God's Handbook on Holiness - Part 2 — Roy Hession

Leviticus as a Handbook of Holiness

Will you please open your Bibles to the first chapter of the book of Leviticus? Yesterday we saw that we can regard the book of Leviticus as a handbook of holiness. And although, of course, the uncleanness there is often an artificial uncleanness, we saw that it speaks to us of the defilement that sin brings.

We saw that this book was meant to teach the Jews to discern between what was clean and what was unclean. And how contact with this, that and the other rendered them unclean and therefore unfit for fellowship with God.

But this book doesn't only deal with what is clean and unclean. It doesn't only tell us how we may be defiled and thus unfit for God. But the great theme of this book is to tell how a sinning people, often defiled, often perhaps rendered unfit for fellowship with God, may nonetheless be cleaned and restored so that a holy God may continue to dwell among them.

Again, I remind you, that which made Israel different from any other nation was that God chose to make His dwelling place among them. That was a wonderful privilege, but it imposed great responsibilities.

As I said, it made certain things unclean that weren't unclean to anybody else. But that tabernacle also enshrined a whole system of sacrifices which were meant to portray for us the way in which man may be restored to God, cleansed from sin, the way in which our holy God may yet continue in grace and blessing with people no better than us.

And so it is the opening chapters of the book of Leviticus deal with the offerings which were prescribed. If the artificial uncleanness spoken of in Leviticus is meant to picture for us the defilement of sin, the offerings so carefully delineated in this book are meant to picture for us the Lord Jesus Christ and the wonderful and complete remedy for sin which He has accomplished for us.

And so, as I say, the early chapters deal with the prescribed offerings. If you will look at the first chapter and verse two, the Lord says to Moses, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, he shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock, and then followed all sorts of details as to what they were to bring and how they were to bring.

That word begins with if. They hadn't got to bring an offering, but there was instinctive in Israel and in all the religions of that day a feeling that they must bring an offering to God. All right, says God, if you bring an offering, it's got to be along these lines.

And you must be punctilious in observing the instructions I give you when you bring an offering. Because these offerings are intended to be for succeeding generations a wonderful portrayal of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They weren't to make up anything. Every detail for those who have eyes to see has something significant to tell us but significant to tell us supremely of the Lord Jesus. Sometimes I've heard the offerings explained as picturing our offering of ourselves to God.

I don't think that's true. This is Christ and these offerings give us various aspects of the work of the Lord Jesus for us. I don't get a lot of peace out of my offering of myself to God. It can never be complete.

It can never be the ground of my peace. But I find my rest and my help and my peace in his offering of himself to God and God's acceptance of that offering on my behalf. The great lesson of these offerings is not me for Christ.

You'll soon wallow in despair if your emphasis is me for Christ. There is a place for me for Christ but it's not the ground of your peace. The thing we can put over these offerings is Christ for me. And therein is growth because the Bible says we're to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Jesus Christ.

It doesn't say grow in goodness. I'm not sure whether I've grown in goodness. Sometimes I feel I've grown the other way. Growth is growth in grace, growth in our appreciation of Christ for me. And to find my peace in him and to find my life in him I've got to learn to go out of my poor wretched self to him.

And Christ for me is the theme of these offerings. Now there are five offerings that Israel were to offer. If they were to make an offering it was to be along these lines, one or other or several of these five offerings.

The Five Offerings and Their Fulfillment in Christ

In the first chapter, you can cast your eye down and you can see the subject is the burnt offering. The whole burnt offering. In the second chapter, when any man will offer a meat offering. Do understand in the authorised version meat doesn't mean meat as we understand it.

When Jesus said I have meat to eat that you know not of, he didn't mean that he had a chop. Meat in Elizabethan English means food. And therefore you can regard this second offering as the food offering or the revised version says the meal offering.

It was flour. Indeed the revised standard version brings us right up to date and it calls it the cereal offering. That's the second one. In chapter three we go on to what is called the peace offering.

