Putting the Hand Upon the Head of the Sacrifice
(No. 1771)
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, MARCH 16, 1884,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering; and it
shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill
the bullock before the LORD." Leviticus 1:4, 5.
No doubt there are clear distinctions in the teaching of the burnt
offering, the meat offering, the peace offering and the sin offering.
In those various sacrifices we have views of our Lord's atoning work
taken from different standpoints. On another occasion it will be
profitable to note these delightful lessons and lay them to heart, but
at this time I am not about to enter into such matters. These
instructive distinctions are the special property of those who by
reason of years have had their senses exercised and, therefore, can
discern not only the great work of our Lord, but the details of it. I
am not sufficiently strong in mind at this time to bring forth "butter
in a lordly dish" for men of robust constitution, but I must be content
to serve the little ones with a cup of milk. I cannot carry the great
cluster from Eshcol and, therefore, I will bring you a few grapes in my
trembling hands.
I desire to preach, this morning, so that I may fulfill the prayer of a
little boy who, one Saturday evening before he went to bed, said in his
prayers, "Lord, grant that our minister may say something tomorrow that
I may understand." I am very sorry that such a prayer should ever be
necessary, but I am afraid it is not only necessary for children, but
sometimes for grownup people to pray, "Lord, help our minister to say
something that we can understand and that is worth understanding." Some
of my Brothers appear to dwell on high Olympus among the clouds–it
were better if they lived on Calvary. Little dew comes from the dark
mountains of intellectual dreaminess–far more refreshing drops are
found upon Mount Hermon of the Gospel!
I feel like Dr. Guthrie when he desired those around him to sing him a
child's hymn–I would like to be a little child in preaching to you.
Simple things are the most sublime and, to a sick man, the most sweet.
I wish to be plain as a pikestaff in setting forth the way of expiation
by the death of Jesus. I also have a reason for preaching foundation
Truth of God today which, to myself is serious, though you may smile at
it. It is this–if I have but few shots to fire, I should like each
time to hit the center of the target, that is to say, if I may only
speak to you once, today, after having been laid aside for three weeks,
I desire to speak only upon topics which touch the vitals of godliness.
I would plunge into the heart of the matter and deal with the essence
and soul of true religion!
There are some things that may be or may not be and yet no great evil
will come either way. But there are other things that must be, or all
goes wrong! Of these "must-bes" I would now speak. Some things are
important for the well-being of Christians, but certain other things
are absolutely essential to the very being of Christians–and it is
upon these urgent necessaries that I shall now speak–namely,
concerning the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and our faith in
it. These two things are of the highest importance and they cannot too
often be brought before our minds.
Two matters were essential in the sacrifices of the Ceremonial Law and
you have them both in our text–"He shall put his hand upon the head of
the burnt offering," and, "he shall kill the bullock before the Lord."
The appropriation by the offerer and the death of the offering are most
fitly joined together and must, neither of them, be overlooked. For our
immediate objective, there was no need to have taken our present text,
for there are many others of the same effect. Look at Leviticus
3:2–"And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill
it at the door of the tabernacle." Glance at the 8th verse–"And he
shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it before
the tabernacle." Turn to chapter 4, verse 4, the second clause of the
verse–"He shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the
bullock before the Lord."
Also at the 15th verse–"And the elders of the congregation shall lay
their hands upon the head of the bullock before the Lord: and the
bullock shall be killed before the Lord." To the same effect is the
24th verse–"And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and
kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering." All through
the Book of Leviticus, the laying on of the hand and the killing of the
victim are mentioned in immediate connection. These are, each of them,
so important and so full of meaning that we must have a sermon upon
each of them. Let us, on the present occasion, look at THE LEADING ACT
OF THE OFFERER–"He shall lay his hand upon the head of the burnt
offering." All that goes before is important, but this is the real
sacrificial act so far as the offerer is concerned.
