It's a sad, sad fact, but a fact
nonetheless, that far too many preachers, even preachers who know the gospel, are like Nero, that insane emperor
of Rome. While the city of Rome was burning,
and multitudes were perishing, he stood on the roof of his palace
playing his fiddle. Many a preacher stands in the
pulpit Sunday after Sunday, week after week, playing his fiddle
while sinners perish for lack of knowledge. They trifle with
the souls of men whom they ought to struggle to see saved. They
spend their time and labor upon matters of no importance and
neglect the weighty, weighty business of preaching the gospel. I looked over that paragraph
a good bit this morning, early this morning, late last night,
and I thought Continually, of an occasion when I heard Lindsey
stand right here many years ago, when both of his children were
still in college, they'd been gone for a while, came home if
I remember correctly, Michael with his girlfriend and Michelle
with her boyfriend, I believe Bill was with them, I'm not positive,
I believe she was dating Bill at the time. And it was obvious his heart
was heavy, heavy. And he spoke to them with passion and pain. He spoke to me as he spoke to
them with passion and with pain, with great, great urgency. Because he's speaking to people
whom he dearly loved, concerned for their eternal welfare. It would have been a mockery
to have done anything else than do just what you did. He preached
free grace to them, preached God's salvation in Christ. It
would have been a mockery to have stood before them speaking
to them as if he might never see them again, and tried to
tell them how they ought to live and what they ought to do and
all that stuff. It would have been sheer mockery.
It would have been like playing your fiddle while the city perishes. As I stand before you this morning,
the realization of my awesome responsibility constrains me
to stick with vital issues of the gospel. Issues of life and
death. I watched you walk in this morning,
take your places, most of you have preached to for a long time. And as I watched you sit down,
I thought to myself, I wonder if this day God will have mercy
upon you. or if before this day's over
you'll wake up in hell. That compels me to deal with
vital things. There are a lot of things I don't
know. I don't pretend to know them. Most of them, honestly,
I'm old enough now I don't really care to know them. Just doesn't
matter. Just doesn't matter. But there
are certain self-evident truths that lay heavily upon my heart,
more heavily today than ever before. I know how that God Almighty
saves sinners. If ever you stand before God
accepted in Christ, if ever you have this thing called God's
salvation, if ever God Almighty is pleased to stretch out the
arm of His omnipotent mercy, and snatch you from the pits
of this fallen race, it will be by free grace alone. It'll
be because he's gracious. It'll be because he said, I will
love you freely. It'll be because he has, in Christ,
turned away his anger from you by punishing your sins in his
substitute, in your substitute, his sacrifice, and he receives
you on the basis of blood atonement. If ever you come to know him,
you will come to know him by faith alone. By faith alone. Not by doing something, not by
feeling something, not by experiencing something, not by working something
up, not by beating yourself down, but simply believing God's Son. I know, oh my God I know. that you will
soon stand before God in judgment. Now you can try to put that out
of your mind if you want to, but you're not going to put it
out of your mind. You will soon stand before God Almighty in
judgment. History tells us that. Your conscience
tells you that. This book tells you that. You're
going to meet God in judgment. How will it be for you then? How will it be for you when you
meet God Almighty face to face? And I know that what I have to
say to you in the next few minutes will have some lasting eternal
effect upon your soul. It will either be an instrument
of much good to you. or it will be an instrument of
great harm to you, one of the two. Both this preacher and you
who hear me will give an account to God Almighty for this hour. You would be wise then to hear
what I have to say. That which I preach to you is
that which I believe. The psalmist said, and the apostle
said, we believe, therefore we speak. I'm preaching to you what
I know to be true, what I know to be vital to your soul. I speak without fear of error.
