Brother Charlie Payne was an
elder at the Ashland Church for many, many years, a very dear
friend, one who, through his instrumentality, the Lord opened
countless doors for me and for this congregation. He was a very
faithful witness. He made an effort to witness
to folks wherever he came in contact with them. One night
or one day, he got on a plane to travel somewhere, And a fella
who was obviously Jewish got in the seat right beside him.
Charlie had to get up, he was a large fella, and Charlie had
to get up and let him in, and he had one of those things on
his head. And Charlie asked him, said,
if you don't mind me asking, said, why do you wear that skullcap
on your head? And he said, oh, I'm Jewish.
He said, we Jews have such reverence for God that we recognize we
must have something between us and God. Charlie said, me too. Scoot over, let me tell you about
him. Not a skullcap, but a mediator, a redeemer. Sinners cannot come
to God without a sacrifice. We all know that God has stamped
this fact upon the consciences of all men by creation. Every
man and woman in the world knows that God is, that God is both
holy and just, and that God will punish sin. The first two chapters
of the book of Romans make that very clear. Every man knows by
nature that God demands both righteousness and satisfaction. That's a fact from which no man
can escape. Every man knows by nature, because
God has stamped it on his heart indelibly, that so his conscience
constantly declares to him that sin demands blood atonement. For that reason, if you care
to read any history at all, you will find that throughout history,
in all parts of the world, civilized and barbaric, men and women have
always attempted to find some sacrifice by which they can make
themselves accepted with God, appease his judgment and wrath,
and escape everlasting damnation. They seek to appease their consciences
of guilt by some kind of sacrifice, some kind of blood sacrifice.
Very often, even by human sacrifice, and more often than we care to
remember, even by the sacrifice of their own sons and daughters.
I have often visited the ruins of various temples in Mexico
where the barbaric heathen Indians would take people and sacrifice
them, cut their hearts out and sacrifice them on their altars
in hope of satisfying the wrath of God. This natural God consciousness
from which no man can ever escape completely is never a saving
knowledge at all, but only condemning. The depravity of man's heart
and his enmity against God perverts his judgment and always turns
him away from the light that God gives him even by creation
and by nature. So that Paul says they hold the
truth in unrighteousness. And the word hold in Romans 1
means to suppress. They keep pushing it down. They
just keep pushing it down, just pushing it down. They suppress
the truth, but they can't stop it. The depravity of his heart
is such that he turns the truth of God into a lie and changes
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like unto
corruptible man. Someone observing the various
gods that the heathen have made A little child looked at his
daddy as we walked through some of these museums and he said,
daddy, their gods look a lot like them. That's how man makes
his god, makes him to look a lot like himself, just in a bigger
image. Still, these are facts known
to all men. The heathen know them, you know
them, and I know them. No matter how sternly men suppress
them, they cannot escape these facts. God is holy, righteous,
and just. A God who must punish sin. We are sinners, guilty under
the curse of God by justice. God demands both righteousness
and satisfaction. And you and I are gonna meet
God in judgment. Those facts, men constantly try
to suppress, but those facts, no man can escape. If you think
about those things without Christ, they torment your soul. So you
try to put them out of mind, but they keep gnawing, they keep
screaming. And you'll never be able to find
the answer to the demands of these things by which you can
make your conscience at ease before God until you learn what
God's word has to say about his sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. God who makes the demand is God
who provides the remedy. Are you interested? Would you
like to have your conscience satisfied? I mean, satisfied
so that you can lift your heart at peace with God and be content
with the prospect of death, judgment, and eternity. Give me your attention. Oh, may God force you to give
me your attention and I'll show you the way. Turn back to Leviticus
chapter 1. Leviticus chapter 1. Just hold
your Bibles at Leviticus 1 and then turn back to the beginning
of the book of God in Genesis. From the very beginning, God
has demanded satisfaction for sin. And from the very beginning,
he has declared that he would get satisfaction from a substitute,
a substitute of his providing, a substitute of his sacrifice
by the blood of that substitute that he would slaughter. All
men who worship God from the beginning understood clearly
without shedding of blood is no remission. The Holy Lord God
demands blood atonement. That's what's taught in all the
typical sacrifices of the Old Testament scriptures. What we've
been looking at in Leviticus chapter one speaks of these sacrifices. We come tonight in verses 14
through 17 to the turtle doves or pigeons. That's my subject
tonight, turtle doves or pigeons. Back in Genesis chapter 3, at
the very beginning, the Lord God Almighty gave a revelation
to our father Adam. Look in chapter 3, verse 15.
