Redeeming the Unclean

Redeeming the Unclean

(No. 3458)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1915.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
FEBRUARY 9, 1868.

"And every first-born of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb; and if
you will not redeem it, then you shall break its neck." Exodus 13:13.

WE read to you in the former part of the service the origination of the
Law of God by which the first-born, both of man and beast, belonged to
the Most High. That Law seemed to be a very admirable memorial of what
the Lord did, and also a very just requirement on the part of God that
the first-born, whom He had so miraculous delivered, should be His
through all time.

But the difficulty arose as to how some beasts, which were counted
unclean by the Law, could be offered to God at all. There were many
animals necessary to man, useful for draught, and so forth, but not
coming under the list of clean animals, such as divided the hoof and
chewed the cud. Among the rest, the donkey, useful everywhere, but most
of all in oriental countries, was counted unclean. How, then, could it
be dedicated to God? How could the first-born of the donkey be given to
Him? Our text solves the difficulty. An exchange was made. A lamb was
offered instead, and then the donkey, of course, was redeemed. But if
the owner did not sufficiently value it to give a lamb, instead, then
the neck was broken and the animal destroyed.

The teaching of the text is just as follows. It is fourfold and I think
we shall have to bring out each fold. Of course, it is typical of
something to do with ourselves and Christ, and our standing before God.
And the first observation is this, that–

I. AS THE DONKEY, BEING UNCLEAN, WAS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO GOD, EVEN SO,
UNRENEWED MAN, BEING UNCLEAN, IS ALSO UNACCEPTABLE BEFORE THE MOST
HIGH.

Did it ever strike you that man, according to the Jewish ceremonial
Law, is an unclean creature? Nothing was clean, according to the Law of
Moses, but that which divided the hoof and chewed the cud. Now man
fails in one of these, and by the Law he is put down as a sinner, as
being on a level with the unclean beasts. What a wonder the Gospel does
for us when, being redeemed with a price, we are said to be the sheep
of God, the lambs of Christ's flock, so that therein we bear the same
name as the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, and we are raised from the
condition of the brute, into which sin brought us, and are made to sit
far above principalities and powers, in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus! Lost by sin through the Law and placed in the very depths, man,
by Grace through Jesus Christ, is lifted up to the very heights!

But we return to what we started with, namely, that man has become,
through sin, like the donkey–a creature incapable of rendering
acceptable service to God. For, in the first place, every man has
already broken the Law of Godand, as God accepts no service but that
which is, like Himself, perfect, no unrenewed man is capable of
rendering perfect legal obedience such as God can accept. His Law is
like a superb crystal vase. If it is whole, it is whole. But if it is
chipped or cracked in the smallest degree, the Law is broken. It is
like a great golden chain which is precious and useful while whole, but
the snapping of one link breaks the chain. So, unless a man could keep
God's Law without any defect or transgression, it would not be possible
that he could be accepted by the Most High. Now there is not one of us
but has certainly broken some command. I fear we have, all of us,
broken all the commands! If not in act, yet in word or in thought, so
that before God's bar we ought to plead guilty to every count in the
indictment and should not hope to be accepted by our works. What a
condemning text is that in Isaiah–"We are altogether as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags"! He does not say
that all our wickednesses are so–no, these are worse and baser, still,
but all our righteousnesses are–that is, the best thing which
unrenewed nature can possibly produce is nothing better than the

rag which is too filthy to be seen, but must be cast away and burned in
the fire! Yes, you that seek to be justified by your good works, you
may pant, and strive, and wear out your lives in energetic failures,
for success is entirely impossible! You cannot thus, while you are what
you are, produce a righteousness that God can accept, seeing that you
have already sinned.

