The Lamb of God

… This afternoon our brother actually quoted this verse, Behold the Lamb of God. Impelled as I am tonight and feeling utterly incapable, I want to put your eyes on the line indicated by John when he said, look, the Lamb of God. The Lamb as a figure appears in the scriptures right from the first book to the last. It's significant perhaps that the first Lamb for a burnt sacrifice was mentioned when Abram and Isaac went to sacrifice. When Isaac said, where is the Lamb for the burnt offering? There is no mention that I can find of a Lamb before that. Lambs, yes, but of a Lamb and for a burnt offering, this is first mentioned. That chapter is famous for its first mention. It mentions love for the first time, it mentions worship for the first time, and it brings in the Lamb for a burnt offering. It is perhaps remarkable, although probably we must submit to the fact that it is purely either through the ingenuity or accident of a printer, that the last mention of the Lamb, but spelled with a capital L, is in the 22nd chapter of the last book of the Bible, of the Revelation, where it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, but he is seen as the Lamb on the throne with God. Let me say in simple terms that there seems to be a pattern in the scripture which simplified comes to this, that we are taught so much about God and his Lamb, but at the same time taught so much about the Father and the Son. And I don't need, in a company like this, to show that there is a difference and there is a strong affinity between God and the Lamb, the Father and the Son. We might develop that later if we are enabled to do so. But the first Lamb of the statement of John Baptist was when he indicated Jesus who had been baptised and said, Look, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. A Lamb for an offering to take away sin. And the only effective mover of sin is blood. Without blood there is no remission. And therefore it is, it seems to me, very natural that our minds flash from John's statement of the Lamb of God to the twelfth chapter of Exodus. But I haven't come to talk to you about the twelfth chapter of Exodus with all its beauty, all its depth, all its wonderful typical teaching. Mature believers, and I don't rate myself in that class, but I've had the privilege of living alongside of them, mature teachers of the Word, for as long as I can remember, and that's longer than you might think, have gone almost into ecstasy on the next day when John saw Jesus and said, Behold the Lamb of God. The first time I heard a brother mention that, on a Lord's Day morning meeting, he left me wondering where he got it from, though I saw that he was visibly moved between the enormous difference of the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world and the simple statement, the Lamb of God. It wasn't that he was overcome with emotion and couldn't get the rest out. But the Lamb of God is what I want to speak to you. If I may, it's beyond my capacity but to put you into this trend of thought, to put our eyes not on what he's done of taking away the sin of the world and the only one who ever could, but of the person who did it, because it is the glory of this person that gives character to his work. Now, may we try to delve into some of these scriptures that speak of the Lamb of God. You may not agree with me. Coming from North Country, we say things rather too flatly and too bluntly. But if for this moment of time we say, well, if we identify the Passover Lamb and all its stance for the shedding of blood and redemption that led to the passage through the Red Sea and on, I agree with you. But let's put that aside and look at this very short phrase, the Lamb of God. Does the scripture say much about it? I must say that I'm very surprised at how much it has to say about it. Therefore, I'm going to ask you to follow me through a few short readings and I intend to put big boots on and take long steps through the scripture to try and follow the sequence of the Spirit's teaching on what may help us to appreciate what John said, whether he understood it or not, the Lamb of God. Because there is a Lamb that was not the Passover Lamb that comes up in the scripture very, very frequently. So now, looking at the book of Exodus, chapter 29, we'll read just a few verses here, beginning at verse 38. Verse 38 of the 29th chapter, Exodus. Now, this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar, that's the altar of burnt sacrifice, upon the altar, two lambs of the first year day by day continually. And would you like to underscore in your mind that word continually? Two lambs day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening. And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of a hen of beaten oil and the fourth part of a hen of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at evening and thou shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning and according to the drink offering thereof for a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord where I will meet you to speak there unto you. So we see then in verse 39 there is to be the offering morning and evening a burnt offering on the altar of a lamb and it is said day by day continually. Would you turn your Bible page again into the book of Leviticus because Leviticus adds to this. Chapter 6, verse 8 The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering. It is the burnt offering because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. And a priest shall put on his linen garment and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh and take up the ashes which the fire has consumed with the burnt offering on the altar and he shall put them beside the altar. He shall put off his garments, put on other garments and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place and the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it. It shall not be put out and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order upon it and he shall burn there on the fat of the peace offering. