So we come now to Second Corinthians chapter five and verse 21. And I've entitled by discourse to you this morning, "The Greatest Problem in the Universe Resolved." Let me read the text to you. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." My friends, deception is deadly, especially as it relates to the gospel. A false gospel will literally destroy a nation. And we are seeing that happen in the days in which we live. I could give you many of examples of false gospels that contribute to this, but I wanted to begin with one to provide a contrast to the true gospel that we will examine in more detail here in a moment. And that false gospel is that of the social gospel that is preached by black liberation theology. Let me give you some background here. According to black liberation theology, Jesus is the savior, to liberate black people from the bondage of white people, not from the bondage of sin. For them, Jesus was not the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, but rather, he was a revolutionary who sought to free his people from Roman bondage. That gospel is all about victimhood and oppression between men. Salvation is all about equality and social justice and the mission of the church is to affect political change. It's essentially a religious version of Marxism. The experience of oppression is their authority, not the scriptures. It is a man-centered rather than a God-centered religion. It's humanistic and pragmatic to the very core, it's about man and his needs, not God and his glory. The message of Christ, they say, is black power. In fact, Dr. James H. Cohn, one of the preeminent and predominant intellectuals, that gives voice to all of this, elucidates this theme, he says, quote, "It is my thesis, that black power, even in its most radical expression, is not the antithesis of Christianity, nor is it a heretical idea to be tolerated with painful forbearance, it is rather Christ's central message to 20th century America." He described black power as, quote, "complete emancipation of black people from white oppression, by whatever means black people deem necessary," end quote. He added this, quote, "The black intellectual’s goal is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it." Similarly, and more forcefully, another one of their voices. Dr. Hayward Henry, who, by the way, wrote a book, maybe you've heard of it" Toward a Religion of Revolution," says this, quote, "Black Power is not the antithesis of Christianity, it is Christianity." I remember a number of years ago when I heard of a man by the name of Barack Obama, I'd never heard of him. I knew he served on the Illinois State Legislature. I had a relative who also served in the legislature, and I called him up and I said, "Do you know anything about this guy, I see that he was wanting to run for president." And of course, he knew him very well, knew his wife as well. And I got lots of information. And anyway, I thought, well, I want to find out what this guy believes theologically, because as a theologian, naturally, that's the first place I'm going to go. And by the way, that's first place you should go. So I found out that he went to a church that teaches you guessed it, black liberation theology. In fact, his pastor Jeremiah Wright, has said, quote, "There will be no peace in America until whites begin to hate their whiteness," and on and on it goes. Well, I thought, oh my goodness, I mean, this is the stuff, I knew it was out there, but, you know, surely a guy like this would never be president. I mean, this is the old socialist, Nicaraguan Sandinistas of the 1960s that modeled the Cuban revolution. This is the same stuff. And by the way, if you study critical race theory and Black Lives Matter, you will see that this is at the core of what they believe. In fact, Alicia Garza, one of the three militant feminists that founded Black Lives Matter said this, quote, "Black Lives Matter affirms the lives of black, queer, and trans folks, disabled folks, black undocumented folks, folks with records, women and all black lives along the gender spectrum. It centers on those that have been marginalized within black liberation movements. It is a tactic," now catch this, "to rebuild the black liberation movement."

Well, it should be no surprise that in 2011, then President Barack Obama issued an executive order that required all federal agencies, government workers, even our military, quote, "to promote diversity and inclusion through mandated training courses." And what sounds innocent was, in fact a very sophisticated scheme to indoctrinate federal officials with a virulent strain of identity politics that's rooted in critical race theory, which is an extension of black liberation theology. For them, all of the problems of the world are the result of systemic racism. And if you read their material, they will say white supremacy and white privilege permeates all our institutions, policies, culture, all white people are racist, whether they realize it or not all white people must confess this or be punished, the American system must be torn down and rebuilt. And folks, this is what fuels Antifa and the Black Lives Matter criminal movement. And I might also add this is that the core of the platform of the progressive Democratic Party. This is what's being taught in our public schools. And in our universities. In fact, if you look at the mug shots of a lot of the people that are arrested, in the Antifa, demonstrations, you will see they're public-school teachers.