In addition to this, man's heart is alienated. We would not, ourselves,
accept a service done us by an enemy, or that is done without any
motive of repentance. No, since the very essence of obedience lies in
the yielding up of the heart–until a man's heart is made new, till he
loves the God whom he has despised, all that he can do is but the false
serving of a hypocrite, the dead service of a formalist, or the forced
service of a slave–and none of these can God accept! Do you think when
the ungodly man repeats a prayer, and his heart is absent, that God
accepts the prayer? I tell you that that prayer is, in itself, a sin
and a great provocation against the Most High! When the ungodly man
stands with God's people and pretends to be one of them, repeats their
creeds and declares himself to be a Believer in the things which he
does not believe, he does but lie before God and the things he says
cannot be received by Him. All outward, external religion, in which the
heart does not join, so far from being received by the Most High with
approbation, must be viewed by Him with utter abhorrence. How is it
possible, then, for a man who loves not God to be accepted before the
King of Kings?

In, addition to this, there is no service which unrenewed man can
render which is not defiled with sin, even in itself, chiefly with one
sin, namely, self-righteousness. If a man works works of righteousness
with the idea that he is meriting a reward, thereby, to whom is he a
servant? I answer, not to God, but to himself! If I obey, or profess to
obey, the Law of God, but my whole motive is that I may save myself,
and that I may get happiness unto myself, evidently self is the
reigning principle. I am not truly obedient to God as the great delight
of my spirit. I do not love Him with heart, and soul, and strength, but
I love myself, and cover up this selfishness with the pretence that I
love Him. Oh, you that are thus striving to serve yourselves under some
spiritual garb or other, you cannot serve the living God, do what you
will! Your holiest service will be an offense, a smoke in His nostrils,
and He will put away your best things as being offered with strange
fire and, therefore, not to be received!

Once more. By very nature, man is so obnoxious to the wrath of God that
it is impossible for God to accept him as His creature. Kings would not
delight to be served by men with foul hands who left defilement
everywhere. Yet such are we! We would not like to always have before
our eyes, in our servants, some dreadful disease, some disgusting
leprosy and yet such is the disease of sin. "You are of purer eyes than
to beheld evil, and cannot look on iniquity." I have heard that text
quoted, "You cannot look upon it but with abhorrence." That is true,
but it is put still stronger. The Prophet puts it that He cannot look
upon it, that He cannot endure it. He is a consuming fire towards
sinners and what He will do with the finally impenitent is, so He says,
"tear them in pieces, and there shall be none to deliver," for out of
Christ, God cannot tolerate the ungodly! Not for a single hour would He
spare this world were it not that the Mediator comes between–otherwise
the Immaculate Perfection of the eternal God could not endure sin to be
anywhere within His reach. He would sweep the universe clear of every
rebel with the broom of destruction! He would, once and for all, ease
Himself of His adversaries and shake Himself from His enemies, even as
a man shakes the dust from his feet!

Now what a very solemn Truth of God this is! Do not think that it is
mystatement. It is really the teaching of God's Word, that the
unregenerate man is an unclean man and cannot be acceptable to God. "He
that believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed on
the Son of God." The unrenewed man is corrupt! He is dead in trespasses
and sins! Now this is meant for some of you. It is meant for some of
you who are very excellent and amiable people, and very moral. It is
meant not for the vilest of the vile, alone, but for all classes and
conditions of men–for the professedly religious people, too. Unless
your hearts are right before the Lord and you have believed in Jesus,
you cannot, you never can, strive as you will, be received before the
Most High any more than the donkey could be acceptable upon the altar
of God! But now we advance to the second Truth of God which is in the
text, namely, that–

II. THE SERVICE OF MAN, WHICH GOD CANNOT ACCEPT, IS, NEVERTHELESS,
GOD'S DUE.

God could not receive the donkey because it was unclean, but still it
belonged to God for all that. God's claim extended over all the
first-born, clean or unclean, and that claim must be maintained.
Sinner, you cannot serve God–you are too sinful! Your heart too
evil–your service too impure! But still, God's claim upon you for a
perfectly holy life has not ceased. It has not lost its power, nor
bated one jot or tittle of its just and righteous force. It has been
laid down by some theologians as being almost a self-evident Truth that
God will require no more of a man than he can do–but this, by every
thoughtful mind–will be soon discovered to be a self-evident lie
instead of being true–for God's Law is not

