The Sin Offering

Colossians 2:18-19

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This morning, we continue in our study of Colossians. The segment we're on is Colossians 2:16-17. This is segment number 53.

Legalism

The Christians in the city of Colossae have been infiltrated by false teachers who were legalistic and angel worshipers. The Colossian Christians were told that they must observe the religious, civil, and social rules of life, prescribed by the Mosaic Law for Judaism, in order to gain salvation, and to be a spiritual people. Legalism is seeking divine favor by meritorious acts that one performs, like always attending church on Christmas Day and Easter; water baptism; the Lord's Supper; observing the 40-day Lent period of self-denial; crossing oneself; tithing; holding church services on Saturday (the Sabbath Day instead of Sunday); and, just doing good deeds to needy people.

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was portrayed by these false teachers as merely a superior class angel. He was rejected as the God-Man. This is true of Islam today. Islam teaches that Jesus Christ was just one of the prophets of God, in a long line of prophets, but Muhammad was the last prophet. And it teaches that Jesus Christ was not God – He was not God incarnate. And it teaches that Jesus Christ did not hang on the cross. "A substitute," Muhammad said, "who looked like Jesus, was placed on the cross, and died. So, Jesus Christ died, and He's never going to be raised again."

God the Holy Spirit warned us of religious groups like Islam in 2 John 7. Here's the way the Holy Spirit said that you can notice (identify) somebody who is a false teacher. 2 John 7: "For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver, and the antichrist."

So, when in Islam says, "Jesus Christ is not God," Scripture says, "They are deceivers, plain as can be." It doesn't matter what our government officials may try to portray – Islam is not a religion of God. And the followers of Islam will never find heaven by their system.

In Colossians 2:16-17, the apostle Paul condemns the use of the Mosaic Law way of life as a means to gain divine favor for salvation and spirituality. The Mosaic Law is not part of Christianity. The grace, Holy Spirit, spiritual power system is the way Christianity works. The Mosaic Law, and all of its accouterments and its rituals, has nothing to do with Christianity. The Mosaic Law rituals and regulations for Israel were merely pictures, foreshadowing the spiritual realities to come with the arrival of the Messiah Savior. But it was not a means to salvation.

The Sacrifices of the Mosaic Law

Jesus Christ is, in His person, and in His works, the reality which was foreshadowed by the Mosaic Law. The five basic sacrifices portrayed very clearly the person and the work of Jesus Christ. These five offerings were made at the temple by the rabbinical priesthood. They were symbolic. They were not a means for salvation. Three of these were voluntary, as a Jew chose to worship God. The burnt offering for trade was the focus of the work of Christ in providing salvation on the cross. He died as the Lamb of God. The meal offering, also voluntary, betrayed the doctrine of the person of Jesus Christ as the Sinless One. Then the peace offering portrayed the doctrine of reconciliation – that the wall between man and God had been removed by Christ.

But two of the offerings were not voluntary. They were compulsory. And they were not a fragrant odor, as that animal burned on that altar. They were not a fragrant odor to God. One was the sin offering. This portrayed the doctrine of restoration of temporal fellowship with God, in dealing with one's unknown sins. When a Jew accepted the coming Messiah Savior, he was born again, permanently. But as with all of us, he had a sin nature. He would sing. And, as with all of us, sometimes we don't know we're sinning. We do something against the will of God, unintentionally. Well, this offering was a picture of what was to come in our age.

Broken Fellowship with God

The sin offering is laid out in Leviticus 4 and Leviticus 6:24-30 – the purpose of the offering. It provided for the Jew, who had unknowingly sinned, and was out of temporal fellowship with God. He was out of spiritual connection and guidance. In New Testament Christianity, this is covered by 1 John 1:9. If we confess our sins, He is righteous and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. "All unrighteousness" are the sins that we didn't know we committed. The Jew, with this sacrifice, was taught that sin was evil, even if it was unintentional. It violated the holy character of God. And when we sin, we break our fellowship with God – a very serious condition.

Please understand that when our fellowship with God is broken, the only communication line we have through the Holy Spirit is cut off. Now, where are you? Well, the vilest people that you hear about – crimes and horrendous things they do on the news, they are controlled by the sin nature. And they're motivated by Satan. When you cut off your line of communication of fellowship with your Father, and you've lost the communication of the Holy Spirit, you're no different than an unbeliever. The sin nature kicks in, and Satan dominates your life.