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out. So there was a lamb sacrificed morning and evening a burnt offering offered wholly to God. It wasn't the offerings that you meet in the first chapter of Leviticus but there you get details of a burnt offering. There was nothing to be eaten or retained. The ashes were to be carefully put into a clean place outside the camp and day after day after day continually. Now the continual word is something that we really ought to clarify. Here is a continual repetition morning and evening but it was a sweet smell to God. It was there so that he might be reminded of the person of whom it spoke. Let's ask the question which has the greatest preponderance in the scripture so far? The Passover lamb offered for the household once a year or the continual day by day offering in the morning and in the evening. I'm going to ask you to look at your Bible again. It's far more important than anything I can say. Into the book of Numbers. Now that's a book perhaps you don't look at very often. The book of Numbers. I want to not read all these verses but cover them in a manner that I hope will set your spiritual taste buds tickling so that when you go home sometime you'll read with your finger on the line the verses of these chapters. 28. I don't know whether the 28th chapter of Numbers and I don't know whether your Bible has the same as mine not very reliable but this page is headed in my Bible the continual burnt offering. For once it's quite right. The continual burnt offering. It begins with the Lord speaking to Moses. It goes on to speak of the sacrifice and it says in verse 3 This is the offering made by fire which he shall offer unto the Lord two lambs of the first year without spot day by day a continual burnt offering. Verse 6 It is a continual burnt offering. It was ordained in Mount Sinai. And then verse 9 Remembering that it's day by day it says on the Sabbath day two lambs of the first year without spot two tenths deals of flour for a meat offering mingled with oil. Verse 10 This is the burnt offering of every Sabbath inside the continual burnt offering and his drink offering. On the Sabbath day it doubled. When there was time to relax and to think there was that turning again to this lovely figure of the Lord Jesus Christ not just the person who saved me from my sins but the one who fulfilled all the heart of God God's beloved Son the Son of the Father who's presented in the scripture as the Lamb of God. A few weeks ago in one of our Bible readings a brother who's recently come amongst us who's got nearly eight well he's in his eighties but he's a wonderful man he said you know it's curious that if you look at the wolf he's a vicious animal and when a wolf reproduces there's a litter of pups a litter of them. The sheep just produces one, two or probably three at the most and by the law of nature the wolves should be all over the earth and the sheep should have been gobbled up years ago but look at it today the wolf has been restrained and this wonderful creature has been maintained because not just because of its significance in scripture of its real usefulness to men but it is surprising that this harmless, defenceless type of creature has been taken up who to describe? Well later on the lion of the tribe of Judah in the revelation the son of God called the lamb of God and here day by day a little lamb morning and evening continually and if the Sabbath day deserves some more then it was to be as well as not instead of God's continual satisfaction of the work of Christ and that exposed the character of that blessed one was continual in the Old Testament it broke down but this is a law that we're looking at it should not have broken down then we go on in the 11th verse you'll find that in the beginnings of the months you'll offer and you read through the kind of offerings that have got to be made there but then you come down to verse 15 all this beside the continual burnt offering and on the 14th day of the first month that's a Passover feast, isn't it? and on the 15th day the feast of unleavened bread all the sacrifices called for there are commented on where it says you shall offer these beside the continual burnt offering morning and evening there was no let up it was an unwearying source of delight to God to have the fragrance rising from the altar it made it possible for him to put up with his erring people on earth who did the benefits of this burnt offering and then we may look at the verses that go down I'd like to commend them to you but whether it's the 14th or the 15th day the Passover or the feast of unleavened bread or whether you come down in the 23rd verse to the other feasts there is always a continual burnt offering you find in verse 24 again a continual burnt offering and then you come down to verse 26 and in the days of the first fruits when you bring the new meat offering unto the Lord after your weeks the feast of Pentecost there is again a list