At the very gates of Eden, before Adam and Eve were thrown out
of the garden, the Lord God said in Genesis 3, 15, I will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. The Lord God gave the first Gospel
message. He said, I'm going to put enmity
between the woman's seed and the seed of the serpent. And
the woman's seed, Christ Jesus, will crush the serpent's head,
though the serpent would crush his heel. Then in verse 21, God
gave Adam and Eve an example of what He was talking about.
Under Adam and also and his wife did the Lord God make coats of
skins and clothe them. God sacrificed an animal, I presume
a lamb or a goat, maybe a calf. And in sacrificing that animal,
the Lord God made skins to cover the naked pair, Adam and Eve,
just as God, by the slaughter of his son, the Lamb of God,
takes his righteousness and makes it our own. In Genesis chapter
four, Abel comes to worship God. Verse three. In the process of
time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground
an offering unto the Lord. Adam had taught his sons to worship
God. Cain didn't pay any attention
to the lesson except the part he wanted to. We know we must
come worship God, but we don't have to come as sinners. We don't
have to come as people depended upon him. We don't have to come
to God utterly with nothing in our hands. And he brought the
fruit of the ground. And Abel, he also brought of
the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord
had respect unto Abel and to his offering, but not unto Cain
and his offering. To Cain and his offering, he
had not respect. And Cain was very wroth and his
countenance fell, mad at God because God would not accept
his word. Mad at God because God would
not accept his sacrifice. Mad at God because God would
not accept his righteousness. And mad at Abel because Abel
testified everything that God revealed. Then in chapter eight,
Genesis the eighth chapter, we read in verse 20, after Noah
came off the ark, Noah built an altar unto the Lord, and took
of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered
burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of
his heart, of man's heart, is evil from his youth. Neither
will I again smite any more everything living as I have done, while
the earth remaineth seed time and harvest, and cold and heat,
and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. God gives this word of encouragement
to Noah and to all who read his word. that he will accept a sacrifice
by which to turn away his wrath from fallen man who fully deserves
judgment and condemnation. Verse chapter 15, Genesis chapter
15. Abraham comes to worship God.
God called him in chapter 12, revealed himself to him. Now
in chapter 15, Abraham comes to worship God. Verse what? After
these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abram in vision,
saying, Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding
great reward. Verse five, And he brought him
forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the
stars, if thou be able to number them. And he said unto him, So
shall thy seed be. And he, Abraham, believed in
the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Abraham
believed God. And believing God, God spoke
peace to his heart and said to Abraham, you are righteous before
me. Righteous because of the sacrifice
of my darling son, the Lord Jesus Christ. But Christ hadn't been
born yet. I'm fully aware of that. but
Christ hadn't come yet. I know that, but he who is the
eternal I am is the same yesterday and today and forever, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, accepted of God from
the foundation of the world, by whom we were justified, sanctified,
glorified, and blessed of God before the world began. Look
at chapter 15, verse nine. And he said unto him, God said
to Abraham, take me an heifer of three years old, and a she
goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and
a turtle dove and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these
and divided them in the midst and laid each piece one against
another, but the birds divided he not. And when the fowls, the
buzzards came down the carcasses, Abraham drove them away. Then
in chapter 22 Abraham is with Isaac on Mount Moriah and he
says to his son Isaac in verse 8, My son God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. And Moses in Exodus chapters
11, 12, 13, 14, speaks to us about God's Paschal Lamb, the
Lord Jesus Christ. God said to Moses, when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. Now hear me, children of God.