So, those of you who are getting started in life, you young people, you may want to be very careful how much sympathy you give to the way the other kids in your generation do things, and how the world of people about you does things. They are on a self-destructive course.

So, it's not a bad thing to simply ask yourself: "Would Jesus do this?" Would Jesus follow what I'm doing? Would He relate Himself to the world in the way I'm relating myself? Would He trivialize His life the way I'm blowing off mine? Would he discredit his parents, and grieve them, the way I do mine? That's a good thing to ask. What would the Lord Jesus Christ do, because what are we talking about? The only reason we're here this morning, to learn something about Scripture, is so that we'll be Christlike. You never come to the end of where you need it. But the people who are young – you do not have enough discernment to say, "I'll go very slowly. I will listen to my parents. I will listen to my spiritual instructors. I'll pay attention. When Sunday morning rolls around, I'll be in there, studying the Word of God. And I will not listen to my peers. If you do not, just think of all the foolish things you can do with your body, and all the food things you can do with your life, that cannot be reversed. You can't undo them. Some of them are deadly, physically. Do not forget that you live in the devil's world. And the devil has the people who are prominent, and who speak the things that they believe in, and they are expressing the devil's a way of life.

Now, this sin offering for restoration of fellowship for unknown sin – there are different procedures for four different categories of Jews. There was a procedure for the high priest, the spiritual leader of the nation. When your spiritual leader goes wrong spiritually, the people are devastated. Then, there is a procedure for the congregation as a whole – the nation (the national scene). Then there was the ruler (the political leaders). There was a procedure for their sin. Then there was the common people.

We've been looking at the one for the high priest. This is a man of supreme spiritual authority in the Aaronic priesthood in Israel. The sitting high priest is out of temporal fellowship. He's done something unbeknownst that takes him out of contact with God. Now, he's standing up. He's talking to the people. What does he know? He is telling the people what they should do. But his communication is not from God.

That's what happens with you parents. When you parents are out of fellowship with your Heavenly Father, what kind of guidance are you're doing with your children? What kind of time are you taking to be with them? What kind of a situation are you on top of in their lives? Or is it too much trouble?

Jesus Christ

So, when the sinning high priest was out of fellowship, the whole nation of Israel was spiritually in danger. This high priest, because of his position, required the most expensive animal that he could give God. We give the best to God. It was a bull. The blood of this bull was sprinkled seven times in the holy place in front of the curtain that cordoned it off from the holy of holies, where God dwelt. This veil shielded the presence of God on the one side from the ministering priests on the other side. On the other side, where the Ark of the Covenant was, was brilliant light – God in all of His glory. And there was the Ark of the Covenant, with the mercy on top. The body of Jesus Christ represented this Ark of the Covenant. The body of Jesus Christ acted as a veil. That was why we did not see his glory outwardly, even though He was God. His body acted the same way as the veil did in the temple.

Upon the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, a very interesting thing happened, however. That veil was there so that no priest (nobody) would go into the presence of God. It was death to do that. Only one person could go behind that veil in the holy of holies – high priest, once a year, on the great Day of Atonement, when he made special atonement with the blood of an animal symbolically for all the people. But Jesus Christ shoved Himself up one more time, because it's very hard to breathe when you're on a crucifixion position. He took a breath and said, "It is finished," and He gave up His Spirit, and His soul departed from His body, and He died.

The Splitting of the Temple Veil

At that moment, the Jewish leaders had the horrifying experience of their life. Matthew 27:50-51: "And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and He yielded up His Spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple (separating the holy place from the holy of holies) was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks split." When He died, the physical and spiritual death of Christ had completed the requirement to cover the sins of all mankind. The finger of God from heaven split that curtain from top to bottom, and shoved it open. The priests, who were ministering in the holy place, stood there in horror, as they saw the Ark of the Covenant. They saw what they should never look on – the very presence of God. And God was saying: "The symbolism has been fulfilled. All of this was symbol, and it has been fulfilled in Christ." This signified that entrance into the glory of the holy of holies, with His Ark of the Covenant, and His mercy seat, which stood for propitiation of God (dissatisfaction for sin), was now open to sinners. You now all possess the righteousness of God. You walk right up, and you will, into the presence of God, and you will not die, because to you has been given His absolute righteousness. And all these sacrifices of the Mosaic Law portrayed that that was what was to happen.

