Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Reformation Covenant Church

John 1:29-34

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. I did not know him. But that he should be revealed to Israel. Therefore, I came baptizing with water.’ And John bore witness, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and he remained upon him.

I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on him, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.

Let us pray. Father, we pray that your spirit would indeed be the environment in which we worship you today. We thank you for the Spirit and for the truth. And we pray now that your scriptures would be truth to us. May the Spirit take this word, open it for understanding, cause us to rejoice and to praise the Lamb for taking away the sin of the world. In his name we pray. Amen.

I have had good cause to meditate on this verse this past week. As most of you know, I traveled to Idaho and was there for a couple of days. And this verse came rolling to mind. This verse—that this is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world—as I sat in Boozer’s, a coffee house run by two families from Christ Church in Idaho.

Boozer’s is named after Martin Bucer, and they chose Martin Bucer particularly to name this establishment after. And I should say they don’t just serve coffee; they also serve wine and beer and they have cigars for sale there too. So if you go there, don’t be surprised by that.

Apparently Doug Jones has done a little research, and Martin Bucer—who many of us know was the great reformer at Strasbourg that John Calvin learned much from in terms of the institutional church and the liturgy of the church—also wrote a lot about the reformation of the political state based on God’s word. And what I didn’t know was that Bucer apparently in his later life was studying and writing about the reformation of the arts, specifically the reformation of the theater.

So Bucer is this reformation character. I didn’t realize that this coffee establishment over there was called Boozer’s till I got there. For some reason I thought they were talking about a family from the church.

The coincidence here, or the way the Spirit of God works, is that in our discussions for James B. Jordan’s topic coming in October when he comes to bring us a reformation conference, we’ve talked about having him speak on Martin Bucer prior to knowing about this establishment. And then if that occurs, our reformation celebration on October 31st would be focused around the life of Bucer, making sure our children and we know who he was as a great example to us.

So what’s it got to do with the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? Well, we’ll get to this, but in short, Bucer is a demonstration. And when you see institutions like Boozer’s, or when we see Dominion Drywall, or when we see someone approaching landscaping or plumbing or electrical work or paper sales or whatever it is—when we see men of God approaching these tasks, these vocations with an eye to reforming them under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of the Spirit—we are beholding, we are seeing, we are knowing at a little deeper level that this great truth that John the Baptist proclaimed is to be proclaimed in our pulpits and is to be rejoiced in.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The entire cosmos, the order of the world, the sin of that world manifested by fallen man, has been dealt with definitively through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he tells us in this text that the basis for that is of course his work on the cross for sinners and for the elect. And the effect of that will be the removal of the sin of the world over time and nothing short of that.

We should desire nothing short of that as we go about living our lives this week. We should desire nothing short of desiring to see King Jesus exalted in every plumbing facility in Oregon City, in every educational institution in Oregon City, in every place of recreation in Oregon City, in every mom and pop restaurant or market. We should desire to see the manifestation of the effects of the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world.

This is the vision that led to Reformation Covenant Church. And for years, several of us spoke about doing something like a Boozer’s, and it was a great encouragement to me—and I hope it’s a great encouragement to you—to know that this has been done in Moscow, Idaho in the middle of downtown in this small city. It is a picture of what this text I think is all about: that the Lamb of God has taken away the sin of the world.

Now this proclamation is made by John the Baptist—not John the writer of the gospel, but John the Baptist, the baptizer. We’re in that little section of the book now where we’re talking about John. But we’re transitioning into disciples and Jesus and his disciples, and we’ll move there in two weeks. Next week, Pastor Wilson will be preaching. But today we have this pericope, the set portion of scripture designated at the top by the time reference “the next day,” and after the verses I just read will be “the next day.”

So this is a section of scripture. The section of scripture declares the positive confession or testimony of John the Baptist. Remember that we said last week we had the negative confession or denial. But before we get to talking a little more about that, it’s important to recognize that while we see this portion of the Gospel of John from 1:19 through 2:11 as a series of five stories, completed incidents that teach discipleship—and teach you what you should be doing: you should be denying yourself, taking up your cross, and following Jesus—we’ll talk more about that in a moment. But it’s important to see that in its first reference, what’s being spoken of here is not discipleship.

