sitting there preparing to preach
the gospel to you. I try to look into your faces, try to imagine where you've come
from, what has brought you here, what you experienced yesterday
or this morning, what you're going to experience tomorrow. And I hardly know where to begin
preaching. I stand before you like Paul
before the Corinthians with fear and trembling. I hope I never get the place
I preach some other way. I fear for your souls. I tremble as I stand here in
the place of God and plead with you for Christ's
sake to be reconciled to God. How can I speak to eternity bound
men and women? What shall I say? Where shall
I begin? How can I reason with you? Let me tell you some things I
know we all have in common. We all have a common problem.
every one of us and frankly it's exactly the same with every one
of us the plague of sin runs through our souls and corrupts
us each of us from the inside out so that there is nothing
in us but sin and nothing comes from us but sin all even of our
righteousnesses are filthy rags in God's sight. Sin is our nature. Sin is what we are. Sin is what
we do. And we never can be or do otherwise
while we live in this body of flesh. Sin. Some of us are more or less respectable
than others in the eyes of men. Some are more or less successful
than others in the eyes of men. Some are more or less happy than
others in the eyes of men. But this one common thing we
have, we have a heart plague by the sin, sin. And that plague of our hearts
has incurred upon us the curse of God's holy law. because we
have transgressed his law in every point. There is no point
at which any of us can ever look at God's law and say there, I've
done that. Not one. Not one. Not one thing. The law says love
God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your
strength. And our hearts cry out, crucify
him. Sin is but man's attempt to grab
God by his throat and kill him. That's what sin is. It is the
enmity of our hearts against God. I know this too. Because we're all sinners, we
all have a common need. Some of us know it. How blessed
is the man who knows his need. His need. I know what you need. Oh, I pray that God has brought
you here today knowing that you need forgiveness. Forgiveness. Recently I unwittingly, unwantingly,
Offended a very dear friend and I I struggled I Struggled just
tossed and turned tossed and turned Because I wanted forgiveness. I want everything to be alright
That's nothing That's nothing That's nothing not nothing like having your heart exposed
and the enmity of your heart against God Almighty exposed
with a desperate need for God Almighty to say, forgiven. Forgiven. Forgiven. Forgiven. And I know this. There is but one common hope
for forgiveness. Our only hope, the only hope
any sinner has, the only hope we have of forgiveness is not
by picking up the phone and saying, Larry, what can I do to make
it right? That won't do it. That won't do it. But I can do
that with you, but not with God. Not with God. You can't make
it right. You can't make it right. You
can't make it right. Our only hope is that God Almighty
in His free sovereign grace might be pleased to grant forgiveness
freely. Without a cause. Without anything
in us. But there's something else I
know. I know it beyond the shadow of
a doubt. I believe I can say this with
honesty. Lindsay, I know it better than I know anything about you.
I know it. I know it because I've experienced
it. God does forgive sin. Did you hear me? God Almighty
is a great forgiver. He delights in mercy. He delights
in mercy. Imagine that. The holy Lord God
against whom we have sinned delights in mercy. Who is a God like unto
thee that delighteth in mercy, that pardons iniquity, that passes
by iniquity, transgression, and sin just because He delights
in mercy? Listen to this. If thou, O Lord,
if thou shouldest mark iniquities, God marks iniquity. Who shall stand? Not me, not you. But, don't you love that little
three letter word? But there is forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. So let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption,
and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. The Lord
God says, I, even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions
for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. Now this is the message of the
sin offering. found in Leviticus chapter 4. Turn, if you will, back to that
passage we read earlier. We won't read it all again, but
I want you to hold your Bibles open there. This is what the book says. If
we say we have no sin. Now, Preacher, you can talk about
you being sin if you want to, but I don't have any. I'm good. I've been delivered from my sin. So delivered from my sin that
I don't have any more in myself. I don't have any sin. You're lying to yourself. And the truth of God is not in
you. You've never met God. You don't
know yourself and you don't know God. If we confess our sin, Let me tell you something. Let
me tell you something. There's never, ever, ever, ever, ever
been a sinner on this earth who wasn't saved by God's free grace. Oh, but preacher, everybody's
sinners. Find me one. Just find me one. Find me one. Find me a sinner. There's never
been a sinner who wasn't saved by God's free grace. Christ came
to seek and to save sinners, didn't he? That's what he said.
Find me a sinner, I'll find you an object of God's grace. Find
me a sinner, I'll find you one who's been called by God's Spirit.
Find me a sinner, I'll find one to whom Christ has been revealed.
If we confess our sin, if ever God Almighty causes you to know
your sin so that you rip open your heart before God and acknowledge
what you are, this is what he says. He's faithful. Just to
forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness If
we say we haven't sinned we make him a liar His word is not in
us Yeah, but preacher what if After we've experienced forgiveness
We mess up again Isn't it amazing how Satan deceives
men's souls? First he convinces you that you
don't need Christ, you're not that bad, you don't really sin.
