The Sin Offering
A sermon
(No. 739)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, MARCH 10, 1867, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"If the anointed priest sins, bringing guilt on the people; then let
him bring for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bull without
blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering."- Leviticus 4:3.
In the previous chapters of the book of Leviticus you read of the burnt
offering, the peace offering, and the meat offering–all types our Lord
Jesus Christ as seen from different points of view. Those three
sacrifices were sweet savor offerings, and represent the Lord Jesus in
His glorious Person and perfect righteousness as an offering of a sweet
smell unto God. The chapter before us, the whole of which we shall
require as a text, describes the sin offering, which, although quite
distinct from the sweet savor offerings, is not altogether to be
separated from them, for the Lord Jesus Christ viewed in any light is
very dear unto His Father.
And even when beheld as a sin offering, He is elect and precious unto
God, as we shall have to show you in the type before us. Still, the sin
offering does not set forth the acceptance of the substitute before the
Lord, but rather brings out the abhorrence which God has towards sin,
the putting away from His holy Presence of everything upon which sin is
laid. This morning, if God shall enable us, we hope to impress upon
your minds, first of all, the great evil of sin. And secondly, the
great and wonderful power of the blood of atonement by which sin is put
away.
Without any further preface we shall invite you, in meditating upon the
type before us, first, to consider our Lord Jesus as made sin for us.
Secondly, we shall ask you to observe, carefully and prayerfully, His
blood in its efficacy before the Lord. And thirdly, we shall bid you
look at His substitution in the shame which it involved.
I. First, Brethren, let us, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, view our
blessed Lord as made sin for us, as He is here typified in the bull.
1. His personal Character is set forth before us in the victim chosen,
namely, a young bull without blemish. It was a bull, the most valuable
of the sacrifices–an animal laborious in life and costly in death. It
was a young bull in the fullness of its strength and vigor. It was
without blemish and the slightest fault disqualified it from being laid
upon the altar of God. Behold, O Believer, your Lord Jesus, more
precious by far than ten thousands of the fat of fed beasts! A
Sacrifice not to be purchased with gold, or estimated in silver! Full
of vigor, in the very prime of manhood, He offered up Himself for us!
Even when He died, He died not through weakness, for that cry of His at
His death, "with a loud voice," proved that His life was still firm
within Him and that when He gave up the ghost, His death was not one of
compulsion but a voluntary expiring of the soul. His glory is as the
firstling of the bull, full of vigor and of strength. How distinctly
was our Lord proved to be without blemish! Naturally born without
sin,practically He lived without fault. In Him there was neither
deficiency nor excess. In no virtue did He come behind, and no fault
could be found in Him. The prying eyes of the prince of this world
could find nothing in Him, and the still more accurate search of the
all-seeing God found no fault in
Him.
This spotlessness was necessary, for how could He have been made an
offering for our sin if it had not been true that personally, "He knew
no sin"? Shall one bankrupt stand in the debtor's court as a substitute
for another? How shall one penniless wretch pay the debt of another who
is about to be cast into prison? If the king requires service of any
man, how shall another from whom service is equally due, offer himself
as a substitute for him? No, the Savior of others must have no
obligations of His own. He must owe no personal debts. There must be no
claims on the part of justice against Him, on His own account, or He
cannot stand "the Just for the unjust," to expiate the sins of men.
You holy souls, feast your eyes upon the spotless Son of God! You pure
in heart, delight your purified vision with a sight of His perfections!
You shall one day be like He–this will be your Heaven! Meanwhile make
it your rapture, your
Paradise on earth, to gaze upon the unrivaled beauties of the
Altogether Lovely. "In Him was no sin." In Him was all excellence. His
body and soul are alike–white as the lily for holiness–though made by
suffering red as the rose. Alabaster and bright ivory overlaid with
sapphires are but dull and soiled types of His purity. Come, you virgin
souls, and let the eyes of your holy love survey Him that you may see
how fit He was to suffer as "the Just for the unjust, to bring us to
God."