Well, I applaud President Trump for issuing an order to, quote, "cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars for the dissemination of critical race theory." Maybe you've heard about that. On the news the other day, the order directs all of the federal agencies to begin the process of "identifying and eliminating all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on critical race theory, white privilege, or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either one, that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or two, that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil."

Well, of course, as Christians, we're all opposed to any kind of injustice, any kind of so-called racism, any kind of in inequities or hatred. Nor do we harbor grievances against other people. We don't keep a record of wrongs; we don't take revenge. But dear friends, I would submit to you that there's a far greater evil in the world and certainly in our country than social injustice. Much of which is grossly exaggerated and demonstrably false. The greatest problem is sinful man's need to be reconciled to a holy God. But fortunately, there is a solution and that's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, lots of people laugh at this and they say all don't talk about sin and hell, all of those antiquated ideas, that Jesus somehow died for sinners. My goodness, that's absurd. As some have said, that's cosmic child abuse, nobody believes that. And we would never serve such a God. God is a God of love. For many people, everybody goes to heaven--universalism. Man isn't depraved, he's deprived, and if you will give him more stuff, if you will treat him better, then his true nature will manifest itself. Final part of that statement I agree with. So we need to defund the police, stop incarcerating people, change the environment; basically give people reward without responsibility, and on and on it goes, you know the drill.

But dear friends, as we look at the word of God, we see that sin is the very cause of the curse upon the world. Sin is man's innate inability to conform to the moral character and desires of God. What we see is that sin is lawlessness, as John tells us, it is high treason against the Most High God; we have all offended our holy God. And it's not only a failure to obey God's moral law, but it also includes just living as if that law doesn't even exist. Certainly, it's a violation of the foremost commandment that we are to "love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength," and that God has revealed himself in the Bible. We read in Scripture that the wrath of God, Jesus said, abides upon all those who do not believe in him as the only Savior of the world. And that the wages of sin is death, eternal death. So the message people need to hear today is not how to be delivered from social injustice, the social injustice of man, but how to be delivered from the righteous justice of God. And the only remedy is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Folks, if you get that wrong, it's like building a skyscraper on sand. Eventually, the whole thing will collapse in a heap of ruin. But sadly, that's what has happened. Over the years, the true gospel has been hijacked by other forms of gospel like the one I've just demonstrated to you. Far too many professing evangelicals have taken up this this bogus social justice movement rather than being ambassadors of Christ and the true gospel. I like the way John MacArthur put it quote, "That's precisely how evangelicals in the mid-20th century became obsessed for several decades with positive thinking, self-esteem and psychotherapeutic methodologies. After that it was marketing savvy and promotional strategies. By the beginning of the 21st century, it was post-modernism, repackaged and aggressively promoting itself as the emerging church movement. Today," he goes on to say, "critical race theory feminism, toxic masculinity, intersectional theory, LGBT advocacy, progressive immigration policies, animal rights, and other left wing political causes are all actively vying for evangelical acceptance under the rubric of social justice." He went on to add, "evangelical leaders are beginning to employ the same rhetoric and rationale of victimhood versus oppression that is relentlessly employed by secularists who advocate for all kinds of deviant lifestyles and ideologies. It is a worse form of worldliness than Christians in earlier generations ever contemplated." End quote.

Well, dear friends, I pray that we are all woke today, but not in the traditional use of the term. I pray that we are all woke to the deceptive ideologies of false gospels, including the social gospel, and the social justice movement, which by the way, offers no guarantee of salvation; no guarantee of forgiveness and all it will do is continue to promote further division and discord and violence. You will never be able to appease these people. But I pray you're woke to the true gospel, and here it is before us. Here it is in a sentence, "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." All of the narcissists and politicians and peoples of the world will fight amongst themselves until the day they die. And their children will take up their causes. And there will be no end to the strife. There will be no peace until the Prince of Peace returns. Think about it, what happens when all these warring factions die, as they will. All their histrionics and rioting and looting and posturing will be instantly forgotten. And their noble causes, real or perceived, will evaporate like morning mist before the sun. I wish I could stand before the world today and say, "Don't you realize that you all stand guilty and condemned before a holy God? Unless you repent and ask Him to save you, you will perish in your sin. But God has provided a way for you to be reconciled to Him through faith, and the Lord Jesus Christ."

