when these things were thus
ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing
the service of God. but into the second went the
high priest alone, once every year, not without blood, which
he offered for himself and for the errors of the people. The
Holy Ghost, this signifying that the way into the holiest of all
was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet
standing. which was a figure for the time
then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that
could not make him that did the service perfect as pertaining
to the conscience, which stood only in meats and drinks and
diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed upon them until the time
of reformation. But Christ, being come and high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean,
sanctifyeth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? And for this cause, He is the
mediator of the New Testament, the New Covenant, that Holy Covenant. He's the mediator of the New
Testament, that 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 of 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. But 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 pattern 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 the 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 blood of others, For then must he have often suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the
world have he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. And 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. Oh may the Lord be pleased to
grant unto us that faith, that most holy faith that has the
eyes open to look past this world's religion, to look past the figures
and the types seen in the law as given unto Moses, to look
past the outward sacrifices and to look through them by faith
unto Christ who was once offered to bear the sins of many and
who shall the second time without sin unto
salvation to those who wait and look for Him to return again. Are you looking for Him? Have
you seen Him once by faith? Have you seen Him slain in your
stead, a sacrifice most holy? In Him are you led into the holiest
of holies, into the presence of God, Have you been made to
be the righteousness of God in Him? Do you know the peace of
God, shed abroad in your heart? Do you know the forgiveness of
sins because of that blood sprinkled within? Are you looking unto Christ alone? Is He your Holy One? Amen.