The act of transference of sin to the victim next calls for our
attention. You will have noticed, in reading the chapter, that our
Lord's being made sin is set forth to us by the very significant
transfer of sin to the bull, which was made by the priest, or by the
elders of the people, as the case might be. We are expressly told, "He
shall lay his hands upon the bull's head," which act, our good Dr.
Watts has interpreted in his well-known verse–
"My faith would lay her hands
On that dear head of Yours,
While like a penitent I stand;
And there confess my sin."
This laying of the hand does not appear to have been a mere touch of
contact, but in some other places of Scripture has the meaning of
leaning heavily, as in the expression, "Your wrath lies hard upon me"
(Psa. 88:7).
Surely this is the very essence and nature of faith, which does not
only bring us into contact with the great Substitute, but teaches us to
lean upon Him with all the burden of our guilt, so that if our sins are
very weighty, yet we see Him as able to bear them all! And mark, the
whole weight of our iniquity taken off from us, who must have been
crushed to the lowest Hell thereby, and laid on Him who took the weight
and bore it all, and then buried it in His sepulcher forever! From of
old it was decreed, "The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."
Jehovah made to meet upon the head of the Substitute all the offenses
of His covenant people. But each one of the chosen is brought
personally to ratify this solemn covenant act of the great God, when by
Grace he is enabled by faith to put his hands upon the head of the
"Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world." My fellow
Believers, do you remember that rapturous day? My soul recalls her day
of deliverance with delight! Laden with guilt and full of fears, I saw
my Savior willing to be my Substitute, and I laid my hand, oh, how
timidly at first, but courage grew and confidence was confirmed!
I leaned my soul entirely upon Him, and now it is my unceasing joy to
know that my sins are no longer imputed to me, but laid on Him! And
like the debts of the poor wounded traveler, Jesus, like the good
Samaritan, has said of all my future sinfulness, "Set that to my
account." Oh, blessed discovery, sweet solace of a repenting heart!–
"My numerous sins transferred to Him, Shall never more be found! Lost
in His blood's atoning stream Where every crime is drowned!"
We must now beg your notice of the sins transferred. In the case of the
type, they were sins of ignorance. Alas, the Jew knew nothing about a
sin offering for sins of presumption but there is such a sin offering
for us. Our presumptuous sins were laid on Christ. Our willful sins.
Our sins of light and knowledge are pardoned by His blood. The mention
of sins of ignorance suggests a very comfortable reflection, that if
there are any sins which I know not, they were, notwithstanding my
ignorance, laid on my Substitute and put away by His Atonement. It is
not sin as we see it which was laid on Christ, but sin as God sees
it–not sin as our conscience feebly reveals it to us, but sin as God
beholds it–in all its unmitigated malignity and unconcealed
loathsomeness.
Sin in its exceeding sinfulness Jesus has put away. Not sham sin, but
real sin–sin as before the Lord, sin as sin– Jesus has made an end
of. Child of God, you will not misuse this Truth of God and deny the
need of repentance, for you well know that you cannot practically feel
the power of this blood except as your sin is known to you. This,
indeed, is intimated in the type, for, according to verse fourteen, the
bull was only offered when the sin was known. It was to be laid by the
elders upon the head of the bull when the sin was no longer hidden from
the eyes of the congregation.
Sin unknown, the sacrifice is unheeded. It is only as you know and
perceive sin that you can consciously know and prize the Atonement by
which it is taken away. Mark, it is when you perceive sin that then you
are to trust the blood– not when you perceive holiness in yourself,
and goodness and virtue–but when you perceive sin, and iniquity, and
de-
filement! It is then you are to lay your hands upon the head of the
great Atoning Sacrifice. Jesus is a sinner's Savior. "If any man sin,
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous."
It is not written, "If any man is holy, he has an Advocate," but, "if
any man sins, we have an Advocate," so that in all our sin and
iniquity, blackness and defilement–when overwhelmed with our own
vileness–we may still come to Christ and believe that our most
horrible and detestable sins were laid upon Him. And over and above
that, those sins which we do not feel, which may be even more
detestable, even those, and what is more, the sinfulness of our nature
it-self–that black and polluted fount from which the streams of our
trespasses take their rise–the guilt of all actual and original sin
was laid upon Jesus and by Him forever put away!
