Essence of Christ's Priestly Sacrifice

Review and Approach to the Essence

0:00 In our study of the Word of God this morning, we are continuing to examine what the Scriptures teach us with reference to the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of His people. In the present series of sermons entitled, Here We Stand, we have arrived at that point in which our attention is riveted upon the salvation we receive and proclaim, a salvation which focuses upon the person and work of Christ. In a very real sense, it is accurate to say that there is only one real problem in the world, and that, of course, is the

0:47 problem of sin. And, furthermore, it is accurate to say that there is only one real answer to that problem, and that is the salvation which centers in Christ both as to his person and his work. And it's because of this that we cannot be too careful or too thorough in examining the teaching of Scripture with reference to the salvation we receive and proclaim. Having spent a number of Lord's Day mornings contemplating the mystery of our Lord's person, we are now examining what the scriptures teach us with reference to the majesty of his offices.

1:29 And it's right to move from the consideration of his person to his offices for the simple reason that in the work of salvation, Jesus Christ functions in the official capacity of a God-appointed mediator. The scriptures tell us there is one God and one mediator between God and man himself, man, Christ Jesus. Or in the words of our Lord himself, I am the way, the truth, the light. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.

2:00 Now in that capacity as the exclusive Redeemer, the only mediator between God and man, the work of Christ is to be understood as an administration of three specific offices. He is our mediator and redeemer as he functions in the office of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king. To state it differently, salvation is nothing more or less than the application to a needy sinner of Christ's ministry as his prophet, his priest, and as his king. Therefore, it's essential for our own salvation and certainly for our own stability and growth as the people of God

2:45 to have some distinct understanding of what it is that Christ does for us as our prophet, as our priest, and as our king. We are presently concerned with examining his priestly office. And all I can do by way of review this morning in about two minutes is just to touch the main heads of that which has gone before and then come directly to that which I trust under the blessing of God will bring us to lie prostrate at the feet of Christ, lost in wonder, love, and praise. Thus far in our contemplation of Christ as our priest, we have established from the Scriptures, and particularly the book of Hebrews, the reality of his priestly function, the basic notion of priestly function,

3:36 and then last week we began to zero in upon one aspect of his priestly function, namely the work of sacrifice. The two great tasks of the priest were to make oblation or sacrifice, and to engage in intercession or presentation of the blooded sacrifice in the presence of God. Our focus now is upon that first aspect of our Lord's priestly work, his work of sacrifice. Last Lord's Day we saw from the Scriptures the fact of our Lord's priestly sacrifice.

4:11 By a careful examination of Ephesians 5, 1 and 2, Hebrews 9, 24 to 28, and Hebrews 10, 11 and 12, we discovered that the work of Christ upon the cross is fixed in the category of a priestly sacrifice. There is no way to contemplate his death within biblical norms but to contemplate it as a bona fide, a true, a genuine sacrifice offered unto God. And then we concluded our study by considering the context of the biblical activity of priestly sacrifice. And the two key words, and they occur again and again in Hebrews, are to God and for sin.

4:58 The sacrifice has as its perspective something that has to do with influencing God. And it has to do with some commodity or problem or entity that is called sin. And so the realities that form the context of the whole biblical notion of sacrifice are on the one hand, God in his holiness, justice and grace, man in his accountability, his guilt and his pollution. Take away the biblical doctrines of God as the moral governor of the universe.

5:38 God as infinitely holy. God as perfectly just. And God as filled with amazing graciousness. and you cannot understand anything that has to do with the doctrine of sacrifice.

5:53 Take away the biblical teaching concerning man as a creature made in the image of God, man made accountable to God, man fallen into a state of guilt and pollution, and the concept of sacrifice cannot stand. And so the very word sacrifice, if we are thinking biblically, ought immediately bring to itself in our thinking God, holy, just and gracious, man, accountable, guilty, and polluted. Now then, we come this morning to the third aspect of our consideration with reference to Christ's priestly work of sacrifice, having established the fact that his death was indeed a priestly sacrifice,