What we have here is the proclamation of a man chosen by God to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s a preacher, and that makes him different. The scriptures say that John had particular unique garb. Preachers, you know, are identified in the context of the scriptures by, in some cases, unique garb. His garb was the garb of Elijah, the great prophet.

So we have here, in its first application, the voice of a preacher proclaiming what the word of God says, or declaring who the Lord Jesus Christ is. And note that neither he nor any other preacher—what they are not. John the Baptist’s testimony is a denial of himself and an affirmation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as such, it serves as your model for your life, calling you to discipleship. But in its first application, what we have here is a preacher. This is important because we tend to forget these things.

We tend to read 2 Timothy 3:16-17 about all scripture being profitable for reproof, for doctrine, etc., so that the man of God might be perfect or equipped for every good work. We tend to read that in a discipleship sense, and it certainly has application to you. But in the immediate context of Timothy, this is a pastoral epistle. And in 2 Timothy 4:1, we’re going to read, “I charge you therefore, pastor, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead and is appearing in his kingdom, preach the word.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 is first and foremost written about the pastor, and it is the equipping of the pastor that Paul will call Timothy to account for if he fails to preach the word of God. So the minister—specifically here—is the man of God chosen by God to preach the word of God and affect transformation and regeneration amongst those who hear the word.

So what we’re going to see in two weeks is John’s declaration. We’re going to have the repeat or the repetition of “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” And he’s going to say it in the context of disciples who then turn to Jesus.

My job, walking in the footsteps of the prophets of the Old Testament and the preachers of the New, is to proclaim this word to you so that you might be fuller disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. So by way of first application, the pulpits of America, in order to affect the manifestation of the removal of the sins of the world, must be filled with men who understand the importance of preaching. That preaching is the foolishness Paul says that God uses to affect transformation and regeneration in the context of the community.

In Romans we read, “How can they call on him if they have not believed? And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard?” What should say is, “How can they believe in him whom they haven’t heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

The affirmation here is that when the disciples hear the voice of John the Baptist, they are hearing God’s voice. And when the preaching in the pulpit conforms to the word of God, you are hearing the voice of the one that you are called to believe in. Jesus is speaking through the preaching of the word. Well, that seems to be what this text fairly clearly tells us.

And actually, we could go to other texts. For instance, our Savior in Luke chapter 10 says—in the famous passage about sheep, which is applicable to our lesson today as we begin with lamb, the Lamb of God—”Other sheep I have which are not of this fold. Them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice. You know, he’s saying the sheep hear my voice. There are other sheep that are not of this fold; they will hear my voice, he says. And there shall be one fold and one shepherd. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them.”

How do you hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, preeminently, the New Testament says, in the first place, you hear the voice. You do not read it in your Bibles, although that is the word of God, of course. But he’s saying here, they’re going to hear my voice. And I think that what he’s saying is that preachers will come who will speak the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In fact, in Luke 10, he tells these preachers in training, “He that hears you hears me. He that despises you despises me. He who hears you hears me.”

We have an architectural representation of this in the Lutheran tradition of what I’m saying here. We have a lectern where the word in Lutheran circles is read from, and a pulpit where it’s preached from. Now, we don’t make use of that architecture yet in this facility. Why is the pulpit bigger? Because there’s something very important about the word of God preached that the Reformers understood. It’s not that the preacher is more important than the word. It’s exactly the reverse.

The preacher, properly understanding this as John the Baptist did, has his need to proclaim the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. What does he do? He begins with denial of who he is. The implication is that I cannot get into this pulpit and tell you about myself. I can tell you about Jesus and I can proclaim him to you.

So John the Baptist is first and foremost—this citation is a reminder of the proclamation of the essence of the gospel to us. And this is the essence of the gospel that will produce discipleship as we move to the next few verses in two weeks.

Now John is—I mentioned—distinctive garb. And I’m trying to get you to understand: when you come together to hear the preaching of the word of the Lord, hey, you come together to an important event. And I’m not saying that because of myself. I’m saying that God has chosen to use the foolishness of preaching to affect the transformation of men’s lives. You come here today to hear the voice of Jesus speaking to you.

Now, when you prepare to come here, how do you do that? Who did you dress for today? Let me ask you that. You got dressed this morning. Who did you dress for? Well, I dressed to be comfortable. Well, that’s dressing for yourself. Yeah. Did you dress for Jesus? Did you dress for God?