Now, this inspired text also provides the answer to what I'm calling the greatest problem in the universe. And that problem is simply this, how can a holy God forgive sin? And still be just? How can that happen? Of course, we have the answer here before us. And in this text, you will notice three magnificent truths. Actually, you'll see more, but I'm going to give you three magnificent truths as they relate to the Father, and as they relate to the Son; each of these form the bedrock of the Gospel--the only truth that can not only save sinners from their sin, but transform them; completely change their disposition; make them new creatures in Christ.

First of all, I want you to notice regarding the Father, number one, we see the sovereignty of his grace in reconciliation. Notice the very first two words, "He made." This is of course speaking of the Father. We know that because earlier in verse 18, he says, "Now all these things are from God." And there Paul was referring to the divine work of regeneration that occurs at conversion. "Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ." You see, folks, this was the Father's plan all along. There's no such thing as a Plan B with a sovereign God. It's always plan A. And his plan was to rescue fallen creatures from sin and death, to remove the barrier of sin that separated them from him, and to restore us to a right relationship with him. That was his plan all along. According to the Father's eternal, electing purposes before creation, he set his love on certain individuals solely because of his good pleasure, not because of any merit of their own. We read in Revelation 13 eight that "from the foundation of the world" he wrote the names of his elect in the "book of life of the Lamb who has been slain." By the way, this technically is called the doctrine of unconditional election. Paul said this in Second Timothy one nine, he "saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity." A phrase that literally means "before time began." Folks, had he not chosen us, we would have never chosen him because we were dead in our trespasses and sins. "There is none righteous, not even one," Romans 3:10 tells us. All of us are sinful. In fact, as we look at Scripture, we see that all that we are, and all that we do are fundamentally offensive to a holy God. And the reason why that sounds so offensive to so many people is because they have a very low view of God and a very high view of themselves.

Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 64, beginning of verse six, "For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment." He went on to say, "There is no one who calls on Your name." Again, as we look at Scripture, we see that before a man comes to Christ, he is hostile to God. He is alienated from God; he is separated from God. His spiritual ears are deaf, his spiritual eyes are blind. His heart is deceitful, above all things, and desperately sick. A heart of stone, cold and unresponsive. And then on top of all of that, we are told that "the god of this world," referring to Satan, "has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ." Second Corinthians four, four. Once again, remember man cannot affect his reconciliation by doing something, it is solely a work of God. And it was accomplished in the person of Christ through the efficacy of his blood. This was the Father's eternal purpose according to Ephesians 3:11, which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You know, I find such great comfort in this. I've often thought I could never be an Arminian pastor, because I think I would just go, I don't know, shoot myself, I suppose. Because salvation is not up to me, it's up to God. What a heartbreak that would be to spend your life preaching the gospel, and see people die and you think, as I've heard, Arminians say, "Oh, if I'd only done this, if I'd only done that." And that's not to say we should be passive, but folks, ultimately, we can trust in a sovereign God to accomplish his good pleasure that he decreed in eternity past. Acts 13:48, amazing text; there we read, "When the Gentiles heard." By the way, that's referring to here that salvation was now offered to them, "they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord; and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." Oh, I'm so thankful for that. What an amazing passage, and each one of us, who know and love Christ, and have believed in him, have experienced that very thing.

