Sermon #12 Leviticus Sermons
Title: Restitution Made
or
The
Glory of the Lord Revealed
Text: Leviticus 5:15-16 and 6:2-7
Subject: The Glory of God Revealed in the Cross
Date: Sunday Morning – June 17, 2001
Tape # W-46b
Reading: Exodus 22:1-12 – Ephesians 1:3-14 and 2:7
Introduction:
Blessed is that enlightened
soul who, by the grace of God, is able to see Christ in the Old Testament as
well as in the New. Blessed are those eyes that behold the Lord Jesus Christ in
all the promises, precepts and prophecies of the Old Testament as well as in
the proclamations of the New. Blessed are those hearts that can see the beauty
and glory of Christ in the ordinances, types and shadows of the law as well as
in the shining light of the gospel.
It is a sad fact, but a fact it is, that most who read the Bible
and most who preach and teach from it, see nothing in the Old Testament but
historic facts, legal precepts, carnal ceremonies and moral ethics. To the vast
majority of the religious people I meet, the Old Testament is a sealed Book,
without meaning or message. They simply cannot unlock it, because they don’t
have the key. They are like those whom Isaiah describes in Isaiah 6. Seeing
they see not. Hearing they hear not. Understanding, they understand not the
things written in the Old Testament Scripture.
The Key to the Old Testament is Christ! What a great blessing it
is to have the Key! Yet, there is no room for boasting here. If we see, hear,
and understand the Scriptures, it is because God has graciously caused the
light of his glory and grace to shine in our hearts by his Spirit, it is
because we have been taught of God. It is because the Lord God has opened our
understanding that we might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). It is
written, "Blessed
are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear" (Matt.
13:16).
Nowhere is man’s spiritual blindness more evident than in the
things written about the Mosaic law and the Levitical sacrifices. Preparing
this message, as I read the things written by various commentators about the
laws of restitution (Ex. 22) and the requirement of restitution to make
atonement, I was as amazed as I was disappointed to see so very few make even a
gospel application of them, much less give a gospel interpretation!
Proposition: The law of God requiring
restitution for any wrong done by one person to another and the sacrifices
requiring restitution for atonement were not intended merely to teach a moral
precept of restitution. – Rather, these things were written to teach by
precept and by picture that the Lord Jesus Christ would, by his great work of
redemption, turn the tables and make a full restitution of all things to the
everlasting praise and glory of the triune God. – They all testify of
that which is written of him in Psalm 69:4. – “Then I restored that which I
took not away.”
[Acts
3:18-21] "But those things, which
God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should
suffer, he hath so fulfilled. [19] Repent ye therefore, and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord; [20] And he shall send Jesus
Christ, which before was preached unto you: [21] Whom the heaven must
receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began."
[Ephesians
2:4-7] "But God, who is rich in
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, [5] Even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
[6] And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: [7] That in the ages to come
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus."
I want us to look again at Leviticus 5 and 6. The title of my
message is Restitution Made
– or – The Glory of the
Lord Revealed.
[Leviticus
5:15-16] "If a soul commit a
trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he
shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a ram without blemish out of the
flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the
sanctuary, for a trespass offering: [16] And he shall make amends
for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the
fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an
atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be
forgiven him."
[Leviticus
6:2-7] "If a soul sin, and commit a
trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was
delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence,
or hath deceived his neighbour; [3] Or have found that which was lost,
and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man
doeth, sinning therein: [4] Then it shall be, because he hath sinned,
and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away,
or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him
to keep, or the lost thing which he found, [5] Or all that about which
he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add
the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it
appertaineth, in the day of his trespass offering. [6] And he shall
bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, a ram without blemish out of the
flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: [7] And
the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD: and it shall be
forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing
therein."
The law of God insisted, demanded that anyone wronged by
another should not only have the wrong repaired but also be made to benefit and
gain by the injury done. It is God primarily who has been wronged in
all his rights by sin. Yet, man too has been wronged. But the Lord God has, in
infinite wisdom, fixed it, so that both he and his people shall be made the
gainers by the injury done. As the fall of Israel has been overruled by our
heavenly Father for the riches of the world and the glory of God, so the fall
of Satan and the entrance of sin into the world by the fall of our father Adam
has been, is being, and shall yet be made to redound to the everlasting riches
of God’s elect and the glory of his great name.
Yes, the God of glory works all things together for the good of
his people and the everlasting glory of his own great name. Satan will gain
nothing by the havoc he has wrought in the world. He will achieve absolutely
nothing!