And then when you begin to have some awareness of your sin, you're
inclined, maybe I will come to God, maybe I will trust Christ.
And the serpent whispers in your ears, it ain't gonna last. You
know you can't hold on. You know you're going to sin.
You'll sin before you get done praying. You know that. What
if that happens? My little children, if any man
sin, we still have an advocate with
the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. And
he is. Isn't that a good word? Not he
was. Not he will be. He is. He is. He is. With infinite perpetuity,
he is the propitiation for our sins. Now I want to show you
four things in Leviticus chapter four. I can't begin to expand
the passage to you, but I'll I'll just pick up the highlights
and give you the message of it. The message of the chapter is
Christ our sin offering. Look at verse 1. The Lord spoke
to Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying,
If a soul shall sin through ignorance. Need to mark that. This whole
chapter is talking about ignorance. Sins of ignorance. Sin 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, then let him bring
for his sin. And the word used throughout
this chapter for sin is that word which means coming short
of, missing the mark, just missing. He shall bring for his sin, which
he has sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord
for a sin offering. If you remember four words, you'll
get the outline, and I hope the message. Sin, sacrifice, symbolism, and shame. Those four things. First, the
sin. I want you to see that the sin
offering described in this chapter is specifically called a sin
offering, not a trespass offering. Now this is a distinction that's
commonly missed by the commentators. In fact, I only saw one commentator
that really dealt with it to any degree. But it ought not
be missed. The sin offering is discussed
in chapter 4 beginning at verse 1 going through chapter 5 and
verse 13. You pick up in verse 14 of chapter
5 and go through the 7th verse of chapter 6 and everywhere there
the scripture speaks of a trespass offering. And the offerings are
different as are the things described in the offerings. And this distinction
that's made here is made for a reason. You see, you and I,
in our ever short-sighted tendency of flesh, judge the character
of a person by what we see the person doing. That's the best
we can do. That's the best we can do. We
determine what a man is by observing what we see or hear him do. God
judges the character of a person, not by what he does, but rather
by what he sees that the person is. God does not judge a man's
character on the basis of his action, but rather he judges
his action on the basis of his character. God does not deal
with men so much because of their outward acts as because of what's
inside them. The trespasses we commit are
but the fruit of what we are. And the problem, the sin we have
to deal with is not so much the thing done as what we are. Sin is our nature. Sin is what
we are. Trespasses are deeds of evil. The fruits of a corrupt nature.
Now religion. Brother Mark came in here this
morning. He said he felt like Paul at Athens. He said you folks
are religious around here. Churches everywhere. Everywhere.
Well, religion is real popular. Religion is real successful.
Religion can get men to give lots of money, pay lots of sacrifices,
do lots of things, make lots of commitments, engage in lots
of activities. Because religion deals with the
fruits and makes you feel good about what you are. If I can
get a fellow to quit beating his wife, if I can get a fellow
to quit going to the porno shops, if I can get a fellow to quit
cussing so much, if I can get a fellow to give up his bottle
or quit smoking pot, or if I can get a fellow to quit cussing
so much and start living respectably, boy, look at him. Now look at me. I remember what
I was, but I ain't that no more. You'll never hear a child of
God use such language. Never. Because what I am is exactly
what I've always been. And you too. You too. Religion deals with the fruits
of sin, our trespasses. God deals with both. He deals
with what we are and with what we do. He deals with what we
are first. He convinces us of what we are
And then it corrects what we do. It does things just exactly
backwards. You see, religion has the idea
that sin is our chonder. And we all think this. This is
our perverse nature. Somehow we got locked in our
heads the idea that if we could just keep ourselves and our children
isolated and not exposed to all the evil that's out there. Oh,
I don't want that daughter of mine to see that. I don't want
her to touch that. I don't want her to feel that. I don't want
to be around that. I don't want to corrupt her.
Did you hear what you said? Did you hear what you said? The
corruption's inside. The corruption's not out there.
It's the fact that we live out there is what makes this thing
corrupt. The problem with things in this world is not the world
God made, but what we've done with it. I don't mean what they've
done with it, I mean what we've done with it. Sin's what we are. And you're not going to hide
anybody from that. We do a good job at hiding ourselves from
it until God awakens us, but the fact is sin's what we are.
So as we read these 35 verses of Leviticus 4, read them carefully. You'll find there is not one
mention made of any particular act of sin. I found that surprising. I read the whole chapter several
times this week. And I, wait a minute. This is
talking about sin offering, David. And it doesn't say a thing about
television, tobacco, or booze. It doesn't say a thing about
it. It doesn't say one thing about what you wear, where you
go, what you eat. But it's talking about sin offering.