Passing on, still keeping to the same point, we would remark that the
sin was laid upon the bull most conspicuously "before the Lord." Did
you notice the frequent expressions: "shall bring him to the door of
the congregation before the Lord"? "Kill the bull before the Lord"?
"Shall sprinkle the blood seven times before the Lord, and shall put
some of it upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the
Lord"? Clearly the most important part of the sacrifice was not before
the people, but before the Lord. All that the onlookers outside could
have seen was the bull, when dead, carried by the priests outside the
camp.
Some of them who came nearer might have seen the pouring of the blood
at the bottom of the bronze altar, but they certainly never did and
never could see the priest sprinkle the blood towards the veil, nor yet
see him put it upon the horns of the golden altar–for the court of the
priest was concealed from their view. We are very much mistaken if we
think that the ceremonies of Jews were much seen by the people. They
were mainly unseen except by the priests. The ritual of the Old
Covenant must have been very little a matter of sight, for the
Israelite, pure and simple, never penetrated beyond the first court. He
stood before the bronze altar and he never went further.
All that was done in the next court of the priests, and especially all
that was done in the Most Holy Place, must have been entirely a matter
offaith to all the people. The fact was, the sacrifices were not so
much for men to look at as for God Himself to gaze upon, and though
this may seem to you a strange observation, there is no little value in
it. You will hear men nowadays say that the purpose of Atonement has
reference to men and not to God. Depend upon it, there is a fatal error
in this doctrine and we must denounce it!
Although its advocates take some few expressions of certain of our
hymns and pretend to believe that we teach that the blood placated an
angry God, we never taught anything of the kind and they know we never
did! Yet we are not to be frightened into denying or qualifying our
assertion that the action of God towards man has been wondrously
affected by the Atonement of Christ. God the Judge would have condemned
us to punishment had not Jesus suffered in our place, so that, in
justice, we might be permitted to go free. Not only is man made willing
to love God by the manifestation of the love of God in Christ Jesus,
but it has become possible for God to extend the hand of amity towards
sinful man through the Atonement! And this would not have been
possible, consistently with the Divine attributes, if it had not been
for the atoning Sacrifice.
We must still stand to it, that the blood is not merely a comfort to
the wounded conscience, but is really a satisfaction to Divine Justice.
It is a covering, a propitiation, a Mercy Seat for the Most Holy God.
That is a striking passage concerning the Passover and the destroying
angel in Egypt. Thus spoke Jehovah, "When I see the blood, I will pass
over you." It was not, "When you see the blood." The spared ones did
not see the blood at that moment, for, you will remember, they were all
inside the house feasting upon the lamb. The father of the family had
put the blood outside upon the lintel and the side-posts, not for the
inmates to see, but for God to see!
And so, though a sight of the precious blood, thanks be to God, does
bring us faith, and joy, and peace, yet the real work of our salvation
is not the effect of the blood upon us, but the effect of the blood
upon God Himself! Not, it is true, a change produced in God, but a
change which is thus produced in the action of Divine Justice. Apart
from the blood we are guilty and condemned–washed in the blood, we are
accepted and beloved. Without the Atonement we are aliens and
strangers, heirs of wrath even as others. But, as seen in the eternal
covenant purpose, through the precious blood of Jesus, we are accepted
in the Beloved. The great stress of the transaction lies in its being
done "before the Lord."
Still, further, carefully observe that as soon as ever the sin was thus
"before the Lord," laid upon the bull, the bull was slain. "He shall
lay his hands upon the bull's head, and kill the bull before the Lord."
So, in the fifteenth verse, "The
elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the
bull before the Lord, and the bull shall be killed before the Lord."
Ah, yes. As soon as the sin is transferred, the penalty is transferred,
too. Down fell the pole-axe the minute that the priestly hands had been
laid on the bull. Unsheathed was the bloody knife of sacrifice the
moment that the elders had begun to lean upon the sacrificial head. So
was it with our Savior. He must smart, He must die–for only as dying
could He become our sin offering. Ah, Brethren, those who would preach
Christ, but not Christ crucified, miss the very soul and essence of our
holy faith. "Let Him come down from the Cross, and we will believe in
Him," is the Unitarian cry! Anything but a crucified God!