6:38 having examined the context of the biblical activity of priestly sacrifice now this morning, the essence of the priestly sacrifice of Christ. If we search for the simplest and most succinct or compact statement of our Lord's priestly sacrifice, where will our search take us? If we this morning were to focus our minds as I trust we shall in the subsequent study If we are to focus our minds upon the startling events From the bloody sweat and agonizing groans of Gethsemane To the shameful impairment of the Son of God upon the cross

7:24 If we contemplate the shrouded heavens the mysterious cry, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Climaxing in that triumphant word, it is finished, and the dismissal of His Spirit, if we try to bring all of that together and search the Scriptures for some statement that reduces that worth of sacrifice to its essence, where will we end up? Is it an impossible search? Must we be forever in the situation where we have a number of general, some more distinct than others, just general notions that some way or other Jesus' death was a sacrifice that turned away divine wrath?

8:11 Can we find in Scripture something that brings us to the bare bones of what that sacrifice was? The essence of a thing is its bare bones, its essential nature. And our great concern this morning, our exclusive concern this morning, is to drive towards an answer to that question. What is the essence of the priestly sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ?

8:39 Its context we see. Without God in His holiness, justice, and grace, there would have been no priestly sacrifice of Christ. Without man being an accountable, guilty, polluted creature, there would be no necessity. All right, we see the context, but now what is the essence of that priestly sacrifice?

8:59 And how we can bless God that this is not a hopeless quest, that we're not shut up to lengthy and involved explanations with no precision and no compactness. God has given us in his word at least two statements which lay bare the essence of the priestly sacrifice of Christ. To grasp their meaning by the aid of the Spirit is to grasp the essence, the essential core of the priestly sacrifice of Christ. Now we want to examine those two statements and then the Lord helping us to open them up in your hearing.

Hebrews 9:14 — The Larger Statement Unfolded

9:38 The first is the larger of the two, and then we'll look at the shorter of the two. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9.

9:53 The first ten verses of Hebrews 9 are a brief summation of the outstanding characteristics of the tabernacle or temple worship, particularly with reference to the activity of the high priest on the day of atonement.

10:13 Beginning with verse 11, the writer shows that Jesus Christ is the perfect fulfillment of all of those things that were but type and shadow. And in the course of the assertions concerning Christ as the true sacrifice, we read in verse 14, How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? What is the essence of Christ's sacrificial offering? Here it is in verse 14.

10:57 Christ through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish unto God. Now notice the essential lines of thought. Number one, Christ himself is the sacrifice. Look at the language.

11:17 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself?

11:27 Who or what was the sacrifice? The answer of this text is Christ himself was the sacrificial offering. The second line of truth in the text is this, that Christ himself is the priest who made the offering. Look at the language.

11:44 Christ, through the eternal spirit, offered himself. It was Christ who was not only victim, but who was the priest who offered the victim. The third line of truth in the text is the object to whom this offering was made. Look at the text again.

12:06 Who through the eternal spirit offered himself unto God. Referring to the Father as the one who stood as the representative of the offended majesty of the Godhead. The entire Godhead is offended by human sin. The entire Godhead in that sense needs to be appeased by the blood of atonement.

12:33 But in the economy of redemption, the Father is the representative of the entire offended Godhead. And this text says that the object to whom the sacrifice was made the sacrifice being Christ the offerer being Christ is God that is the Father And then notice the fourth line of emphasis the strength by which this offering was effected who through the eternal Spirit. And without going into the problems connected with the exegesis of that phrase, I am convinced that the case is almost airtight, that this is not reference to our Lord's Spirit, It is not reference to his divine nature.

13:21 It is a reference to the personal ministry of the Holy Spirit, who was the great sustainer and strengthener of Christ when he came to his climactic act of offering himself upon the cross as an offering unto God. And then the condition in which this offering was made, notice, it was without spot. That is, it was perfect moral blemishness that was offered. It was spotless purity manifested in Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 7:27 — The Succinct Statement

13:58 Now that's the larger statement. Now we want to go to the summary statement, and I'm going in this order for a purpose, and if you'll follow with me, you'll see I trust the wisdom of it. Turn back to chapter 7. What is the essence of the priestly sacrifice of Christ?

14:15 Now we read in verse 27, or we could start with verse 26 of chapter 7. For such a high priest became us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners, made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, for this, that is, offering for the sins of the people, not these, plural, this. This thing, that is the latter thing, offering for the sins of the people, this he did once for all. Now here's the summary statement.