Before he reached this point, the person who presented the offering had
to make a selection of the animal to be brought before the Lord. It
must be of a certain age and it must be without blemish–and for this
latter reason a careful examination had to be made–for the Lord would
not accept a sacrifice that was lame, or broken, or bruised, or
deficient in any of its parts or in any way blemished. He required an
offering "without spot." Now I invite all those who seek reconciliation
with God to look about them and consider whether the Lord Jesus Christ
is such an atoning Sacrifice as they need and as God will accept.
If you know of any other atonement for sin, examine it well, and I am
persuaded that you will find many a fault and flaw in it. But
concerning the Lamb of God, I have no question–you may search, but you
shall find no blemish in Him. If there were any fault in Him, either of
excess or deficiency, you might well refuse Him! But since there is
nothing of the kind, I pray you joyfully accept Him at once. Come, now,
and look at the Lord Jesus Christ–both at His Godhead and His Manhood;
at His life and His death, His acts and His sufferings–and see if
there is any iniquity in Him. He knew no sin–He had no acquaintance or
dealing with it! "He was holy, harmless, undefiled."
After you have well examined His blessed Person and His spotless
Character, if you arrive at the conclusion that He is a fit and
acceptable Sacrifice for you to present before the Lord, then I long
that you may take the much more practical step and accept the Lord
Jesus to be your Representative, your Sin Offering, your Burnt
Offering, your Substitute and your Sacrifice. I long that every unsaved
person here may, at once, receive the Lord Jesus as his Atonement, for
this is the main part of that which the sinner must do in order to be
cleansed from sin and accepted by God! Happily you have not to find a
sacrifice as the Jew had to supply a bullock–God has provided Himself
with a perfect Sacrifice! That which you have to bring to God, God
first brings to you!
Happily, there is no need for you to repeat the examination through
which the Lord Jesus passed both at the hands of men, of devils and of
God, when He was tested and tried and examined, and even the Prince of
this world found nothing of his own in Him! You have to attend to this
one thing, namely, the laying ofyour hands upon the Sacrifice provided
for you. To the Jew it was a sacrifice to be slain. To you it is a
sacrifice already offered–and this you are to accept and recognize as
your own. It is not a hard duty! You sang of it just now–
"My faith does lay her hand On that dear head of Yours. While like a
penitent I stand, And there confess my sin."
If you have already attended to this, do so again this morning! If you
have never done so, I pray from my inmost soul that you may immediately
do that which was meant by laying the hand upon the victim's head.
I. To our work, then, at once. What did that mean? It meant four things
and the first was, CONFESSION. He that laid his hand upon the head of
the offering made confession of sin. I do not care what offering it was
that was brought by a believing Israelite–there was always a mention
of sin in it, either implied or expressed. "But," says one, "the burnt
offering was a sweet-savor offering! How could there be any reference
to iniquity therein?" I know that the burnt offering was a sacrifice of
sweet smell and that it sets forth our Lord as accepted of the Father.
But let me ask you, Why did the Israelite bring a sweet-savor offering?
It was because he felt that in and of himself, he was not a sweet savor
unto God, for if he had been so, he would not have needed to have
brought another sweet savor!
When I accept the Lord Jesus to be my righteousness, it is a confession
of sin, for I should not need His righteousness if I had any of my own.
The very fact of presenting a sacrifice at all contains within it a
confession of the need of a sacrifice, which is the confession of
personal shortcomings and a need of personal acceptableness. This is
true of the burnt offering, but in other sacrifices–especially in the
trespass offering–where the hands were laid upon the victim's head,
the offerer was charged to "confess that he has sinned in that thing"
wherein he had trespassed. There was a detailed confes-
sion of sin joined with the laying on of hands in the case of the
scapegoat. Let us read the passage in Leviticus 16:21– "And Aaron
shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat and confess
over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their
transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the
goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the
wilderness."
See, then, that if you would have Him to be your Atonement, whom God
has appointed to be His Sacrifice, you must come to Him confessing your
sin! Your touch of Jesus must be the touch of one who is consciously
guilty. He belongs not to you unless you are a sinner. Ah, Lord,
confession of sin is no hard duty to some of us, for we can do no other
than acknowledge and bemoan our guilt! Here we stand before You,
self-condemned–and with aching hearts we each one cry, "Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness." Do any of you
refuse to make confession of guilt? Then, do not think it hard if,
since according to your own proud notions you are not sinners, the Lord
should provide you no Savior! Should medicine be prepared for those who
are not sick? Why should the righteous be invited to partake of pardon?