God's absolute righteousness, furthermore, was permanently imputed to you believers. So, you have access to God at any time. You are actually, positionally, in Christ. That happens at the point of salvation. So, you are, in the eyes of God, as righteous as His Son.

1 Corinthians 12:13 says, "For by one Spirit, we were all baptized (the baptism of the Holy Spirit) into one body: the body of the church – the body of Christ, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free: all made to drink of one Spirit. All were filled with the Spirit. That is what happened when Jesus died.

Now, Christians who are in spiritual darkness (when they walk out of temporal fellowship, instead of being in this glorious light of the holy of holies), they're as benighted as any unbeliever. They walk in darkness. And it's the confession of known sins that brings restoration to temporal fellowship. The Christian's unknown sins do not cause him to lose salvation, but it does cut him off from the guidance of God.

Now, if you are flying an airplane, and you find yourself in cloud conditions, so that you have to shift from visual flight rules to flying by instruments, you must immediately shift to that panel before you. And you must immediately put aside your senses. If your horizon indicator indicates that you're rising (your plane is going up), your senses may tell you you're going down. You do not go by how you feel. You go by the guidance of that instrument. All around you, you're completely in the dark. You're completely blind. So, you're having to fly by dependence upon those instruments, as we must fly by the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Now, suppose that you have a short circuit in the system. And all of a sudden, the instruments all go wild on you, on the panel. Now what? Now you will think that you're going up, when actually you may be in a dive. You're completely out of orientation. You have no guidance whatsoever. And this is what happened to President Kennedy's son John. In a condition like that, he lost orientation to whether he was going up or down, and actually was diving toward the ocean without knowing it. And the result was death.

It is no small thing in a spiritual life not to be flying by the instruments of God the Holy Spirit to guide you. It is deadly. Now, you can go ahead and play the fool, and you can forget that I've been your age, and you have never been mine. Few people have. I'm probably the smartest guy here this morning. I have been around. And I know something about Scripture. And without the guidance of God, you're a dog. Look at it; admit it; and, say, "I want to be a dog," because that's the lifestyle you'll have. You can go sniffing around through your life at that level. But why would you do that? And I'm talking about doing that as a child of God – one who is in the family of God. But you're off the instruments, and not under control. You're not under guidance.

The Altar of Incense

So, God's provision is terrific. And for the high priest, the sacrifice was made of this bull. Visually, the blood of the animal was smeared, then, on the four horns that were on this altar of innocence. The altar of innocence was right in front of the curtain that divided the holy of holies and the holy place. This altar of incense was right in front of the veil, and it was called "the altar of gold," sometimes in Scripture, in contrast to "the altar of brass," which was the altar out in the courtyard where they sacrificed the animals. And it was covered with copper and tin alloy.

Now, all of these pieces of furniture had meaning. The very materials had meaning. And that's why I'm trying to show you the Mosaic Law was all symbols. You're not going to get anywhere following the Mosaic Law today, which is what most churches do. And most Christians are left to stray aimlessly, as victims in the devil's world.

Do you wonder why so many people, that you and I knew, in times past (Christians of significance) become spiritual casualties. It's a terrible time. It's a terrible situation when you're in combat of warfare, and somebody gets hit, and becomes a casualty on the battlefield. They go down, and you've lost someone on your team. And death may ensue. It is a terrible thing when we see great Christians among us who become spiritual casualties. How did that happen? It happened because they did not understand the principles of maintaining temporal fellowship.

So, for the high priest, the blood of the bull was taken into the altar of gold. This altar was made of acacia wood, and it was covered with gold. It measured one-and-a-half feet by one-and-a-half feet by three feet high. And there was a crown around the perimeter at the time. At the four corners, there were horns. All of this had significant meaning.

Now, the incense was burned on this altar morning and evening, on the hot coals which had been brought by a shovel from where they sacrificed the animals. Those hot coals were brought into the altar of incense. This is described for us in Exodus 30:7-8: "And Aaron shall burn a fragrant incense on it." That is on the altar of innocence. He shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps. And when Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the Lord throughout your generations."