So again, in verse 21, we see, first of all, the sovereignty of the Father's grace in reconciling sinners. Secondly, we see the justice his holiness demands. Look at the verse yet again, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." You see, this resolves that great problem, as I mentioned earlier, of how can an infinitely holy God, forgive sin and still be just, because all sin must be punished? Otherwise, there's no justice. And how could his justice ever be satisfied? Because to be sure, sinful man deserves that punishment, he cannot atone for his own sin. So God's holy justice could not be satisfied, apart from a holy ransom. And only by his provision, could such a remedy be accomplished. God could not deny his own justice. And in the incarnation, and sacrificial death of his son, we see his justice being satisfied. You see, dear friends, nothing but perfect righteousness could ever satisfy perfect holiness. So the father had to provide a way to appease his own wrath against sin. And so what did he do? He made "Him," referring to his own beloved son, "who knew no sin to be sin." Now, this was all set into motion in the garden, as you will recall. Because of sin, Adam and Eve lost their innocence and it was replaced with guilt and shame. And what did they do? Frantically, they tried to soothe their conscience by covering themselves with the fig leaves of their own efforts, but it was all in vain. And God cursed them and all who would come from them. Yet although Adam and Eve should have died on that day, God set into motion, his mercy and his grace. We read, "and the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." What an interesting statement. You see again, man could never cover his sin with his own efforts. So God had to do something; man's best efforts would never be good enough to satisfy divine justice. So a substitute needed to die, to cover sin, to satisfy the demands of God's holy justice. And with that, we see the first sacrifice occurring, a shadow of a coming Redeemer that would one day make atonement for sin. And I can almost see the faces of Adam and Eve on that day, the astonishment when they look down and they saw the blood on the ground when they witnessed the very first death, an innocent death, when suddenly they saw that crimson stain that was required for their sin. And of course, all of that was a picture of an innocent lamb that would one day come, that would one day spill his precious blood as a substitute for all who placed their faith in him. Thus, the glorious story of redemption was set into motion that day, a plan that God had sovereignly ordained before time began. And all through Scripture we see the scarlet thread of redemption, don't we? It is woven into every story. It is the theme of every song and what a glorious thought to know that, though our sins may be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.

So we see the Father's sovereign grace to reconcile sinners in the justice his holiness demands. But thirdly, will you notice the marvel of his infinite love? I mean, folks, can there be any greater love than this--than to offer your son to save rebellious sinners like you and like me? I mean, I cannot fathom such a sacrifice. "Yet God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Romans five beginning in verse eight, the apostle Paul says "God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Folks, this is fundamental to the gospel. This is at its very core. We read, for example, in First John four, beginning in verse nine, "In this, the love of God was manifested toward us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this as love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." And likewise, in Ephesians, chapter two beginning of verse four, Paul says, God is rich and mercy, "and because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ." Oh, dear Christian, consider this: we're it not for that infinite love, we would still be in a state of spiritual death, like many of our family members, and many of our friends and all the wicked people of this world. I think of what Paul said in Romans three, beginning verse 14, he speaks of those in spiritual death, as being those whose "mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes." But dear friends think of this, because of the divine work of regeneration that occurs at conversion, suddenly, we are raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, having died and been resurrected with Christ and made a new creature in Christ. This is the good news of the true gospel; the only gospel that can save men souls, the only gospel that can deliver men from the bondage of sin and transform hearts as opposed to false gospels like the social gospel. And frankly, just rearrange the deck furniture on the, on the Titanic. It's all they're doing.

