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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.
Christ, Our Sin Offering
| Sermon ID | 32409121174 |
| Duration | 31:42 |
| Date | |
| Category | Radio Broadcast |
| Bible Text | Leviticus 4:27-35 |
| Language | English |
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