All of them different, different rules, different sorts of offerings. The peace offering. And then in chapter four we have the sin offering. Very different from the other offerings. And then in chapter five we have the trespass offering.

And in the various offerings which are offered in the historical parts of the Old Testament. You hear them offering this and that. It's always one or other of these five offerings. Very often as we shall see two of them together.

Now as I say all these offerings are different in a number of respects. But they have one thing in common. They all go through the fire. And I suggest to you that these offerings give us differing aspects of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ for us poor sinful failures.

But all of them have this much. They picture that work of the Lord Jesus Christ which he did for us on Calvary. They all speak of the Lord Jesus going through the fire. And I believe growth in grace will mean for us a growing appreciation of what happened up there between those two thieves.

Far more happened up there than any of us realize. We thought we saw it all when we were saved. I do believe, I will believe that Jesus died for me. But oh there's depth there. And that is where God finds his greatest delight.

And so we see these five offerings. Now of these five offerings two are quite obviously far more important than the other. They recur throughout the Old Testament far more frequently. One is the burnt offering.

Indeed a burnt offering was offered twice every day. Quite apart from the exigencies of any specific failure. Every day the priest offered the burnt offering upon the altar. And then of course it was offered on many another extra occasion.

And the other important offering is the sin offering. And invariably you see these two going together, the sin offering and the burnt offering. We shall see the significance of this thing I'm going to mention.

The burnt offering is often offered alone, never the sin offering. Sin offering yes, but always followed by the burnt offering. Well now we shall see that this portrays for us two of the most basic aspects of what the Lord Jesus has done for us.

Done to secure our peace with God and our liberty. And so this morning we're going to look at the sin offering. And tomorrow at the burnt offering. I don't think we shall look at the other intervening offerings.

We won't have time. There are other glorious things to explore in this book. But if God helps us to see what is meant in these two offerings, I believe we shall have gained something that's going to bless our hearts and show us the way of peace and freedom as never before.

The Tabernacle and the Sin Offering

And so I want you to look and we'll read through part of chapter four. Before we do so, realizing that many of us are new Christians and we are making the acquaintance of these things for the first time, I must just remind you of the structure of the tabernacle.

Because these offerings were offered in the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a tent like this, a portable place of worship. Though of course it wasn't a place in which the people gathered. It was a place in which the sacrifices were offered on behalf of the people.

And the tabernacle proper was a tent like this. I can't at the moment, haven't done enough research to compare the dimensions of the tabernacle with this. I don't know. It might not have been all that different.

Rather smaller, I believe. I'm quite sure. And it was divided into two. And there was two partitions. There was the holy place up there. And then there hung a great curtain here, beyond which was the Holy of Holies.

And then, outside, there was an outer court, not covered over, but with a partition, a fence, a canvas, a linen fence all round with supports. And the layout was simply this. The priest would come into the outer court first of all.

And there, people could see it over the top or through the doorway, would be the brazen altar. An altar of brass on which all the major sacrifices were offered. And then, coming further towards the inner sanctuary, still in the open air, was the brazen lava, a great pond, a great, well a lava, huge thing, supported on imitation animals.

And that was full of water. And the priest, in making his approach to the sanctuary, would offer the sacrifice at the brazen altar. But before he could enter the holy place, he would have to wash himself in that water.

All of this is full of significance. We may touch upon it, we may not, we shall see. And then, into the holy place. Now, the priests were permitted to come into the holy place frequently every day. Indeed, they had to.

And what was there in the holy place? Well, there was the table of showbread, where the bread every day was put there. There was the candlestick, which had to be attended, that the oil would continue to cause the lamps to shine.

And then, there was the altar of incense, a small altar of incense, where the incense was offered up. That was the holy place. And then, there was the Holy of Holies, within which there was only the mercy seat, the inner sanctuary.

Here was the greatest portrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ the Old Testament can give us. We needn't go into the details, this golden box, with the law inside, then commandments, with a cherubim overshadowing the mercy seat, growing out of the lid, which was called the mercy seat, and so on.