I speak without fear or hesitation when I tell you that the death
of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is absolutely essential. The sacrifice for sin must be
slain. It is only through the blood
which Christ shed at Calvary, only through the blood poured
out for human sin and guilt, that God Almighty can grant to
sinners the remission of sins. And it is only through that blood
that I declare to you this day forgiveness in his name. The
hymn writer put it well. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Now with that in mind, let's
turn to Leviticus chapter 1. The Lord God called unto Moses
and spoke unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation. I'm telling you, if God speaks
to you this day, it will be God speaking to you out of his house
where his people worship him. He said, 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. Now look at verse 4. Here is a picture of faith in
Christ. 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." Now here's a man coming to God, a man with sin pressing
heavy upon his heart, a man guilty before the Lord. He comes to
God with an offering, but not just any offering. He comes to
God with an offering that God required in his law. And he puts
his hands on the head of the offering. He puts his hands on
the same head as that on which the Lord God laid his hands. And thereby he symbolically agrees
to everything represented in that act. Now this is what's
represented. God and the believing sinner
meet at the same place. Both are satisfied by the same
sacrifice. The blood which satisfies the
infinite justice of the thrice holy God, and that blood alone
satisfies the conscience of a believing sinner. God Almighty laid his
hand of justice on the head of his darling son, and said that's
enough. And we lay the hand of faith
on the head of God's darling son, and our conscience says
that's enough. These words, he shall lay his
hand upon the head Turn over to Psalm 88 for a moment, if
you will. Hold your hands here. They're far stronger in the original
than they appear in our English translation. They would be better
translated like this, He shall lean his hand upon the head. The very same words are used
here in Psalm 88, verse 7. The psalmist says, Thy wrath
lieth hard. upon me. Have you ever been there? With the wrath of God pushing
you down. The wrath of God leaning hard
on your soul. The wrath of God crushing you
as it were into hell. And thou hast afflicted me with
all thy ways. Oh I pray God will bring you
there. you'll never look up to him and cry for mercy until his
wrath lies hard on you until he afflicts you with all the
waves and billows of his justice then and only then will you cry
out to him for mercy so the psalmist says thy wrath lieth or leaneth
hard upon me the same things written back here in our text he shall lie hard with his hand
upon the head. He shall lean his hand upon the
head. The believing sinner leans his
soul upon the same sacrifice as God Almighty has leaned his
wrath. God poured on his son all the
waves and billows of judgment and wrath God poured on His Son
all the terror of His Holy Law. God sacrificed His Son under
the wave of judgment. And now we lay our hands on Him
whom the Father sacrificed. And we lay the weight of our
soul on Him. Oh, God help you now to do so. Once the sinner
had symbolically laid his sins upon the head of the sacrifice,
then he steps aside. Leaving his sins upon the appointed
victim, he has done what God required him to do. And now he
can go home, rejoice it. He can go his way, that man who
came, bringing his offering, his burnt offering, bringing
the young bullock before the Lord with the guilt of sin, bringing
his offering because he knows his sin must be punished, bringing
his offering because he knows that God requires a sacrifice. Now, having laid his sins upon
the head of the animal, he can go home. And say, I put my hand
upon the head of God's sacrifice, and it shall be accepted for
me for atonement. Blessed, blessed, blessed. Oh,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Come
now. Come on. Right where you are.