Why should a righteousness be provided for the innocent?
You are the rich and you are sent away empty–the hungry shall be
filled with good things. Go away, you that say, "I am clean; I am not
defiled." I tell you that you have no part in the great Sacrifice for
sin! For the blackest sinner out of Hell that will confess his sin,
there is mercy–but there is none for you–your pride excludes you from
pity! It bars the gate of hope against you. You sprinkle the blood of
the lamb upon the threshold and trample on it in your arrogant
self-conceit by making yourself out to have no need of its cleansing
power! O self-righteous man, you make God out to be a fool since He
gave His only-begotten Son to die, when, according to you there was no
necessity for His death! In your case, at any rate, there is no need of
a sacrifice by blood, no need of an Atonement through the Son of God
laying down His life for men. By your refusal to trust in the Lord
Jesus you charge God with folly and, therefore, into His holy place,
where His glory shines forth in its excellence, you can never come!
Many of us come most readily, at this time, and lay our hand upon the
head of the appointed Sacrifice, even our Lord Jesus Christ, because we
have sin to confess and we feel that we need a Savior, even a Savior
for the guilty! We are unworthy and undeserving. We dare not say
otherwise! The stones of the street would cry out against us if we
should say that we have no sin! The beams of every chamber in our house
would upbraid us if we dared to assert that we are without
transgressions! Our true place is that of sinners–we plead guilty to
the dread indictment of God's holy Law and, therefore, we are glad to
lay our hand upon the head of the sinner's Savior and Sacrifice.
In this act there was also a confession of self-impotence. The Believer
who brought the bullock did as good as say, "I cannot, of myself, keep
the Law of God, or make atonement for my past breaches of the
Commandments. Neither can I hope, through future obedience, to become
acceptable with God. Therefore I bring this sacrifice because I,
myself, cannot become acceptable without it." This is a Truth of God
which you and I must also confess if we would be partakers of Christ
and become "accepted in the Beloved." Oh, Brothers and Sisters, what
can we do without Christ? I like what was said by a child in Sunday
school, when the teacher said, "You have been reading that Christ is
precious: what does that mean?" The children were quiet a little while,
till, at last, one boy replied, "Father said the other day that Mother
was precious, for 'whatever would we do without her?'"
This is a capital explanation of the word, "precious." You and I can
truly say of the Lord Jesus Christ that He is precious to us, for what
would we do, what could we do without Him? We come and take Him, now,
to be ours because if He is not ours, we are utterly undone! I, for
one, am lost forever if Jesus cannot save. There is, in us, no merit
and no streng-th–but in the Lord Jesus Christ we find both
righteousness and strength–and we accept Him, this day, for that
reason. Because we are so deeply conscious of our own self-impotence,
we lean hard upon His All-Sufficiency. If you could read the text in
the Hebrew, you would find it runs thus–"He shall put his hand upon
the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to
make a cover for him"–to make atonement for him. The word is copher in
the Hebrew–a cover.
Why, then, do we hide behind the Lord Jesus? Because we feel our need
of something to cover us and to act is an interposition between us and
the righteous Judge of all the earth! If the Holy One of Israel shall
look upon us as we are, He would be displeased. But when He sees us in
Christ Jesus, He is well pleased for His Righteousness' sake. When the
Lord looks this way, we hide behind the veil, and the eyes of the Lord
behold the exceeding glories of the veil, to wit, the Person of His own
dear Son! And He is so pleased with the cover that He refuses to
remember the defilement and deformity
of those whom it covers! God will never strike a soul through the veil
of His Son's Sacrifice. He accepts us because He cannot but accept His
Son, who has become our covering!