And into that Holy of Holies, the high priest went only once a year. He only! And then, only once in the year. And we shall think later on about that great day, the Day of Atonement, when the high priest went in once in the year.

Now, that's just the layout. You have to know that to understand various allusions, when we think of the sin offering. Now, shall we look at chapter 4. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance, Revised version, If a soul shall sin unwittingly, against any of the commandments of the Lord, concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them, if the priest that is anointed do sin, according to the sin of the people.

Don't know what that phrase means, according to the sin of the people. But the revised version says, If the anointed people, priests, shall sin, so as to bring guilt on the people. If a priest sins, he might involve the whole congregation in guilt.

What a solemn thing! Then let him bring for his sin, which he has sinned, a young bullock, without blemish, unto the Lord for a sin offering. And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the Lord.

And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock's blood and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation, that's into the holy place, not of the holy of holies. This is often happening, not once in the year, but into the holy place.

And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering, the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the call above the liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away, as it was taken off from the bullock at the sacrifice of peace offerings.

And the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering, and the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head and with his legs, and his inwards and his down. Even the whole burnt offering shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with the fire.

Where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. So that is what is to happen if a priest sins. Then in verse 13,. And if the whole congregation of Israel sins through ignorance, once again, err unwittingly.

And the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly. They don't know it's happened. And they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which should not be done and are guilty.

When the sin which they have sinned against it is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock. And exactly the same is done for the young bullock as in the previous instance. Then in verse 22,.

When a ruler has sinned, first of all a priest, then the whole congregation. When a ruler has sinned against any of the commandments of the Lord. Verse 23,. The revised knocks out that word or. When he has sinned, if his sin, wherein he has sinned, come to his knowledge.

He shall bring his offering, in his case a kid of the goats, a mare without blemish. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat and kill it. Verse 25,. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering.

No, this time, the blood doesn't go into the holy place. It's put upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering. And he shall burn his fat upon the altar. And a further passage tells us in such a case, the body was not burnt outside the camp, but eaten by the priests within the holy place.

In certain cases, the blood was brought right into the holy place, in which case, the body was always burnt outside the camp. But in certain instances, this is one, the blood was not brought into the holy place, but only to the altar of burnt offering, in which case, the body was to be eaten by the priests.

These are the instructions. You say it seems a bit complicated, but I think we shall find there's a very simple meaning, a picture for us in all these things. Verse 27,. And then you come further down the scale, and if any one of the common people sinned through ignorance,.

Verse 28,. If his sin which he has sinned come to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering, a smaller offering yet, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, and that is dealt with in the same way as the one with regard to the ruler.

And, the blessed end of these offerings is this, take verse 26,. And the priest's last half shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin and it, that thing that had been done, shall be forgiven him.

And forgiveness with God means an alleviation of sometimes the disciplines that he has to put us to because of our sin. Well now, as you've looked at that and listened to it, and maybe you have some familiarity, obviously certain things have struck you.

Sin Done in Ignorance and God's Provision of Mercy

Now the first thing that strikes me with regard to this offering, this sin offering, was it was to be offered for sins done in ignorance, for sins done unwittingly. Every time, if someone sinned unwittingly against any of the commandments of the Lord, he's done something wrong, he doesn't know he's done it.

It's only later that it's made known to him. He says, Oh, what have I done? Because remember, they were very much impressed with the holiness that was to be theirs. The presence of the Lord God right in their midst.

Look what I've done. What is this going to mean for us? What shall I do now? There was always this provision for peace and forgiveness when a thing had been done unwittingly and then it was made known.

Well now, it's interesting to note that that is the great scope of the redemption of our Lord Jesus. You may think it may limit it, but it doesn't. What the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross, he did it for sins done in ignorance.

Indeed, he said he did. He said on the cross, Father forgive them for they don't know what they do. They didn't know who it was they were putting on the cross. It was a terrible sin but done in ignorance.

1 Corinthians 2 says, None of the rulers of this world knew. Had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. It was a sin done in ignorance. And of course, it was the work of the apostles in the Acts to inform the people of what they did.