Well, let's turn our attention now to three marvelous truths pertaining to the Son. Notice, first of all, the sinless purity of his person. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf." Now, this is a startling statement. And deliberately so. Of course, we must understand what he's saying here. Some will say, well, because the same word for "sin" can be translated in Hebrew as "sin offering." Paul is here using a Hebraism. Now to be sure Jesus was a sin offering. But I would submit to you that linguistically and grammatically and contextually, it makes no sense whatsoever. The Greek word translated "sin"-- "hamartia,” we get hamartiology, the study of the doctrine of sin, from that word--that word is never used any place in the New Testament, translated "sin offering." We don't see it anywhere. So why would you do that here? Moreover, the same term, "hamartia" is used twice in the same sentence. So you would think that the word means the same both places. Sin offering would make no sense. I mean, read it. He made Him who knew no sin offering to be sin offering on our behalf. Makes no sense whatsoever. And finally, Paul was using the word "sin" here to contrast the word "righteousness." He's basically saying he made him to be sin that we might be made righteous. So none of that makes any sense. Others will argue something that is far more heretical. They say that Paul is saying that Christ became a sinner on the cross. Folks, that is pure heresy. Christ was God in human flesh, he was utterly holy, blameless, he was the spotless Lamb of God. It's beyond the realm of imagination even, that God, who according to Habakkuk, 1:13, "whose eyes are too pure to approve of evil," that God would make his own beloved Son, a sinner? That's incomprehensible. It is blasphemous to think that somehow, the Lord Jesus Christ would lose his righteousness on the cross, and take upon himself our corruption and guilt, and become a transgressor like all of us. According to Hebrews 4:"W5, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." Why? Because according to chapter seven and verse 26, of Hebrews, he is, "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens." No, no dear friends, what we see here is that "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin." We see that this is referring to imputation-- a very important concept. The father treated him as if he were a sinner, by charging to his account, the sins of all that he had given to him in eternity past. You see, imputation is, it's really that judicial reckoning or sometimes we use the word "forensic." A forensic transfer of one person's sin or righteousness to another. That's what's going on here. By the way, you'll will never see this in Roman Catholic theology, the concept of imputation. Because if it were there, the whole system would fall apart; the works righteousness, we got to keep doing something because nothing was imputed to us. But dear friends, a great exchange took place on the cross of Calvary--Christ took our sin and gave us his righteousness. Isaiah 53, that we read earlier, beginning of verse four, "Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him, stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him." But dear friends, nothing about His sinless character changed on the cross. As a man, as our representative, Christ "knew no sin," as we read here. He was a perfectly sinless substitute, a man who lived a perfectly sinless life, fulfilling every aspect of the law perfectly. Unlike the slaughter of an innocent lamb in the old covenant sacrificial system, according to Hebrews 9:14, Jesus offered himself without spot to God. When John the Baptist saw him, what did he say to the people? "Behold, the Lamb of God." That's who Jesus was. John MacArthur said this, "He was personally pure yet officially culpable; personally holy yet forensically guilty. But in dying on the cross, Christ did not become evil like we are, nor do redeem sinners become inherently as holy as He is. God credits believer's sin to Christ's account and his righteousness to theirs."

Dear friends, we not only see the sinless purity of his person, but secondly, the selfless love of his sacrifice. And here we can go to other passages of Scripture that speak to this. I think of what Paul said in First Timothy two, beginning of verse three that Christ "gave Himself as a ransom for all." Can you imagine that? He gave himself. And Jesus himself said in John 10, in verse 18, "No one has taken it," referring to his life, "away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative." And Peter said in First Peter 2:24, "He bore our sins in His body on the cross." The idea that he willingly did that, incomprehensible. Absolutely astounding. And in First Peter 3:18, we read, "Christ died for sins, once for all, the just for the unjust." And of course, you will recall this was what fueled Paul's testimony. This was why he was so devoted to serving Christ. This is why he had such a zeal for evangelism. It was because of Christ's love for him. Remember, in Second Corinthians five, verse 14, he said, "For the love of Christ controls us. Having concluded this, that one died for all therefore all died, and He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf." It is absolutely staggering that our sinless Savior voluntarily bore our sins, on the cross in his body; that he willingly endured the wrath of God that we deserve. You will probably like me when I was a little boy, I shouldn't say as a little boy, because I still sing it, especially with my grandkids, we sing the little chorus, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so." Great doctrinal truth there. To think that Jesus loved those who hated him. In John 13 one John says of Jesus, "Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end"--"eis telos" in the original language. It means "infinitely", "to the ultimate extreme", "eternally," "completely." Jesus spoke of this himself in John 10:11. He said, "I am the good shepherd; and the good shepherd gives His life for the sheep." Paul reminds us of this in Ephesians, chapter five, verse 25. He says that "Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for her." And then that great passage in Romans 8:35, and following. Paul says, "Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" The answer is nothing. Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Beloved, I hope these truths animate your heart to praise and motivate your will to serving Christ.