With regard to God, when I am a conscious sinner, I long to hide away
from Him and lo, the Lord Jesus is our shield and hiding place–the
cover, the Sacred Atonement within which we conceal ourselves from
Justice. Even the all-seeing eyes of God see no sin in a sinner that is
hidden in Christ! Oh, what a blessing it is, dear Friends, when our
sense of self-impotence is so great that we have no desire to make a
show of ourselves, but, on the contrary, long to be out of sight and,
therefore, we enter into Christ to be hidden in Him, covered in the
Sacrifice which God has prepared! That is the second confession, and
thus we have a confession of sin and of need of covering.
There was a further confession of the desert of punishment. When a man
brought his bullock, or his goat, or his lamb, he put his hand on it
and as he knew that the poor creature must die, he thus acknowledged
that he, himself, deserved death. The victim fell in the dust,
struggling, bleeding, dying. The offerer confessed that this was what
he deserved. He acknowledged that death from the Almighty hand was due
to him. And oh, when a man comes to that–when he acknowledges that God
will be justified when He speaks in anger, and clear when He judges and
pronounces sentence in justice–when he confesses that he cannot
deliver himself, but has so sinned as to deserve to be cursed of God
and judged to feel the horrors of the second death, then is he brought
into a condition in which the great Sacrifice will be precious to him!
Then will he lean hard upon Christ and, with broken heart, acknowledge
that the chastisement which fell upon Jesus was such as he deserved and
he will be amazed that he has not been called upon to bear it!
For my own part, I deserve eternal damnation, but I trust in the Lord
Jesus and believe that He was punished in my place. "The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed." If you
can thus confess sin and bare your neck to punishment–and then lay
hold upon the Lord Jesus–you are a saved man! Can your heart truly
confess, "I am guilty. I cannot save myself. I deserve to be cast into
the deepest Hell, but I now take Jesus to stand in my place"? Then be
of good cheer, "Your faith has saved you: go in peace!" May the Spirit
of God bless this first point!
II. Secondly, the laying on of hands meant ACCEPTANCE. The offerer, by
laying his hand upon the victim's head, signified that he acknowledged
the offering to be for himself. He accepted, first of all, the
principle and the plan. Far too many kick against the idea of our being
saved by substitution or representation. Why do they rebel against it?
For my part, if God will but graciously save me in any way, I will be
far enough from raising any objection! Why should I complain of that
which is to deliver me from destruction? If the Lord does not object to
the way, why should I? Moreover, as to this salvation by the merit of
another, I remember that my first ruin did not come by myself.
I am not speaking to excuse my personal sin, but yet it is true that I
was ruined before I committed any actual sin by the disobedience of the
first father of the race who was my representative. How this was just,
I do not know, but I am sure it must be right, or God would not so
reveal it. In Adam we fell–"By one man's disobedience many were made
sinners" (Rom. 5:19). If, then, the Fall began by the sin of another,
why should not our rising be caused by the righteousness and the
atonement of another? What says the Apostle? "For if through the
offense of one, many are dead, much more the Grace of God, and the gift
by Grace, which is by one Man, Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many."
At any rate, it is not for you and for me to raise objections against
ourselves, but to feel that if God sees that this is a proper way of
salvation, He knows best and we cheerfully accept what He approves! Who
is there among you that will not do so? God grant that no one may hold
out against a method of Grace so simple, so sure, so available! But
then, remember. After you have accepted the plan and the way, you must
not stop there, but you must go on to accept the Sacred Person whom God
provides. It would have been a very foolish thing if the offerer had
stood at the altar and said, "Good Lord, I accept the plan of
sacrifice–be it burnt offering or sin offering–I agree thereto." He
did much more than that! He accepted that very bullock as his offering
and, in token thereof, placed his hand upon it!
I pray you beware of resting satisfied with understanding and approving
the plan of salvation. I heard of one who anxiously desired to be the
means of the conversion of a young man and one said to him, "You may go
to him and talk to him, but you will get him no further, for he is
exceedingly well acquainted with the plan of salvation." When the
friend began to speak with the young man, he received for an answer, "I
am much obliged to you, but I do not know that you can tell me much,
for I have long known and admired the plan of salvation by the
Substitutionary Sacrifice of Christ." Alas, he was resting in the plan,
but he had not believed in the Person! The plan of salvation is most
blessed, but it can
avail us nothing unless we believe! What is the comfort of a plan of a
house if you do not enter the house, itself? What is the good of a plan
of clothing if you have not a rag to cover you?