14:53 When he offered up himself. Now what is the essence of the priestly sacrifice of Christ? Here is the simplest, most succinct, compact statement to be found anywhere in Scripture. He offered up himself.

15:11 Now the categories of that offering are fixed by the full statement in chapter 9 In what sense did he offer up himself? Was it in the sense that he was the epitome of the self-sacrificing spirit And he offered himself up to the will of his enemies in some way? No, no, no, no, no Every category that is pregnant in the words, offered up himself Is expanded in chapter 9 and verse 14 He offered himself to God. He offered himself without spot. He offered himself with reference to putting away sin. He offered himself not to men or to his enemies, but to God.

15:58 so that the summary statement can only be understood in terms of its own inspired exposition and amplification. And it is butchering the word of God to force the simple statement of chapter 7 verse 27 into any other categories but the strict categories of sacrificial atonement that are delineated for us in chapter 9 and verse 14. So then, the essence of our Lord's priestly sacrifice is to be understood in terms of these words, He offered up Himself. Now, if you can grasp the meaning of those simple words, then you have, as it were, before you a distinct, a definitive, a clear conception of that which forms the essence of our Lord's priestly offering.

Old Testament Ritual: Passive Victim and Active Priest

16:58 Now it is my task in the remaining time to try by the help of God to open up that concept. And I plead with you to give me all of your mind and all of its faculties as we seek to penetrate this great mystery. And as we do, we shall once again, as we have done in previous studies, first of all reflect upon the Old Testament ritual. As one has said, we must interpret the sacrifice of Christ in terms of the Old Testament rituals, because they themselves were patterned after Christ's offering.

17:33 Christ's offering was the substance, and all the Old Testament ritual was patterned after that substance. It is proper then to interpret this in the light of its God-ordained shadow. Now, in the ritual of sacrifice, particularly on the Day of Atonement, you will notice, and I want you to turn with me to Leviticus 16, that there were two distinct elements in the ritual of sacrifice. Now, we're not talking about the two elements of the priest's overall work.

18:07 They were sacrifice and intercession. But just looking at sacrifice, there were two distinct elements in the activity of sacrifice itself. And Leviticus 16, 15, and 16 are a wonderful summary of what is taught in many chapters of the Old Testament which describe the ritual. See if you can discover the two things as I read these two verses, and then we should go back over them.

18:35 Leviticus 16, 15. Speaking of the high priest who has already offered up an offering for his own sins and for the sins of his household, then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering. that is, for the people, and bring his blood within the veil, and do with his blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat, and he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, even all their sins, and so shall he do for the tent of meeting that dwelleth with them in the midst of their uncleannesses. Now, do you see the two distinct elements in the Old Testament ritual?

19:22 There was, on the one hand, a passive substitutionary victim. He shall kill the goat, and the blood of the goat shall be sprinkled. And then the other goat, as we have in verse 21 and following, is the one over which the sins of the people were pronounced, and it was sent off into the wastelands and into the wilderness. that the first element of the sacrificial ritual was the presence of the passive substitutionary victim.

19:53 But then secondly, there was the active representative priest. It was this priest who was very active, who had to kill the vote, who had to catch its blood, who had to bring its blood within the veil, who had to sprinkle that blood, who had to make atonement for the children of Israel for the uncleanness of the place of worship as well as the people who worshipped. He was there as the representative of the people, actively representing them in the work of sacrifice. Now take careful notice of those two elements.

20:28 The brute creature had no awareness but was utterly passive. It was selected, presented, charged with sin, slain, and then vicariously presented in the presence of God. But the high priest was far from passing. He was actively engaged, obviously, in tremendous physical activities.

20:51 He had to kill the goat. He had to slit its throat or whatever was the precise method of taking away its life. He had to catch its blood. He had to present its blood.

21:02 He had to sprinkle its blood. Here was the priest representing the people who was very active physically. But now, don't stop there. The priest was not only active physically, but if he was a true priest who was not prostituting his office, this act on the Day of Atonement was his highest spiritual attainment.

21:27 It was the pinnacle of his worship. For what was the priest doing? When the priest would go into that place only once a year, it was a forbidden place to all, even to him, except on the Day of Atonement, when he would slay the innocent substitute, the helpless victim, gather its blood and present it to God. What was he doing?

