The Sprinkling of the Blood of the Sacrifice
(No. 1780)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MAY 11, 1884,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the
blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary.
And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar
of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the
congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom
of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation." Leviticus 4:6, 7.
I HAVE preached, before, to you upon the types of our Lord's
Sacrifice–the subject is as large as it is important. We began with
the laying of the hands upon the offering and we went on to the
all-important matter of the slaying of the victim [See Sermon Nos. 1771
and 1772.] Now we come to the use which was made of the blood of the
sacrifice after it had been slain. In thinking upon this subject, I
seem to hear a voice saying to me, "Put off your shoes from off your
feet, for the place whereon you stand is holy ground." This is the
central mystery of our religion. It becomes us to be reverent in heart
as we approach it. The Doctrine of Substitution is the heart of the
whole matter–our whole heart needs to be awakened while we speak upon
it. The Son of God, Himself, assuming human nature and, in that Nature
bleeding and dying in our place, is the Revelation of Revelation, the
wonder of wonders, the Glory of the glorious God! Solemnity and awe may
well fill us while we meditate on such a theme.
Oh, that the Spirit of God may rest upon us now! May His melting power
be over this vast assembly! May the speaker feel it and may the hearers
experience it, so that we may, with one consent, in spirit and in
truth, look to Him who, by the Eternal Spirit, offered up Himself
without spot unto God! The sacrifices under the Law of God were varied
according to the uppermost thoughts in the offerers' minds and their
peculiar conditions before God. A burnt offering, a peace offering, or
a sin offering might be brought, according as men wished to give unto
the Lord, to have fellowship with Him, or to confess their sin to Him.
There was a sacrifice specially arranged for the anointed priest,
another for all the congregation, another for a ruler and yet another
for one of the common people–in truth the typical sacrifices all
pointed to the one Great Sacrifice, but they indicated various marks
and characteristics of the undivided Lamb of God.
The victims varied from a bullock or a lamb down to a pair of turtle
doves or two young pigeons. We take different views of the Sacrifice of
Christ according to our capacity to see it, but all these views may be
quite in accordance the Truth of God, for the Atonement is many-sided
and operates in many directions. The Levitical types represent the
different views which believing minds take of our Lord Jesus Christ.
They set forth but one Christ, but that one Christ from various
standpoints. The mercy is that the Sacrifice of our Lord Jesus is
suitable to you and equally suitable to me–and to all that come to Him
by faith. The rich, the poor, the brave, the timid, the amiable and the
immoral all find, in Jesus, that which fits their individual case. You
may be a person of great mind and profound thought, but you shall find,
in Jesus, all that your high intelligence can desire! I may be a person
of slender education and of narrow powers of thought, but I shall find
the Lord Jesus humbling Himself to my limited capacity.
The manna is said, by the rabbis, to have pleased every man's taste
and, even so, the Christ of God is every man's Christ, so that no man
who comes to Him shall be disappointed, but each shall find His needs
supplied. Each man shall find his case perfectly met by the Savior's
Atonement, as much so as if Jesus were prepared for that man, only–as
if that man were the only sinner under Heaven–or Jesus a Redeemer sent
to him, alone, of all the family of man! Oh, the depth of the wisdom
and of the Grace of God in the Person and work of our Lord Jesus
Christ! Note particularly, with great interest, that there were
sacrifices provided for sins of ignorance under the Law–therefore we
safely conclude that a sin of ignorance is a sin. There is not that
intensity of evil in a sin of ignorance which is to be seen in willful,
deliberate transgression, but still, there is sin in it–for no law can
allow ignorance to be an excuse for trespass since it is the duty of
the subject to know the law. Even if I do that which is wrong with a
sincere wish to do right, still, my wrong act has a measure of sin in
it. No amount of sincerity can turn injustice into righteousness, or
transform falsehood into truth.
You can illustrate this by the stern facts of Nature. Certain inventors
have thought that they could fly and they have, in perfectly honest
faith, leaped from a lofty crag. But their honest belief has not saved
them from the result of violating the law of gravity–they have fallen
to the ground–and have been dashed in pieces just as surely and
terribly as if they had felt no real belief in their powers of flight.