God's eye has always been on the blood for you. His eye was
on the blood long before your eye was. His eye was on the blood
when it caused you to see the blood. And if the time comes
when you've lost your mind in this world and you can't see
the blood or yourself, his eye is still on the blood. And even
at times of despair and unbelief, when you can't for the life of
you see the blood, his eye is still on the blood. And his promise
is, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Now let's turn
to Leviticus chapter one. The Scriptures teach us plainly
that all who ever knew God came to Him with a blood sacrifice,
believing God. I did not realize until just
recently how much I need to stress this fundamental ABC of divine
revelation. I recognize now that I still
preach to a good many people. I hope none here, but maybe.
But a good many who hear the messages wherever I go and through
the various means by which we distribute them, who still have
the idea that somehow God saved people different in different
days. Please, please, please, forever
put that thought out of your mind. God doesn't change. His grace doesn't change. His
purpose doesn't change. His way of salvation doesn't
change. God saves all his elect exactly
the same way in all ages of time. There never was a time when God
saved men by works. There never was a time when God
saved men by religious ceremonies and sacrifices. There never was
a time when God saved men by something they do. God has always
saved men just exactly the way he saves his elect today, by
grace alone, through faith alone, in, by, and with the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Those who were saved before Christ
came into the world were not, I repeat, were not, as some have
foolishly suggested, saved on credit. God doesn't take discover
cards. They weren't saved on credit.
They were saved by the merit of the Son of God slain from
the foundation of the world. You see, God's works were finished
before the world began. You and I cannot even imagine,
we cannot begin to think, we cannot begin to reason in a way
as to think about eternity. With God, everything is forever
now. Now let that sink in, Bill. With
God, everything is forever now. Nothing past, nothing to come,
everything present. The works were finished from
the foundation of the world. Those works finished before the
world began, are carried out on the stage of this earth by
which God displays to his creatures his wisdom, his grace, his power,
and his glory, but the works were finished from everlasting.
Abraham believed God just like you came to believe God. When
God revealed himself to Abraham in the sacrifice of his son,
just as he revealed himself to you in the sacrifice of his son.
And when you saw the glory of God in the sacrifice of his son,
you believe God. And God says, now you're righteous. That's what it is for men and
women to experience free justification. But didn't those Old Testament
saints trust the sacrifices? No. No, that would be idolatry. The Old Testament idolaters in
Israel trusted those sacrifices. Read the first chapter of Isaiah.
The Lord God said, your sacrifice, I didn't require this. But wait
a minute, you required this sacrifice and that sacrifice and this Sabbath
day and that Sabbath day, not the way you're doing it. I didn't
require anybody to come to me trusting the blood of an animal,
trusting a holy day, but rather that which is represented in
the blood sacrifice and in the holy day, in the meat offering
and in the burnt offering. Those things represented Jesus
Christ crucified, accepted of God whom sin has been put away. And believers brought God a lamb
or a ram or a turtle dove or a pigeon and brought it to God's
altar put it in the hands of God's priest and watch God's
priests make the sacrifice. They joining in the work as the
sacrifice is made and they're looking to Christ who's to come. Looking for Him whom God promised
back in Genesis 3.15 with confident hope and expectation. That's
what's portrayed for us here in Leviticus chapter 1. Now,
last week, I just had to finish the message, looking at these
last verses. I want to give it a little bit
more attention tonight. Let's look at verses 14 through
17, one at a time. Here's the first thing. These
sacrifices, which could never take away sins, which could never
take away sin, if one sacrifice had taken away sin, there would
have been no more conscience of sin. You understand that?