If you understand the importance of coming into the presence of God in Lord’s Day worship, is that reflected in how you dress? You see, maybe it is. And I’m not going to judge you. But I’m going to tell you this: that every Lord’s day morning you ought to pray, “Lord God, may Jesus speak somehow through that goofball Tuuri. Speak to me. I can say that because I am nothing. Speak to me through the preaching of the word. And let me prepare to hear your word, Lord God, by dressing for you, by dressing for you somehow.”

Now you can wear, you know, a tuxedo and dress for yourself because you want people to look at you and see how good you’re looking. And you can dress in a way that other people might see as casual. And if it is casual, if that’s your intent, something’s wrong. But if your intent is to glorify God somehow by what you do when you get up in the morning and put those clothes on, praise God.

John the Baptist tells us that we’re going to hear the voice of Jesus here. He denies himself and he urges his people to follow Jesus. The context for this affirmation is point one of your outline: Confession and Symbolic Cleansing in the Wilderness. That’s the context for this affirmation that’s going to be said here.

And what we talked about last week—this is the wilderness. Why is it the wilderness? Because it says explicitly in the verse at the end of this last pericope, section of scripture, that he’s in Bethany beyond the Jordan. He’s taking them back through the Red Sea. And when he’s over there, he gets this delegation. The robes come to him. You remember this? It’s very important because it’s the beginning of the confession of who we are in Christ—to deny, or to say who we are not.

We are not king of kings. We are not priest of priests. We’re not prophet of prophet. The Pharisees represent the ruling authority in Israel. The Levites represented the teaching authority, and the priests represented ecclesiastical or sacramental, sacrificial context—what the priests were doing. And so we’ve got church, state, and school represented here, offering the temptation to John the Baptist—imaging the temptation of Jesus, which is going on probably contemporaneously with this.

They’re being tempted—John’s being tempted—to think of himself as higher than he ought to think, that he has some knowledge apart from the word of God and apart from Christ, which he does not. And to think that somehow he should be the governing authority apart from the King of Kings, which he is not. And to try to tempt him to say, “Oh yes, I’m the priest. I’m going to provide all the great offerings for the people,” apart from reference to the Lamb of God. And he is not to be that priest.

And you have the same temptations. Every day you decide to govern yourself. Now government is impossible to avoid, but is it your government or is the King of Kings and his word the governing authority in your life? Ask yourself that. What is it? You mediate things to your family as a family priest. We could say you consecrate things as an individual. You consecrate things for the use of them as a priest would do. For what use? For your own well-being, for your comfort, for your delight, or for Jesus?

You see, and you decide to know certain things and find out knowledge. Well, is that knowledge mediated through the word of God? Is your rule mediated through the King? Is the way you consecrate everything in your life mediated through the priest?

Well, John says that’s the beginning of discipleship. We said this last week: that the disciple begins by denying himself. But you know, if that’s all it is—a denial of yourself—you have erred grievously. Because if all you do is go around denying yourself, who are you focused on? Well, you’re focused on yourself. And that’s a horrible trap to get into. Don’t do it.

And Jesus immediately says, “Deny yourself. Take up your cross, die to the old man. And recognize that when you do that, modern day educationalists and state authorities and even church people will attack you. There’ll be controversy. There’ll be trials. But deny yourself and follow me.”

You see, John found out who he was. He had no denial of himself in terms of his office before Christ. In fact, he asserts his office in this very text we have. And he asserted it to the Pharisees: “I come baptizing in water, and I’m not the one who baptizes in spirit. But I am the one who baptizes with water.” He affirms his office and calling.

John finds his true voice, his true vocation, not by seeking it, but by seeking God—by denying himself and seeking God. And young people, you know, it doesn’t mean you don’t make plans. But every plan you make in terms of deciding who you are as a person, what your vocation will be, will you be married or not?—and young man, what your vocation? And some of you women, what’s your vocation?—you will find that vocation as you die to yourself and live to Jesus and seek him. Seek first the kingdom of God.

Jesus asked his disciples in the next text, which we’ll talk on in two weeks, “What do you seek?” “We seek you.” And if we seek God as we come here today, then we can count on him directing our path so we end up knowing who we are.