That was the burden of their message. Whom you put on the tree, God raised up and showed it to be Messiah in Christ. They said, What have we done? Men and brethren, what shall we do? And they were told God had anticipated that very situation.

And then you will remember that Paul attributed the grace of God to him because the sins he did were done in ignorance. If you like to turn to 1 Timothy 1 .13 verse 12 rather. 1 Timothy 1 .12. And Paul says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer, a persecutor, injurious, outrageously insulting, that means, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

His actions seemed to me absolutely deliberate. But God said, Oh no, he didn't know what he was doing. I know there were certain reactions that were utterly wrong but he didn't really know. And mercy reached me, he said, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And when he was awakened to see what he'd done on that road to Damascus, that the one whom he was persecuting was none other than the Messiah, he repented and grace reached him and he found there was a sin offering for such a sin as he had seen.

Well now as I say, you might think, well that rather limits the atonement of the Lord Jesus. I know I've done things ignorantly in unbelief but there are other things I have to confess I've done absolutely willfully.

Are they not provided for by the atonement of our Lord Jesus? I don't think you did sin as willfully as you thought you did. Yes, willfully, but I dare to say it was done in ignorance. No man truly knows what he does when he sins.

He thinks he does but let that man be awakened by free grace on high and he gets a view of his sins he never had before. By comparison, his view of sin was utter ignorance to what he gets now. And God in his mercy is going to take account of your sin, your very worst, as being done ignorantly in unbelief for which he's provided the sin offering.

The City of Refuge and Repentance

You get the same thing brought out in other types and shadows of the Lord Jesus, notably the city of refuge. You may know that in Old Testament times if one man killed another rough and ready justice was exacted by the next of kin.

It was their responsibility to track the murderer down and kill him and the law was satisfied. He was called the avenger of blood. But of course, supposing one man didn't murder another deliberately but he killed the other unwittingly as a result of an accident.

Well, the avenger of blood might not make a difference. And further injustice would be done in that that manslayer would be killed. Even our law makes a difference between murder and manslaughter and the kind laws of God did.

And God wanted to protect the manslayer. And therefore, there were certain cities, six of them, scattered throughout Israel called cities of refuge. And the manslayer had only to get into one of those cities no matter how near the avenger of blood might be on his track and he was safe.

Now, I don't know if this is new to you but of course, we who love to preach the gospel from every part of the scripture love to portray the city of refuge as a picture of our Lord Jesus. He is the sinner's city of refuge.

But notice, it was for the manslayer, the one who had done what he did unwittingly. The murderer couldn't take refuge in there. He could temporarily but when his case came up for adjudication, he would be handed over to the avenger of blood but not the manslayer.

Here's the same thing again. And what it comes to is this, that God in his mercy is prepared to take account of your slaying and mine of the Son of God. Of course, we've all been guilty of it as manslaughter and not murder.

Now, you see that very clearly in Acts chapter 3. And here you have Peter telling the people what they've done. They've done something in ignorance. They've slain their Messiah. But he makes it clear that God's going to take a very merciful view with regard to that terrible crime.

He's going to regard it merely as manslaughter for which there's a city of refuge. Verse 17,. And now brethren, I know that through ignorance you did it as did also your rulers. But those things which God before showed by the mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer, he has so fulfilled.

Repent ye therefore, for there's a place of refuge for you. And so, when Peter first stood before the people who put the Son of God on the cross, he gave them this encouraging news. Perhaps the greatest incentive for them to repent was this merciful view that God was going to take of their sin.

But, the people who were given this offer of this city of refuge refused to flee that. They wouldn't accept the fact that they were wrong in doing what they did. They were shown what they'd done, but they weren't prepared to bring the sin offering.

And so it is in chapter 7, you see their sin is given another view. And now they're charged not with manslaughter, but with murder. Acts 7, 51, Stephen speaking, Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did, so do you.

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have now been the betrayers and the murderers. Now he's charging them with murder for which there is no city of refuge.