If a man partakes of a deadly poison believing it to be a health-giving
medicine, his sincerity will not hinder the natural course of
Nature–he will die in his error. It is precisely so in the moral and
spiritual world. Sins committed in ignorance must be, still, sins in
the sight of the Lord, or else no expiation would have been provided
for them. Without shedding of blood, there is no remission even for
sins of ignorance!
Paul persecuted the saints ignorantly, but he thereby incurred sins
which required to be washed away–so Ananias told him and so he
felt–for he called himself the chief of sinners because he persecuted
the Church of God. When the people sinned through ignorance and the
thing was hid from the eyes of the assembly, they were to bring an
offering as soon as the sin was known. If you have transgressed
ignorantly, my Brothers and Sisters, the time may come when you will
find out that you were sinning–and it will then rejoice your heart to
find that the Lord Jesus has made Atonement for your sins before you
knew them to be sins! I am greatly rejoiced to think there should be
such a Sacrifice provided, since it may yet turn out that the larger
number of our sins are sins of which we have not been aware because our
heart has prevented our discovering our error. You may have sinned and
have no conscience of that sin at this present time– yes, and you may
never have a conscience of that particular offense, in this world–yet
it will be sin all the same.
Many good men have lived in an evil habit and remained in it unto
death–and yet have not known it to be evil. Now, if the precious blood
of Jesus only put away the sin which we perceived in detail, its
efficacy would be limited by the enlightenment of our conscience and,
therefore, some grievous sin might be overlooked and prove our ruin.
But inasmuch as this blood puts away all sins, it removes those which
we do not discover as well as those over which we mourn. "Cleanse You
me from secret faults" is a prayer to which the Expiation of Christ is
a full answer. The Atonement acts according to God's sight of sin and
not according to our sight of it, for we only see it in part, but God
sees it all and blots it all out.
When we discover our iniquity, it is ours to weep over it with true and
deep repentance. But if there are some sins which, in detail, we have
not discerned and, consequently, have not, by a specific act of
repentance, confessed them separately, yet, for all that, the Lord puts
away our sin, for it is written, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanses us from all sin." Those unknown sufferings of Christ which the
Greek Liturgy mentions so wisely, have put away from us those unknown
sins which we cannot confess in detail because we have not yet
perceived them. Blessed be God for a Sacrifice which cleanses away,
forever, not only our glaring faults, but those offenses which the most
minute self-examination has not yet uncovered!
After the blood had been spilt by the killing of the sacrifice and thus
atonement had been made, three several acts were to be performed by the
priest–we have them described in our text–and if you will kindly
look, you will see that very much the same words follow in the 17th and
18th verses, as, also, in the 25th verse and the 34th verse, where,
with somewhat less detail, much the same act is set forth. "And the
priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times
before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall
put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense
before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and
shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of
the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the
congregation."
All this is symbolic of the work of the Lord Jesus and the manifold
effects of His blood. There were three things– first, "the priest
shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it seven times before
the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary." This represents the
atoning sacrifice in its reference to God. Next, "The priest shall put
some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before
the Lord." This sets forth the influence upon the offering of
intercessory prayer. Thirdly, we read, "He shall pour all (the rest) of
the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offer-
ing." This displays the influence of the blood of Christ on all our
service for the Lord. Oh, for the Spirit's power to us to show the
things of Christ!
I. We begin with THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST IN ITS RELATION TO THE LORD
GOD OF ISRAEL.
In the type before us the prominent thing before God is the blood of
atonement. No mention is made of a meat offering, or a drink offering,
or even of sweet spices upon the golden altar–the one conspicuous
object is blood. This was sprinkled before the Lord before the veil of
the Most Holy place. I am well aware that some persons cry out, "The
preacher continually talks about blood and, this morning, from the
first hymn to the last, he has brought before us constant allusions to
blood. We are horrified by it!" I wish you to be horrified for, indeed,
sin is a thing to shudder at–and the death of Jesus is not a matter to
be treated lightly! It was God's intent to awaken in man a great
disgust of sin by making him see that it could only be put away by
suffering and death.
