Join us now for the chapel hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Today's message was preached during a Sunday morning worship service held on the university campus. Following the reading of the scripture from Leviticus chapter 4, verses 27 through 35, our speaker will be Dr. Dan Olinger, Chairman of the Division of Bible at BJU. The title of his message is, Christ Our Sin Offering. The message will be brought by Dr. Dan Olinger, Chairman of the Bible Division here at the University. And he's asked that we read from Leviticus chapter 4 beginning in verse 27. Leviticus 4, 27 to the end of the chapter. Verse 27, and if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he do is somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done and be guilty, or if his sin which he has sinned come to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering a kid of the goats, a female without blemish for his sin, which he has sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger and put it upon the horns of the altar, a burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away all the fat thereof as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings, and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savor unto the Lord. And the priest shall make an atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him. And if you bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it upon the horns of the altar, a burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings. And the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by fire under the Lord. And the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he has committed, and it shall be forgiven him. God bless the reading and the preaching of his word to our hearts this morning. His name is Joshua. He's not famous. He's from the tribe of Dan, far in the north of Israel, almost to Caesarea Philippi. And Joshua has a problem with God. God has given his law to Israel and he expects them to obey it. But the law is very large and very complicated. It governs every moment of an Israelite's day. from the big things like murder to the most minute. One of the laws is that an Israelite is not to harvest the corners of his fields. He's to leave some of the produce in the corners so that poor people can come and find food for themselves. Like many Israelites, Joshua is a farmer and he has several crops growing in his fields, mostly grapes and figs, which are commonly grown there in the north of Israel. Late this past fall, just before grape harvest, he was repairing the parapet on his roof in conformity to another of God's laws. And he fell off. and broke both his legs. He has no brothers and no sons. So he hired two men from his village to harvest his crops, and he agreed to pay them according to how much they harvested. He's a devout Jew, a well-meaning man. They harvested everything. They wanted as much money as they could get. It was several weeks before Joshua was strong enough to get out into his fields again. And when he did, he was horrified. The corners were harvested right down to the ground, as bare as the rest of his fields. He had not required his workers to follow the law. And even worse, he had set up the pay scale in a way that would encourage them to break it. Joshua is guilty. He has broken God's law. Not intentionally, mind you, that the law has been broken. Nonetheless, God is great and God is good. Joshua has violated God's goodness. And now he has to deal with God's greatness. Joshua is in trouble. But because God is good, he's made a way for Joshua to be rescued from his sin, the law of Moses provides for something called a sin offering. Which will atone for Joshua's unintentional sin. The sin offering must be presented in the temple where God has placed his name. And the temple is a long ways away, far to the south in Jerusalem. But Joshua is determined to go. As it happens, the calendar is in his favor. The law requires all Israelite men to go from their homes to Jerusalem three times a year to present themselves before the Lord at his temple. The first time is in March or April at Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The second is in May or June at Pentecost and the Feast of Harvest. And the third is in September or October for the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement. Joshua is now well enough recovered from his fall, not only to walk around his farm, but to make the long walk to Jerusalem. And Passover is next week. He can offer his sin offering when he goes to Jerusalem for Passover. It's a long walk. Dan is far in the north of Israel, north of the Sea of Galilee, in Perea, where Herod Antipas is king. Joshua travels south past the little village of Chorazin to the north coast of the Sea of Galilee, and he follows the lowland of the coast west along the north shore past Capernaum and then Gennesaret. He turns south around the lake down the eastern shore past Magdala and Tiberias. to the south end where the Jordan River flows out toward the south. He's walked thirty five miles, it's taken him all of one day, an overnight stay and into the next day and he's still in Galilee. As a good Israelite, he doesn't want to walk through Samaria filled with the unclean. So he crosses the Jordan River, and walks along its eastern bank for nearly 60 miles until he stands opposite Jericho, where long ago another Joshua has led Israel into this promised land. He can almost see the Salt Sea to the south, and he can smell its heavy, salty air. He crosses the Jordan again into the Judean wilderness and begins the fifteen-mile climb up out of the Jordan Gorge, up the Jericho Road toward Mount Zion, the city of the Great King. All around him is desert. Even in the spring it's hot and dry and exhausting. And it is unremittingly steeply up hill. Added to the physical strain of the journey is the need to be constantly on the lookout for bandits who hang out along this road, looking for lone travelers whom they regard as easy targets. Fortunately, Joshua is not alone. He's been joined along the way by an ever-growing crowd of fellow Passover pilgrims. After what seems like an endless climb, he finally sees the Mount of Olives on the horizon, the last barrier before Jerusalem. He climbs it slowly, feeling the ache in every muscle. It's late in the afternoon when he crests the ridge and in an instant he sees, like a sudden sunrise, the magnificent panorama of the city. It reflects pink and orange in the setting sun. And as often as he's made this trip, he still feels his heart leap every time he sees