But there, indeed, lies the secret of that mystery, and the very core
and kernel of our confidence. A reigning Savior I do rejoice in! The
thought of the splendor yet to come makes glad our eyes! But after all,
it is a bleeding Savior that is the sinner's hope. It is to the Cross,
the center of misery, that the sinner turns his eyes for comfort,
rather than to the stars of Bethlehem, or to the blazing sun of the
millennial kingdom. I remember one joining this Church who said, "Sir,
I had faith once in Christ glorified, but it never gave me comfort. I
have now come to a faith in Christ crucified, and I have peace."
At Calvary there is the comfort, and there only. That Jesus lives is
delightful! But the basis of the delight is, "He lives who once was
slain." That He will reign forever is a most precious doctrine of our
faith, but that the hand that wields the silver scepter once was
pierced, is the great secret of the joy! O Beloved, abide not in any
place from which your eye cannot behold the Cross of Christ! When you
are thinking of the doctrines of the Gospel, or the precepts of the
Word, or studying the prophecies of Scripture, never let your mind
relinquish the study of the Cross! The Cross was the place of your
spiritual birth! It must ever be the spot for renewing your health, for
it is the sanatorium of every sin-sick soul.
The blood is the true balm of Gilead. It is the only catholicon which
heals every spiritual disease. Come, sin-sick Soul, and breathe the air
which was purified when the blood of the heart of Jesus fell from His
wounds to the ground, for no spiritual disease can abide the Presence
of the healing blood. Hasten, you weak ones, to Calvary, and partake in
God-given strength and vigor! It is from Calvary that you shall see the
Sun of Righteousness arising with healing beneath His wings! The
beloved Physician meets His patients at the foot of the Cross and
relieves them from all their ills.
I shall not ask you to dwell on any further details of the type, as
they refer to the Substitution, but I cannot leave the topic till I
have asked each one this all-important question–"Is the Lord Jesus
made a sin offering for you? It is written, "He has made Him to be sin
for us," and from this it appears that sin was laid upon Jesus by God
Himself. But still it is true that each Believer by faith lays his own
sins there, and the hymn, "I lay my sins on Jesus," is quite
Scriptural. Have you, dear Friend, seen your sins laid on Jesus?
Has your faith laid its hands upon His head? My dear Hearers, we shall
soon, each one of us, have to pass through the vale of death. It may be
but a very short time before some of us will know what are the
solemnities of our last, departing hour. Are you ready? Quite ready?
You have been a professor for years–are you ready now to die? Can you
hope that if at this moment the summons were given, sitting where you
are, can you hope you are so really and truly resting in the precious
blood that sin would not disturb your dying peace because it is
forgiven and put away?
Search the ground of your hope, I pray you, and be not satisfied unless
your faith is surely built upon the Rock of Ages. Get as much assurance
as you can, my Brothers and Sisters, but beware of presumption! I have
seen some of those fine Christians who will not say–
"Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in You,"
and I think very little of them. It is their boast that no hymns will
suit them but those which are full of assurance and conscious
enjoyment. I admire their confidence, if it is the fruit of the Spirit.
But I fear, in many cases, it is the offspring of proud, unhumbled
self-conceit. I know that in shaking times, when I am sorely vexed with
bodily pain and mental distractions, I am glad enough to say–
"Let me hide myself in You!
Let the water and the blood,
From your riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Cleanse me from its guilt and power!"
Without boasting, I can declare as much about strong faith in God as
most men. And I can usually rejoice in the fullest confidence of my
acceptance in the Beloved. But there are times with me of deeply awful
depression of spirit, and horror of great darkness–and at such periods
my joyous confidence takes the form of humbly pleading the blood once
shed for sinners, and saying, with a broken heart–
"Nothing in my hands I bring: Simply to Your Cross I cling."