In the Tabernacle in the wilderness, almost everything was sanctified
by blood. The purple drops fell, even, on the Book and all the people.
The blood was to be seen everywhere. As soon as you entered the outer
court you saw the great bronze altar–and at the base of it bowls of
blood were constantly being poured out! When you passed the first veil
and entered the Holy Place, if you saw a priest, he was spattered from
head to foot with blood–his snow-white robes bringing the crimson
spots most vividly before your eyes. If you looked around, you saw the
horns of the golden altar of incense smeared with blood–and the
gorgeous veil which hid the innermost sanctuary was bedewed with a
frequent sprinkling of the same! The holy tent was by no means a place
for sentimentalists–its emblematic teachings dealt with terrible
realities in a boldly impressive manner–its ritual was not constructed
to gratify the taste, but to impress the mind!
It was not a place for dainty gentlemen, but for broken-hearted
sinners. Everywhere, the ignorant eye would see something to
displease–but the troubled conscience would read lessons of peace and
pardon! Oh, that my words would cause triflers with sin to be shocked
at the abominable thing! I would have them filled with horror of that
detestable thing which cannot be put away except by that which is
infinitely more calculated to shock the instructed mind than rivers of
the blood of bulls and of goats–I mean the sacrifice of God's own
Son–whose soul was made an offering for sin!
The blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled before the veil seven times,
signifying this–first, that the Atonement made by the blood of Jesus
is perfect in its reference to God. All through the Scriptures, as you
well know, seven is the number of perfection, and in this place it is
doubtless used with that intent. The seven times is the same as once
and for all–it conveys the same meaning as when we read, "For Christ
also has once suffered for sins." And again, "We are sanctified through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." It is a complete act.
In this text we understand that the Lord Jesus offered unto the justice
of God an absolutely complete and satisfactory Atonement by His
vicarious suffering and death for guilty men. There is no need of
further offering for sin. "It is finished." He has purged our sins! In
old times–before the coming of our Lord–the veil hung darkly between
the place of God's glorious Presence and His worshipping people. It was
only lifted for a moment, once a year, and then that only one of all
living men might enter into the Holy of Holies for a brief time–the
way into the Holiest not yet being made manifest. But still, the blood
was sprinkled towards the place where the Glory of God was pleased to
dwell indicating that access to Him could only be by the way of the
blood.
Albeit that modern thought will contradict me, I shall not cease to
assert perpetually that the greatest result of the death of the Lord
Jesus was Godward. Not only does He reconcile us unto God by His death
and turn our enmity into love, but He has borne the chastisement of our
peace, and thus magnified the Law and made it honorable. God, the Judge
of All, is enabled without the violation of His justice to pass by
transgression, iniquity and sin. The blood of the sin offering was
sprinkled before the Lord because the sin was before the Lord. David
says–"Against You, You only, have I sinned," and the prodigal cries,
"I have sinned against Heaven and before you." The Sacrifice of Christ
is so mainly a Propitiation before God, so thoroughly a vindication of
Divine Righteousness, that this one view of the Atonement is sufficient
for any man, even if he obtains no other!
But let him beware of trusting to a faith which does not look to the
great Propitiation! This is the soul-saving view–the idea which
pacifies conscience and wins the heart! We believe in Jesus as the
Propitiation for sin. The lights which stream from the Cross are very
varied, but as all the colored rays are found in the white light of
day, so all the varied teachings of Calvary meet in the fact that Jesus
suffered for sin–the Just for the unjust! Do not your hearts feel glad
to think that the Lord Jesus Christ has offered a perfect Atonement,
covering all, removing every obstacle to the mercy of
God–making a clear way for the Lord most justly to justify the guilty?