So denying ourselves is not a matter of being self-absorbed—and don’t do this and don’t do this and don’t do this. God wants you to rejoice, and you will rejoice. You will get to Cana. You’ll drink the wine, real wine, the best of wine. You’ll rejoice in the context of the wedding feast and what it represents if you have denied yourself and followed him and sought him.

So that’s the movement here. And in the context of that movement, we come to the text today where John declares, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” This is what we can say is the positive side of his confession and yours.

You’re not the savior. You’re not, you know, the one who’s going to save things through political action. You’re not going to save your children through instruction of them ultimately. No, we’re not. None of those things. And positively, the confession of John the Baptist should be ours: that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And he is the Son of God. And that’s John’s confession here.

The mission of this text today is to praise the Lamb. To praise the Lamb for taking our sins away, to praise the Lamb for taking our sins away. We can say that we’re still in this idea that John flows through the first 12 chapters. He washes a lot of stuff in the gospel. Then we get to the table of showbread. Then we get to the lampstand stuff as we move to the end of this first half of the gospel.

So John the Baptist is a picture of cleansing here. He’s cleansing, washing away defilement—the thought that we do have knowledge, rule, or mediation apart from Jesus. And that washing is producing new life. So what part, what piece of tabernacle furniture does our text remind us of today? It reminds us of the labor of cleansing. Not the table of showbread, not the lampstand. It is the labor of cleansing.

The baptism of Jesus is being spoken of in the context of our text today. This is how John knew he was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

So behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. This particular verse is used in liturgical churches. It’s sung during the distribution of the elements of communion. It’s known as the Agnus Dei.

Agnus Dei. Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace. Agnus Dei.

And maybe there’ll be some point in time in which we sing that in the context of the distribution of the Supper. But this is the text from which the Agnus Dei is taken, and the importance the church has always seen the centrality of the profession of our faith over this particular verse.

So when we get to the height of our worship service together, moving in now—in the process of distributing the elements of communion—this is where the church historically would do it, this verse would be referenced. So at the heart of our confession, at the heart of our joy and union with God, is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

Now, what is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world? What does that mean? Well, of course, we know, being raised in the context of a church that understands theology, that it refers to the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. How are sins borne away or taken away? Well, he bears our sins on the cross and he delivers us from the power of our sins by dying on the cross for us as the Lamb of God. And so we recognize in this text an important truth: that Jesus makes atonement for our sins by his death as the Lamb of God on the cross.

In 1 Peter 1:15, we read this: “But as he which has called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father who without respect of persons judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear.”

Okay, so he’s saying be holy. You’ll be more holy if you have a proper fear or sense of reverence for God. And then verse 18 says, “For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but rather with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God.

Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see here in the context the bookends of this passage about the blood of Jesus—is the call to be holy and to be fearful of God and to work in context of love for the brothers. And in the middle of that, the motivating factor in the Christian life is a proper appreciation, an apprehension, a belief in, and a firm reliance upon the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ made once for all on the cross 2,000 years ago.

You have been redeemed. Your sins have been carried away by the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. And this was made manifest to you. Now this is wording that brings us back to our text because John says the reason he comes baptizing in the water is that Christ might be manifest. And Christ is manifested in John’s proclamation that this is the Lamb of God. And this text tells us that Jesus was manifest in the context of an understanding of the blood of Christ—the precious blood of Christ was shed for us that we might be redeemed from all our sins.

So certainly, you know, what we want to take away from the Lamb of God and the first application of it here—what does it mean? The affirmation of the disciple of Christ is the affirmation that Jesus paid the price for my sins on the cross. The substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God was not showing us on the cross some kind of demonstration—ultimately some kind of moral lesson of what life is like or his hatred for sin or what it costs us or anything like that. There have been branches of the Presbyterian Church that have believed and taught that and have led to some of the major schisms in the Presbyterian Church in America. But there’s no—the atonement instead is an actual shedding of blood. The blood is the proof that Jesus dies. That’s the way the blood is used in the Old Testament sacrificial system. The death of the Lamb of God on the cross for his people is what is being spoken of here as the centrality of the Christian confession.

This is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world through his substitutionary atonement on the cross—that is at the heart of the Christian message. And so this is a proper thing to do: to take this and turn it into a song in the Agnus Dei and on the basis of that song make our central affirmation of faith the confession that Jesus is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

So what did John call Jesus? He calls Jesus the Lamb of God. How did Jesus atone for our sins? He atoned for our sins by dying on the cross for us. And that’s central to this text of scripture.