of what should be offered and in verse 31 and you shall offer this are then beside the continual burnt offering it's rather surprising that this little lamb morning and evening has such an important place in the affections of the heart of God until we realise that it speaks of the continuity of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ that could only be brought up in this manner by repeating the sacrifice day after day after day morning and evening if you are still with me the 29th chapter is even more filled with this very purpose in the 6th verse it goes from the first month to the 7th month because the first four feasts took place in the first month and the last three feasts of Jehovah in the 7th month and so you come to the Feast of Trumpets it says in the second verse you shall offer after the Feast of Trumpets you shall offer a burnt offering of a sweet savour unto the Lord one young bullock, one ram seven lambs of the first year but look in verse 6 it says beside the burnt offerings of the month is meat offering and the daily burnt offering on no account could that small lamb be overlooked it was so endeared into the heart of God and so necessary to keep him amongst this people where he could commune with them at the door of the tabernacle a remarkable thing but it says in the 7th verse of this 29th chapter and you shall have on the 10th day of this 7th month a holy convocation and it again lists all that shall be done including the sin offering of verse 11 the sin offering of atonement and the continual burnt offering every time there is a series of sacrifices for a day a special occasion even the great occasion of the day of atonement it goes through this chapter need I say more than this in verse 12 it says on the 15th day but in the 16th verse it says beside the continual burnt offering it's repeated in verse 19 it's repeated in verse 22 it's repeated in verse 25 it's repeated again in verse 28 it's repeated in verse 31 and need I say in verse 34 and in verse 38 beside the continual burnt offering doesn't this put John Baptist's second statement into a unique position when he says behold the Lamb of God and if you'd shouldered John and said which Lamb? I'm pretty certain he would have turned you to this passage because he was of a priestly line and said the Lamb of the burnt offering that brought a sweet savour to God in a world drenched in sin from amongst his people who worshipped anything and everything and every notion except the one who had every claim on him a continual burnt offering if you put this through a computer and thought how much this would cost down the years, down the centuries where it was faithfully carried out if it was it would be at an enormous cost but nothing like the cost of the one sacrifice forever which was not only to take away the sin of the world but God used it to demonstrate may I say to himself the wonders, the perfections the submissiveness of the blessed Son of God who came into this world as a saviour but he came to fulfil not just to keep the law because the law was God's minimum requirements of man and the Lord Jesus Christ overflowed all his thoughts all his words all his actions were written up in the record as excellent there is no fault in him there is nothing that can be shown as day after day the heart, you know, God has exposed himself, hasn't he? There used to be a saying that you shouldn't wear your heart on your sleeve which means don't let everybody know where your true affections lie it's sacred, it's sanctified but God in these verses has made a wonderful step towards you and me in showing through the figures of the Old Testament his profound continued I nearly said increasing satisfaction derived from the Lamb and the Lamb with a capital L is none other than the Son of God and John the Baptist inspired of the Holy Spirit himself said look Jesus as he walked on earth the Lamb of God not just the Passover Lamb but the Lamb that belongs to God who brings satisfaction to the heart of God so we see that going right through to the Feast of the Tabernacles which perhaps we could just have a look at if you turn into the Gospel of John let's read a verse or two there in the seventh chapter of John Chapter 7 verse 2 it says now the Jews' Feast of the Tabernacles was at hand the last and Jesus went up to Jerusalem and it was on that last Feast of the year the great day of the Feast wasn't it? in verse 37 in that last day of the last Feast that great day of the Feast Jesus stood and cried saying if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink he was a person moving amongst men who was so qualified because he God himself not a divine person deity God manifested in flesh I get frightened when I hear of people talking of divine persons I believe they do it most sincerely but divine means God-like he's not God-like he is God manifested in flesh who dwelt among us and he came at that time in John and said if any man thirst let him come unto me and drink there's a lot more to this than we may easily think I'd like to put these scriptures on your mind with the idea of saying look here's a person who satisfies the God of heaven the God of eternity the God of holiness and of justice and absolute righteousness and the Lamb of God in this world who took that character of submission worked out his will so wonderfully in submission even to the death of the cross and God as a hymn writer says God is satisfied with Jesus in a company like this we're mixed aren't we we don't know much about