No man need bring anything more, or anything of his own with which to
turn away the anger of God–he may come just as he is–guilty and
defiled, and plead this precious blood which has made effectual
Atonement for him. O my Soul, endorse the doctrine! Feel the sweet
experiences that flow from it and stand, now, in the Presence of God
without fear–for seven times has the blood spoken for you unto God!
Note next, that not only is the Atonement, itself, perfect, but that
the presentation of that Atonement is perfect, too. The sevenfold
sprinkling was typical of Christ, as a Priest, presenting Himself unto
the Father as a Sacrifice for sin. This has been fully done. Jesus has,
in due order, carried the Propitiation into the sanctuary and appeared
in the Presence of God on our behalf. Here are the Apostle's own words,
"by His own blood He entered in once into the Holy Place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us." It is not our presenting of the
blood, but Christ's presenting of the blood which has made the
Atonement–even as it is not our sight of the blood, but Jehovah's
sight of it which causes us to escape–as it was written concerning the
Passover, "When I see the blood, I will pass over you." Jesus at this
moment sets His Atonement within view of a righteous God and,
therefore, the Judge of all the earth is able to look on the guilty
with eyes of mercy! Let us rest perfectly satisfied that all we require
to bring us near to God has been done for us–and we may now come
boldly unto the Throne of the heavenly Grace–
"No longer far from God, but now,
By precious blood made nigh,
Accepted in the Well-Beloved
Near to His heart we lie."
We now pass on to a few thoughts about ourselves in relation to this
type. This sevenfold sprinkling of the blood upon the veil meant that
the way of our access to God is only by virtue of the precious blood of
Christ. Do you ever feel a veil hanging between you and God? In very
truth, there is none, for Jesus has taken it away through His flesh. In
the day when His blessed body was offered up, the veil of the Temple
was torn in two from the top to the bottom, showing that there is now
nothing to divide the Believer from his God. But still, if you think
there is such a separating veil; if you feel as if the Lord had hidden
Himself; if you are so despondent that you are afraid you will never
draw near to the Mercy Seat, then sprinkle the blood towards the Throne
of Grace–cast it on the very veil which appears to conceal your God
from you! Let your heart go towards God, even if you cannot reach Him,
and let this blood go before you, for rest assured nothing can dissolve
obstacles and furnish you with an open access to God except the blood
of Jesus Christ the Son of
God!
Rest assured that you are already come unto God if boldly, yes, even if
timidly with trembling finger, you do but sprinkle the blood in the
direction which your faith longs to take! If you cannot present the
Atonement of Christ, yourself, by the firm hand of an undaunted
faith–remember, Christ's own hand has presented the Propitiation long
before–and, therefore, the work will not fail because of your
feebleness! O that by a simple confidence in the Lord, your Redeemer,
you may, this day, by His Grace, imitate the example of the priest
under the Law, for Jesus makes you a priest by the Gospel! You may now
look towards the Lord and plead that all-prevailing blood which makes
us near, who were once afar off! I have often admired that blessed
Gospel precept, "Look unto Me, and be you saved, all the ends of the
earth," for suppose I cannot see, yet if I look, I have the promise of
being saved! If there should be a mist and a cloud between me and the
bronze serpent, yet if I look that way I shall be healed! If I cannot
clearly discern all the glories of my Lord and Savior, yet if I look
with the glance of trust, blessed be God, He saves me!
Turn, then, your half-opened eyes which only at one corner admit light!
Turn them, I say, Godward and Christ-ward–and know that by reason of
the atoning blood you are saved! The blood-spattered way is the only
one which a sinner's feet can traverse if he would come to God! It is
easy, plain and open. See, the priest had the Gospel at his
finger-tips–at every motion of his hand, he preached it, and the
effect of such preaching remained wherever the drops found a resting
place!