Come on. Lay your hands of faith upon
the head of God's sacrifice. Right now. Lean the weight of your soul
upon him whom God leaned the weight of his wrath upon. Trust
him whom the Father himself has trusted. And you'll go your way
this day rejoicing, saying, God shall accept him for atonement
for me. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. But there's more, much more that's
necessary for forgiveness. You see, faith will never put
away sin. Believing God will never cause
God to justify. Laying your hand upon the head
of the victim will never make atonement. The bullock must be
killed. Look at verse 5. 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. This text tells us here that
the man, the sinner, the one who brought the sacrifice, must
kill it before the Lord. Now this is a picture of the
execution of God's wrath. Let me remind you what I told
you a couple of weeks ago. It's proper and exactly according
to God's law that the man himself should kill the bullock. You
see, there are many executioners of divine wrath. In fact, every
creature shall at last be an executor of God's wrath. Every
event shall be at last an executor of God's wrath. As heaven, earth,
and hell combined and engaged together for the sacrifice of
God's Son to pour out God's wrath upon His Son. Listen to me now. In hell, whatever that horrid experience
is, which shall last forever, In hell, heaven, the throne of
God, the angels of God, the people of God, and earth, all the events
and experiences you've had in this world and hell shall combine
to execute the torment of God's wrath on you. Everything that
has been is or shall be everything that you've ever experienced,
seen or heard, everything you could have experienced, seen
or heard, shall be forever the worms of your conscience gnawing
at you, the fire of God's wrath burning in your soul. And so
the man, the sinner comes and executes the lamb or the bullock. And then the priest, only the
priest The priest appointed by God makes atonement. Because only the priest could
take the blood and make atonement for the soul. Only the priest
could dispense mercy on the basis of atonement made. Only the priest
could bestow pardon in the name of God. None but the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's high priest, dispenses mercy to sinners. Oh, but he
does. You won't get mercy coming down
here and having me lay my hand on your head. That won't do you
any good. You won't get any mercy going
to a confessional booth and having some man say to you, your sins
are absolved. You won't get any mercy coming
to an altar in a church and kneeling down saying, I believe in Jesus,
and some preacher say to you, well, now you go away now, everything's
all right. Oh, but if you can, where you
sit with your heart by faith, go away to Christ Jesus the Lord,
the High Priest of God, sitting yonder on the throne of heaven
on the basis of blood atonement, which he has made speaks peace
to your soul. He'll say your sins are forgiven
you, and he will cause you to experience in your soul the blessedness
of mercy through the precious blood which he shed. The animal
must be killed before the Lord. What an awesome sight. Try to get a picture. Solemn
and impressive in every detail. Instructive in everything. There's
the priest standing by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation
by the altar of the Lord. And he catches the warm blood of the life that has just been
sacrificed in a bowl. And he takes the blood and sprinkles
it on the altar. But he doesn't just sprinkle
it on the altar, he sprinkles it round about the altar, north,
south, east, and west, and every eyes on him. That sacrifice,
that life, that blood, that sprinkling. The man stands there as it were
naked before God. There's no covering for his sin.
He deserves the wrath that is symbolized in the death, the
slaughtered death of this animal. He deserves the death by the
law of God. He deserves to be cast off and
put to death from the presence of the Lord. He deserves death
for the punishment of his sin. He deserves death because holiness
demands it. Now as the blood on the door
in the house of Egypt represented and signified the redemption
of the firstborn within the house, represented the death of that
firstborn who was there because the blood was slain for him,
the sacrifice was slain for him, the blood was sprinkled for him.
So it is. The blood here on the altar represents
the death of that sinner for whom the sacrifice is made. And
thus we are told that the Lord of glory, the Son of God, our
most blessed Christ, poured out his soul unto death. Again, notice the blood. It's
poured out, sprinkled round about the altar. It's seen on all sides, north,
south, east, and west. Everyone in the camp, no matter
where he stood in the camp, wherever he was around that altar, everyone
could see the blood sprinkle around about the altar. Now,
hear the voice of the Savior's blood. That one who with his
own blood entered in once into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. The blood of Jesus that speaketh
better things than that of Abel, and the blood of Jesus that speaks
better things than that of this sacrifice. It cries out to sinners
everywhere, north, south, east, and west. Cries out to sinners
through all the world, cries out to sinners in every climbing
condition. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
appointed sacrifice for sin. He is the only sacrifice for
sin. He's the infinitely meritorious
effectual sacrifice for sin. And he's the sacrifice for sinners
everywhere. Would you come to God? Would
you find acceptance with God? Would you be saved by the free
grace of God? Then look to Christ. Trust the
Lamb of God. And let me show you four things
concerning the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ as it's represented
in this picture, and I'll be done. But I pray God will not
be done with you. First, understand this. The death
of our Lord Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for sin was an absolute necessity. Many things were important about
the Old Testament sacrifices. The Lord told exactly what kind
of animal must be slain, told exactly how it must be slain,
told exactly how it must be brought before him, how it must be dealt
with by the sacrificer and by the priest, but no atonement
was made. No atonement was made. No remission
was given. except the sacrifice be slain. Even so, the Lamb of God must
be slain to make atonement for sin. Jesus Christ, the Lord of
glory, could not put away our sins simply by declaring them
put away. He could not put away our sins
simply by making up for our sins in his obedience in life. He
could not put away our sins simply by persuading us to repent of
our sins. Sin can only be put away by the
sacrifice of God's Lamb, a sacrifice that will satisfy the wrath and
justice and holiness of God Himself. Our Lord Jesus tells us, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone. Have a little grain of corn. Some of you commented the garden
was plowed, Bobby plowed it before we had surgery. In just a few
weeks, we'll go out there and lay off the rows and drop a little
grain of corn in the ground. You say, what a waste. No, not at all. You can keep the
grain if you want to, but all you've got is a grain of corn.