It doesn't even mention adultery, fornication, homosexuality or
abortion. And it's talking about sin offering.
Now that doesn't make light of those things. What I'm saying
is the issue is not what a man does, but what he is. And what he is is enmity against
God. Enmity against God. If you read
about the priest, the congregation, the ruler, the common people,
they're all standing before God, confessing themselves sinners,
and they don't talk about stealing a watermelon. They don't talk
about telling a lie. They don't talk about cheating
on a test. They don't talk about stealing something. When you
read about the trespass offering, specific acts are dealt with.
But the persons aren't even mentioned. It doesn't talk about a man.
It doesn't talk about a ruler. It doesn't talk about a priest.
It doesn't talk about a common person. It doesn't talk about
rich man or poor man. It just says if a soul, if a
soul, if a soul, if a soul, if a soul. Because that's talking
about what men do. Now here, the Word of God describes
for us in picture, beautifully, the experience of forgiveness.
There are five things distinct things involved in the experience
of forgiveness. Now, I stress the experience
of forgiveness because the accomplishment of forgiveness, the basis of
forgiveness, the doing of forgiveness, and the experience of it with
regard to God Almighty and His grace are two totally different
things. Redemption was the accomplishment
of our forgiveness. When the Lord God looked on His
Son as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, as that
surety who died in the stead of God's elect, even from eternity,
in the mind of God from eternity, we were accepted and forgiven.
But the experience of it is another story. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He shed His blood at Calvary, obtained for us eternal redemption. But we didn't get it then. Our
Lord Jesus, when He died for us at Calvary, obtained and accomplished
justification completely. But we didn't get in on it then.
We didn't receive it then. We receive, we experience forgiveness
and justification and peace and pardon from God as we believe
the gospel. And these five things are necessary
to it. Number one, sin must be known. Did you notice that we
read these 35 verses? How often the scripture says
if his sin be known, or if it come to his knowledge, then he
brings a sacrifice. Because until this need arises,
no sacrifice can be brought. You've got to know yourself a
sinner. You got to know yourself. You'll never seek God's mercy
till you know yourself a sinner. You'll never trust Christ till
you know yourself a sinner. You'll never bring God's sacrifice
till you know yourself a sinner. You see, the thing that keeps
you from God is not your sin. Sin never kept anybody from Christ.
Sin never kept anybody from Him. Oh, no, no, no, no. It's your
imaginary goodness that keeps you from Him. It's your righteousness
that keeps you from Him. A naked man reaches out for some
clothes. One who's hungry reaches out for some bread. One who's
thirsty reaches out for some water. But as long as you think
you've got something on your back, as long as you think you've
got water for your soul, as long as you think you've got bread
to give you life, you'll never reach out for Christ. And as
long as you think you're good, you'll never trust him. Well,
how's a man sin made known to him? Only by God the Holy Spirit. I can't do it. I gave up trying to convince
anybody of their sin a long time ago. Rex, it can't be done. It can't be done. Now, I can
convince folks of their trespasses. That doesn't take much. That
doesn't take much. Just what the law says is what
you did, you trespassed. Well, that doesn't make me a
sinner. You're right, it doesn't. You're exactly right, it doesn't.
The fact that you did it declares you a sinner. But I can't convince
you of that. And I've done some bad things,
but I'm not bad at heart. No, you're bad at heart. That's
the problem. The corruption's inside you. The corruption's
what you are. That's the problem. Well, how
can a man ever be made to know his sin? Only when God Almighty, in condescending, wondrous grace,
causes you to look at yourself in the mirror of His holy law. And you see that God doesn't
just require good behavior. God requires perfection in thought,
in word, in deed, in character, in conduct, without a flaw! He said, Be ye holy, holy, holy. When He, the Spirit of Truth,
has come, oh, if God the Holy Spirit ever comes to you, if
He ever visits you in His almighty grace, when He, the Spirit of
Truth, has come, He will convince you of sin. Convince you of sin
because you believe not the Son of God. Because you have yourself
turned thumbs down on the Son of God. You have yourself said,
He's not fit to be believed. Crucify Him. I'll be my own Lord. And then sin must be confessed.
The sinner comes and lays his hand upon the bullock. He lays his hand upon the lamb. He lays his hand upon the kid. He lays his hand upon the head
of the sacrifice and thereby acknowledges the justice of God
in punishing his sin, confessing himself to be a sinner. This
is what the book says. He that covers his sin shall
not prosper. And man, we're good at it, aren't
we? We've been practicing it for 6,000 years. Our father Adam
taught us how in the beginning. He sinned against God. We're
naked. Let's go get some leaves. And
we will cover our nakedness and hide from God. Can you imagine this now? We're
going to hide from God. behind the bush. You remember the cartoons, the
old fog horn he'd sneak up on somebody, he'd try to hide behind
the little old tree limb? That's man trying to hide from
God. You can't see this 400 pound chicken back here behind this
tree limb. Trying to hide from God. Trying to hide from God.