I further think that the blood was sprinkled on the veil seven times to
show that a deliberate contemplation of the death of Christ is greatly
for our benefit. Whatever else you treat lightly, let the Sacrifice of
Calvary be seriously considered again and again–even unto seven times
let it be meditated on! Read the story of our Lord's death in the four
Evangelists and ponder every detail till you are familiar with His
griefs. I would have you know the story by heart, for nothing will do
your heart so much good! Read over the 22nd Psalm and the 53rd of
Isaiah every day if you are in any kind of trouble of
heart about sin–and pray to God for enlightenment that you may see the
exceeding greatness of His Grace to us in Christ Jesus! Oh, that you
may with all your heart believe in the Lamb of God! Angels desire to
look into these things, therefore, I pray you, do not neglect so great
a salvation! Think lovingly of the atoning Sacrifice. Earnestly
consider it a second time, do it a third time, do it a fourth time, do
it a fifth time, do it a sixth time, do it a seventh time!
Remember, too, that this sets out how great our guilt has been, since
the blood must be sprinkled seven times before the work of Atonement is
fully seen by you. Our guilt has a sevenfold blackness about it and
there must be a sevenfold cleansing. If you plead the blood of Jesus
once and you do not obtain peace thereby, plead it again! And if the
burden still lies upon your heart, still go on pleading with the Lord
the one prevailing argument that Jesus bled! If for the present you do
not gain peace through the blood of the Cross, do not conclude that
your sin is too great for pardon, for that is not the fact since, "all
manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." A fuller
acquaintance with Him who has made peace by His blood will calm the
tempest of your mind. Christ is a great Savior for great sinners and
His precious blood can remove the blackest spots of iniquity. See it
sprinkled seven times for a seven-times polluted sinner and rest your
soul on Him though seven devils should have entered into you! God, who
bids us forgive unto 70 times seven, sets no limit to His own
forgiveness.
Reflect that if your case seems to yourself to be very difficult, it is
provided for by this sevenfold sprinkling of the blood. If you say, "My
heart is so hard! I cannot make it feel." Or if you say, "I am so
frivolous and foolish I seem to forget what I once knew," then continue
to look to the blood of Jesus and draw hope from it even to seven
times. Do not go away from that, I charge you–where else can you go?
The devil's desire will be to keep you from thinking about Christ, but
remember, thoughts about anything else will do you very little good.
Your hope lies in thinking about Jesus, not about yourself! Masticate
and digest such a text as this every morning–"He is able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." Go to bed at night with
this verse upon your tongue, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son
cleanses us from all sin." Or this, "Him that comes unto Me I will by
no means cast out."
That dear man of God, Mr. Moody Stuart, somewhere tells us that he once
talked with a woman who was in great trouble about her sins. She was a
well-instructed person and knew the Bible thoroughly, so that he was in
a little difficulty what to say to her, as she was so accustomed to the
all-saving Truth of God. At last he urged upon her, very strongly, that
passage, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners," and he noticed
that she seemed to find a quiet relief in a gentle flow of tears. He
prayed with her and when she rose from her knees, she seemed much
comforted. Meeting her the next day and seeing her smiling face–and
finding her full of rest in the Lord–he asked, "What was it that
worked you deliverance?" "Oh," she said, "it was that text, 'Jesus
Christ came to save sinners.'" "Did you not know that before?" asked
Mr. Stuart. Yes, she knew the words before, but she found that in her
heart of hearts she had believed that Jesus came to save saints and not
sinners!
Do not many awakened persons abide in the same error? Well, I want you,
poor troubled heart, yes, and you, also, who are of a joyful spirit, to
keep on with this sevenfold presentation of the Sacrifice of Christ
unto God. And even if a veil should hang between you and the Lord, I
beg you to continue to sprinkle the veil with blood until, before the
eyes of your faith, the veil tears in two and you stand in the Presence
of your reconciled God, rejoicing in Christ Jesus! ' II. Our second
head is this–THE BLOOD IN ITS INFLUENCE UPON PRAYER. "The priest shall
put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense
before the Lord." The priest, in this case, goes from the inside of the
Holy Place towards the outer court, having dealt with the veil of the
Holy of Holies. He turns round and finds close at his side the altar of
incense made of gold and surmounted with a golden crown–to this he
goes deliberately and places a portion of the blood upon each of its
horns. Horns signify power and the explanation of the symbol is that
there is no power in intercessory prayer apart from the blood of
expiation.