21:52 He was engaging in an act of worship. He was engaging in an act of confession. He was saying by that activity, O Jehovah God of Israel, thou that art enthroned between the cherubim, thou art the God of infinite holiness. And these thy people are accountable to you.

22:12 And their sins have shut them out from your presence. And you are just in demanding the payment of blood for the wages of sinners' death. When he slipped the throne to that animal or whatever method was used to kill it, it was an act of worship. Vindicating the holiness of God, the justice of God that demanded the brutal, violent death of an innocent victim.

22:37 He was not only vindicating the character of God and thereby engaged in worship. He was confessing his confidence in the grace of God. That the God who invited him to draw near with blood was not playing games. That that God would not strike him dead.

22:54 but that that God would pass over sin because of the blood of the innocent victim. And so the high priest was actively engaged in the work of sacrifice, not only physically, but essentially and primarily in the spiritual activities of confession of the name and character of God, vindication of the holy attributes of God. And then finally, he was worshipping because he was rendering delightful, voluntary, representative obedience. He was there filled with wonder that his activity should avail for the entire nation.

23:38 How could a high priest who knew that not be filled with a sense of glory and wonder and privilege that his activity once in a year had benefits that accrued to the entire nation for the following year. Now those are the two main elements in the sacrifice. The passive victim that is slain, the active priest who slays and presents and in so doing is engaged in worship. Now that's the Old Testament ritual.

Christ as Substitutionary Victim

24:13 Now let us consider, excuse me, the fulfillment of this in our Lord Jesus Christ. What could not be present in the Old Testament shadows is present in the New Testament reality. For you see, no goat or lamb or bullet could offer itself. It was a dumb animal.

24:31 It couldn't do it. Furthermore, no priest could offer himself, for he was not sinless. There would be no worth to the offering of himself. But thank God in the language of Hebrews 7, our priest was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, so that he can be both the substitutionary victim and the representative priest.

24:58 Let us now consider him in that twofold light. Christ is the substitutionary victim. When the writer to Hebrews says, He offered up himself that language that fairly oozes, with the concepts that we've just focused upon. He was the substitutionary victim.

25:20 He is the spotless Lamb who was offered. Behold the Lamb of God who beareth away the sin of the world. And it's this that is essentially emphasized in Isaiah 53. Let's look at it for a moment.

25:37 As Isaiah previews the sufferings of Messiah, It is this element of Christ the substitutionary victim that is the primary focus of Isaiah prophecy Not the exclusive but the primary focus Verse 4 of Isaiah 53 Surely he hath borne our griefs, 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. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath made to light or to rest upon him the iniquity of us all.

26:33 He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he opened not his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter is a sheep that before its shearers is done, so he opened not his mouth. Do you see the emphasis upon the passivity of the innocent victim? He was afflicted.

26:51 He was oppressed. He was this. He was this. The Father did this.

26:59 Jehovah did this. the essential focus, though not the exclusive focus of Isaiah 53, is this first aspect of the sacrificial ritual. There is the innocent victim, the substitutionary lamb. But now follow closely.

Passive Endurance as Active Obedience

27:19 In the case of a dumb, brute animal, be it a lamb or a bullock, There can be nothing but passive acceptance of the knife of the priest, for there is no rational soul. But in the case of our blessed Lord and Savior, listen, here was a rational soul of a true human being, who in the mystery of his person is God and man, so that to bear what was his to bear, though in one sense can be considered as a passive endurance because he was a rational soul, the passive endurance was the height of active obedience.

28:05 And therefore the scripture says in Hebrews 12 too, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross. The word endure means to bear up under. And so it is unfortunate that theology has described the sufferings of Christ upon the cross as His passive obedience. My friend, listen this morning. Our Lord was not passively held in the place of a victim by some coercive external constraints of the Father. Certainly He was not held in the place of the victim by the external restraints and power of men.