That's what we read in Hebrews chapter 10. If any sacrifice,
if somehow somebody could have brought a sacrifice or thousands
of sacrifices by which sin could be put away, as soon as sin was
put away, no more conscience of sin, no more need of a sacrifice. Jesus Christ is the only sacrifice
by which sin has been put away. And as soon as a sinner believes
on Christ, he has no more conscience of sin. No more guilt of sin. All right, here's the first thing.
These sacrifices, the turtle doves and the pigeons, are distinct,
imminent types of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 14, if the burnt
sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of the foul, Then
he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or of young pigeons. The Lord Jesus Christ in his
manhood is always one who identifies himself with poor, needy sinners. While he walked on this earth,
he lived as a man of poverty. He had not where to lay his head. because he came here to redeem
and save poor, needy, helpless, destitute, bankrupt sinners,
men and women who have nothing to offer God. He identified himself
in his incarnation and throughout his life with the poor. Look
at Luke chapter two. Luke chapter two, I've referred
to this a number of times. Let's read it together. Luke chapter two. This is eight days after his
birth. The law required that Joseph and Mary bring their newborn
son eight days after his birth to the temple to be circumcised.
And when eight days were accomplished, verse 21, for the circumcising
of the child, his name was called Jesus, Savior, Jehovah who saves,
which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the
womb. And when the days of her purification according to the
law of Moses were accomplished, They brought him to Jerusalem
to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of
the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy
to the Lord, the firstborn in mind. And here is God's firstborn. And to offer a sacrifice according
to that which is said in the law of the Lord. And look what
they offered. They were poor. They were dirt
poor. They couldn't afford a ram. They
couldn't afford a lamb. So they went out and got them
a turtle dove. They had a pair of turtle doves
or two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in
Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and
devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, waiting for him to
come of whom the turtle doves. and the pigeons and the rams
and the lambs all spoke. He was waiting, standing on the
tiptoe of faith, looking for the consolation of Israel. Now
watch where it says, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And
it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not
see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. The Spirit
of God said to him, the Lord's coming before you leave this
world. The Mediator, the Redeemer, the Christ is coming before you
die. And he came by the Spirit into
the temple. And when the parents brought
the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law,
Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord,
now let us now thy servant depart in peace according to thy word,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. Turtle doves are held out through
the Holy Scriptures as an excellent, imminent type of the Lord Jesus,
our Savior. The dove is not only the epitome
of humility, meekness, devotion, and charity, and is used in all
kinds of literature to portray those things. It is the constant
emblem of peace and reconciliation. It's recognized as such the world
over, but that fact is really insignificant. The dove is held
before us in the scriptures as a type, a picture, a symbol of
peace, of Jesus Christ, who is our peace, and of God, the Holy
Spirit, who brings peace. It was a dove that brought Noah
the olive leaf in his mouth and said, Noah, the flood of God's
wrath has subsided. Judgment's over. Death is over. Condemnation is over. God is
finished judging the earth. And after our Lord Jesus Christ,
by the sacrifice of himself, had completely and forever exhausted
the wrath of God, the judgment of God, the anger of God, swallowing
it all up in himself, The Lord Jesus, the risen Son of God,
sent down the dove from heaven. God, the Holy Ghost, was poured
out upon his church like the prophet said he would be, telling
us atonement is made, judgment is over, wrath is finished, God
is satisfied. That's exactly what was symbolized
in our Savior's baptism in Matthew chapter three. John saw the Lord
Jesus coming to be baptized and he said, I can't baptize you.