Remember, first, that the intercession of Christ Himself is based upon
His Atonement. He is daily pleading before the Throne of God and His
great argument is that He offered Himself without spot unto God. It
seems to me most clear and blessed that our Lord Jesus makes this the
main plea with the Father on our behalf–"I have finished the work
which You gave Me to do." He has suffered in our place and every day He
pleads these sufferings for us. His blood speaks better things than
that of Abel. He seeks no new plea, but always urges this old one–His
blood shed for many for the remission of sins. "It pleased the Father
to bruise Him," and now it pleases the Father to hear Him! The bruised
spices of His pas-
sion are an incense of sweet smell and derive a double acceptance from
the blood-smeared altar upon which they are presented.
And now take the type to yourselves. You and I are to offer incense
upon this golden altar by our daily intercession for others, but our
plea must always be the atoning blood of Jesus. I pray you, dear
Friends, to urge this much more than you have been accustomed to do in
your prayers. We are to cry to God for sinners and we are to cry to God
for saints– but the sacrifice of Jesus must be our strength in
petitioning. Intercession is one of the most excellent duties in which
a Christian can be engaged–it has about it the honor both of
priesthood and kingship. The incense altar ought to be continually
smoking before the Lord God of Israel, not only in our public Prayer
Meetings, but in our private supplications. We should be continually
pleading for our children, for our friends, for our neighbors, for
those who are hopeful and those who seem hopeless. But the great plea
must always be, "By Your agony and bloody sweat! By Your Cross and
passion."
Offer sweet spices of love, faith and hope, and lay on the burning
coals of strong desire. But on the horn of your altar smear the blood–
"Blood has a voice to pierce the skies! 'Revenge,' the blood of Abel
cries. But the rich blood of Jesus slain Speaks, 'Peace' as loud from
every vein." Take care you never advance another plea, or if another,
let it be very subsidiary to this master reason. We may say, "O Lord,
save men because their immortal souls are precious. Save them that they
may escape from endless misery and that they may display the power of
Your Grace. Save them, also, that Your Word may not return unto You
void, and that Your Church may be built up by their means." But we must
never be content with these pleas! We must go on to plead the name of
Jesus, for whatever we ask in that name we shall receive. He who once
poured out His soul unto death and now makes intercession for the
transgressors, will see to it that our pleas shall not be rejected! In
all our intercessions we must remember Calvary–the incense altar, for
us, must, on the horn of its strength, be always sprinkled with the
blood!
And, dearly Beloved, as this must be the plea of our intercession, so
it must be our impulse in making intercession. When we pray, we come,
as it were, to this golden altar and we look thereon–what do we see?
Stains of blood! We look again, and again see crimson spots, while all
the four horns are red with blood. Did my Lord pour out His soul unto
death for men and shall not I pour out my soul in living earnest when I
pray? Can you now bow your knee to plead with God and not feel your
heart set upon the good of men when you see that your Lord has laid
down His life that they may be saved? Cold prayers and dull pleas would
vanish if we would but remember how Jesus loved–how being in an agony
He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood.
Brothers and Sisters, we are sadly blameworthy for neglect of
intercessory prayer! I cannot tell how much of a blessing is being
withheld because we do not pray importunately for our fellow men! May
the Lord awaken us! May He never permit us to neglect the precious use
of the Mercy Seat! When the late Dr. Bacchus was ill and near to death,
a surgeon visited him. And as he left the room, he was observed to
speak to the servant. The good old Divine begged the attendant to tell
him what the surgeon said. After some pause, he said, "Dear Sir, he
told me not to leave you, for you could not live more than another
half-hour." "Then," said the saint, "help me out of bed, let me get
upon my knees and spend my last half hour on earth in praying for the
Church of God and for the salvation of men."
What a blessed way of spending one's last half-hour! Let me rather
say–what a blessed way of spending half-an-hour at any time! Try it
this afternoon! I do not know any method of benefiting our friends
which is more constantly open to us all than that of intercessory
prayer. And I cannot give you a better argument for why you should use
it than this–your Lord has sprinkled the golden altar of intercession
with His own blood! Where He poured out His blood, will you not pour
out your tears? He has given His bleeding heart for men–will not you
give your pleading lips?
