Let us look in our Bibles tonight
to the book of Leviticus once again. Leviticus chapter 3. Leviticus chapter 3 and the first
part of verse 1. and if his oblation be a sacrifice
of peace offering. Now in the last two weeks, we
have been looking at the first two of the five offerings that
God gave to the Levites, that is to the priest, to observe
in the tabernacle. All of the offerings we know,
every one of them, each of the five, they all speak of Christ. of his person and of his work. And I've given us New Testament
text for each of these offerings. For the burn offering, which
is the one that is given first in Leviticus chapter one, for
the burn offering, I chose Hebrews nine and verse 14. Christ through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God. In the burnt offering, we especially
see Christ offering Himself, yes, without spot, without any
sin, but offering Himself to God. And then in the meat offering,
I chose 1 Timothy 2 and verse 5, for there's one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. The meat offering shows the humanity
of the Lord Jesus Christ, his sinlessness. Tonight, it's a
peace offering. And the verse I've chosen in
the New Testament is 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 18. God hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ. reconciliation, peace with God. God hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ. Now in the order of these five
offerings, the peace offering we see is third. It's the middle
one. Two on one side, two on the other
side. But listen, the law of the peace
offering was given last. And I'll show you that in just
a moment. But the peace offering It's mentioned third, chapter
3. First the burnt offering, then
the meat offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the
trespass offering. But the peace offering is in
the middle of all five and the law of the peace offering is
given last in order. Now, I have three things for
us to observe tonight. First, Observe the peace offering
and the burn offering. The burn offering is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said, that verse, he offered
himself without spot to God. The burn offering shows the Lord
Jesus Christ how with all his heart, body, soul, and spirit,
yes, even unto death, every beat of his heart was in obedience
to the Lord God Almighty. And there are some similarities,
I'm going to point out, and there are some contrasts between the
burn offering and the peace offering. First, we'll look at some similarities. First, both offerings call for
a substitute's blood to be shed. Both the burn offering and now
the peace offering, both offerings call for the victim, the sacrifice
for its blood to be shed. Notice that in verse 3, here
in Leviticus 3. And he shall offer of the sacrifice
of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord. Well that's, I want us to read
verse 2. And he shall lay his hand upon
the head of his offering and kill it. In other words, the
blood had to be shed, both for the burnt offering and for the
peace offering. And I mention this first because
we know that every blessing, every benefit that we enjoy as
God's children, they all come to us through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Just as we speak about all of
our sins being drowned in the red sea of His blood, all of
our sins were drowned, so all of the blessings, they all come
to us. They all come to us through the
sacrifice, through the blood, through the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. If it's justification, if it's
pardon, if it's forgiveness, if it's sanctification, if it
is acceptance, adoption, whatever the blessing is, they all come
to us through the blood of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding
of blood is no remission of sin. And we emphasize this quite often. And we do so because this is
the very heart of the gospel. That is, the Gospel shows us
that there's a substitute, and that substitute has satisfied
God on behalf of His people, and that He is our hope. He substituted
Himself for us, and He satisfied God's justice. Every benefit,
every blessing comes to us through the blood of Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God. the scriptures speak of. So both
offerings called for a substitute's blood to be shed. Now secondly,
both offerings called for the blood to be sprinkled upon the
altar. In verse 2 again, at the end
of the verse, it says, "...and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall
sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about." Just as in the
burn offering, so now in the peace offering, the blood was
shed and the blood was sprinkled, sprinkled on the altar. And I
told you the altar, remember, had four horns, one on each corner,
and that's where the blood was applied, sprinkled all around
the altar. Now in Hebrews 12 and verse 24,
we read of Jesus Christ who is the mediator of the new covenant
and the blood of sprinkling, the blood of sprinkling, which
speaketh better things than the blood of Abel. Remember, Abel,
his blood was shed by his brother Cain. And God said to Cain, your
brother's blood cries to me. It cries to me from the ground.