changed by our being changed! Whatever God demanded of man when he was
perfect, He demands the same thing of him now that he is imperfect! The
Law of God is holy, and just, and good. If it were ever too severe,
then God was not righteous in making it. And if He alters it to suit
us, what is that but the cutting down of His integrity and the
disfiguring of the tables of His own perfectly pure and holy statute
Book? It cannot not be! You, in common life, know very well that a man
is sometimes bound to do what he cannot do. If a man is in your debt
and he tells you he cannot pay you, you do not consider that his not
being able to pay exonerates him from the debt. He is still in your
debt. If he could have paid when he entered upon the debt, it was a
debt–but now that he cannot pay it, it is still a debt! True, there
are ways in which he can get cleared of the debt, just as there are
ways of salvation by which a man may be delivered from sin, but still,
the debt is none the less a debt because the man cannot pay it.
Everybody knows that inability to pay does not exonerate the man from
the duty to pay. So with God. He did not make you a sinner, Sinner. You
were pure and holy when you came from His hands. Your sin is your own.
Your weakness, inability, your willfulness, your backwardness to keep
the Law– all these are your own, and so far from excusing you, they
shall be swift witnesses against you to condemn you!

Take another instance. There are some men who have become such thieves
that we say of them, and say truly, that it is impossible for them to
be honest. They are no sooner out of prison than their hand is into
somebody's pocket–they cannot be easy and at rest till they are up
before the magistrate again! But did you ever hear such a man say,
"Sir, I cannot be honest! I have such an irresistible tendency to steal
that the law ought to be changed on my account because I have lost my
principle of honesty–therefore the law ought not to bind me"? "No,"
you say, "but he ought to be kept in prison always, for this is another
offense to make his evil heart an excuse for his evil ways." Remember,
Sinner, that your inability to come to Christ is not your misfortune,
but your sin! Your inability to keep the Law of God is not your
calamity as much as it is your willful wickedness. Inasmuch as you are
unclean and evil, the thought that you cannot help it should alarm you,
for you ought to help it. You have no business to be in the state of
sin you now are. If you could not help it, if there were any physical
disability, you might be excused. But inasmuch as the disability is
spiritual and moral, and deals with your will, there is no excuse for
you! The donkey could not be accepted, but still the donkey belonged to
God. You cannot be received as you are, all unconverted, but still God
has a claim upon you–and for every idle word that you shall speak, He
shall bring you into judgment–and for not serving Him, He will condemn
you! For not believing in Christ, you shall be called to account at the
last.

But I must pass on. The third thing in the text is this, that the
difficulty in hand was met in this way–the donkey must be God's, yet
it cannot be, for it is too impure for Him to receive! What then?

III. IT MUST BE REDEEMED BY A SUBSTITUTE.

"Every first-born of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb." Oh, the
glorious Gospel comes out here in much of its effulgence in connection
with the redemption of men! The Jew would, perhaps, deliberate awhile.
"Well," he might say, "I fancy I should like to have this donkey grown
up, for I need it as a beast of burden. But here is a lamb that must be
killed in its place, and he is the more valuable of the two." I fancy I
can hear a consultation held in the family as to what should be done.
It may be that in some cases the lamb would be the less precious of the
two. However what may be, it is agreed at the last that the lamb shall
die and that the donkey shall live.

Now, in our case, there might have been a consultation, indeed, as to
which was the more precious–our poor, willful, wicked selves, or the
Lamb of God, the Only-Begotten of the Father. All of us put together,
and millions upon millions of our human race could never equal in value
the precious Lord Jesus! If you were to put in all the angels as well,
and all the creatures that God has ever made, they could not equal Him
who is the brightness of His Father's Glory and the express Image of
His Person! "Yet He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us
all." And this is the Gospel which we have to preach to you every time
we stand before you, namely, that Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, was
offered to God as a Substitute for ungodly, unclean, unacceptable man!
That we might not die, Christ died! That we might not be cursed, Jesus
was cursed and fastened to the tree! That we might be received, He was
rejected! That we might be approved, He was despised–and that we might
live forever He bowed His head and died in our place!