28:55 O people of God, hear me this morning. Our Lord bound Himself to the altar with the cords of His own pure love to the Father and with the cords of His infinite love to wretches like you and like me. He bound Himself to the altar. So what is called inaccurately his passive obedience Is a pinnacle of glorious redemptive activity When all of the sins of his people are pronounced over his head And the fire of divine justice would consume him

Christ as Active Representative Priest

29:42 He voluntarily submits Himself to be held in the place of sacrifice, bound to that altar by the cords of love to God and love to His people. But Christ is not only the substitutionary victim. Christ is the active, representative priest. And it is precisely at this point that we are most likely to sin and miss the glory of the cross.

30:15 And I say sin because often it is the sin of mental and spiritual indolence that we just play around the fringe of that which ought to be the constant source and object of loving contemplation, namely the cross of Christ. Jesus Christ is not only the substitutionary victim He is the active representative priest Look at the language of Hebrews 7 again He offered up Himself The subject of the verb offer is Christ He offered Himself He is not only the lamb upon the altar The bullock upon the altar

31:01 He is the priest who places it there and who is active in that mighty work of representation on behalf of his people. And the language, the precise word in the original in Hebrews 7 is a word that is a technical word, bound up with the whole sacrificial system. And it's exactly the word that is used in 1 Peter 2.24, where we have one of the most graphic descriptions of this element of our Lord's active priestly work.

31:33 It's obscured greatly by the authorized version. And may I say, without being unkind to these people who would deify the King James Version, it is a good version, a trustworthy version, still very accurate in many places, but terribly inaccurate in others, and this is one of them. I believe the old King James says, Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree. That's not the thought.

32:01 The thought is a little more closely reached, or the thought is a little more precisely expressed in the 1901 edition. But a literal rendering of 1 Peter 2.24 would be this. Who brought our sins in his body to the tree.

32:21 That's it. He brought our sins in His body to the tree What did the priest do? When He brought that victim Over whose head the sins of the guilty had been pronounced He brought the sins of the worshipper He brought the sins to the altar of sacrifice In the person of the substitute It was the priest who did that mighty work And so Peter says it was our Lord Jesus Christ who brought our sins in his own body to the tree. Now this aspect of course could not be visible in the actual circumstances of the cross.

33:03 As you stood, if I were to stand, if we together were to stand before the cross, and we hear the cry, if thou be the Son of God, come down. Do something to prove yourself. That which would fill our minds at the moment of crucifixion until the moment when he dismisses his spirit would be the element of his endurance, the passive element. Ah, but listen, that which was transpiring in the realm of spiritual reality was far from that.

33:37 And that's why on the threshold of the crucifixion the Lord makes this plain. Do you remember that strange incident recorded in John 18? Judas has come. Look at it. John 18 and verse 4.

33:48 Judas has come with his crowd to apprehend Christ.

33:57 John 18 and verse 4.

34:02 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that were coming upon him, went forth and said to them, Who seek ye? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. Now notice, Jesus saith unto them, I am, I am, Ego, I me, or Amy, I am. And what happens?

34:29 Look at it.

34:31 Judas, also who betrayed him, was standing with them. when therefore he said unto them I am they went backward and fell to the ground. What happened? Is it what God did?

34:48 God pulled back the veil for a moment and let them see the glorious majesty of the eternal Jehovah enfleshed in Jesus Christ. And when he said I am all that is bound up in the biblical concept of the eternal God is affirmed by Christ, and they are driven back.

35:12 Then what happens? Look at the language. Again, therefore, he asked them, Who seek ye? And they answered and said, Jesus of Nazareth.

35:23 Jesus answered, I told you that I am. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way that the word might be fulfilled which he spoke of those whom thou hast given me, I have lost not one. And now he voluntarily gives himself over. Why this strange incident?

35:45 Do you get the message of it?

35:48 Judas the betrayer, all of the apprehenders are there. Jesus is saying, Look, I know what my mission is. The time has come. The day of atonement has come upon me.

36:02 And I as priest must carry the sins of my people in my own body to the tree. But I want you to know that I'm the one who's carrying their sins to the tree. I am no helpless victim at your mercy. I am he.

36:21 And they're driven back. And now he veils his glory again and says, all right, take me. And symbolically, isn't it precious? He says, but if you take me, let these go.

The Cry 'It Is Finished' and the Rent Veil

36:34 Oh, dear people, what a picture of what he was about to do. Take me, for in your taking, I am acting. I am going to take their sins to the cross that they may go free.