And as I understand it, sin only becomes willful sin in God's sight when, having been given the offer of mercy, having been shown the sin offering, having been shown the city of refuge, you refuse to repent.

You refuse to flee there. You refuse to come to the Lord Jesus Christ or access God. Now your sin is willful. It was never willful in the middle of it, but I regard it no longer now as manslaughter. You have murdered the Son of God for which there is no salvation.

Please turn the cassette over now. Do not fast-wind it in either direction. I regard it no longer now as manslaughter. You have murdered the Son of God for which there is no salvation. Willful sin cannot be forgiven because you won't repent of it.

There's only one unforgivable sin and there's a sin you won't repent of. Of course, the moment you do repent of it, it's no longer willful and there's forgiveness. Please don't get me wrong. Sin is only unforgivable while you won't repent.

And while Israel wouldn't repent, then they were going to give account for murder of the Son of God in the Day of Judgment. But, of course, we know that many who did resist first later repented and they found that Jesus, the city of refuge, the sin offering, was available to them.

Walking in the Light and Progressive Holiness

And so this is the gracious offer of God to treat our worst transgressions as sins done in ignorance. You didn't know. You didn't see sin as I see it. I remember, I know of a very intimate story told of Billy Graham.

I don't think he would mind telling it. And it was years ago before that great campaign where God began to use him in a special way. A group of them were having a prayer meeting and Billy Graham gave a little message.

He said, you know, I hate sin. I hate sin. And later, at midnight, they were having an all-night prayer meeting. Those leaders were in prayer and they all began to repent that they didn't hate sin. That they didn't hate sin.

And suddenly, someone felt a figure come right out of the fountain fall on his face and say, oh God, I was wrong when I said I hated sin. It was Billy Graham. I don't hate sin as you hated. And so God says, no you don't.

You've done many things. Things you've never seen to be sin. Things you know to be sin but you and I don't know the full extent, the depths, the insults to God, all the ramifications. But God says, if you walk with me, I'll show you.

You see, he doesn't intend us to go on in sins of ignorance. He intends to reveal them progressively to us. That, I believe, is what 1 John means when it says, 1 John 1 says, if we walk in the light, as he is in the light.

Walking in the light is having these sins done in ignorance revealed to us. They come as a shock. Sin is a revelation from heaven and a merciful one. How can you really be forgiven what you don't repent of?

And how can you repent of what you don't see? We're all in a realm of illusion about ourselves. But as I begin to respond to whatever light God gives me, he'll give me more. And I will progressively see that to be sin which I never saw to be sin before.

Oh, you say, what a terrible way of progressing. No, no. For what the light reveals, the precious blood is there to cleanse. And when you have the most painful revelation of motives and thoughts and actions, when you see the effect of what you've done, you didn't see it at the time, there's no need for the sinner to despair.

For ahead of time, God has provided a perfectly adequate sin offering that can cleanse that man and put that man right, as right with God as grace can. And, of course, in the process, I have an appreciation of the Lord Jesus and of grace that I never had before.

And that, of course, is growing in grace. I don't know any other way to grow in grace but this way. One other verse along this line. Will you turn to Psalm 19? Psalm 19, verse 12. Who can understand his errors?

Cleanse thou me from secret faults. And the revised version, I have a two-version Bible, I can see at a glance how the revised version translates it. And there it is. Cleanse thou me not from secret faults but from hidden faults.

It isn't merely from faults that I commit in secret. And it isn't merely faults which I hide from other people. Hidden faults are faults which are hidden from me. And, my dear friends, there's a vast realm of things that are hidden from us.

Of course, it's a wretched process. We don't want to face the truth and we kid ourselves it isn't what we think it is. And we gather other people an impression of ourselves which isn't the truth. And we keep on acting a lie and telling a lie sometimes only unconsciously that eventually we come to believe our own lie.

And we really believe that the impression we give of ourselves to others is ourselves. And God's got to begin with introducing us to ourselves. A whole world of hidden faults. Now, God in his love is going to reveal them to us.