With your self-righteous works. And that's what we're going to
do. We're going to cover our sins. I'll expose yours. But I'm going
to cover mine. I'm going to let you see me. No sir. And I sure ain't going
to let God see me. Until with the omnipotent hand
of grace. God reaches down from heaven.
and strips off every shred of the fig leaf. And now, he's standing naked before God. He that covers
his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth his sin and
forsaketh them shall have mercy. He'll be forgiven. And thirdly,
sin must be judged. Not only does the man lay his
hand on the sacrifice, but as soon as he lays his hand
on the sacrifice, the sacrifice is slaughtered. Slit his throat. And thereby
the sinner says, here I stand, guilty not only of my sin, But
I have with my heart enmity against God Almighty, demanding that
I have my way, that I have my rights, that I serve myself.
I have all my life long crucified the Lord of glory, and these
hands drip with the blood of the Son of God. I would, if I
could, kill Him. My God. That's what enmity against God
is. It's man taking his little old club, trying to beat God
to death. That's what it is. Sin is man's heart! Hatred of God! And that's the
nature of man. The problem with this society
we live in, the problem with this world, can't be solved. It can't be cured. By politics,
it can't be cured. By shutting down all the porno
shops, it can't be cured. By stopping the sale of all the
alcohol, it can't be cured. By closing down the abortion
clinics, it cannot! It cannot be cured! By loving
off the branches! God Almighty got to deal with
the root. See it. And the man laying his hand on
the sacrifice, slitting his throat, says, bless God. sin is judged. He will reprove the world of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment because Christ has
died. It's all over. God's satisfied. Blessed be God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God. When He had by Himself poured
out His life's blood unto death for the sins of His people imputed
to Him, He put away our sins forever. And fourthly, sin judged
is sin atoned. The priest goes in and sprinkles
the blood before the veil. And the Scripture says, Merle
the priest shall make atonement for him. Make atonement for who? The priest. Who's the priest? Not you. The Lord Jesus Christ
shall make atonement for who? The man whose hands are on that
sacrifice. The man who brought the sacrifice. The man for whom
the sacrifice was slain. Now folks can talk about Christ
dying for everybody and make his death to be meaningless,
make his death to be of non-effect. Folks, anybody who says Christ
died for everybody says Christ didn't do anything. Anybody who
says Christ died for everybody says his blood's useless. Anybody
who says Christ died for everybody says his sacrifice is meaningless.
I mean, it's not just a point of doctrine, David, it's a denial
of the gospel. What are we saying? The man for whom the sacrifice
was slain had atonement made specifically for him. And Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, made atonement specifically for his
people. Well, who are they? Well, if you were God, and you're
not, You can say these are their names. I have written them right here
in this book. But you're not God. And I'm not. Well, who are they? Every sinner
in all the world, even you, even me, who comes to God by faith
in his sacrifice, and lays his hands, leans the weight of his
soul upon God's darling son. Confessing his sin and confessing,
I trust him. He shall make atonement for him.
Now listen to this. I'll quit. I'll come back to
the rest of it another day. Listen to this. He shall make atonement
for him. And his sins, did you hear it? Shall. Shall. Shall. Oh what a word. Shall be forgiven him. That's forgiveness declared. And forgiveness assured. Assured forgiveness. Here's the
center. Here's the center. Leaning the weight of my soul upon the Lamb of God, naked before God. Thank God you don't see what
I am. But I dare not hide it from Him.
Leaning the weight of my soul on Him, Oh, glory assured. Yes, sir. Assured by the word
of God Almighty. My sins are forgiven. Forgiven. Freely. Fully. Forever. past, present, and future? Forgiven. But what if forgiven? But what if forgiven? What about
forgiven? Forgiven. Forgiven. Forgiven. God himself says it. And that's
it. That's it. Oh sinner, hear me
now. Hear me. Hear me. There is forgiveness
with God. And there's nothing sweeter in
all the world than forgiveness experienced in your soul. Come
then to Christ. Come on, right where you are.
Don't move a muscle, don't say a word, just come to Him. I don't
feel my sin, like you've been talking, I just don't feel my
sin. Well come to Him, maybe He'll make you feel Him. I can't call God my father, then
come to him as fatherless. He says he's the father of the
fatherless. But I'm dead. Come to him, he's life. Come
to Christ. Throw off your fig leaves. Come on. Come on, quit trying
to pretend you're good with God. Quit trying to pretend you're
righteous before God. Throw off your fig leaves and
stand naked in your sin, in the corruption of what you are before
God Almighty with your hand on the sacrifice. Say, God be merciful
to me, the sinner. And I'm going to make you a promise.
I'm going to make you a promise. You'll walk out of this place
justified today. Amen.