each other let me say if you're an unbeliever what does that mean? well let's put it plainly if you're an atheist if you're agnostic if you've embraced a code that excludes or even includes the name of Jesus Christ do be careful because there is one name under heaven given amongst men by which we may be saved and this we preach tonight if you're a sinner call it what name you like you need a sacrifice you need a sacrifice if you plan to take away the sin of the world you need to be cleansed by his precious blood but let me say that that isn't all because as soon as you've found that then you'll come into the depth and the height of the counsels of God that you'll never search out in their extensiveness and extremity you will find that you've been brought into his family you will find that you've got not just a sacrifice because he made one sacrifice for sins forever and sat down there's a difference between a thing being done continually every morning it's renewed some folk live their lives like this and complain that life is one continual repetition of getting up at the same time and doing the same jobs at the same time and life is one continual repetition but that's quite different from continuing because the Lord himself he made such a sacrifice that was so extreme as that to quote the scripture all through this dark night in which we live the fragrance of that offering rises to God in heaven it burns all night and this is night that we live in a dark day closing in we were hearing about a thief coming in the night well we're in the night now this world is but thank God that this figure that we've been examining not in very great depth but to try and pull it out from the scriptures for your further contemplation and consideration is this that the Lord Jesus Christ himself is a personal day by day sustainer of life and it makes it possible for God to be amongst his people at all because there is that continuity of the effect of one sacrifice forever not repeated once with a continuing effect to the heart of God there is something else because of my time I think I ought to speak to you so you know these scriptures and say in the 30th chapter of Exodus in the first 10 verses I wouldn't advise you to turn to it else we're not going to complete and I want to complete very quickly now there are details of the altar of incense where there was burnt sweet incense every morning when the priest dressed the lamps and every evening there was sweet incense it says in the 8th verse and at evening a perpetual incense if you trace that back to its origin you'll find it's exactly the same word in the original as a continual burnt offering so there's a continual burnt offering and that's on the altar but inside the tabernacle there was a priest I've said if you're a sinner and not sure of your salvation my dear friend what you want is a sacrifice Calvary's cross the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin get under the shelter of that but if you are a believer you need a priest to deal with your weaknesses to stand in God's presence for you and we have a high priest who's entered into the heavens it is the same person it is Jesus Christ our great high priest so there's continual burnt offering morning and evening and at the same time as that was done there was a continual burning of incense and incense is a fragrance we could speak all night on this but let's sum it up in few words to say compounded of four various ingredients beaten fine pounded probably in the pestle and mortar that would bring up the fragrance and it was there in the holy place but continually with the burnt offering there was a burning of that incense that filled the holy place there was something else at the same time the priest had a duty to replenish the lamp with oil to dress the lamp morning and evening that there might be the lamps that burnt and if there was a continual burnt offering if there was a perpetual incense and if it says as it does in the 27th chapter verse 20 that the olive oil beaten for the light to cause the lamp to burn always and that again is exactly the same word in the original you have three beautiful day by day morning and evening engagements of the priest to offer the burnt sacrifice continually to burn the incense perpetually and to keep the light burning always before God it was an important time was the evening sacrifice you read the book of Ezra and you'll find that when the first people went back after Cyrus gave them permission there was a man called Jeshur who was a priest and they built an altar when they got to Jerusalem and the first thing they did was to burn the morning and the evening burnt offerings to start again in the land what had been lapsed and in ruins so long and in verse 5 of that third chapter it says in the continual burnt offering it takes the same words and it pushes them again at us and how we can read our Bibles for years and years and never see them and I'm one of those men I stand in absolute surprise surprised some months ago at the way the scripture would thrust this at us so that God's delight is in his son continuing as it was in the three aspects of these daily morning and evening duties of the priest but Ezra went there and you find that he got back to Jerusalem later in the seventh chapter and he was very, very suited for the job he was a man who was a ready scribe he prepared his heart to seek the Lord sorry, to seek the law of the Lord and to do it and to teach it what a reference for Ezra and when he got