Well, if on this altar, somebody had to go out every day, morning and night, what in the world did it stand for? It's a symbol. The reality is what you and I are confronted with. The altar of incense represents the Lord Jesus Christ, as a believer's High Priest in heaven. We Christians are not part of the Mosaic system. We do not come under the blessings of the Covenant of Israel. We have our own system, which is infinitely greater. But we do have a High Priest.

Hebrews 8:1: "Now, the main point in what has been said is this. We have such a High Priest, Who has taken a seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven." What did the High Priest do? He represented the people to God. He went to bat to God for the people. That's what Jesus Christ does for us. He's up there praying for us. He's up there defending us against Satan's accusations. He's up there reminding everyone that you are safe, because He paid the price.

In the Scripture, the acacia wood represents the humanity of Jesus Christ. The gold represents His deity. These are repeated in the Scriptures – this connection. The crown around the perimeter of that altar of incense represented the exaltation of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 2:4, the writer says, "You have made Him (God the Father made God the Son), for a little while, lower than the angels. You have crowned Him with glory and honor, and have anointed Him over the works of Your hands." He has been exalted.

Also, the horns of the altar represent power. In Revelation 5, for example, this symbol is illustrated. Revelation 5:6: "I saw between the living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the world." Back in the Old Testament, in Daniel 8, we're told what those horns represent – that Jesus Christ had seven in great power.

Daniel 8:3-8: "Then I lifted my gaze, and looked, and behold, a ram which had two horns was standing in front of the canal. Now, the two horns were long, but one was longer than the other, and the longer one coming up last. I saw the ram budding westward, northward, southward, and no other beast (no other political power) to stand before him. Nor was there anyone to rescue from his power. But he did as he please, and magnified himself. While I was observing, behold, a male goat was coming from the west, over the surface of the whole earth, without touching the ground. And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. And he came up to the ram that had the two horns, which I had seen standing in front of the canal, and rushed at him in his mighty wrath. And I saw him come beside the ram. He was enraged at him. He struck the ram, and shattered his two horns. And the ram had no strength to withstand him. So, he hurled him to the ground; trampled on him; and, there was none to rescue the ram from his power." So, horns represent power.

So, here's the picture. The acacia wood represented the humanity of Christ. The gold on the altar of incense represents deity. The crown perimeter represents the King of Kings, and His power, the horns, represent the supreme power of Almighty God. And it is this person, with this characteristic, and He alone, Who is the Mediator between God and man.

So, when the Muslims reject Jesus Christ as a God-Man, there's no hope for them? There is absolutely no hope. When the Jews reject Jesus Christ as a God-man, there is no hope for them. They will never enter heaven.

Notice 1 Timothy 2:5-6: "There's one God, and one mediator between God and men – the man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all: the testimony born at the proper time.

Then notice John 14:6. This makes it very clear that there is only one path to heaven: "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." And what is Jesus Christ doing now at the right hand of the throne of God? He is our intercessor, praying for the saints: praying for you and me.

Now, we have seen the prayer of other Christians in our behalf, and rightly so. In fact, Samuel says, "Someone asked me to pray for you. God forbid that I should sin, and not remember you in prayer, when you come up and ask me to pray for something. Well, here you have the very son of God, the God-Man Jesus Christ, praying.

Hebrew 7:25: "Hence also, He (Christ) is able to save forevermore those who draw nearer to God through Him, since He always live to make intercession for them.

Romans 8:34: "Who is the one Who condemns? Christ Jesus is He Who died; rather, Who was raised, and who is at the right hand of God, Who also intercedes for us."

So, when you are in fellowship, you have the Son of God interceding in your behalf. Do you want to cut yourself off from that? Do you want to be friends with the world, and thereby, as John says: "To be an enemy of God?" Yes, you have a will to make the choice. And you will make the choice.

Christ is our advocate. He's our lawyer, defending believers against Satan's attacks. In Revelation 12"10, this is one of the relationships of Satan to us every day: "And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying (this is a mid-tribulation period): "Now to salvation, and the power in the kingdom of our God, and the authority of this Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren (Satan) has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God night and day."