Have you never heard of the Arab chief at Cairo who was very ill and
went to the missionary, and the missionary said he could give him a
prescription? He did so and a week later, he found the Arab none the
better. "Did you take my prescription?" he asked. "Yes, I ate every
morsel of the paper." He dreamed that he was going to be cured by the
plan of the medicine! He should have gone to the chemist and had the
prescription filled–and then it might have worked him some good. So is
it with salvation–it is not the plan–it is the carrying out of that
plan by the Lord Jesus in His death on our behalf! The offerer laid his
hands, literally, upon the bullock. He found something substantial
there, something which he could handle and touch. Even so do we lean
upon the real and true work of Jesus, the most substantial thing under
Heaven!
Brothers and Sisters, we come to the Lord Jesus by faith and say, "God
has provided an Atonement, here, and I accept it. I believe it to be a
fact accomplished on the Cross that sin was put away by Christ and,
therefore, I rest on Him." Yes, you must get beyond the acceptance
ofplans and doctrines to a resting in the Divine Person and finished
work of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ–and a casting of yourself
entirely upon Him.
III. But thirdly, this laying of the hand upon the sacrifice meant not
only acceptance, but also TRANSFERENCE. The offerer had confessed his
sin and had accepted the victim presented to be his sacrifice and now
he mentally realizes that his guilt is, by Divine appointment, to pass
over from himself to the sacrifice. Of course this was only done in
type and figure at the door of the Tabernacle. But in our case, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as a matter of literal fact, has borne the sin of
His people. "The Lord has made to meet on Him the iniquity of us all."
"Who His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree." "Christ
was once offered to bear the sins of many."
But do we, by faith, pass our sins from ourselves to Christ? I answer,
No. In some senses, no. But by faith he that accepts Christ as his
Savior agrees with what the Lord did ages ago, for we read in the Book
of Isaiah the Prophet, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us
all." That was Jehovah's own act in the ages past–and it was complete
when Jesus stood as the great Sin-Bearer and redeemed us from the curse
of the Law, being made a curse for us. All the transgressions of His
people were laid on Him when He poured out His soul unto death and,
"was numbered with the transgressors, and bore the sin of many."
Then and there He expiated all the guilt of all His people, for He,
"finished transgression, made an end of sin and brought in everlasting
righteousness." By His death He cast the whole tremendous load of human
guilt, which was laid upon Him, into the depth of the sea, never to be
found again! When we believe in Him, we agree to what the Lord has done
and we may sing–
"I lay my sins on Jesus The spotless Lamb of God. He bears them all and
frees us From the accursed load."
There are two ruling religions around us in this day, and they mainly
differ in tense. The general religion of mankind is "Do," but the
religion of a true Christian is, "Done." "It is finished" is the
Believer's conquering word! Christ has made Atonement and we accept it
as done. So in that respect we lay our sins on Jesus, the holy Lamb of
God, because we set our humble seal to that grand transaction which was
the confirming of the Covenant of old. The laying of the hand upon the
head of the sacrifice meant a transference of guilt to the victim and,
furthermore, a confidence in the efficacy of the sacrifice then and
there presented.
The believing Jew said, "This bullock represents to me the sacrifice
which God has provided and I rejoice in it because it is the symbol of
a sacrifice which does, in very deed, take away sin." Brothers and
Sisters, there are a great number of people who believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, after a fashion, but it is not in deed and in truth, for
they do not believe in the actual pardon of their own sin! They hope
that they may one day be forgiven, but they have no confidence that the
Lord Jesus has already put away their sin by His death. "I am a great
sinner," says one, "therefore, I cannot be saved." Man alive, did
Christ die for those who are not sinners?! What was the need of a
Savior except for sinners? Has Jesus actually borne sin, or has He not?
If He has borne our sin, it is gone! If He has not borne it, our sin
will never depart.