It seems to me, that humbly resting upon Jesus is the best position for
us. And I ask each of you, very affectionately, whether that is your
position at this present moment? Does your heart rejoice in the
Substitute? Do you rejoice in the language of these two precious
verses?–
"When Satan tempts me to despair, And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look, and see Him there Who made an end of all my sin. Because
the sinless Savior died, My sinful soul is counted free, For God, the
Just, is satisfied To look on Him, and pardon me."
II. Let us turn to the second part of the subject. The chapter sets
forth before us the efficacy of the precious blood of Jesus. As soon as
the bull was slain, the priest carefully collected the blood. The bull
was slain in the court of the Israelites. Look, there it lies at the
foot of the bronze altar, with the blood in a basin. The priest passes
into the court of the priests, passes by the golden altar of incense
which stood in the holy place, and proceeds to dip his finger in the
basin and to sprinkle the blood seven times towards the veil which
concealed the Holy of Holies. Whether the blood fell on the veil or not
we are not certain. But we have good reason to believe that it was cast
upon the veil itself.
The veil, of costliest tapestry, would thus become by degrees more and
more like a vesture dipped in blood. Seven times towards the veil the
blood of the sin offering was sprinkled by the priest. Why did he begin
there? It was to show that our communion with God is by blood. The veil
was not then, of course, torn. It showed that the way of access to God
was not then revealed. The sprinkling of the blood showed that the only
thing that could open the way of access to God was the blood–that the
blood, when it should be perfectly offered, seven times
sprinkled–would tear the veil.
The blood of Jesus has to the letter fulfilled the type. When our Lord
had sprinkled, if I may say so, seven times His own heart's blood upon
the veil, He said, "It is finished," and, "the veil of the temple was
torn in two from the top to the bottom." Beloved, through the perfect
offering of the precious blood we have access with boldness into this
Divine Grace where we stand! And we who have faith in that blood have
intimate communion with the living God, and come near to His Mercy Seat
to talk with Him who dwells between the cherubim, as a man talks with
his friend.
The priest began at the innermost point because the first thing which a
Christian loses through sin is communion with God, and free access to
Him. And consequently the first thing to be restored to him must be
this communion with his God. Suppose, my Brother, my Sister, you
backslide. There are some things which you will not lose at once. You
will still be able to pray in a feeble style. You will still have some
sense of acceptance, but certainly your enjoyment and fellowship with
God will be suspended as soon as you have fallen from your first
estate. Therefore the blood is sprinkled upon the veil to show you that
through the blood, and through the blood only, you can renew your
access!
You advanced Christians. You who have lived in the very heart of God
and have stood like Milton's angel in the sun. You who have been made
to sit at the banqueting table and to drink of the wines on the lees
well refined. You who have been the King's favorites, and, like
Mephibosheth, have always been made to sit at the King's own table and
to eat of the choice portions of His dainties–if you have lost your
heavenly fellowship–it is through the blood, and through the blood
alone, that you can again have access unto the heart of God!
The next act of the priest was to retire a little from the veil to the
place where stood the golden altar of incense, adorned with four horns
of gold, probably of a pyramidal shape, or fashioned like rams' horns.
And the priest, dipping his finger in the basin, smeared this horn and
the other, until the four horns glowed with crimson in the light of the
golden candlestick. The horn is always, in the Oriental usage,
indicative of strength. What was the blood put upon the
altar for, then? That incense altar was typical of prayer, and
especially of the intercession of Christ–and the blood on the horn
showed that the force and power of all-prevailing intercession lies in
the blood!
Why was this the second thing done? It seems to me that the second
thing which a Christian loses is his prevalence in prayer. First he
loses communion with God when he backslides. The next thing he loses is
his power in supplication. He begins to be feeble upon his knees. He
cannot win of the Lord that which he desires. How is he to get back his
strength? Here the great Anointed Priest teaches us to look to the
blood for renewed power, for look, He applies the blood to the horns of
the altar and the sweet perfume of frankincense ascends to Heaven and
God accepts it! O Beloved, think of this! Christ's intercessory power
with God lies in His precious blood, and your power and mine with God
in prayer must lie in that blood, too.