I think, too, I must say that this smearing of the horns of the altar
with blood is meant to give us very great encouragement and assurances
whenever we come to God in prayer. Never give anybody up, however bad
he may be. If you know a man that is as much like the devil as two peas
in a pod, still have hope for him, because when you come to the golden
altar to offer your prayers on his behalf what do you see? Why, there
is the blood of Christ! What sin is there which it cannot remove? "Oh,"
you ask, "did Jesus die for sinners like this man and shall I despair
of him and, therefore, refuse to pray for him?" This is logical
argument. We are slow to labor for men because we are slow of heart in
expecting their salva-
tion–and this arises out of our narrow views of our Lord Jesus. I pray
you enlarge your ideas of God's mercy and of Christ's power to cleanse!
Pray not with a phantom hope, but with solid confidence, and say,
"Lord, I do but follow with my tears where You have been with Your
blood. I am pleading for this man's pardon and You are also making
intercession for transgressors. I am pleading for those whom You have
bought with Your blood and, therefore, I am confident that my desire is
in consonance with Your will and that I shall be heard in Heaven, Your
dwelling place."
When we pray, let us with vehement desire plead the blood of Jesus
Christ! Perhaps fewer petitions and more urging of the merit of Christ
would make better prayers. If we were shorter in what we ask for but
longer in pleading the reason why we should obtain it, we might prevail
more easily. I suggest that we use fewer nails, but take care that
those nails are driven in with Calvary's blood-stained hammer and
clenched with this argument–"For Jesus' sake." May this sort of prayer
be used by all of us in private and in public–and then we must and
shall prevail!
III. Time flies too quickly this morning and, therefore, I must pass
over many things I had thought to dwell upon.
The last point is, THE BLOOD IN ITS INFLUENCE UPON ALL OUR SERVICE. You
see we have been coming outwards from the veil to the golden altar and
now we pass outside the Holy Place into the outer court. And there in
the open air stands the great bronze altar–the first object that the
Israelite saw when he entered the sacred precincts. As soon as he
entered into the first enclosure, his eye lighted upon the great altar
of brass upon which burnt offerings were burned and oblations were
presented unto the Lord. It was at the foot of this bronze altar that
the bowls of blood were continually poured out–so that the altar was
encrimsoned with it–and the soil around was soaked with the sanguine
flood.
That altar represents a great many things and among the rest of them,
our Lord Jesus presenting Himself to God as an acceptable Sacrifice.
Whenever you think of our Lord as being an offering of a sweet smell
unto God, never dissociate that fact in your mind from His being slain
for sin, for all our Lord's service is tinged by His atoning death. It
is a great mistake, when you are trying to explain any one of the
Levitical sacrifices to run entirely upon one line, for there is a
blessed union of all of them in Christ. The offerings of a sweet savor
were, all of them, in a sense, sin offerings–there are clear
indications of this. At the same time the sin offering was not
altogether an abomination, but, in part, a sweet savor offering, for
the fat, as we have seen in our reading, was presented upon the altar.
What God has joined together let no man put asunder. You may look at
your Lord under various headings and separately think of His life and
of His death– but never stereotype even that division, for His death
was the climax of His life–and His life was necessary to His death.
Always think of Jesus, in all your meditations upon Him, as presenting
Himself to God and pouring out His soul unto death by way of atonement.
When I see that great bronze altar, I do not forget how our Lord was
accepted of God, but when I see the floods of blood at the foot of the
altar, I am reminded of the fact that, "He His own self bore our sins
in His own body on the tree."
Viewing the type in reference to ourselves, let us learn that whenever
we come to offer any sacrifice unto the Lord, we must take care that we
present it by virtue of the precious blood of Christ. The worship of
this morning–God knows our hearts–He knows how many have really
adored Him. And He knows, out of those who worship, how many of us have
presented our sacrifice, thinking only of the merit of Jesus as the
reason why it should be received. When you rise from your knees after
your morning prayer, have you really pleaded the precious blood? Your
petitions will not be acceptable to God if you have not. When you are
praying at eventide and speaking with your heavenly Father, have you
your eyes upon Christ? If not, your devotion will be rejected.