What does the Scripture say? "He has made Him to be sin for us, who
knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
If, then, Christ took the sinner's sin, it remains not upon the sinner
that believes! Assuredly, you, my Hearer, if you are a Believer, cannot
have sin if Jesus has taken it away! You are made clean in the sight of
God because your uncleanness has been washed away in the blood of the
Great Sacrifice! Can't you see this way of salvation? If you see it,
will you not accept it now? Do you not already feel a joy springing up
within your soul that there should be such a blessed way of
deliverance?
At any rate, I tell you where I stand today–I stand guilty and without
a hope in anything I have ever done or ever hope to do! But I believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ bore my sin in His own body on the Cross and
I am, at this moment, putting my hands on Him in the sense in which the
Hebrew has it, leaning all my weight upon Him! If Jesus cannot save me,
I must be damned, for I cannot help Him, neither can I see anyone else
who can do so much as a hand's turn in that direction! If there is not
virtue enough in the blood of Jesus to cleanse me from all sin, then I
must die in my sins! And if there is not sufficient merit in His
Righteousness to save me apart from any righteousness of my own, then I
am a castaway, a spirit shipwrecked on the ironbound coast of despair!
But I have no fears, for I know whom I have believed, and I am
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him
until that day!
Now I pray you, dear people of God, to lean on Jesus and keep on
leaning on Him. Oh, that you who as yet do not know Jesus may be
brought to touch Him by faith and to lean upon Him by full reliance! In
times of sharp pain, or great depression of spirit, or in seasons when
death is near, you are forced to look around you to see where your
foundation is, and what it is and, believe me, there is no groundwork
that can bear the weight of a guilty conscience and a trembling,
tortured body, except this foundation–"the precious blood of Christ
cleanses us from all sin." Jesus is the Atonement– He is the
Covering–the Refuge! In fact, He is our All in All!
IV. Once more, this laying of the hand upon the head of the victim
meant IDENTIFICATION. The worshipper who laid his hand on the bullock
said, "Be pleased, O great Lord, to identify me with this bullock, and
this bullock with me. There has been a transferring of my sin, now I
beseech You let me be judged as being in the victim, and represented
thereby." Now consider that which happened to the sacrifice. The knife
was unsheathed and the victim was slain! He was not merely bound, but
killed–and the man stood there and said, "That is me, that is the fate
which I deserve." The poor creature struggled, it wallowed in the sand
in its dying agonies–and if the worshipper was a right-minded person
and not a mere formalist–he stood with tears in his eyes and felt in
his heart, "That death is mine."
I beseech you, when you think of our blessed Lord, to identify
yourselves with Him! See the bloody sweat trickling down His face? That
is for you. He groans, He cries! For you. Your sins deserved that you
should sweat great drops of blood, but Jesus sweats, instead. The Lord
is taken prisoner and scourged. Look how the red streams of gore flow
down those blessed shoulders! He bears the chastisement of our peace.
He is nailed to the Cross and we are crucified with Him. By-and-by He
dies. And we die in Him–"We thus judge that if One died for all, then
all died." Believer, you died there in Christ! When your Substitute
rendered to the Law of God, the penalty which it demanded, you
virtually rendered it! "The soul that sins, it shall die," and you have
died, Believer! You have paid the debt in the Person of the Lord Jesus
Christ whom, by the laying on of your hands, you have accepted to be
your Substitute!
You know that story–it is a capital one, well worth telling a thousand
times! In the great French War a person was drawn for a conscript but
as he could not leave his family, he paid a very heavy sum for a
substitute. That substitute went to the war and was killed. After a
time, Napoleon called out the rest of the conscription and the man was
summoned because he had been formerly drawn, but he refused to serve.
He said, "No, by my substitute I have served, and I am dead and
buried–I cannot be made to serve again." It is said that the question
was carried up to the highest court and laid before the Emperor,
himself, and the Emperor decided that the man's claim of exemption was
a just one. He had fulfilled the conscription by a substitute and that
substitute had served for life. Therefore he could not be called upon
to do more and, therefore, the person for whom he was the substitute
could not further be summoned under that conscription.