Remember that Satan had access to God to accuse Job in heaven. When you and I step out of line, Satan delights go to the Father and say, "Well, how about Mrs. So-and-so? How about little Mr. So-and-so over there? What do you think of him now, God?" And Jesus Christ is there, interceding, saying, "I have covertness His sin. He is absolute righteousness."

At mid-tribulation, after the first 3:1/2 years of that seven-year period, Satan will no longer be able to be in heaven, to accuse us. He will be in a final battle with Michael and his angels (the Archangel), and Satan will lose, and he will be cast to the earth. Now, since the devil, unlike many Christians, is an avid student of the Bible, and knows what God has written, and takes it seriously. He knows that this is the kiss of death. Once he is thrown out of heaven, he knows the timetable, and he knows that he has three-and-a-half years left. And the Scriptures tell us, in verse 12: "For this reason, rejoice O heavens, that Satan has been kicked out, and you who dwell in them: woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you on earth, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time."

At this point, Satan will know that he has only three-and-a-half years to make misery for the believers; to destroy the Jewish people; and, to oppose God. Everything in Scripture is on-track. And at this point, Satan is going to go just for destruction.

During World War II, once the bridge at Remagen (which was supposed to be blown up) across the Rhine River, the men who set the charges did not do a good job. Only some of the charges went off, and the bridge was basically left intact. Well, Patton and his army came, and they saw that the order was given: "Go across. Get as many tanks and as many people across that we can, so that we don't have to use boats to cross this wide river. And they charged across. And that was the last barrier (the Rhine River), to any hope for Germany. And they went. I forget how many long hours they were able to keep going across. And then finally, the bridge did collapse. But by that time, the Americans were across in force.

When Hitler found this out, he was enraged. And, like the devil, he knew that it was all over. And from then on, he gave the orders, that as the German army retreated, everything that it left behind was to be left in ashes, no matter how significant it was as a historical monument. Everything was to be blown up. And the general who was in charge of Paris, who was one of the most devoted to Hitler of any of the generals, who never disobeyed an order, received the orders: "Blow up the Eiffel Tower. Blow up the Louvre. Blow up the great historical sites in in France. And turn Paris into ashes.' And even this general (not a Christian) could not get himself to do it. And he realized that the war was over, and that Hitler, now like Satan, wanted to leave destruction behind him. And, low and behold, he disobeyed the order. And the result was that those magnificent structures still stand.

Well, this is what Satan compels people to do. This is what he'll do with your life. When you can have it your way, then he will push you to self-destruction. He will put you into things that destroy you physically, emotionally, spiritually, and socially.

So, the mediator between God and man is Jesus Christ. He is the intercessor. He represents that altar of incense. He is our advocate before God. And this altar speaks of the eternal security of the believer in salvation. In Hebrew 7:25, the writer says, "Hence, also, He (Christ) is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."

The Incense

This incense which was burned – what did it represent? I'm glad this has come up, because I think when we start a new year, we need to be reminded of this. The incense symbol is used in Psalm 141:2: "May my prayer be counted as incense before You; the lifting up of my hands as the evening offering." So, when the incense was burned on this altar through Jesus Christ, the High Priest represented by that altar, it was the prayers of the saints going up to God.

Revelation 5:8: "And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures, and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints." Isn't that interesting? How much incense have you been burning on the altar of incense in the Christian life this week?

Revelation 8:3-4: "And another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censor, and much incense was given to him, that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne (the golden altar – the altar of innocence). And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God, out of the angels.

So, the incense on the golden altar, pictures the prayers of believers to God through the high priest Jesus Christ. And those prayers are therefore heard because of Who and What He is – not because of what we are.

In 1 Samuel 12:23, Samuel says, "God forbid that I should sin by not praying for you." But as Samuel is not in fellowship with the Father, his prayers don't go higher than the ceiling. And if you're not in fellowship with the Father, your prayers are useless too.

So, what makes me not be in fellowship? Well, I'm disobeying the moral code someplace. I'm saying no to God on something that He's telling me to do. I'm refusing to obey some directions. I'm making up my own reality. I'm not pursuing my mission. I'm just walking on a treadmill, ticking off the clock of my lifetime.

Prayers are Asking

Hebrews 13:15, says: "Our prayers also include praise and worship of God. But, basically, prayers are asking. The horns of the altar, representing the power of Jesus Christ, our Intercessor and our Mediator.