Here
is the glory of the cross. – “Where sin abounded, grace did much
more abound!” The trespass offering declares, “Because sin abounded, grace
did much more abound!” Yes, I have chosen my words deliberately. Both God and
man have gained more by the forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ than
was lost by the sin and fall of our father Adam.
·
The Lord God has arranged all things, even the sin and fall of our
father Adam, for the everlasting good and happiness of his people.
We shall lose nothing, but only gain by what happened in the
garden, gainers not by sin but by redemption! Indeed, the sin and fall of Adam
was itself, by divine purpose, a picture of redemption by Christ (Rom.
5:12-20). Martin Luther understood what I am trying to preach to you. He said,
with regard to Adam’s sin in the Garden, “O blessed fall!” Had there been no
fall, no sin, no condemnation, there we could never have known the wonders of
redemption. Had there been no fall, no sin, no condemnation, there we could
never have known the glories of grace. Grace not only cuts up sin by the roots
and ultimately destroys it, -- Grace makes chosen sinners to be eternal
beneficiaries of Satan’s work!
·
Still,
there is more. The holy Lord God has gained more by redemption than ever
he lost (if I can be permitted to use such language) by the fall.
The Lord
God reaps a richer harvest of glory in the fields grace than he could ever have
reaped in the garden of innocence (Eph. 1:3-14; 2:7). The sons of God raise a
more lofty song of praise around the empty tomb of the crucified Christ than we
could ever have raised in the Garden of Eden. The injury done by sin has not
only been perfectly atoned for and remedied by the blood of Christ, but God has
gained by the cross the praise of the glory of his grace!
[Psalms
76:10] "Surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain."
This is a
stupendous truth. God, the eternal, triune, holy Lord God, has gotten himself
great gain by the work accomplished by our all-glorious Christ at Calvary!
Who could
ever have conceived such a thing? When we see man and the creation over which
he was lord laid in a heap of ruins at the feet of Satan, how could we ever
imagine that from amid those ruins the great God of Glory would gather a crown
for his holy head which could not be gotten in any other way?
It was ever the immutable purpose of the all-wise God to
glorify himself and reveal his glory to all creation by the accomplishments of
his darling Son at Calvary.
Now, let’s turn to Isaiah chapter 40, and see if I can make good
on what I have said from the Book of God.
[Isaiah
40:1-5] "Comfort ye, comfort ye my
people, saith your God. [2] Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry
unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she
hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins. [3] The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. [4] Every valley
shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: [5] And the
glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."
The glory of the
Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate God-man, our Mediator, our Surety,
our Substitute, our Savior. Christ is the embodiment of “the
glory of the Lord;” but he is more. The Lord Jesus
Christ is essentially and emphatically “the glory of the Lord,” for in him dwells all the
fulness of the Godhead bodily. When Isaiah said, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed” he spoke
prophetically of the incarnation of Christ. He was saying, God the Son shall
come in human flesh possessing all the glory of the glorious God; and in him
God shall be seen of all men, for this man is God! God’s glory was revealed
in his Son when he was sent here on the mission of mercy to redeem and save his
people. Yet, the meaning of Isaiah’s words is fuller still.
The glory of the
Lord is displayed in the attributes of his being. His glory is
that which sets him apart from all his creatures and identifies him as God over
all, blessed forever. Isaiah is here declaring that the glory of God, all the
glory of all his attributes, would be revealed in the accomplishments of Christ
at Calvary.
David said, “The heavens declare the glory of God;” and
they do, but only in part. Great as the glory of God revealed in the heavens
is, believing sinners see a display of that that is so great, so stupendous,
and so wonderful that the glory of his wisdom and power in creation pales into
insignificance by comparison. The glory of the cross, the glory of the Lord
revealed in the crucified Christ, the glory of the Lord revealed in the
salvation of poor, fallen, helpless, doomed, damned sinners, -- THAT IS
THE GLORY OF THE LORD! Sin has blinded us to the glory of God; but
grace reveals it far more fully than it could ever have been known otherwise.
The glory of God is revealed in the gospel; but it is hidden from them that are
lost.
[2
Corinthians 4:4-6] "In whom the
god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
unto them. [5] For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord;
and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. [6] For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."
I bid you look to Christ, the crucified, risen, exalted saving
Christ and behold the glory of God. In him and by him restitution has been
made, and both God and man have gained more in him than ever was lost by the sin
and fall of Adam, for in him “the glory of the Lord is revealed!”
I. I see in the cross of
Christ the glory of the Lord’s
wisdom and knowledge more fully than it could ever have been
seen in any other way.