So we not only see the sinless purity of his person and the selfless love as of his sacrifice, but finally, the saving merit of his substitution. This is such a great doctrinal truth. Again, notice, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." You see on the cross, God punished Jesus, as if he had lived our lives of sin. So that God could treat us as if we had lived his life of perfect holiness. I don't mean to be in any way sacrilegious, but folks, what a deal. It's just amazing. And of course, this is pictured in the Levitical sacrifices instituted under the Mosaic Covenant.

Will you join me for a minute, I want you to go with me on just a brief journey back into the Old Testament. Let's go back about, I don't know, roughly 3500 years ago. Two years after the Exodus, the exodus was in 1445 BC, God gave the law to Moses. And one aspect of that law is recorded in the Book of Leviticus. Don't worry, we're not going to go through Leviticus this morning, but I want to remind you of something here, because a key theme of the book of Leviticus is the presence of God. And that's confirmed by the fact that that idea was used 59 times and the phrase "before the Lord." "Before the Lord" literally in the Hebrew is "before the face of Yahweh"--a signifying presence. And Leviticus answers a very important question, and that is, how can the holy presence of God dwell in the midst of a sinful people? And how can we ever enter into that presence? Well, the answer is that we see in the Old Testament and in the sacrificial system, that sinners had to make sacrifices to the Lord to atone for their sin, so that they could be rendered acceptable in his presence. Now, not all of the sacrifices made atonement for sin, but certainly the most dominant one that did speak to that was Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. There the high priests would enter into the most holy place, according to Leviticus 16:17, "to make atonement for himself and for his house, and for all the assembly of Israel." Now, remember, atonement literally means to provide legal or moral repayment for a fault or an injury. And atonement always requires two things: satisfaction and substitution. Satisfaction for the offended holiness of God accomplished only by an acceptable substitute for the guilty party. Now, let me remind you of this, this is fascinating history that we see, especially as it relates to Yom Kippur, described in Leviticus 16 and 17. Let me tell you what the high priest would do during that time. The day would seem to begin like every other day with the offering of the morning sacrifice, which would include the burnt offering of a one-year-old lamb. Then the high priest would move methodically through the ceremonies that God had prescribed on the Day of Atonement described in Leviticus 16 and 17. Aaron was required, for example, to remove his normal priestly garments, he had to wash, he then had to put on the prescribed special garments that God required to allow him to enter into the Holy of Holies. He would then secure the necessary sacrificial animals, he had to have a bull for his own sin offering, and he had to have two male goats for the people's sin offering. He also had to get two rams--one for Aaron's and then the other for the people's burnt offering. And then the next thing that he would do would be to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. Now mind you, these sacrifices were deliberately gruesome. There was blood absolutely everywhere. This was because God wanted to provide a graphic reminder of the hideous nature of sin and that there is no forgiveness of sin apart from the shedding of blood before entering into the Holy of Holies. With the blood of the bowl, Aaron had to create a cloud of incense and the holy of holies that would cover the the Mercy Seat. The mercy seat--the hilasterion--the Septuagint tells us--the place of propitiation, which was the lid that was on top of the ark of the covenant that held the violated law, the Shekinah glory of God hovered above the mercy seat. And the mercy seat was that dividing line that prevented sinful man from entering into the presence of God. And only when that blood was spilt there, was that allowed to happen. And all of that was symbolic, of course. And so he would create a veil to dim the glory of God that was there, lest he lose his life. And it's interesting when he entered into the holy of holies, he had to pass through three areas first in the tabernacle, later on in the temple. As a footnote, as indicated in Hebrews 4:14, this was symbolic of Jesus, our Great High Priest, who passed through three heavens, after making the final and perfect sacrifice of himself. He went first through the atmospheric heaven, and then through the stellar heaven, and finally, into the very abode of God.