Or you can drop it in the ground and watch the harvest. Our Lord
spoke of himself as that great accord. He said, unless I go
to the ground, unless I die, I abide alone. But if it die,
it brings forth much fruit. Atonement and remission of sins
are not in the life of the sacrifice, but in its death. Why was it
necessary that the Lord Jesus die at Calvary? Let me give you
just one reason. Just one reason. I've written
down a number of them. Just one reason. Because God
Almighty must punish sin. God's just. God's just. God's just. The righteous Lord
loves righteousness. God saves sinners because the
righteous Lord loves righteousness. And God punishes sinners. Because
the righteous Lord loves righteousness. God Almighty cannot and will
not forgive sin except on the grounds of justice satisfied. And Jesus Christ has done it.
He satisfied the justice of God. You remember the story of Daniel? He was despised by those around
him. And some of the folks watched
Daniel and they observed him praying to his God day after
day. And they hatched a plan to have
him killed. And they went to Darius the king
and they said, oh great king, butter him up good. We know you're
a great man. Make a law. Make a law and require
that any man who prays unto any God other than you will be thrown
into the lion's den. And old Daris says, well that
sounds pretty good. Boy, what honor. I said, now seal it with
your insignia, the law of the Medes and Persians that can't
be changed. And he did. Next day they went
out, saw Daniel praying, came back to the king and told the
king, Daniel, that fellow you love so much, that fellow you've
exalted so high, That fellow on whom you have placed such
great honor, Daniel, prays to another God. What are you going
to do? And the scripture tells us that Darius paced the floor
all night. He said Daniel's got to die,
but he loves Daniel. He saw the means by which he
could deliver Daniel and not break his own law and thus destroy
his own authority as king. But no means could be found.
And Daniel was cast into the den of lions. He suffered all
the wrath of the law, all of it. But the Lord saved him from
the lion's mouth and brought him out again. So it is with
our Lord Jesus Christ. The only way God can save a sinner
without violating his own law and justice is if he punishes
the sinner to the full satisfaction of the law. And he did it in
a substitute. Now he looks on his son and says,
deliver him from going down to the pit. I found a ransom. And that's why Christ died. Not only is the death of Christ
necessary, The death of our Lord Jesus Christ is gloriously, infinitely
effectual. Listen to this, Romans chapter
6 verse 7, you can look at it later. He that is dead is freed
from sin. He that is dead is freed from
sin, justified from sin. The Lord Jesus Christ had all
the sins of God's elect made to be his he was made to be sin and he willingly voluntarily
bear our sins in his own body on the tree and he took the sword of justice and shoved it as it were into
his own soul and swallowed it up. He laid down his life and yet
he was put to grief and put to death and made to be an offering
for sin by the terror of God's unmitigated wrath and justice. And when he Lifted up his eyes
to heaven and cried it is finished Said father into thy hands. I
commend my spirit gave up the ghost Justice was satisfied Right
then sin was put away How do you know? How do you know he's
dead? He was made to be sin is dead. I And now he's freed from sin. Let's see. Hang around. They take his body off the tree.