This sets forth our joy and glory! We are identified with Christ; we
are crucified with Him; buried with Him and in Him raised to newness of
life! "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live." "You are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God." It ought to be remembered
that we were identified with Christ in His passing under the wrath of
God as a Sin Offering. If you read in this Book, you will find that the
sin offering was burnt outside the camp as an unclean thing–and so you
and I were put outside the camp long years ago as an unclean thing!
That is over, now, and we are, at
this hour, no more cast out from the sight of God than Jesus is! The
burnt offering was consumed upon the altar as a sweet savor unto God
and in this, also, we are identified with Christ. We are now a sweet
savor unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are accepted in the
Beloved. We are joined unto the Lord and there is no separating our
interests from His, nor His from ours.
Who shall separate us from the Christ of God forever and ever? That is
what the laying on of hands upon the beast meant. I trust, dear
Friends, you have known all this for years and, if not, may you know it
now. If the Lord will enable me, I intend to enter into the second part
of my text next Lord's-Day morning, and for this time it will suffice
for me to drive this one nail home. Oh, that the Spirit of God would
fasten it in a sure place in your hearts! My soul's yearning desire is
that each one of you may come, at once, and lay your hands on Christ by
confession, acceptance, transference and identification. Nothing short
of such an act will suffice to give you salvation!
Now, suppose that the Jew, who went up to the tabernacle and to the
altar, when he got there, had been content to talk about the sacrifice
without personally placing his hand on it? To talk of it would be a
very proper thing to do, but suppose that he had spent all his time in
merely discoursing about the plan of a sacrifice, the providing of a
substitute, the shedding of blood, the clearance of the sinner through
sacrificial death? It would have been a delightful theme, but what
would have come of it? Suppose he had talked on and on and had gone
back home without joining in the offering? He would have found no ease
to his conscience–he would, in fact, have done nothing by going to the
house of the Lord! I am afraid that this is what many of you have done
so far. You are pleased to hear the Gospel. You take pleasure in the
Doctrine of Substitution and you know true doctrine from the current
falsehoods of the hour–for all of which I am very glad–but yet you
are not saved because you have not taken Christ to be your own Savior!
You are like persons who might say, "We are hungry and we admit that
bread is a very proper food for men, besides which we know what sort of
food makes bone, and what makes muscle, and what makes flesh." They
keep on talking all day long about the various qualities of food–do
they feel refreshed? No. Is their hunger gone? No! I should suppose
that if they are at all healthy, their appetite is increased, and the
more they talk about food the more hungry they become. Why, some of you
here have been talking about the Bread of Heaven for years–and yet I
am afraid you are no more hungry than you used to be! Go beyond talking
about Christ and learn to feed upon Christ! Come, now, let us have done
with talk and come to deeds of faith. Lay hold on Jesus, who is set
before you in the Gospel! Otherwise, Friend, I fear you will perish in
the midst of plenty, and die unpardoned, with mercy at your gate.
Suppose, again, that the Israelite, instead of talking with his
friends, had thought it wise to consult with one of the priests. "Might
I speak with you, Sir, a little? Have you a little room somewhere at
the back where you could talk with me and pray with me?" "Yes," says
the priest, "what ails you?" "My sin lies heavy upon me." The priest
replies, "You know that there is a sacrifice for sin–a sin offering
lies at the door and God will accept it at your hands." But he says, "I
beg you to explain this matter more fully to me." The priest answers,
"I will explain it as well as I can, but the whole of my explanation
will end in this one thing–bring a sacrifice and over its head confess
your sin–and let an atonement be made. The sin offering is what God
has ordained and, therefore, God will receive it. Attend to His
ordinance and live. There is no other way. Fetch your offering. I will
kill it for you and lay it on the altar and present it to God."