Then the high priest would take the blood; he went through the door into the outer court through another door into the holy place. And finally, he would disappear behind the veil into the Holy of Holies. And once inside, he would take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it on the mercy seat. And he would do this seven times. That was the place of propitiation. And there dear friends, the justice of God was temporarily appeased. Once again, because all sin must be punished. There, atonement was made for the sins of the people. And then lots were cast for the two goats. One goat would have to be slaughtered. And the other would be the scape goat that we'd be driven out and loosed into the wilderness. The goat to be slaughtered was the goat of the people’s sin offering that was then sacrificed. Its blood was taken into the Holy of Holies and applied to the mercy seat where the blood of the bull had been applied. And then the second goat, the one that was kept alive, had the sins of the nation symbolically placed on its head. And then it was driven from the camp to some desolate place, from which it would never be able to return according to Jewish tradition. That goat was led to a high cliff and pushed backward over the precipice to prevent him from ever returning to the camp. Now dear friends, those two goats symbolized propitiation, and expiation. To "propitiate" means to appease the righteous wrath of God against us. First John 4:10, "God loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." And to "expiate" means to remove the guilt of sin. So the goat slaughtered, symbolized propitiation, and that you had an innocent substitute that was slaughtered to appease the wrath of God against the people. And then the one that was sent into the wilderness, symbolized expiation--the permanent removal of the guilt of our sins. And what we see is by sprinkling the sacrificial blood of one substitute on the mercy seat, imputation occurred. Imputation of sin into a second substitute. The priests then atone for the sins of the people. What a magnificent picture of what Christ did on our behalf. You see, he was the only substitute that could do this on our behalf. And here by the way, we see the doctrine of justification by imputation, when he, through Christ declared us to be righteous because "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God."

You see beloved, Christ, Jesus offered himself in our place to both propitiate--that is appease the righteousness of God that we deserve--as well as expiate--remove the guilt of our sin from us. God alone covers or erases, he blots out our sin from his sight through the blood of Christ. That's what God told Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six, verse seven, "Behold, your iniquity is taken away." Second Corinthians 5:19, "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting our trespasses against us." And therefore the author of Hebrews instructs us saying, in chapter nine, verse 11, "But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption."

Dear friends, what we've reflected on here today is the old gospel. And I might add, it is the only gospel. If someone asks you and I hope they will, "what is it that you believe is a Christian?" You tell them, "I believe that God made Jesus Christ who knew no sin, to be sin on my behalf, that I might become the righteousness of God in Him. And you young people, I want you to hear me this morning, should the Lord tarry beyond the years of my pulpit ministry, here at Calvary Bible church, and somebody else take my place, as probably will happen, even though we don't know--if that man or any other man dares to stand in this pulpit and preaches another gospel, let him be accursed. And you take that man and you remove him from this facility, before he can finish his blasphemous sermon. Because we've got to stand upon the truth. This is the only gospel that will save. You say, "oh, that will never happen, the pylons of truth have been driven so deep over the years." Let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. It has happened many times. Look at some that were once great denominations, the Methodists, the Baptist. We've got Southern Baptists today that I wouldn't allow to teach Sunday school. Not that they're all that way, but there are some. Presbyterians, some wonderful Presbyterian brothers and others are absolute heretics. And on and on it goes. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, all of those Ivy schools were founded on the true gospel. They were dedicated to training men that would preach exactly what I'm telling you here today. And now look at them. They are thoroughly apostate. Oh, dear Christian, may we all bow in breathless adoration before the Lord our God, and thank him for his marvelous work of grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we all be faithful in carrying that torch; in our families, amongst our friends and future generations. May we all celebrate the great exchange that took place on the cross. Amen? Let's do that. Let's pray together.

Father, thank you for these eternal truths. May they bear much fruit in our hearts for your glory. And if there be anyone here today that knows nothing of what it means to be reconciled to you through faith in Christ, Oh, Lord, would you overwhelm them with such great conviction that they will have no rest until they bow their knee before the cross and plead for the mercy that you will so instantly lavish upon them. May today even be the day that they experienced the miracle of regeneration. We thank you, we give you praise, in Jesus name. Amen.