If any man wants to understand theology, he had better begin here. This
is the first and main point. I do not think I should dispute with any
of my Brothers in the ministry upon what else they hold if they all
hold purely and straightforwardly the Doctrine of Substitution by Jesus
Christ on the behalf of His own elect people. Martin Luther stood out
for Justification by Faith, and rightly so, for in his day that seemed
to be the center, where all the battle raged. I think that just now
Substitution by Christ seems to be the place where the garments are
rolled in blood–and where the fight is

thickest. That Jesus Christ was punished in the sinner's place–that
the wrath which was due to His people was endured by Him, that He drank
the cup of bitterness which they ought to have drunk–is the grandest
of all the Truths of God and so sublime a Truth that if all the
Christians in the world were to be burned in one dreadful holocaust,
the price would be but little to maintain this precious Doctrine in its
integrity upon the face of the earth!

Now most men know that they are to be saved by Christ, but I am
afraid–but I am afraid that it is not always preached plainly, so that
men know how it is that Christ saves them. My dear Hearer, I would not
have you go away without knowing this! Christ Jesus came into the world
to take the sins of His people upon Himself and to be punished for
them. Well, if Christ was punished for them, they could not be punished
afterwards. Christ's being punished in their place was the full
discharge of their debt which they owed to Divine Justice, and they are
sure to be saved. They for whom Christ died as a Substitute can no more
be damned than Christ, Himself, can be! It is not possible that Hell
can enclose them, or else where are the justice and the integrity of
God? Does He demand the man, and then take a Substitute and then take
the man again? Does He demand the payment of our debt, and receive that
payment at the hand of Christ, and then arrest us a second time for the
same debt? Then, in the great court of King's Bench in Heaven, where is
justice? The honor of God, the faithfulness of God, the integrity of
God are certain guarantees to every soul for whom Christ died, that if
Christ died for him, he shall not die, but shall be exempt from the
curse of the Law!

"How then," says one, "may I know that Christ died for my soul?" Sir,
do you trust Him? Will you trust Him now? If so, that is the mark of
His redeemed! This is the King's mark upon His treasure! This is the
mark of the great Sheep-Master upon all of those whom He has bought
with His blood. If you will take Him to be the only pillar of your
salvation. If you will build upon Him as the sole foundation of your
everlasting hope, then you are His! And as for your sins, they are laid
on Him. As for your righteousness, you have none of your own, but
Christ's righteousness is yours! As in the case before us, the lamb was
offered–the donkey was spared. The unclean animal lived–the clean
creature died! There was a change of places. So does Christ change
places with the sinner! Christ puts Himself in the sinner's place and
what do we read? "He was numbered with the transgressors," and, being
numbered with the transgressors, what then? Why, He was put to death as
a transgressor! They crucified Him between two malefactors. He had to
suffer the death of a felon! And though in Him was no sin, yet, "the
Lord has made to meet upon Him the iniquities of us all." He was,
before God, the Representative of all His people, and all the sins of
His people covered Him until He had drunk the cup of wrath. And then He
threw off the horrible incubus of His people's sins and cast the
stupendous load of the guilt of all His elect down into the sepulcher
and there left it buried forever! And in His rising from the dead, He
gave to them the pledge and earnest of their acquittal and of their
everlasting life! Ah, my Hearers, I wish I had a thousand tongues with
which to proclaim this one Truth of God! As I have not, I ask the
tongues of all those who know its preciousness to tell it forth. Tell
the sick, tell the dying, tell the young, tell the old, tell sinners of
every degree and every class, that salvation is not by what they do,
nor by what they feel, but that it all lies in that Man who was once
crucified, but who now lives in the power of an endless life before the
eternal Throne of God! And if they say, "What do you mean by this?"
tell them that this Man is none other than God Over All, blessed
forever, and that He condescended to become Man and take upon Himself
the sins of His people, and to be punished for their guilt, so that
whoever believes on Him might not perish, but have everlasting life!
The Just for the unjust, He died to bring us to God! This is the
Gospel–the core, the kernel, the marrow of the entire Bible! You may
say of all the Book besides, that it is but folds and wrappings–but
this is what it wraps up–Substitution by Christ! This is but the box,
the case–it is Christ that is the Jewel, the Treasure for which the
case was made! Believe this Truth of God! Believe it as a Doctrine,
but, better still, cast your souls on it, and say, "If it is so, then I
will trust in the power of Him who loved, and lived, and died for
sinners that I might go free." The last Truth of God in the text is a
very solemn one, namely, that–