36:50 And from that moment on, the element of the passive stands to the fore. but our Lord's last cry and God's Amen complete the story and it brings you around full circle for what were his last words he said it is finished not I am finished it is finished you people think you've been doing something to me you think you've been holding upon me your anathemas and your scorn putting upon my holy brow your spittle and the venom of your unregenerate hearts. No, no. While you have been active, I have been active.

37:34 And my work is done. It is finished. At the last time. Father, I dismiss my spirit.

37:44 Whatever. Whoever heard of a dying man saying that? I dismiss my spirit. That's a literal rendering of the original.

37:54 He was in control. And he said, my work is done. As the priest, I've offered myself upon the altar. The fire of divine judgment has consumed the sacrifice without Jerusalem's gate.

38:08 The thought picked up in Hebrews 13, Christ suffered without the gate. The fire of God has burnt the sacrifice, utterly consumed it. And Jesus Christ, who is the priest as well as the victim, knowing that it had been consumed, cries out in triumph, it is finished. I command my spirit to you, my Father.

38:29 And the Father says, My son, I know the work is done. And with his own finger, may I say it without being irreverent, he steps from behind. I'm using anthropomorphic language. He steps from behind his secret place where only the high priest could go and that only once in the year And he stands before that veil and says it no longer obtains it no longer valid And he takes his finger and splits it from top to bottom and says, the way is open.

39:01 The way is open. Oh, dear people, this is what the Scripture means when it says he offered up himself. The Father representing the offended Godhead is the object. He offered Himself to God.

39:20 The Son as the appointed substitutionary priest is the agent. He offered Himself. The Spirit as the upholder and sustainer is the great assistant to our Lord in this work, who by the eternal Spirit offered Himself up without spot to God. Oh, dear people, this is what it means to have a great high priest.

Hugh Martin Quoted: His Dying His Grandest Doing

39:47 And I can conclude the exposition before giving a brief application no better than by reading from a godly and unusually perceptive man of God of another generation who said this. In the unseen spiritual world, while his body was hanging on the cross, Jesus was pouring out his soul unto death. in spontaneous action of his own, as self-instigated, self-sustained, self-controlled, as was that of Aaron when he brought the goat on which Jehovah's lot fell and offered him as a sinner for offering, and the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat. He presented alive before the Lord to make an atonement with him

40:36 and to let him go for a scapegoat. The point of the author is this. How active, how self-conscious, self-contained, self-determining and self-controlled was Aaron. He was in perfect control.

40:49 So was our blessed Lord upon the cross. He was not under coercive forces that were manipulating him into death. He was under the coercion of his own love to the Father and to his people, pouring out his own soul unto death, laying his own spotless soul upon the altar of sacrifice. No priest, standing daily ministering and offering off times, was ever more free from coercion in his office and so gloriously active in discharging it than was Jesus when he offered one sacrifice for sin.

41:28 We speak of his doing and his dying. His dying was his grandest doing. The light and evidence of His active obedience instead of paling on the cross shines there most brilliantly of all, shining down the darkness of death and the frown of an incensed justice till the dark frown passes off from the face of the eternal judge and the light of a father's countenance is lifted on the obedient son in the moment of His words, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit. The Father's will is done.

42:07 It is done by the Eternal Son through the Eternal Spirit. The united actings of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost fill the death of Christ with action and with power, unparalleled and transcendent. And the word of the cross is the power of God.

Application to Unconverted and Believers

42:28 Beloved, this is what our Lord bore. This is what he bore. And I say to the unconverted who sit here this morning, how can you gaze upon this activity of the Son of God and cling to the damnable moral wretchedness that caused him to pour out his soul unto death? How can you cling to sin, that wretched, vile, moral evil that demand it, the bloodletting of the Son of God.

43:04 No wonder the Bible says, he that died without mercy at the mouth of two or three witnesses who despised the provisions of the old economy, but how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who counts this blood an unholy thing. My friend, God takes sin seriously. God the Father took it so seriously that when God the Son, acting as the representative priest, acting as the substitutionary victim, offers Himself upon the altar, the Father does not withhold the fire of consuming anger.