[Romans
11:33-36] "O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his
judgments, and his ways past finding out! [34] For who hath known the
mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? [35] Or who hath
first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? [36] For
of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory
for ever. Amen."
Adam saw the wisdom of God in creation more clearly than any man
has seen it or could see it since the fall. But Adam did not and could not see the
glory of God’s wisdom in redemption until he experienced it.
I know, caviling will-worshippers cry, “If that is true, if God
has ordained all things, then let us sin that grace may abound.” Let none be so
foolish. Though it is the wisdom of God that permits sin, it is the justice of
God to punish it. Believing hearts do not challenge God’s wisdom. We adore it?
Here is the glory of God’s wisdom. It is written, “By mercy
and truth iniquity is purged” (Pro. 16:6). But iniquity could never be
purged and truth maintain, unless some way known only to infinite wisdom is
found to do it, unless some infinitely wise arrangement could be made to both
satisfy the infinite rigid requirements of truth while exercising absolute
mercy. Righteousness and peace could never have kissed each other had not God
in infinite wisdom found a way to make it happen. The glory of God’s wisdom is
revealed in that way. It is called “Substitution!” Salvation by a Substitute of
infinite worth makes it possible and certain that iniquity shall be purged by
mercy and by truth. Behold the cross of Christ and sing!
[Psalms
85:9-11] "Surely his salvation is
nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land. [10] Mercy
and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
[11] Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down
from heaven."
Creation’s open volume
stands,
And speaks God’s praise
abroad,
And everything, made by His
hands,
Declares that He is God.
But in the grace that rescued
man
God’s brightest glory
shines,
For on the cross (How wise
the plan!)
It’s drawn in crimson lines!
Behold, the wonders of the
cross,
Where God our Savior died.
My spirit life eternal draws
From Jesus’ bleeding side!
I shall forever praise the
name
Of God all-wise alone,
Whose glory’s seen in Christ
the Lamb,
Whose blood for sin atoned!
II. I see in the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ the glory of
the Lord’s mercy, love and grace revealed.
I do not suggest that the love of God is not revealed in others
ways, in other acts of his goodness, or in other places. It is. I am certain
that Adam, before the fall, knew God’s love in benevolence, goodness, and sweet
communion. He knew the love of God as his Creator, his Maker, and his
Companion. But Adam did not know and could not know the glory of God’s love.
Indeed, it would not have been possible for anyone to know the glory of God’s
love had there been no fall. The glory of God’s love is revealed in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We read of God’s everlasting, electing love and rejoice. We give
thanks to our God for his eternal, adopting love.
[Jeremiah
31:3] "The LORD hath appeared of
old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love:
therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee."
[1
John 3:1] "Behold, what manner of
love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of
God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not."
But the glory of the love of God is revealed at Calvary! Listen
to this: The Son of God loved me and gave himself for me!
[John
3:16] "For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."
[Romans
5:6-8] "For when we were yet
without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. [7] For
scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some
would even dare to die. [8] But God commendeth his love toward us, in
that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
[1
John 3:16] "Hereby perceive we the
love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay
down our lives for the brethren."
[1
John 4:9-10] "In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through him. [10] Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins."
Could we with ink the oceans
fill,
And were the skies of
parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a
quill,
And every man a scribe by
trade, --
To write the love of God
above
Would drain the oceans dry,
Nor could the scroll contain
the whole,
Though stretched from sky to
sky!
Love is known by its deeds. But love is also known by
comparison. Those who vainly imagine that they are wiser than God would tell us
that God loves all men. Others among them would have us believe that the love
of God would have been more greatly revealed had there been no entrance of sin
into the world. But it was the wisdom of God that permitted the entrance of sin
into the world. That wisdom is displayed here. By permitting the sin and fall
of our father Adam and the ruin of all the human race in him, the Lord God
shows the glory of his love in saving some.
If the Lord God had kept all from sinning, or if he had saved
all, how could we know the intensity, devotion, and freeness of his love for
us? Love is displayed by these two things: self-sacrifice and comparison.
I know the love of God because he love me and gave himself for
me; and I know the love of God, the glory of his love, because he loved me! If
God loved every creature as he loves his elect, where can we see the glory of
his love? But once a sinner is made to see that the Lord God has loved him and
loved him immutably from all eternity, passing by many who were more noble,
more useful, more appealing than him, then the chosen, redeemed, called sinner
sees the surpassing glory of the love of God in the face of Christ, and is
conquered by his love! We see the glory of God’s love in the fact that God’s
love is discriminating love!
[1
John 4:19] "We love him, because
he first loved us."