it. It's astonishingly beautiful. From atop the Mount of Olives, he can see across the Kidron Valley all the way to the far western side of the city on Mount Zion. To his left is the shoulder of the city of David. To his right is what they call the New City, where tailors sell their services in booths. But directly in front of him is his destination, the temple. the place where God waits to receive his sacrifice and to grant him complete forgiveness. Long ago, God was actually visible there. In Solomon's temple, the light of God's presence had filled the Holy of Holies around the Ark of the Covenant. Solomon's temple is long gone, of course. It was leveled by the Babylonians some 600 years before. The hill Moriah was in ruins for 70 years, just as the prophet Jeremiah had promised God's people. But exactly 70 years later, under Governor Zerubbabel, Israel had dedicated the second temple and had begun to worship God once again on Moriah. More recently, King Herod Agrippa has completely renovated and enlarged the temple. Israel knows that this Edomian half-breed is merely trying to get the Israelites to like him, but they have to admit that the temple is now once again a beautiful and impressive place. Joshua stands on all of it and savors the site for a long time. Feeling rested and re-energized, he descends into the Kidron Valley and heads north toward the Damascus Gate. It isn't the most direct route to the temple, but it is his favorite entrance, and the inn where he will stay tonight is just outside it. Just outside the gate, near the place of the skull, there's a small garden where he likes to stop and rest. There he enjoys the shade and the spring water. Next to the spring, there's a large cistern, large and deep, where he can drink until he thinks he will never thirst again. Night has now fallen, and Joshua finds the inn where he regularly stays on these pilgrimages. The burly innkeeper greets his regular customer with a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. and shows him to his room. He washes up and emerges for the common meal, roast lamb and vegetables and flatbread drizzled with olive oil. It's been four days since he left home, and he eats and sleeps well that night. In the morning, Joshua walks a few yards south and enters the Damascus Gate. Immediately, He is surrounded by the rush of the city. People are everywhere and going everywhere. Stalls along the street are filled with merchandise and the sellers call to him hoping to make another sale. Good tools, cheap, special price just for you. The jangling of coins in the bag at his waist reminds him that he will buy something important today, but this is not the place. He works his way south through the narrow, winding streets of the new city. He knows every turn and landmark, having walked this path three times a year since he was 12 years old. He moves quickly and directly through the chaos until he finally sees his destination, the stairs. There are fifty steps up to the platform at the top of the arch, where he will enter the temple complex at the southwest corner of the Temple Mount. He pauses atop the arch to enjoy the view. He can't see the place where he stood last night on the Mount of Olives, since the top few feet of the wall block his view, but he can look north and west over the rest of the city. To the north, just past the Tower of Antonia, where the hated Roman soldiers look casually down on the Temple of God. Joshua can see the Damascus Gate, where he entered the city this morning. To the west is Mount Zion and Herod's palace. Further south he can see the amphitheater, and further yet is the City of David and the Pool of Siloam, where water from the Gihon Spring ends its journey through Hezekiah's tunnel. Everywhere the city is strong and busy and vital and beautiful. He's surrounded by visible evidence of God's grace to and his patience with a constantly sinning people. He turns east across the arch. Crosses the top of the arch and enters the gate into the temple complex itself. To his right is the royal porch. with its long double row of fifty-foot tall Corinthian columns extending nearly a thousand feet along the southern wall of the Temple Mount. To his left is the marble-floored courtyard the size of four football fields, with even more beyond his vision on the other side of the Temple. It is an active place. There are hundreds of sacrifices here every day. And the animals have to come from somewhere. All around the courtyard are vendors selling goats and lambs and turtle doves and pigeons, even the occasional bull or ox. All guaranteed to be without spot or blemish. It's much easier to buy an animal here than to bring it all the way from home. Joshua reaches for his money bag and finds a vendor with a female kid. Several coins change hands and the vendor hands Joshua the rope. He has a few coins left over, which he'll carry further inside. The young goat bleats, clearly unaware of her fate. He leads the goat northward across the marble tiles toward a low wall with several gates. Having been there often, he doesn't stop to read the sign in Greek next to the gate as he passes through. No foreigner is to enter within the balustrade and embankment around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to thank for his death, which follows." This marks the end of the court of the Gentiles. Joshua steps through the gate from the court and avoids the crowd searching up through the inside steps leading up from the ritual baths at the bottom of the southern stairs. He moves purposely toward the stairway leading to the platform on which the temple itself stands. At the top of the stairs he turns right and moves around to the east side of the temple toward the beautiful gate, its brass doors shining in the morning sun. He steps through the gate into the court of the women. Around the courtyard are thirteen offering boxes. shaped like trumpets standing on their bells. He walks directly to trumpet number eight, which is reserved for money left over from the purchase of sacrificial animals, and he drops in his remaining coins. Working his way west toward the sanctuary, he climbs an arc of 15 steps to the Nicanor Gate and the Court of Israel. He's been climbing steps all morning, rising a flight at a time to the place where he can meet God. And now he has risen far enough. He stops in the gate just short of the court of the priests where he is not allowed. He sees just to his right the place of slaughter. And just to his left, the altar itself, 48 feet square, 15 feet high, an ordered pile of unhewn stones bearing no mark