Ex 12:5, 'Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 
	This passage gives us pause to consider two aspects of what was evident in the manner of bringing sacrifices unto the Lord. One deals very basically with our recognition of the Character of God. The other focuses on the evident reality of what is inherent in the heart of man in terms of serving the Most Holy and Awesome Lord God Almighty. This is a most urgent deliberation because it highlights something that is still very true in the hearts and minds of even those who have been saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This very moment, a core element of this passage can be in evidence causing us to defile all that is holy and just and pure in our consideration of God.
	God, the Altogether Holy and Just and Awesome Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and the One Who manifests His so great love through every manner of deliverance, told Moses that when the people chose their Passover lambs, those lambs were to be unblemished. They were to be without any defect because they were to be honoring to the Lord. This indicates the way in which mankind is to consider the Lord God and to bring before Him only the very best of the best. We are to be most honoring and show God supreme reverence as Our Savior, Our Deliverer, and Our Lord. 
	This truth was reiterated in the laws regarding the sacrifices that were to be offered unto the Most Holy Lord God Almighty. As we read in Lev 1:2-4, concerning the sacrifice of atonement, "Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, 'When any man of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of animals from the herd or the flock. 'If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it, a male without defect; he shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 'And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf. 
	Then, as the priests were being consecrated into their positions of service unto the Lord in presenting the sin offerings for themselves and the people, we have the following recorded in Lev 9:1-4. Now it came about on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel; and he said to Aaron, "Take for yourself a calf, a bull, for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without defect, and offer them before the Lord. Then to the sons of Israel you shall speak, saying, 'Take a male goat for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both one year old, without defect, for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with oil; for today the Lord shall appear to you.'" 
	Notice again, that to be pleasing to the Lord, the sacrifice had to be without defect. It could not just be one of the calves or the bulls or the rams of the herds and flocks. Each sacrifice had to be free from any defect or it was not satisfactory to meet the demands of the Lord God. His Holiness and His perfection was to be honored with the best and the finest of the herd and flock. Less than the most excellent of all the animals would never fulfill the obligation that was required. 
	Again, this was reinforced unto the priests and the people concerning the bringing of the offerings before the Lord in Lev 22:18-22. "Speak to Aaron and to his sons and to all the sons of Israel, and say to them, 'Any man of the house of Israel or of the aliens in Israel who presents his offering, whether it is any of their votive or any of their freewill offerings, which they present to the Lord for a burnt offering — for you to be accepted — it must be a male without defect from the cattle, the sheep, or the goats. 'Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer, for it will not be accepted for you. 'And when a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a special vow, or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it. 'Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running sore or eczema or scabs, you shall not offer to the Lord, nor make of them an offering by fire on the altar to the Lord. 
	 God was very clear and definite in this requirement of and from the priests and those who brought forth their sacrifices and offerings. Consider what we are told in Deut 17:1. "You shall not sacrifice to the Lord your God an ox or a sheep which has a blemish or any defect, for that is a detestable thing to the Lord your God. It was repugnant and abhorrent to bring less than the very best to the altar. There was no leeway in this. There were no extenuating circumstances, no alternate means of honoring God. Only the very best was acceptable and only the very best would suffice to accomplish that which was required. The entire reality of bringing sacrifices and offerings to God was in order to bless Him and to acknowledge the truth that He saved His people from slavery in Egypt. He was to be remembered and honored and revered and reverenced because He had delivered them by the awesome power of His outstretched hand. Not only that, but He led and sustained them in the wilderness and brought them into the Promised Land and made them victorious by going before them into battle. 
	To be pleasing to the Lord, it was required that the offering would be free from any defect or blemish or malady. The herd and the flock could not be thinned out with the less than the most desirable animals being sacrificed in order to maintain the highest quality herd or flock. That is the way of man’s thinking with the element of practicality replacing honor and reverence. The herdsman and the shepherd might have thought it a waste to give the very best to the Lord while keeping the beasts with defects as the breeding stock. However, to please the holiness and to maintain the every element of honor unto God, it was the finest and the preeminent animals that were to be sacrificed for the sake of the veneration of God and His commandments. He would accept nothing less and He expected that the sacrifices would meet the most stringent of examinations and tests for perfection.   