IV. THE UNREDEEMED MAN MUST DIE.

The unredeemed donkey was put to a speedy and very ignominious death.
"You shall break its neck." There was no bringing of it to the altar,
but it must be as an obnoxious thing, killed with the axe and left.
There is no choice for any man, woman, or child here, except this. If
you trust in Christ, you are redeemed, and you shall live. If you do
not, there is something worse for you than the breaking of the neck of
the poor donkey. When they break its neck, it is done–just a pang and
a struggle, and it is over. But it is not over with us when the time
comes to execute the righteous sentence of the Law if Christ has not
suffered that sentence for us and we are found unbelievers in Him!
Then, first of all, the soul is torn from the body–the body left here,
the soul to appear before God–and then it immediately receives the
foretokens of its

last and ultimate doom! It is driven from God's Presence to abide as a
naked spirit in utter wretchedness. When our Lord pictures the death of
the rich man, He does not talk about any sleep, but He says, "In Hell
he lifted up his eyes, being in torments." He was one moment on earth,
but the next moment in Hell! There the soul must continue till the
Resurrection comes, and then the soul must come back to the body and,
body and soul together must stand in that great gathering where every
eye shall see the Pierced One and behold Him in His Glory. Then the
great and final sentence shall be pronounced and to the unregenerate it
will be this–"Then shall He say to those at His left hand, Depart from
Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels."

I tremble while I speak thus, but you must hear it, lest you miss it.
And we must speak it, lest we be found guilty of your soul's blood. In
the name of the living God, I speak to everyone to whom this voice can
come. You must have Christ die for you, or you must die forever! It
must be either Calvary or Hell–one of the two! His blood must be
sprinkled upon your conscience, or else your blood shall be upon your
own head! It is with you tonight–turn or burn–believe or perish! For
I do assure you, according to the teaching of the Word of God and of
His Holy Spirit, that there is not the shadow of a hope anywhere else
for you. You may belong to some church and you may hope to be saved by
your baptism or by your confirmation, but these are useless apart from
Christ! You may attend some meeting house, and you may think to be
saved because you are very orthodox, but your orthodoxy will perish
with you, and will only be firewood for your burning if you trust to
that! Perhaps you think that leaving something in your will at the last
to some charity, or giving liberally to the poor, may cover a multitude
of sins, and that with such a covering as Achan used when he covered up
the wedge of gold that God's eyes might not see the unholy thing. But
Achan died, notwithstanding that he had covered up his ill-gotten
wealth–and so will you!

Ah, if an angel should come here tonight, and speak, perhaps you would
listen to him more intensely than you would to me. But what could he
tell you more simple than this, that there is but one hope for you, and
that one hope neglected, there is no hope, no hope, no hope forever?
God has been pleased to commit this ministry not unto angels, but unto
us– poor men like yourselves–that we may tell you with affection,
that we may speak to you with sympathy. Why will you die? You know what
pain is, do you not? You have suffered enough already. Some of you have
to endure the biting pangs of hunger. You are sometimes cold and
poverty brings you very low. Will you be everlastingly poor? Will you
forever endure the pangs and miseries infinitely worse than any you
have known in this world? I am not inventing bugbears to frighten you.
God forbid! I am only telling you what I have read in God's Word and
what you yourselves may see to be there. "Except you repent," said
Christ, "you shall all likewise perish." Why need you perish? Why musts
you perish? Jesus Christ is preached to you and we say to you, tonight,
in the name of the Most High–Whoever believes on the Lord Jesus Christ
shall be saved! Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as wool
if you do but trust Him! Though you have gone ever so far into sin, yet
simple faith in Christ will bring you out of it! And though your sins
should be ingrained in your nature and have become such a habit to you
that you seem no more able to get rid of your abominable habits than
the leopard could get rid of his spots, or the Ethiopian of his black
skin–yet such is the miraculous power of the blood of Jesus that it
can take out the leopard's spots, and remove the Ethiopian's hue, and
make those white who were once defiled, for it not only takes away the
guilt of sin, but the power of sin! If you believe in Christ, you will
have a new nature, new desires, new tastes, new enjoyments! You shall
hate the things you once loved, and love the things you once hated–