But you mustn't make heavy weather of it. You must be reconciled that this is the sort of man fallen creatures are. It shouldn't be a surprise to you to have this or that revealed. It's hurtful in our pride to own it, but that's all.

And more than that grace there is my every debt to pay. Blood to wash my every stain away. Don't you see how this makes a path of progressive holiness really possible? The fact that there is this sin offering.

The fact that grace is for people like us provokes us to a new honesty and a new willingness. That's why when you get away from Jesus and you don't see the cross you don't see the blood as perhaps you did you become more and more unwilling to own up and be honest.

But the nearer we are the more we're encouraged to tell the truth about ourselves to God and come into freedom again. Well now that's taken rather a long time. The sin's done in ignorance but don't you think it touches on a very wide issue.

Identification with the Sin Offering

All right now the one who sinned has had the painful revelation but there's the prescribed offering, the sin offering. And he's to bring this offering and you will notice the things that he's required to do.

We're back in Leviticus 4 now. He's to bring the offering the bullock in the case of the priest to the door of the tabernacle and he's to lay his hand upon the bullock's head. That's the first thing. Now these are the sparrows that delight to fly in the tabernacle of the Lord.

I think yes we have the two doors open. In the meantime don't let the birds of the air distract our attention or take the seed away from our hearts. All right don't worry. Now again and again in the Old Testament sacrifices the offerer, the sinner had to lay his hand upon the head of the bullock.

Now what does that mean? Sometimes it's thought that he symbolically transferred his guilt to the head of the victim. But I don't think that is true. I believe this laying the hand upon the head was identifying himself with that offering.

I believe it meant that I see myself as this offering. And what's going to happen to this offering I see as happening to me. I believe that is what is meant in ordination. The laying of hands upon people.

When Saul and Barnabas were sent forth to the Gentiles the church laid their hands on them. We identify ourselves with these brothers who are going out with the gospel. And they go out as us. They are our representatives.

What they do they do as us in our name. And surely that is what is meant by ordination. A group of people who set a man apart and say what he does he does in the name of the whole church. He does it as us.

And when that offerer laid his hand upon the head of the offering he says what this lamb this bullock does he does as me. What happens to him is really happening to me. And I recognize the death that this bullock is dying is my death.

It is what I deserve. And we sang tonight this morning did we not my faith would lay her hand on that dear head of thine. What a lovely picture of repentance and faith in our Lord Jesus. Oh when I have seen what I am.

When I have had this new revelation and I have got to put this right and get right with God. I find that God has found the sin offering already. I don't have to slay him. He has already been slain by God's appointment.

But I have to go to the cross and identify myself with Jesus and saying Lord this that has happened in me deserves that. That is my death. That is what this deserves. That is what I deserve. That has been such a help to me.

It really helps me to get right down to it. It isn't just a mistake oh I am sorry about that. It deserves. Oh the blood shedding and judgment bearing of the Lord Jesus. And my faith would lay her hand on that dear head of thine while as a penitent I stand and there confess my sin.

I confess this whatever it may be as occasioning the death of the Son of God and as needing all that to put me right. Do you know if there is only one sinner in the world and he committed only one sin it would have needed all of Calvary to restore that man to God.

So vast is sin. And at the cross you have got to take the same view of your sin as God does and see it as worthy deserving that terrible judgment bearing of the Son of God. Yes it used to I remember some occasions it was very much with me you know God uses pictures at one time more than another.

And I remember having to had got wrong with God over something perhaps something came between me and my wife and I had to get away just before and I remember Lord I want to make it clear I am right now virtually laying my hand upon your head.

This has happened. I am the one who is wrong. This deserves that. And you don't get peace with God through what the Lord Jesus has done save as you are prepared to take that view. And then too the offerer did the slaying the priesthood.

And I believe that that is linked with what I just said I have got to see my sin as occasioning the death of the Lord Jesus. I have got to look on him whom I have pierced and mourn for him. I am not to mourn merely for what sin might cost me but I have got to see what it has cost my substitute on the cross.