of human works. A priest meets him where he stands in the entrance and takes the rope holding the young goat. Joshua places both his hands on the goat's head. leaning with all his weight and recites the formula prayer. I am treat. Oh, Jehovah, I have sinned. I have done perversely. I have rebelled. I have reached the corners of my field, robbing the poor and breaking your most holy law. But I return in repentance and let this be for my atonement. He watches as the priest takes the goat to the place of slaughter. With the proficiency of one both practiced in and accustomed to the killing. The priest slits the throat of the young goat and catches the blood in a silver cup, its cone shape guaranteeing that it can never be set down while it holds the blood of a sacrifice. The priest moves across in front of Joshua to the southeast corner of the altar, dips his forefinger in the blood and flicks the blood with his thumb onto the horn that proceeds from the corner of the altar. He moves counterclockwise around the altar, repeating the sprinkling at the corner closest to Joshua, then moving out of sight around the far side of the altar. to sprinkle the remaining two corners. Throughout the process, Joshua stands silent in the entryway, facing the massive doors that close off the holy place. And beyond that, the Holy of Holies, where God himself used to dwell visibly. The cycle of sprinkling finished The priest pours the remaining blood into a hole at the base of the altar, where a channel funnels it out and down into the Kidron Valley. He then moves in front of Joshua again to the body of the goat lying where it fell. With several fellow priests, he skins the body and cuts it into several pieces, which they wash and dry with sponges. They pick out the kidneys, part of the liver, and the internal fat. and carry them to the east side of the altar for burning. Joshua hears the sizzle of the fat and sees the smoke ascending. He knows that God smells the smoke and considers it perfume. Several of the priests carry away the remaining meat, which they will eat at the next meal as a sign that God himself has accepted the sacrifice. Joshua turns to leave the temple, the burden lifted from his shoulders, relishing peace with God for the time being. Every time he does this, he revels in the sense of forgiveness and restoration. But he also wonders how long it will be before he has to come back and do it all again. Joshua's business is not yet completed here. In two days is the Passover. When all the men of Israel with them, he will present himself again before Jehovah at the temple, and another sin offering will be presented for the sins of all the people. That's an offering will be different from Joshua's in several ways. First, it'll be a bull, a much larger animal, and it will be male. Second, when it's killed, Its blood will be sprinkled not on the horns of the altar, but in the holy place, behind the doors and directly toward the very veil before the Holy of Holies, signifying that the blood of the sacrifice has been presented to God himself. And finally, the priests will not eat this sacrifice. It'll be carried outside the city wall and burned completely as a sign of God's rejection and complete judgment. But there is something that Joshua doesn't know. There's another Joshua in Jerusalem that day. He's resting in Bethany with a band of men who listen to his teaching. Tomorrow evening, he will gather with those men in Jerusalem halfway between the arch and Herod's palace to eat the Passover. And on the next day, something profound will happen. He will not participate in the offering of the bowl for the nation. Rather, he will be the sacrifice. For this nation and all nations. For this year and all time. He will be taken outside the city walls through the very Damascus gate through which Joshua walked this morning. And his body, all of it, will be under the infinite wrath of the Holy God. The sun will be darkened as the wrath of God is poured out on his people for the last time. His body will be carried through the small garden, past the cistern from which Joshua drank so deeply last night, and placed in a new tomb hewn out of solid rock. But it will not stay there. And because of that simple fact, Joshua will never again need to buy a goat at the temple. He will never again need to feel the guilt for his constant sins. He will never again know spiritual thirst. And he will never die. Years later, the Apostle Paul will write that he who knew no sin became a sin offering for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And someone else, we don't know who, will write the book of Hebrews. I'd like you to turn there, please, to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And follow as I read. Verses 11 through 15. Hebrews 13, 11 through 15. For the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. In closing, I offer you three thoughts from this paragraph. for your consideration and encouragement. First, we are sanctified by Christ's blood. We are set apart unto him, forever clean and forever forgiven. Second, we follow him through the gate and outside the city walls, beyond the corridors of power, beyond the praise of men, often even beyond simple justice. It is not fair. But we can expect no less. He has preceded us here. And finally, the only sacrifice we offer now is not a sacrifice for sin. It's a sacrifice of praise. It's not a sin offering. It's a praise offering. And how do we do that? The fruit of our lips giving praise unto his name. Loving Father, author of our salvation. Author of both the law and the freedom that comes from Christ's fulfillment of the law. We present ourselves to you a living sacrifice. Walking of our own accord outside the gate, outside the city wall and sharing with your son in the rejection of this world, the injustice of this world, and the great joy of his service, the joy of freedom from our sin, and of freedom from the rigorous demands of the law. May you empower us, Father, to serve you, to love you, to know you, to walk with you each day, to revel in your presence, and to look for the city that we have which is yet to come. You've been listening to the Chapel Hour, coming to you from the campus of Bob Jones University. Our speaker was Dr. Dan Olinger, Chairman of the Division of Bible at BJU. For a cassette or compact disc copy of today's message, send a check for $6 to Campus Store, Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina 29614. Be sure to mention the name of the speaker and today's date. The Chapel Hour has been sponsored by Bob Jones University.