Oh, to see the horns of that altar smeared with blood! How can you ever
prevail with God unless you plead the blood of Jesus? Believer, if you
would overcome in prayer, tell the Lord of all the groans of His dear
Son! Never dream of arguing except with arguments fetched from Jesus'
wounds! These are potent pleas with God–the bloody sweat, the
flagellation, the nails, the spear, the vinegar, the Cross–these must
be the mighty reasons with which to overcome the Infinite One. Let the
altar of your incense be smeared with blood!
This being finished, the priest goes backwards still further and enters
the court of the Israelites. There stood the great altar of brass,
whereon was consumed the burnt offerings. And now the priest, having
his basin full of the blood of which only a small quantity had been
used in sprinkling the veil and touching the horns of the golden altar,
pours the whole of the remaining blood in a great stream at the foot of
the altar of burnt offering. What does that typify? Did He not thus
teach us that the only ground and basis (for mark, it is put at the
foot of the altar), of the acceptance of our persons and of our thank
offerings is found in the blood of Jesus?
Did it never strike you how the whole tabernacle must have been smeared
with blood everywhere? Blood was on every side! The priest himself,
when at his work, with garments on which showed every stain, must have
looked as though all besmeared with gore! You could not look at his
hands or at his vestments without seeing blood everywhere! Indeed, when
consecrated, he had blood on his ear, blood on his foot, blood on his
hand–he could not be made a priest without it. The Apostle says,
"Almost everything under the Law was sprinkled with blood." It was
blood, blood everywhere!
Now, this could have been very far from a pleasant sight, except to the
spiritual man who, as he looked at it, said, "What a holy God is the
God of Israel! How He hates sin! See, He will only permit sinners to
approach Him by the way of blood!" And then the inquiring mind would
ask, "What blood is this which is here intended?" We know that the
blood of bulls and of goats was but the visible symbol of the
sufferings of Jesus, the great Sacrifice, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation for our sins. All the blood-marks pointed to the "Lamb
of God, which takes away the sin of the world."
Let us rejoice in the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb without
blemish and without spot, who was foreordained from the foundations of
the world, but was manifest in these last days for us! Will you now
make a summary of what has been spoken? Come with me outside the
Tabernacle. Let us begin at the opening in its curtains leading to the
outer court. We have sinned, and desire acceptance with God–that must
be the first blessing. The bronze altar of burnt offerings is standing
before us, and we wish to offer our thank offering, may we do so? How
can we be accepted?
Look at the bottom of the altar! What do you see there? A pool of blood
all around it, as though the altar stood in blood! What does this mean?
Surely the blood of Jesus is the basis of our acceptance before God,
and here we stand as citizens of Heaven, not accursed, but beloved! Not
rejected and abhorred, but elect and blessed through the blood which is
the ground of our acceptance as Believers and citizens of Zion!
Now we have come so far, we remember that we are not only citizens of
the new Jerusalem, but priests unto God, and as priests we desire to
enter the court of the priests. And there is the golden altar, but
where is our power to minister before the Lord? How shall we approach
with the love of our hearts, our joyful thanks, and our fervent
intercessions? Behold the answer to our inquiries! Observe with joy the
blood-marks on the four horns! It is not our prayers that will be in
themselves prevalent, nor our praises, nor our love–but the BLOOD
gives prevalence, acceptance, and power to all! Come here, then, and
let us lay our heart itself, all bleeding, upon that altar and let our
prayers and praises rise to Heaven, like pillars of smoke, accepted
through the blood!
But, Beloved, this is not all. We are something more than priests–we
are children of God, dear to His heart! Let us, then, seek fellowship
with our Father who is in Heaven. How can we enter into the Most Holy
Place and commune with
the God who hides Himself? What is the mode of entrance into that which
is within the veil? We look, and lo, the veil is torn! And on the
floor, right across where the veil used to hang, we see a line of
blood, where, times without number, the blood had been sprinkled! And
on the two pieces of the veil through which we pass, we can see many
distinct traces of blood–yes, and when we come right up to the Mercy
Seat we can see the blood there, too!