Do you say to him, "I will call again tomorrow, and have a little more
talk with you"? Do you again and again cry, "Tomorrow"? Do you go again
and again into the Inquiry Room? O Sir, what will become of you? You
will perish in your sin, for God has not appointed salvation by Inquiry
Rooms and talks with ministers, but by your laying your own hand upon
the Sacrifice which He has appointed! If you will have Christ, you
shall be saved! If you will not have Him, you must perish! All the
talking to you in the world cannot help you one jot if you refuse your
Savior! Sitting in your pew this morning, without speaking to me or any
living man or woman, I exhort you to believe in Jesus! Stretch out your
withered hand, God helping you, and lay it on the head of Christ, and
say, "I believe in the merit of His precious blood. I look to the Lamb
of God that takes away the sin of the world." Why, Man, you are saved
as sure as you are alive, for he that lays the hand of faith upon this
Sacrifice is saved thereby!
But I see another Israelite and he stands by his offering and begins to
weep and groan, and bewail himself. I am not sorry to see him weep, for
I trust he is sincerely confessing his guilt. But why does he not place
his hand on the sacrifice? He cries and he sighs, for he is such a
sinner! But he does not touch the offering. The victim is presented
and, in order that it may be of any use to him, he must lay his hand
upon it. But this vital act he neglects and even refuses to perform.
"Ah,"
he says, "I am in such trouble, I am in such deep distress," and he
begins explaining a difficulty. You hunt that difficulty down, but
there he stands, still groaning and moaning, and producing another
difficulty and yet another, world without end! The sacrifice is slain,
but he has no part in it, for he has not laid his hand upon it–and he
goes away with all the burden of his guilt upon him, though the
sacrificial blood has reddened the ground on which he stood.
That is what some of you do. You go about lamenting your sin, when your
chief lament should be that you have not believed on the Son of God! If
you looked to Jesus, you might dry your eyes and bid all hopeless
sorrows cease, for He gives remission of sins to all penitents. Your
tears can never remove your sins–tears, though flowing like a
river–can never wash away the stain of guilt. Your faith must lay her
hand on the head of the Lord's Sacrifice, for there and there, only is
there hope for the guilty!
"But surely," says one, "that cannot be everything." I tell you it is
so much everything that–
"Could tears forever flow, Could your zeal no respite kno w, All for
sin could not atone, Christ must save, and Christ, alone." Jesus will
only save those who accept Him and desire to be identified with Him. I
would to God that you would delay no longer, but come at once and
freely accept what God has provided! I know the devil will tempt you to
look for this and to look for that, but I pray you look at nothing but
the Sacrifice that is before you. Lean on Jesus with all your weight!
Observe that the Israelite had to put his hand upon a victim which was
not slain as yet, but was killed afterwards. This was to remind him
that the Messiah was not yet come. But you, Beloved, have to trust in a
Christ who has come, who has lived, who has died, who has finished the
work of salvation, who has gone up into Glory and who always lives to
make intercession for transgressors! Will you trust Him or will you
not?
I cannot waste words. I must come to the point. John Bunyan says that
one Sunday when he was playing the game of tip-cat on Elstow Green, as
he was about to strike the cat with the stick, he seemed to hear a
voice saying to him, "Will you leave your sins and go to Heaven, or
will you keep your sins and go to Hell?" This morning the voice from
Heaven sounds forth this question–Will you trust in Christ and go to
Heaven, or will you keep apart from Him and go to Hell?–for there you
must go unless Jesus becomes your Mediator and your atoning Sacrifice.
Will you have Christ or
not?
I hear you say, "But"–O that I could thrust your "buts" aside! Will
you have Christ or not? "Oh, but"–No, your "buts" ought to be thrown
into limbo, for I fear they will be your ruin. Will you trust Christ or
not? If your answer is, "I trust Him with all my heart," then you are
saved! I say not you shall be saved, but you are saved! "He that
believes in Him has everlasting life." You know how our dear friend,
Mr. Hill, put it, the other night, at the Prayer Meeting? "He that
believes in Him has everlasting life." "H-A-S"–that spells–"Got it."
Very good spelling, too! If you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you
have eternal life in present possession! Go your way and sing for joy
of heart, because the Lord has loved you! Mind you, keep on singing
until you join the choristers before the eternal Throne of God!
May the Lord save every person that shall hear or read this sermon, for
Jesus' sake! Amen.