And the master said, suffer to be so now for thus it becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. Now for years I looked at those
words and I couldn't figure out what on earth the Lord meant
by them and suddenly I realized immediately what he meant by
them. God made it clear. How does baptism fulfill righteousness? Only by the picture of what baptism
is. our death, burial, and resurrection
with Christ. When Christ died, we died in
him. When he was buried, we were buried
in him. When he arose, we arose in him. Thus, by our substitute,
righteousness is fulfilled, and John suffered him. And when he
was baptized, the Lord Jesus, coming up out of the water, the
Father spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son,
in whom I'm well pleased, and the dove of heaven. descended
upon Christ and abode on him. And the Lord God testified to
John and to us that redemption was accomplished. When the time
of love comes for the calling of God's elect, Christ's redeemed
ones, he sends that same dove of heaven with the olive branch
of peace, declaring that justice is satisfied, wrath is gone,
judgment is over, God's not angry anymore. He was angry with me,
but his anger he has turned away. This dove is sent to us with
the olive branch of peace in the preaching of the gospel.
But that doesn't accomplish anything, except he be sent to us by the
power of the dove himself, God the Holy Ghost, sprinkling the
blood of Christ on your heart, giving you peace with God, giving
you the same testimony he gave to Enoch before the flood, that
he pleased God. And in Christ, God comes to chosen
redeemed sinners as he gives you faith in Christ and declares
to you that you please God and thus you receive the atonement. Here's the second thing, look
at verse 15, Leviticus 1.15. As the dove was slain by the
priest with one violent stroke, So the Lord Jesus Christ, our
all-glorious Savior, was slain by the violent stroke of God's
holy wrath when he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And the priest shall bring it
unto the altar, and wring off his neck, his head, and burn
it on the altar, and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at
the side of the altar. Now, if you read this first chapter
of Leviticus carefully, you can't help observing that if a ram
of burnt offering was brought to the Lord, it had to be a male
of the first year with no spot. If it was a lamb or a goat, it
had to be a male of the first year with no spot, but not so
with a dove. It could be a male or a female. And there was no requirement
that it not have any spot in it. Well, Moses must have overlooked
something. No, this is by divine decree. This is by the word of God. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ died the God-man who was himself of a
woman, the seed of woman. And when he died, He who died,
the Holy Lamb of God, was made sin for us, that he might justly
bear the wrath of God in his body on the tree. If we didn't
understand divine revelation and the message of this 15th
verse, the scene represented here would be abhorrent. Watching
a man, you've seen pictures I presume, maybe even videos of folks in
barbaric lands offering blood sacrifices and just think how
abhorrent, what an abhorrent thing. It would be abhorrent
except you understand what was done here. You see, the taking
of this little dove or the pigeon and wringing off its head is
a picture of the wrath of God. poured out upon the Lord Jesus
Christ when he was made sin for us and punished because of our
sin made his on the tree. If you want to, you could turn
there and look at it again. I encourage you to, Isaiah 53. I hope you
don't tire of hearing it or of reading it. Isaiah 53 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That word pleased means satisfied. It satisfied God to crush him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, when thou shalt make
him who knew no sin, sin for us, he shall see his seed. All his chosen, all his covenant
people, He'll see them redeemed, justified, sanctified, saved,
accepted, blessed forever. He shall prolong his days. The
third day he'll rise again and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He who is the redeemer shall
sit on his throne as king and do all the purpose of God. He shall see of the travail of
his soul. and shall be satisfied." Oh,
thank God for a satisfied redeemer. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, by knowledge
of what he came here to do, by knowledge of who he is, by knowledge
of all that he accomplished. shall my righteous servant justify
many, for he shall bear their iniquities. This thing was done
before the Lord. And the dove's blood was squeezed
from its slaughtered body, not upon the altar, but over the
sides of the altar to the east for all to see. There the blood
of this victim, ran down upon the ground beneath the altar
and symbolically spoke for God's elect, whom John says, I saw
beneath the altar. Revelation chapter six, verse
nine. Those who bore the testimony of the Lamb. I saw them beneath
the altar where the blood ran down for those for whom it was
shed. Like the blood of Abel, the blood
of this dove slain cried from the ground. Abel's blood cried
for vengeance upon Cain who murdered him. But the blood of this dove,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, cries from God's altar and from