"'Tis but to trustImmnanuel's blood! 'Tis all! 'Tis all!"

"Yes," I hear you say, "but this is too little! It is too easy!" Well,
and what a mercy that is for you, for if it were a difficult thing, how
could you do it? You are precisely in the case of Naaman, when the
Prophet said to him, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times." "Oh," said
Naaman, "it is too simple!" Then his servant said, "My Father, if the
Prophet had bid you do some great thing, would you not have done it?
How much rather, then, when he said to you, Wash and be clean?" The
poor Hindu will roll himself over and over for five hundred miles to
get to the Ganges, because he has been told that he will get rid of his
sin if he thus lies prostrate in the dust the whole painful journey.
Poor soul, he is but like us! We would all do that if we were quite
sure that we would be saved by it. How much rather, then, when Christ
simply says, "Trust, trust, trust, trust Christ and live! Depend simply
upon Him! Rely upon Him!"

Are you not almost sick of hearing me tell you this? We have to iterate
and reiterate on this point. We have to bring the hammer down
continually on just the same place on the anvil, and to strike just the
same note. Ah, well, if you were

all saved, and all believed in Christ, we would gladly go on to
something else–but until every soul is saved, we can do nothing but
blow the trumpet with the same sound! Believe! Trust in the Substitute!
Take Christ to be yours! Look out of self–look to Christ! Have done
with your doings! Have done with your trusting in your own powers, and
now, whether you sink or swim, give up every other hope and rest in
Him, and rely on Him, and upon Him alone!

Perhaps these simple words may bring the Gospel home to some aching
heart with comfort. And if it should, I pray you to be sure to follow
it up at once. Do not put it off. Do not delay! 'Tis resting in Jesus,
now–that is the thing. I call to recollection just now the morning
when first I rested on Him. I never, never, never can forget it. I had
been as downcast as anyone could be. I had attended places of worship.
I had done all I could, but I could get no peace till at last I heard a
simple preacher put it thus–"Look unto Me, and be you saved, all you
ends of the earth!" Now there is nothing to do here but to look–a fool
can do that! A baby can do that! You don't need a deal of learning to
do that–you only have to look! But you will ask what it is that you
are to look to. Well, it is, "Look to Me"–that is, look to Jesus!
There He is in the Garden, sweating great drops of blood! Every drop is
for you–look to Him! There He is, scourged by Pilate till His
shoulders run with gore, and every drop is for you! Look to Him! Look
to Him! There He is, fastened to the tree! His hands are streaming with
blood and every drop is for you–look to Him! There He is with His side
pierced and with the blood and water running out, and every drop is for
you! Look to Him! Look to Him! Do but look to Him! No, it is not to be
able to understand it, but to look to Him! No, it is not to be able to
write it on paper, but to look to Him! Look to Him! "Well," he said,
when he had gone thus far, "that young man under the gallery there
looks very unhappy. I think he is feeling the burden of sin but he will
never get rid of his burden unless he looks to Christ." Then he
shouted, "Look! Look! Look! Young man! Look now!"