	The people, however, began to hold back the choicest of the herds and the flocks and rather offered those animals that were blemished and blind and diseased. In this, they showed their lack of respect for God and lack of reverence for His Holiness and His Perfection. Through the Prophet Malachi, God voiced His complete displeasure with the manner of the people’s disregard for Who He was and what He had done. Mal 1:7+8 "You are presenting defiled food upon My altar. But you say, 'How have we defiled Thee?' In that you say, 'The table of the Lord is to be despised.' "But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the Lord of hosts. 
	Notice that the Lord put the onus on the fact that the people were willing to disregard the quality of their offerings and sacrifices to God by using those animals that not even their own rulers would accept. The people had so come to undervalue the work and the Honor of God that they were more concerned with what their earthly rulers would do to them than how God regarded them. They had forgotten all that God had done. They were simply practicing the ritualistic maintenance of religious traditions rather than truly seeking to please the Lord God Almighty. 
	The Prophet continued to voice the Lord’s complete displeasure in verses 11-14 of Malachi Chapter 1. "For from the rising of the sun, even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations," says the Lord of hosts. "But you are profaning it, in that you say, 'The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is to be despised.' "You also say, 'My, how tiresome it is!' And you disdainfully sniff at it," says the Lord of hosts, "and you bring what was taken by robbery, and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?" says the Lord. "But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock, and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the Lord of hosts, "and My name is feared among the nations." 
	The reason that it was so imperative that the sacrifices were the very best that the herd and flocks contained was that they represented, in type, the perfect sacrifice that would be required for the eternal redemption of the people who would trust and believe in the mighty salvation of God. This was only accomplished as Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God gave His life for you and for me and for all those who would call upon His wonderful name. 
	The Writer to the Hebrews fully declares this in Heb 7:26-28. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever. 
	Even when the priests were offering the perfect sacrifices from the herds and flocks, that blood was insufficient to bring the eternal redemption required by the holiness and the justice of God. It was a sacrament that was required over and over and over again. Then, when the people were bringing the less than satisfactory sacrifices to be offered, they made it a mockery and a travesty, revealing what was in their hearts regarding the value of what needed to be done before God. They placed no true significance on what God would think about their offerings and no real attachment to the importance of their sacrifices for sin and atonement. Everything was just a repetitious and ritualistic endeavor to soothe their own consciences by the most expedient and least costly means at their disposal. 
	The most excellent glory of God, however, was evidenced in the sacrifice that He provided for us in the giving of His Son. As is further detailed in Heb 9:11-14, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? 
	On the basis of Christ’s perfect and holy sacrifice, the Apostle Paul urges us, with all clarity and deliberation to hold true to the Lord and not to take His sacrifice for granted, as did the Israelites of old. We are to never belittle or minimize what God has done for us. Rather, we are to hold His death on the cross for our sacrificial redemption with the greatest of regard. As a result, we are to continually offer ourselves and our hearts unto God for His cleansing and perfect work to be more and more evidenced in the manner in which we live our lives now and forevermore.
	1 Cor 5:7+8, Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. In all our dealings with the Lord and with each other, we must be of the highest and most excellent echelon showing forth our estimation of the immeasurable significance and price that it cost God to redeem us unto Himself. We are to give every measure of our heart’s assessment of the awesomeness and the worthiness of God to be glorified and worshipped and adored and praised for what He has done.
	As so described by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:17-19, And if you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay upon earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. 
	If we truly believe that our salvation and our redemption and our sanctification and our atonement are forever in place because of Christ’s tremendous sacrifice, then we must never demean or devalue our estimation of God’s grace! We must never give Him less than the best of who we are and what we do in the life that He has given us in Jesus Christ. As but one example, our worship, and the manner in which we come before Him in worship, must always and consistently represent only the best that we can offer Him. 
We need to be so utterly unto Him that in every instance of our prayers, our praise, our trust, our thoughts, and our time, He takes priority and His glory and His honor is our life’s desire and longing. To please Him more is to be the core heartbeat of who we are and what we bring before Him every moment of every day. So be it. Amen.

			
	
This morning’s benediction is Phil 3:20+21. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. Amen.