What does this mean but that the blood is the means of access to God,
and by no other means is He to be approached? When we shall be nearest
to God and see Him face to face, and dwell with Him in Heaven forever,
it will be because Jesus Christ loved us and died for us, and sprinkled
His blood for us that we be permitted to have this close and wonderful
communion with God which even angels never had–for even they can only
veil their faces with their wings, and must not dare to look upon God
as we shall do, when our eyes shall see Him as our Father and our
Friend!
Thus I have tried to set forth the threefold prevalence of the precious
blood, but let it not be forgotten that the blood also put away sin!
For you find at the end of the chapter, "His sin shall be forgiven."
First forgiven, then accepted, then prevalent in prayer, and then
admitted into access with boldness to God–what a chain of blessings!
All, all through the blood of Jesus!
III. Thirdly, the most painful part of our sermon remains, while I beg
you to view the shame which our Lord endured. While it is all so well
for us, so sweet for us, I want you now to reflect how bitter, how
shameful it was for our Lord! The offerer who brought the sin offering
has been forgiven. He has been accepted at the bronze altar. His
prayers have been heard at the golden altar, and the veil has been
sprinkled on his behalf. But what of the Victim itself? Draw near and
learn with holy wonder!
In the first place, albeit that our Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for
us, it is noteworthy that, though nearly all the bull was burned
outside he camp, there was one portion left and reserved to be burnt
upon the altar of burnt offering– the fat. Certain descriptions are
given as to the fat which was to be consumed upon the altar, by which
we believe it was intended to ensure that the richest part of the fat
should be there consumed. As much as if God would say, "Though My dear
Son must be made sin for this people, and consequently I must forsake
Him, and He must die outside the camp, yet still He is most dear and
precious in My sight. And even while He is a sin offering, yet He is My
beloved Son in whom in Himself I am still well pleased."
Brethren, whenever we speak about our Lord as bearing our sins, we must
carefully speak concerning Him–not as though God ever did despise or
abhor the prayer of His afflicted Son, but only seemed to do so while
He stood for us– representatively made sin for us, though He knew no
sin. Oh, I delight to think that the Lord smelled a sweet savor unto
God, even as a sin offering! The fat, the excellence of His heart, the
consecration of His soul were acceptable to God and sweet in His esteem
even when He laid upon Him the iniquity of His people!
Still, here is the shameful part of it–the priest then took the bull,
and gathering up all the innards, every part of it, the skin, the
dung–all mentioned to teach us what a horrible thing sin is and what
the Surety was looked upon as being when He took our sin–he took it
all up, and either himself personally, or assisted by others, took it
away out of the camp. We are told that in the wilderness, so large was
the camp that it may have been the distance offour miles that this bull
had to be carried.
I think I see the sad procession–the priest all smeared with blood,
carrying the carcass of the bull, taking it right away down the long
line of tents. First through the abodes of one tribe and then of
another–through the long streets of tents–while the people stood at
their doors and saw the ghastly sight. It was killed at the altar of
burnt offering. Why was it not burnt there? That altar was holy, and as
soon as ever sin was laid upon the bull, it ceased to be any longer
looked upon as a holy thing! It could not, therefore, be burnt in the
holy place. It must be taken away. So the priest carried it away–a
terrible load–till he reached the usual place where the ashes were
kindled, and he put the bull there, and heaped the hot ashes upon it
till the whole smoked up to Heaven, and was utterly consumed as a sin
offering.
My Beloved, try if you can, to grasp the idea of Jesus being put away
from God! I cannot give you the thoughts, but if you could hear the air
pierced with the dreadful cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama Sabacthani?" "My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me?" you would see Christ put away
because He was made sin. It was not possible for God to look upon sin,
even when it was in Christ, with anything like complacency. "It pleased
the Father to bruise Him. He has put Him to grief." If you have read
the order of the burnt offering, you will have noticed that when the
bull of the burnt offering was
offered, it was washed, to show the perfection of Christ as He is a
sweet savor, all pure and clean. But in this case there is added that
humiliating word, "with the dung."