Blessed be God, I did look–simply looked, just as the dying men in the
wilderness looked to the serpent! They did not calculate the value of
the brass. They did not make a drawing of the various convolutions of
the serpent. They did not consider how it could be. They did not get a
physician to talk to them about how the eyes might operate upon the
nerves. They just did what they were told to do! They looked, and they
lived! Will you look, or not? Will you trust, or not, young man? On the
answer which the Holy Spirit shall enable you to give to that question
will hang your present peace and your everlasting happiness! If you
answer, "No, I will not look," then, Sirs, on your own heads be your
blood if you will not rest in Jesus! So simple, so suitable, so
gracious is this way of salvation, that I myself, though I love you in
my very soul, must say that you deserve to perish if you will not thus
be saved–

"How they deserve the deepest Hell

That slight abounding love!

What chains of vengeance must they feel,

Who scorn these hands of love!" Oh, that, instead thereof, you would
simply trust! And, trusting, you shall live! Amen

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: EXODUS29:38-46; ISAIAH 53.

EXODUS29:38-46.

Verse 38. Now this is that which you shall offer upon the altar: two
lambs of the first year, day by day, continually. Remember, as long as
there was a Jewish state, the morning and the evening were to open and
to close with the sacrifice of a lamb.

39-42. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning; and the other lamb
you shall offer at evening. And with the one lamb a tenth an ephah of
flour mingled with the fourth part of a hin of pressed oil; and the
fourth part of a hin of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb
you shall offer at evening and shall do thereto according to the meat
offering of the morning. And according to the drink offering thereof,
for a sweet savor an offering made by fire unto the LORD. This shall be
a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of
the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD: where I will meet
you, to speak there unto you. See, the Lamb is the place of meeting!
God comes to His people as His people come to Him–with the morning and
with the evening Lamb.

43. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the
tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory. God's glory is in the
Lamb–it is there He is pleased to manifest Himself in the glory of His
infinite Grace to His people.

44, 45. And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation, And the
altar: I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons, to minister to Me
in the priest's office. And I will dwell among the children of Israel,
and will be their God. Not without the lamb, you see–that morning and
evening sacrifice must be the token and the way of God's dealing with
His people.

46. And they shallknow that Iam the LORD their God, that brought them
forth out of the land ofEgypt, that I may dwell among them: Iam the
LORD their God. Now concerning this same Lamb, we will read in–

ISAIAH53.

Blessed passage! I hope you all know it by heart–it should be like the
alphabet to every child. See how it begins.

Verse 1. Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
LORD revealed?This is the continual cry of the men of God. The sent
ones of God who come to bear testimony of the Lamb of God have no easy
time of it. With broken hearts they have to go to their Master, and
say, "Who has believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed?"

2. For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out
of a dry ground: He has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see
Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. Carnal minds never
did see beauty in Christ, and never will. Christ as the great Sacrifice
is always rejected.

3-5. He is despised and rejected ofmen; a Man ofSorrows, and acquainted
with grief; and we hidas it were our faces from Him; He was despised,
and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried
our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised
for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and
with His stripes we are healed. Blessed be His name! Some of us can say
that with great delight–"With His stripes we are healed."

6, 7. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to
his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all He was
oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He is
brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so He opens not His mouth. "He was oppressed and He was
afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth." Our blessed Master–there are
His seven cries upon the Cross, but not one word of murmuring, no
complaint against His enemies–"He opened not His mouth: He is brought
as the lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is
dumb, so He opens not His mouth."

8, 9. He was taken fromprison and from judgment: and who shall declare
His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for
the transgression of My people was He stricken. And He made His grave
with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth.

10. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief:
when You shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His
seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall
prosper in His hand. "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him." If ever
there was a man whom God should have protected from every sorrow, and
guarded from every stroke of injustice, it was Jesus! And unless it was
for sins not His own, He suffered, unless it was as a Substitute for
man, it was the most unjust of all heard of injustices that Christ
should die at all!

11, 12. He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be
satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many;
for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a
portion with the great. And He shall divide the spoil with the strong:
because He has poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with
the transgressors; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors. "He shall see of the travail of His soul." Oh,
what a joy is this to us! He did not travail in vain. His pangs were as
of a travailing woman, but the birth, the glorious birth that comes of
it is the salvation of multitudes–this is His recompense!