Now we use this word atone. And it’s quite easy, children, to remember what it means. Because if you put a dash line between the T and the O in “atone,” you’ve got “at one,” right? So atone is like “at one.” And that’s exactly what the atonement is. It produces a unity and at-oneness between us and the triune God through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross for us. The atonement means we’re at peace now with God.

If our sins are not atoned for, then there is separation between us and God. And more than that, God is angry with the wicked every day—whose sins are not atoned for. So, you know, we’re in a position of having God’s anger against us. But then the Lamb of God comes to take away the sin of the world. He takes away the sins specifically of the elect people. And as a result, they’re at one now with God. Not only is he not angry with you, children, but now he’s positively disposed toward you. You’re the apple of his eye the way Jesus is the apple of the Father’s eye.

So God atones, makes atonement for us. Jesus atones for our sins by dying on the cross.

Now this death of the Lord Jesus Christ is specifically for the sheep. The same gospel, in chapter 10, Jesus will say, “I’m the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep.” And in verse 15, “I laid down my life for my sheep.” So this Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world—it doesn’t mean it cannot be interpreted as taking away the sins of every last person in the world. Otherwise, God is no longer angry toward anybody and is favorably disposed toward everybody, and nobody becomes the subject of God’s wrath and anger, which is untrue.

Jesus clarifies this quite nicely for us in this passage in John 10 where he says that he lays down his life for the sheep. Now the word “world” as we’ll talk about in a little bit really means the whole order. And there is this sense in which, in John 3:16, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

So this death of the Lord Jesus Christ, this Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world—the sins of the world are taken away by the application of the death of Christ to the elect, for his sheep.

I want to talk a little bit now in your outline. I’ve got a brief overview of the Lamb of God in the scriptures. If we’re going to say this is so central to our faith, and the affirmation is not “behold he who dies on the cross,” and as a result of that death takes away the sins of the world—John doesn’t phrase it that way. He phrases it as the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And that tells us something about the centrality of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ for us, that we will understand a little better if we think through what he’s talking about in terms of this reference.

He’s the Lamb of God. Why doesn’t he call him the bull of God? That was a sacrificial animal. Why doesn’t he call him the he-goat of God? That was another sacrificial animal. Why the Lamb of God?

Well, first of all, we have Abel’s lamb. And now, children, as you’re working your worksheet, I erred on the handout sheet. The top answer on the right-hand side has no reference to this left-hand side, and the bottom item on the left-hand side has no reference on the right-hand side. So you could just scratch those off if you like. The top of this one, the bottom of this one.

But as I go through what I’m going to say here, you should be able to draw lines from this side to this side. It wouldn’t be a bad exercise for the parents to make sure you’re understanding what I’m talking about here—what the scriptures assert in terms of Jesus being the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

First of all, we have Abel’s lamb in Genesis 4:4. Abel brings the firstlings of his flock. And this is the first sacrificial use of a lamb on an altar. The first death of something on an altar is Abel here. And when we read that it’s a firstling of the flock, the flock here is going to be used later on in differentiation from the herd. The herd is referring to bulls in Leviticus. The flock is referring to sheep, rams, or lambs, whether male or female.

So here what we see is the very first offering is in the category of lamb.

Secondly, Abraham’s lamb. This is the lamb that God provided as a substitute for Isaac. And in Genesis 22:13, Abraham’s going to take Isaac up to the mountain and sacrifice him. Now he’s sure that he’s going to see his son again. Isaac is a type of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Abraham knows that. And so it’s not as if Abraham thinks he’s going to kill his son and he’s going to stay dead.

Isaac—the Jews always knew, on the basis of Abraham’s belief in the resurrection of Isaac—that Isaac was a type of Messiah. Okay. Well, here the type of Messiah has a substitute made for his death. In verse 13, Abraham lifts up his eyes and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

Now, this isn’t a lamb. I mean, it is, but it’s a lamb that’s a little older, old enough now to have horns. A ram is a lamb with horns, an older lamb who is male. And so here we have this ram caught in a thicket by the thorns. And then Abraham offers him up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abel has a lamb. Abraham has a lamb. And Moses uses lambs in the sacrificial system. First of all, the Passover lamb of course was a lamb. And I give you some references there. This is important in the Gospel of John.