As it is with worship in the form of prayer, so is it with worship in
the form of praise. Sweet sounds are very delightful when we sing the
praises of God, but unless the altar is blood-stained upon which we lay
our Psalms and hymns, they will not be accepted for all their music! We
also bring to God our gifts as He prospers us. I trust we are all ready
to give Him a portion of our substance–but do we present it upon the
altar which sanctifies the giver and the gift? Do we see the blood of
Christ upon it and present our gold and silver through that which is
more precious by far? If not, we might as well keep our money. When you
go, this afternoon, to your Sunday school classes, or go out into the
streets to preach, or go round with your tracts, will you present your
holy labor to God through the precious blood? There is but one Altar on
which He will accept your services–that Altar is the Person of His
dear Son–and in this matter Jesus must be viewed as pouring out His
blood for us.
We must view the Atonement as connected with every holy thing. I
believe that our testimonies for God will be blessed of God in
proportion as we keep the Sacrifice of Christ to the forefront.
Somebody asked our Brother, Mr. Moody, how it was that he was so
successful. And he is said to have replied, "Well, if I must tell you,
it is, I believe, because we come out fair and square upon the Doctrine
of Substitution." In that remark he hit the nail on the head. That is
the saving doctrine! Keep that before your own mind. Keep it before the
minds of those whom you would benefit. Let the Lord see that you are
always thinking of His dear Son.
And, Beloved, do you not think that this pouring of the blood at the
foot of this bronze altar indicates to us how much we ought to bring
there? If Jesus has brought His life, there, and laid Himself thereon,
ought we not to bring all that we are and all that we have–and
consecrate all to God? Let us not offer a lean, scraggy sacrifice, or
one that is half dead, or broken, or diseased–but let us bring our
best at its best–and cheerfully present it unto the Most High through
the precious blood of Christ. One said of a young man who had lately
joined the Church, "Is he O and O?" And another answered, "What do you
mean by that?" "Why," said the first, "I mean–Is he out and out for
Christ? Does he give him-self–spirit, soul and body, to Jesus?"
Surely, when we see the altar with Christ Himself upon it and His blood
poured out there, we must acknowledge that if we could spend our whole
life in zealous labor, and then die a martyr's death, we should not
have rendered even half what such amazing love deserves! Let us be
stimulated and quickened by the sight of the blood upon the bronze
altar!
Lastly, you notice the blood was poured out at the bottom of the altar.
What could that mean but this–that the altar of thank offering stood
upon and grew out of a basis of blood. So all our deeds for God and our
sacrifices for His cause must spring out of the love which He has
manifested in the death of His dear Son. We love Him because–you know
the "be-cause"–because He first loved us. And how do we know that He
loves us? Behold the death of Jesus as the surest proof! I long to put
my whole being upon that altar and I should feel, as I did so, that I
was not giving my God anything, but only rendering to Him what His dear
Son has bought a million times over by once shedding His life-blood!
When we have done all, we shall be unprofitable servants and we shall
say so. All that we have given to God has been presented out of
gratitude for the fact that God so loved us that He gave His
only-begotten Son to die for us that we might live through
Him.
Load the altar! Heap it high! Let sacrifices smoke thereon, for it is
built upon God's unspeakable Gift! When sin is removed, service is
accepted–"then shall they offer bullocks upon Your altar." Attempt no
offering of your own works till then, for unpardoned sinners bring
unaccepted offerings! First, let the blood be recognized and let the
full Atonement be rejoiced in. Service rendered to God with a desire
for personal merit is abominable in His sight. But when our merit is
all found in the Divine Person of His Son, then will He accept us and
our offering, too, in Christ Jesus! God grant unto you, dear Hearers,
to be accepted in the Beloved. Amen.