43:49 A sacrifice was vile in death and consumption by fire. The father took sin so seriously That even when his beloved son Was the victim He consumed him And my unconverted friend God will consume the impenitent sinner In the fires of hell If he is to be consistent With the revelation of his character Made upon Calvary's cross If God were to let impenitent sinners into heaven, he would be negating what he declared in the death of his own Son. He that spared not his Son. Do you think he'll spare you? It's high time some of you young people and adults stop playing with sin. All of this is in the context of sin.

44:47 real sin against the real God that leads to a real hell that caused a real death upon a real altar.

44:59 May God grant that you will be sobered this morning and realize that the Father has never come back and sewed up the veil again. The way to His presence stands as open this morning as it did that hour when He split the veil from top to bottom. Thank God the way stands open. You need come to know earthly priest.

45:24 There is a great high priest who is well able to take all the concerns of your guilty, polluted soul, take them into his hands and present you faultless before the presence of the living God. Oh, believe on him. Throw yourself upon him and ask him for mercy. And, O dear child of God, do you see why we must have some understanding of the priestly work of Christ?

45:55 Where can a guilty conscience ever find rest? Hebrews 9.14 says, He offered himself without spot to God that he might cleanse the conscience. One old writer has so perceptively said concerning this phrase, conscience as a court is erected in the human breast and pronounces sentence in accordance with God's law.

46:24 That's what conscience is. It's a court in your breast that issues duty, not duty, in terms of God's law. And once God's law has begun to indict you and you know you're a sinner, Conscience will never be silenced until it's silenced in the bloodletting of the Son of God. And that's what will pacify conscience.

46:49 Dear child of God, do you not at times struggle when as a Christian you think of the sins you've committed, times without number, even since being brought into a state of grace, and you say, oh God, how can I even come again and ask forgiveness for this thing that I'm so ashamed of, that I abominate and with all of my heart I would be rid of it. Oh Lord, can it be that there is still forgiveness? Oh my dear child of God, listen to the language of Hebrews, having a great high priest. And what did he do on that day of atonement that we call the crucifixion?

47:27 He offered himself without spot to God. And he said, it is finished. And he was there as the representative of his people, bearing in himself the just punishment for every single sin of every single child of God throughout all of the ages until the moment of his return. And we are confirmed in righteousness.

47:54 That's your resting place. That's your resting place. And when you sin, don't linger in the shadows of unbelief and self-inflicted wounds of an evangelical kind of penance. Flee to Christ and plead the cleansing of that blood that was spilt for sinners.

48:16 And dear child of God, resist with everything within you. Anything that would undermine the glory and the beauty. Of this once for all sacrifice. God willing next week we will consider the efficacy of the sacrifice.

48:33 All I tried to do this morning was lay before you the essence of it. But I must anticipate the effect. By one offering he hath perfected forever. Oh resist anything that would add a gram of human merit.

48:52 To the work that Christ accomplished. As the sacrificing priest. of His people. May God grant that as we anticipate our gathering together to His table, it will be with a new appreciation of what it is as the people of God to have a great priest.

Closing Prayer

49:15 Let us pray.

49:28 O God, our Heavenly Father, we confess that we feel the restrictions of our finite minds when we try to think in a concentrated way upon the mystery of what it means that He offered Himself. and we have sought this morning to stay within the boundaries of Scripture to resist everything that is imaginative and fanciful but oh Lord in a way that we cannot express this truth

50:14 is more profound and lofty than any fancy that has ever been proposed to us by the mind of men we confess we cannot take it in with everything within us we long to take it in oh Holy Spirit enlarge our hearts strengthen our ability believingly to embrace all that is revealed about our great high priest and the sacrifice that he has made for his people Father would it not please you to give a saving sight of your dear Son, to some who sit here this morning, be sotten in their sins. O Lord, with all our hearts we long to see them

51:00 embrace the offered Savior and find peace of conscience through the blood of Christ. O God, hear our prayers. We know not how to pray. We know not how to thank you. We know not how to express the gratitude of our hearts for all that is ours in Christ.

51:26 We thank you that you read those inner groanings of our hearts that we cannot articulate.

51:34 Accept then the worship that we offer.

51:38 Hear the prayers that we now plead before you. All because of what your Son has done for us as needy sinners. Hear us then in his name.

51:53 Amen.