You know, if John is going to tell us in the very opening of the book that this is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, we want to recognize that what he’s going to do in the rest of the book is he’s going to talk about three separate Passovers that Jesus attends. So John has a big stress on the calendar of Israel, and he has a particular stress on the Passover celebrations. So when he says here at the beginning he records John the Baptist’s words that this is the Lamb of God, then we can think that he’s certainly making association to the Passover that he’s going to be discussing as he goes through the rest of his gospel.

The morning and evening offerings—you know, before the actual before Leviticus comes, the first thing they’re told at the end of Exodus is that every morning and evening they’re to have a particular sacrifice. The morning and evening, or the daily sacrifices. Those daily sacrifices were lambs. That’s what they had to be. So we see the centrality of the lamb working its way through.

The Sabbath and festival offerings were also lambs. Lambs were normative for those offerings. They give you the reference. Also under Moses we have an ascension offering. Okay.

So let’s think about this. We’ve got Abel offering a lamb. Abraham offering up a ram caught in the thickets. Moses comes along and we’ve got a Passover lamb. Then at the end of Exodus, we’ve got a lamb for the daily sacrifices, morning and evening, that went on for the rest of the temple or tabernacle period. And then God gives a series of specific instructions in the book of Leviticus for other detailed offerings. He gives us a specific instruction for the ascension offering. Now the ascension offering is Leviticus 1.

And the interesting thing about the ascension offering is it could be a bull, a lamb, or a dove or a pigeon, a bird of some sort. So the lamb is in the middle. But the lamb is the only one of the ascension offerings where its place of slaughter was specifically specified on the north side of the altar. The rest of the animals for the whole burnt offerings, the ascension offerings, those animals could be killed anywhere in that temple courtyard where the altar of burnt offering was there.

But the lamb had to be killed on the north side of the altar. Why? Well, it seems like in the Bible, from the north is where God always comes. I’ve given you some references there. We won’t look at them, but God comes in judgment on his people from the north. And so the lamb is the particular recipient, as it were, of God’s judgment being pacified in the context of the ascension offering. So it’s kind of central again—both by its placement in the center of these three offerings, by the fact that it’s the only one that specifies where it had to be slaughtered.

Now, the purification offering—there was no lamb that was required there. It was—you couldn’t use a lamb for the purification offering. We talked about this in our Sunday school class today, and hopefully you guys at least will get what I’m going to say here. The rest of you try to remember what we’ve said about these offerings.

There’s two different offerings that we get confused. We get the trespass offering and the sin offering confused. And I call them the reparation offering—you’re paying back to God—and the purification offering. When we come together in Lord’s Day worship, we confess our sins. That’s akin to the purification or sin offering. That was part of the normal process. When you come to church, you start at the tabernacle and temple with a purification offering. Normal process. Then you’d go to the ascension. The tribute offering, which was grain, of course, was placed on top of it. Then you get the peace offering.

So we come forward, you know, and we’re confessing our sins. We consecrate ourselves in relationship to the word of God. In response to it, we give God our offerings, and we partake of a meal with Christ—the peace offering. But the trespass offering was separate. It was only—you only go to the tabernacle and do a trespass offering if you did something that was really troubling your conscience.

You sinned against somebody. You stole something from them. Didn’t tell them. They’re not going to find out. But you’ve got a guilty conscience. And God is working on you. Well, then you’d come and bring a trespass offering. You stole something that was God’s. You took some of his glory somehow, maybe kept back the tithe, whatever it was. And God began to work on your conscience. Or you rebelled openly against him by lying in court about somebody, and God works on your conscience.

For those things, you had to bring a separate offering, apart from the normal flow. And that was the trespass offering. Now, I’m taking a little time here to talk about this because the trespass offering is the most significant in terms of the removal of a bad conscience. And the trespass offering was always a lamb. Can use a bull or a goat or a bird. The reparation offering, reparation, trespass, same terms. The reparation offering was only a ram. And it dealt with both subconscious and conscious rebellion, sort of sin inward and outward person.