They wrap it in grave clothes. They anoint him. Put perfume
on him. And they stick him in the tomb.
And there he lays. But the scripture said thou will
not suffer thine holy one to seek corruption. Thou will not
leave my soul in the grave. And on the third day, he who
was made to be sin is justified in the spirit, freed from sin. Listen to me. Ron Wood, when
he rose from the dead, declaring our justification, we arose from
the dead in him, because we died in him. And now that we're dead,
we're freed from sin. The law has nothing more to say
to me. I'm dead to sin. Freed, freed,
freed, freed from all condemnation and all possibility of condemnation. Not only was the death of our
Lord Jesus absolutely, absolutely essential. infinitely, gloriously,
infinitely effectual. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ
gives us the best instruction about the weightiest matters
there are. These days people are forever
crying, you know, talk to us about practical things. That
means tell us How we ought to be, tell us what we ought to
do, tell us how good we ought to be and we'll sure enough measure
up. Talk to us about it. Now there's
dangers in that, no question about it, believers need instruction.
But the instruction given on these other matters must arise
from, and flow from, and be motivated by the gospel of God's free grace. Otherwise, it is nothing but
the preaching and promotion of self-righteousness. Let me give
you an example. I look at Mark Henson sitting
back there, and we start to do some studies. I'm going to preach
to y'all now for the next several weeks on families, husbands,
and fathers. And so I start to work over pretty
good what a husband ought to be, what a father ought to be,
how he ought to behave. And Mark's here for every service. And as I said, a husband ought
to be faithful. A husband ought to be loyal. Husband ought to provide for
his family. Husband ought to lead his family. Man ought to
be honest. Man ought to direct his children
in the worship of God. Man ought to discipline his family.
I see you. I'm beginning to do pretty good
now. At first you just cringe how miserably I failed, but now,
now, I tell you what, Ron needs to be here and listen to this.
That's exactly what happens. That's exactly what happens.
You who've been around, tell me, is it not true to experience?
You begin then to set yourselves up as pharisaical judges of others
and begin to measure others by yourself. But the preaching of
the cross, the preaching of the gospel, gives us instruction
in the weightiest matters and constantly humbles us with the
realization we haven't begun to measure up. Here in God's flame slate we see that
God Almighty is infinitely holy and inflexibly just, infinitely
gracious and delights in mercy. We see that sin is a horribly,
horribly evil thing. We see something of the character
of God's love. Behold yonder the Lamb of God
slain for sinners and understand that God so loved us. Oh, the love of God. And here we see how that God
can be just and the justifier for such as we are. We lay our
hands on the head of him upon whom God laid his wrath and say,
yeah, now God can forgive my sin. One more thing, the death of Christ as our great
substitute is the great source of inspiration and the motive
of obedience in the believer's life. I gave up a long time ago trying
to whip folks into line. I gave up a long time ago trying
to threaten, terrorize, or entice and bribe folks into doing things
they don't want to do. Let me ask you this. Did the Son of God die for me? Then I must surely consecrate
myself entirely to him. Did he die indeed for me? Then
his death must surely inspire me to seek his will, his honor,
and his glory in every aspect of my life. Did he die for me? Nothing has such power as this
to inspire my heart with love for him. We love him because he first
loved us. The only motive needed to constrain
the believer in any area of his life is just this. Christ died
for you. You're bought with a price. Surely
the knowledge of Christ's sacrifice for sin will inspire us to seek the salvation
of others. This must be my final word to
you, to you who believe, and to you who believe not. Come now, lay your hands of faith
upon the Redeemer's head and keep them there. My faith
now lays her hands upon my Savior's head. Here I now confess my sin
and trust the Lamb that bled. I look upon the Lamb and see
the burdens that He bears. when hanging on the cursed tree.
And I see my pardon there. Believing, I rejoice to see my
guilt removed. I bless the Lamb with cheerful
voice and sing redeeming love. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Through His infinite mercy, His
child and forever I am. Amen.