What a humiliating type of Christ! Ah, but what are your sins and mine
that were laid upon Jesus? How could our iniquities and transgressions
be better set forth than by that bleeding, mangled mass which the high
priest had to carry out away from the camp, as though it were a thing
abhorred, which could not be endured in the camp any longer? It is your
Savior made sin for you and put away on your behalf!
After the removal, they gathered the hot ashes, they kindled the fire,
and burnt it all. See here a faint image of the fire which consumed the
Savior upon Calvary! His bodily pains ought never to be forgotten
because there is so intimate a relation between physical suffering and
mental grief that it were hard to draw the line. But still the
sufferings of His soul must have been the very soul of His sufferings!
And can you tell what they were?
Have you ever suffered from a raging fever? Have you felt at the same
time the pangs of some painful disease? Has your mind refused to rest?
Has your brain been tossed like the waves of a sea of fire within your
head? Have you questioned whether you should lose your reason or not?
Have you ever been near unto distraction? Have you ever been near unto
the breaking of the cords of life? If so, you may feebly guess what He
suffered when He said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto
death." And when He "began to be sorrowful and to be very heavy." Those
were the coals of juniper which were being heaped over the sin
offering.
As you see Jesus scourged by Herod and by Pilate, and afterwards
bleeding on the accursed tree, you see the fire of Divine wrath
consuming the sin offering because our sin had been laid upon Him. I
will not dwell longer on this, only ask the Holy Spirit to make you
feel the shame that Christ suffered for you. Sometimes I cannot grasp
the thought, when I have tried to think that He who made the heavens,
to whom the whole blue arch is but as a span, and the depths of the
seas as the hollow of His hand, should be made flesh! And then suffer
for such an insignificant worm as I am!
That He should suffer, however, never amazes me so much as that He
should bear my sin. Oh, marvelous! The angels say, "Holy! Holy! Holy!
Lord God of Sabaoth!" What could they have said when He, whom they
hymned as "glorious in holiness," bowed His head and gave up the ghost,
because "made sin for us"? Blessed Son of God! Where we cannot
understand we will adore!
The Apostle Paul suggests to us the most practical conclusion of our
sermon. He tells us that as our Savior, having given His blood to be
sprinkled within the Tabernacle for us, was then taken outside the
camp, so it is our duty, yes, and our privilege, to go forth unto Him
outside the camp also, bearing His reproach. You have heard how He was
reproached for you! Are you unwilling to be reproached for Him? You
have heard how He went outside the camp in that shameful manner! Are
you unwilling to go outside the camp for Him? Too many Christians try
to be Christians in the camp, but it cannot be done. "Be not conformed
to this world, but be you transformed by the renewing of your minds."
There is so much of worldly conformity among us! But the promise is not
to worldly-minded Christians, but, "Come you out from among them. Be
you separate. Touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and
will be a Father unto you." How much we lose by affinities with the
world! How much of distance there is between us and God because of the
nearness there is between us and the world! Come out, you lovers of the
Savior, and tread the separated way which your Savior walked before
you!
And now, should there be any here who are unsaved, I should not wonder
but what some of them will make the remark, the almost, no, the quite
profane remark, "Why, he spoke so much of blood!" Ah, Sinner, and we
need to speak much of it to you, for it is your only hope! God will
either have your blood or Christ's blood, one of the two. If you reject
Christ, you shall perish in your sin. "The blood is the life thereof,"
says the Word of God. And your life must be taken unless Christ's life
shall avail for you. The very heart of Christ was broken to find out
the way to save a sinner. And, Sinner, there is no other!
If you refuse the purple road, you shall never reach the pearly gate.
Trust in the blood of Jesus! Do you doubt? How can you? Is there not
efficacy enough in the blood of the Son of God to take away sin? Do you
contradict God's declared Truth, "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanses us from all sin"? Oh, believe it, and cast your soul upon it,
and we will meet within the veil, one of these days, to sing, "To Him
that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood…to Him be
glory forever and ever." Amen.
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Stephen's Martyrdom
A sermon