And I think what we can see by this is that the reparation offering is the link between these other lambs and then these other offerings that happen in the Levitical system. My point is that the Lamb of God, the lamb that provides the reparation offering, is the central offering in terms of the movement from death to life.

We have Abel’s lamb. We’ve got Abraham’s lamb. We’ve got Moses’ Passover lamb. And we have the daily sacrifices of lambs. And now we’ve got these different animals used. But the central one that prepares you to come and make your purification offering and your tribute offering and your ascension offering and your peace offering—the stuff that wasn’t always had to be a lamb. The thing that prepares you for all of your worship is the reparation offering, removing Adamic sin, deep-seated rebellion against God, a guilty conscience.

Turn, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 10. Follow along with me here. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 1. For the law being a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereof perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

So he’s talking here about the inability of the Old Testament sacrificial system to purge your conscience of sins, to make that kind of definitive death to life removal of a guilty conscience. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.

Now he’s talking about the regular ongoing sacrifices year for year, ongoing the daily sacrifice. He’s talking about the ascension, the tribute, the peace, and the purification offering. But he’s not talking about the reparation offering because that wasn’t performed ritually year after, you know, moment after moment or week after week and year after year.

It is not possible the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. He doesn’t mention lamb, does he? Wherefore, when he comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared for me. There’s the lamb. He hasn’t mentioned the lamb because the Lamb of God is going to take away sins. And the writer of the book of Hebrews knows that Jesus is the Lamb of God.

Now, it’s not as if the lambs in the reparation offering in the Old Testament took away sins, but they are identified so closely with Jesus as the Lamb of God that he doesn’t include them in the list of animals that can’t take away sin.

Verse 6, In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will, oh God. Above what he said, Sacrifice and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not, neither hath pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. And he’s going to go on and talk about that.

And what he’s saying is that there’s a list here in verse 8: sacrifice, offering, burnt offerings, and offering for sin. And he cites reading Psalm 40:6. And what he’s doing here is he’s giving you the four regular offerings that were performed, you know, year in year out. He’s talking here about those sins, or those offerings rather. The sacrifice—he says above when he says sacrifice. “Sacrifice” is a technical term used in Psalm 40:6, and thus in Hebrews as well, for the peace offering.

So he says peace offerings and “offering” here is a technical term here and on Psalm 40, and as a result here for the tribute offering—the tithe if you want to call it that—what represented the offerings of the people to their king. So peace offering and tribute offering and burnt offerings—you know what that is, right?—that’s the ascension offering. And offerings for sin. That’s the sin offering.

He is giving us here the four regular offerings in reverse order of what happens when you go to tabernacle or temple. And what he’s saying is the purification offering—when we confess our sins—can’t cleanse your conscience, can’t take away sins. And he’s saying that the ascension offering—when we come forward in response to God’s word—the ascension offering can’t clear your conscience, can’t take away sin.

And he’s saying that the tribute offering—when we give our gifts to God our King, as the right, the tax we love to give him—can’t clear your conscience, can’t take away sin. And he’s saying when you come to the Lord’s table, the peace offering—can’t clear your conscience, can’t take away sin.

Now the point here is that there is one offering in this system, the fifth offering, that does clear your conscience and does take away sin. And that was the reparation offering, and that was required to be a lamb.

You see, the point here is when the priest John the Baptist says “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world,” he wasn’t stupid. He knew his Bible. He’s not illiterate like most of us are about these offerings. He’s been trained in the offerings. Okay, son of a priest, he is a priest. And he’s talking about the centrality of Christ the Lamb of God as the reparation offering.

Now, what does it mean to you? Well, it means to you that if the centrality of your Christian life is a ritualistic performance of what we do in Lord’s Day worship, you’re in the same state as the guy in the Old Testament who never really responded to the pangs of conscience that God gave him about his rebellion and deep-seated sin against God. And who never gave a reparation offering but he came every time there was supposed to be purification, ascension, tribute, and peace.

What it means is that our lives have to have at the depth of their being John’s denial of who he was: I am not the Christ. I am not the prophet. I am not Elijah. This is the affirmation that accompanies us when we understand and appropriate, as it were, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we move from death to life by a cleansing of our conscience by the taking away of our sins through the appropriation of Jesus Christ as the reparation offering for us.

You see, if this is all there is to your Christian life, if you don’t suffer through the week and take [text ends abruptly]