the ground around the altar. And it speaks better things than
that of Abel. It cries perpetually, forgive
him. Oh, forgive, he cries. Let not that ransomed sinner
die. He pleads. for those sinners
by whose hands he was made to bleed. All right, look at verse
60. Verse 60, here's the third thing.
As this slain dove's entrails, its crop, were ripped out and
its feathers plucked out and thrown away on the east side
of the altar in the place of ashes, our Savior, our blessed
Savior, has by the sacrifice of himself forever put away our
sins. And he shall pluck away his crop
with his feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east
part by the place of ashes. I would have you to notice again
that it is not the priest but the sacrificing worshiper who
plucked off the crop with its feathers and cast them down in
the pile of ashes beside the altar out of God's sight. Though you and I, now listen
carefully, you and I have absolutely nothing to do with the putting
away of sin. Christ, by the sacrifice of himself,
put away our sins. When we read in the scriptures
that we are justified by faith of the Son of God, it means exactly
that. You and I have been and were
forever justified by the finished work of Jesus Christ, our faithful
mediator, the Son of God. When the scriptures speak of
us being justified through faith in the Son of God, it's talking
about us receiving from Him, the testimony of justification,
receiving the atonement. Our faith does not justify us. Christ's faith justified us.
Our faith simply receives that which Christ has done. And yet,
though we have nothing to do with the putting away of our
sins, when we come to God, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, by faith,
we cast away our sins and lay hold on Him. The crop refers
to the entrails, the waste, the dung, the filth of the animal,
our sins. The feathers, are the doves covering
His beauty, His glory. That refers to our righteousness.
Both have been forever cast away. The Lord God, by the sacrifice
of His Son, cast away our sins. And we, believing on His Son,
cast away our sins. And we come to Him, casting away
our righteousness that we may have His. Here's the fourth thing,
verse 17. Like this dove, the Lord Jesus
Christ was burned upon the altar of God, precisely as God ordained
it. And he shall cleave it with the
wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder. And the priest
shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the
fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire of a
sweet savor unto the Lord. I find it interesting and instructive
that the dove had to be split but not divided. Though its body
was violently split down the middle, it was not divided. It
wasn't torn into two pieces. Remember, like all the sacrifices,
this was done by divine order exactly as God commanded because
it represented Christ who was crucified for us by the determinate
counsel of God Almighty. When our Lord died in our place,
our Savior was separated his soul from his body, but his humanity
was not divided from his deity. God, we read in Acts chapter
20, loved the church and gave himself for it. God redeemed
his church with his own blood. God doesn't have blood. No, but
the God man does. And he who died, though he dies
as a man, never ceased to be God so that his sacrifice is
of infinite value. Though he was forsaken by his
father as our substitute, when he was made sin for us and made
atonement for our sins. He was never divided from Him
as the Son of God. The union of the Holy Trinity
could never be broken. He is forever the eternal God. And though our Redeemer died
for us and has gone away into heaven, He can never be separated
from His church. which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all, he says to you and to me, lo,
I am with you always. Brother David spoke in his prayer
a little bit ago of God's promises and he says, my favorite, I will
never leave you nor forsake you. Lo, I am with you always, what
a word. no matter where you are, no matter
what you're involved with. Lord, I am with you always. I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. Then after the worshiper had
split the dove of sacrifice, the priest took it and burned
it upon the altar, a sweet savor to God. Oh, blessed son of God,
my savior, burned with the fires of hell for me oh make my heart
to burn forever forever burn with love for thee amen come
to God and bring to God that which God has provided available
to any poor sinner dove or a young pigeon, Jesus Christ, the Lamb
of God, God's sacrifice. And find yourself forever accepted
of God, accepted by the sweet savor of His own darling Son. Amen. All right, take your hymn
books and we'll sing another hymn and be dismissed.