there what did he find? he found that the very people who were doing this were unseparated from the heathen round them they'd polluted the seed they'd married into the Canaanites and it says he was so astonished that he sat astonished until the evening sacrifice and at the evening sacrifice when that was safely on the altar he prayed and it says he arose, rent his garments got on his knees spread out my hands to the Lord my God and said I'm ashamed and blush for our iniquities there are many times in this day and age in which we live when we find that what used to be one of the choice and I'm sure God pleasing marks of the believer was separation from this world it's been blurred over and if you'll excuse it the word separation has nearly become a dirty word and that's because of our low condition and it shouldn't be mixed with division of brethren for which there is no right at all but separation from a world is something that is called for and when the evening sacrifice was safely burning this man, this man of God the ready scribe the one who'd prepared his heart to learn the law, to do it, to teach it he breaks down in the greatest confession of sin of his people and himself in the ninth chapter of Ezra now I come to my closing verse I ask you to just turn this up you might like to read it quietly for yourself and see how it brings together some of the things that we've been saying you'll find it in the psalms and you know the psalms are the heart of the scripture they're right in the center and there is all the warmth and all the love Psalm 141 verse 2 Let my prayer be set before thee as incense in the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice Is that your prayer? Is it mine? That day by day I may be in such communion with God sensitive of what's wrong sensitive of the breakdown conditions sensitive about the value of the blood of Jesus Christ and more sensitive of his worth to God as a lamb of God the one on whom God relies to work out all his purposes it was the lamb in Revelation that was the only one worthy in the universe to receive the book to open it, to look on it, open it and put into operation God's judgments it's not all so weak as it sounds let me read that verse again to you in the psalms it moves my heart because it brings all these things together let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice we've spoken now of three things, haven't we? the continual burnt offering the perpetual incense that shows the perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ and the light burning always in the energy of the Holy Spirit and in the light has it ever occurred to you that Hebrews tells us that the one who was the great priest who offered that sacrifice is declared to be the Son with a capital S-O-N you read the seventh chapter of Hebrews at your leisure and you'll find that what looks like weakness is suddenly attributed to none other than the Son the high priest that I may turn to in my weakness is he really the Son of God who stands in God's presence in all his own right yes, in all his own right and having died as the Lamb of God he's there with a right for you accepted in the Beloved and this brings you into a favorable position so that as you bend down you may well say let my prayer, how weak our prayers are be set before thee as incense just three last closing thoughts and here I go John's Gospel sets before us the Son of God how about you say John Baptist introduced him as the Lamb of God that's the whole point of it it is the same person the Lamb of God is developed to be the Son of the Father and you're on a holy track when you see that all these lines lead to God and down to yourself as one richly blessed whose prayers may go up as incense as fragrance but this last three items briefly stated not dogmatically for your consideration that beautiful Gospel of John that starts with the Lamb of God and develops the whole theme of Jesus is the Son of God or the Son of God is Jesus Christ God manifested in flesh you know John's Gospel speaks of three things doesn't it of life and light and love I think I've spoken to you of those three things of life through that wonderful sacrifice and the first chapters of John they speak of life in him life was but when you get to the 8th chapter Jesus says I am the light of the world and when you come to the 13th chapter it changes again and it says Jesus having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end and so the great divisions of John are there life and light and love well look at those three things I've been speaking of a continual burnt offering which secures your life in Christ a perpetual incense well let's leave that aside for a moment and reverse the order just to keep in it if life may be thought of in the context of the burnt offering then there's the lamp which is light of the Holy Spirit that energised the Lord Jesus Christ all he did was done by the Spirit of God through him anointed with power so there's life, there's light but when we come to the incense that beautiful fragrance undefinable not to be copied imitated or used on any other occasion what more beautiful picture do you want in the whole of the scripture of the love of the son for the father and the father for the son in continuity and you have a part in that because the son is great high priest the one who once made one sacrifice for sins forever and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high may God bless his word and blot out any human efforts that may cloud it …