O love of God, how strong
and true!
Eternal, and yet ever new,
Uncomprehended and unbought,
Beyond all knowledge and all
thought!
We read thee best in Him Who
came
To bear for us the cross of
shame;
Sent by the Father from on
high,
Our life to live, our death
to die!
O love of God, our shield
and stay,
Through all the perils of
our way:
Eternal love, in thee we
rest,
Forever safe, forever blest!
Horatius Bonar
III. As I behold the Son of
God hanging upon the cursed tree, made to be sin, bearing all the terror of
God’s holy wrath, forsaken of God and slain, I see the glory of God’s absolute truth, infinite,
inflexible justice and infinite, immaculate holiness.
In Christ crucified, the glory of God’s justice is revealed as
it could not be revealed in any other way. Adam knew the threat of justice
before he fell. Sinners in hell know the severity of God’s justice. We see
tokens of justice every day. Justice demands punishment, a just and righteous
punishment for every offense. Justice demands a victim. No pleadings, no tears,
no repentance, no works of restitution can turn away the sword of justice.
Mercy may implore leniency, and love beg for pardon, but justice is unaffected
and unbending. Justice “will by no means clear the guilty.” But God, in
infinite wisdom and love, found a way to both punish the sinner and forgive
him.
Behold the glory of God’s justice in the face of his darling
Son, when he was made to be sin for us! Believing sinners are justified freely
by the grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
[Romans
3:25-26] "Whom God hath set forth to
be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
[26] To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he
might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
When God Almighty looks on the shed blood of his darling Son, he
says, “ENOUGH!” Here is the glory of God’s justice revealed!
·
Oh,
how holy, how just, how true the God of glory must be!
·
When
the holy Lord God found sin on his own beloved Son, he spared him not.
·
When
God the Son bear the wrath of God in his own body, in his soul, and in his
heart on the cursed tree, he satisfied the justice of God.
·
God,
the holy Lord God will (He must!) punish sin. Justice demands it!
IV. I must bring my message
to a conclusion. I will do so with this one, last statement. I make it last and
will say little about it. But that is no indication that it is less significant
than the other three points of the message. It is not. So hear me well. – I see
in the cross of Christ the glory
of the Lord’s universal sovereignty and absolute goodness revealed,
and revealed in such full splendor, as it could never have been known
otherwise.
When Moses asked the Lord to show him his glory, he said “I will
make all my goodness to pass before thee; and I will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Here is the glory of God’s sovereign goodness, the glory of
his grace.
A. God is gracious.
B. God will be gracious to
whom he will.
C. God makes even the wrath
of man to praise him and work for the good of his chosen.
D. Satan, who dared imagine
he could thwart the purpose of the Almighty and led a rebellion in heaven and
leads the rebellion of men and demons on earth and in hell, is but the servant
of God to accomplish his purpose of grace toward his elect.
Application: God’s glory is great in
salvation, indescribably greater than ever it could have been had Adam not
fallen, had sin never entered into the world, had the Lord Jesus Christ not
died at Calvary, had he not saved his people from their sins. This is what the
laws and sacrifices of restitution tell us. Behold the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ and understand, when you hear the Son of God cry, “It is finished!”
that restitution has been made and the glory of God is revealed!
Now, be sure you do not miss the intent of this revelation and
of my message to you. If the glory of God is most fully and perfectly revealed
in the salvation of sinners, how that fact ought to inspire poor, needy sinners
with hope. Surely, if God is glorified in saving sinners, he would be glorified
in saving me! I will, upon that grounds, like David of old, sure for mercy! “For
thy name’s sake, O Lord, pardon
mine iniquity; for it is great” (Ps. 25:11).
“Come, humble sinner, in
whose breast
A thousand thoughts revolve,
Come with your guilt and
fear oppressed,
And make this last resolve
‘I’ll go to Jesus, though my
sin
Hath like a mountain rose;
I know His courts I’ll enter
in,
Whatever may oppose.
Prostrate I’ll lie before
His throne,
And there my guilt confess;
I’ll tell Him I’m a wretch
undone,
Without His sovereign grace.
I’ll to the gracious King
approach,
Whose scepter pardon gives;
Perhaps He may command my
touch,
And then the suppliant
lives!
Perhaps He will admit my
plea,
Perhaps will hear my prayer;
But if I perish, I will
pray,
And perish only there.
I can but perish if I go,
I am resolved to try;
For if I stay away, I know,
I must forever die.
But, if I die with mercy
sought,
When I the King have tried,
This were to die (Delightful
thought!)
As sinner never died.’”
Edmund Jones