Ephesians 3:20: "Now to Him that was able to do exceedingly (abundantly) beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." How much can do for you? There is no limit. But it is according to the power working in you." And what is it that determines the power? Fellowship.

Here, there is the an Old Testament system of this sin offering, for sins that they didn't know about, that brought them out of fellowship. We have the same provision. But we deal with what we know we have done.

When this blood, which was smeared on the four horns of the altar, declared forgiveness for sins, and restoration to temporal fellowship, it was based on what? It was based upon the sacrifice that was made out there in the courtyard of the animal that represented the death of Christ, Who had paid for all this. Whatever blood was left over of the bull was poured out on the base of the altar. The brazen altar represented the cross of Christ, where He made atonement for sins. There, God was propitiated (satisfied). The basis of salvation is the spiritual and physical deaths of Christ on the cross. It is represented by this animal's blood. The basis of our internal fellowship is that we have eternal fellowship, based on Christ has done – the basis of restoration is 1 John 1:9, because our sins even that we have yet to commit have been covered.

Now, the brazen altar, out there in the courtyard, that altar was seven-and-a-half feet, by seven-and-a-half feet, by four-and-a-half feet. It was a box with a grill halfway down. It was made of acacia wood, and covered with brass. There were four horns at the corners of this altar, where they sacrificed the animals. The fire of the altar came from heaven. This kept it burning continually. The altar was located in the courtyard in front of the tabernacle. The fat and the kidneys of the bull were burned on the brazen altar as a peace offering (Leviticus 4:8-10). And the rest of the bull was taken outside of the Israelites' camp. And there was a place where the ashes were dumped, and the carcass was burned (Leviticus for 11-12). This had great meaning.

This carcass of this burnt bull (its ashes) were put on this clean place. This pictured Jesus Christ, Who had been made sin for us. And it died outside the city of Jerusalem. Hebrews 13:11-13: "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin burned, are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus, also that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Hence, let us go out to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach." And that's the rub.

Most Christians do not want to go outside the camp – outside of the approval of the world's system. This portrayed sin's destructiveness – burning the animal outside the camp. God is not propitiated by the physical sufferings of Jesus Christ, but by the fact that He died bearing our sins outside (the sins of the world).

Human viewpoint, and the old sin nature, and Satan's world system are all blind to this kind of divine viewpoint truth. Everything we've said this morning, they speculate on, and they don't have the foggiest notion. Then they die, and they discover what the reality was. They realize that they're not saved, and that they were thinking that mankind can get it all together.

Nowhere was this view of the world system, and the lack of understanding, more significantly expressed than in the words of a song by one of the Beatles, John Lennon. It is called "Imagine." I was going to sing it this morning, but I've been around too many diseased people recently, coughing and carrying on. And I have succumbed, however. But here is what John Lennon had to express:

"Imagine there's no heaven.
It's easy if you try.
No hell below us.
Above us only sky.
Imagine all the people,
living for today. Ah!

Imagine there's no countries.
It isn't hard to do.
Nothing to kill or die for,
and no religion too.
Imagine all the people,
living life in peace.

You, you may say, 'I'm a dreamer,"
and I'm not the only one.

I hope someday you'll join us,
and the world will be as one.
Imagine no possessions.
I wonder if you can.
No need for greed or hunger.
A brotherhood of man.

Imagine all the people,
sharing all the world.
You, you may say, 'I'm a dreamer,'
but I'm not the only one.
I hope someday you'll join us,
and the world will live as one.

Well, the hope imagined by John Lennon, will never be realized until the Lord Jesus Christ returns, and makes this world that kind of world. Three hours before he died, meeting with a group of young people, telling how much progress they had made in learning how to be free and independent, and that he thanked whatever force that was out there that made it possible – whatever there was out there. He went to his apartment (The Dakota Apartments), and got shot, and he died.

And all the reality that we've been talking about this morning did him no good. He did not know it. And if anybody ever explained it to him, he did not believe it.

This sin offering, for our unknown evil, is a magnificent part of the Mosaic system. Did the Jew understand it like you and I do know? No. But he knew there was something important here for him to do. But it was all symbol; whereas, you and I have the reality. Yes, you need to join something. What you need to do is to join the truth of Jesus Christ in a magnificent, church-age, power system of God the Holy Spirit.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1995

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