And what was it crying for? It was crying for justice, for
vengeance to be taken upon Cain. But the blood of Jesus Christ,
the sprinkling of his blood, it speaks better things than
that of Abel. It speaks to us of peace. This
is the peace offering, the peace offering. And in that verse also
where it speaks about the blood of sprinkling in Hebrews 12,
it reminds us that the Lord Jesus Christ is a mediator of the new
covenant. And that new covenant we know
was ratified, it was sealed by the blood of the testator, that
is Jesus Christ our Lord. Now a third similarity, both
offerings were offerings made by fire. Both the burnt offering
and now this peace offering. You notice that in verse 3. And
he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering
made by fire. Now fire in the Word of God speaks
of judgment. And we know that it was on the
cross. that our sins, the sins of His
people, were judged in the substitute in Christ. Both offerings, both
the burnt offering and the peace offering, is an offering made
by fire. And then a fourth likeness, both
offerings were a sweet-smelling savor. Notice that here in our
text, in verse 5, it says, And Aaron's son shall burn it on
the altar, upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is
on the fire, it is an offering made by fire of a sweet savor."
Both the burnt offering and the peace offering. When the fire
burned the offering, the sacrifice, and it ascended up, we are told
it was a sweet savor. Now, we know that that means
that God found satisfaction. in the sacrifice, a sweet-smelling
savor, that it satisfied God, that God found rest, God found
peace in that sacrifice. And number five, both offerings
called for the offerer to lay his hand upon the head of the
sacrifice. upon his offering. Whether he
brought a burnt offering or brought a peace offering, he had to put
his hands upon the head of that animal and then kill it. And
I've told you, and you know this, that the laying of hands upon
the animal pictured the transference of sin. upon the substitute. And we know that's what the Lord
God did. He took the sins of His people
and He laid them, He made them to meet upon Jesus Christ. He imputed our sins unto Christ. And that's a picture here, transference
of sin by the laying on of hands. And it also is an identification. We identify with the animal,
with the sacrifice, with the victim. And by Our faith, we
don't physically lay our hands upon Christ, but we use the hand
of faith. And you know, an empty hand is
one of the best pictures of faith that we can find, isn't it? You
hold out a beggar on the street, he holds out his hand, and someone
comes by and he puts some money in there. Now, his hand did not
contribute anything. to the money that he received. And faith, we receive Christ
with an empty hand. We don't bring anything in our
hand. We don't merit anything. We receive all. So faith is pictured
by an empty hand laying hold upon the sacrifice upon Jesus
Christ. To as many as received him, the
scripture says. Received that's the reason top
lady wrote that him isn't it with in my hands no price. I bring Simply to thy cross I
claim Could my tears forever flow These for sin cannot atone
thou must save and thou alone empty hand but but the man laid
his hands or the woman laid her hands upon and the victim upon
the sacrifice. So there are five similarities
between the burn offering and the peace offering. Now let me
give us just a few contrasts between the burn offering and
the peace offering. First of all, the animal in the
burn offering had to be a male. It had to be a male. But in the
peace offering, we see here, look at verse 1, it could be
a male or female. And if his oblation be a sacrifice
of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be
a male or female. In this offering, it could be
a female. Not in the burn offering. The
burn offering had to be a male. Now, why was this? Why was this
that in this offering it could be either male or female? Well,
I don't know that any of us know for sure, but I'll give you two
suggestions that I've read. First of all, some believe because
it could have been a female. It has reference to what we read
in the New Testament in Galatians 3 in verse 28. There's neither
Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's neither
male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Maybe it has reference to the
fact that we are all one. There's no male or female in
Christ. We're all one in Christ. And then others They think it denotes strength
and weakness, because in the Scripture, the male is referred
to as the stronger of the two, and the female, the weaker. So in Christ, according to those
who see this, they see both strength and weakness in Christ. Strength
in His obedience, but weakness in His sufferings. Strong he
was as a man, the man of God's right hand. He was made so, but
yet he was crucified, the scripture says, through weakness. But that's
one contrast between these two offerings. Could be, the burnt
offering had to be a male, but the peace offering could be male
or female, but this was the same, whether it was male or female,
without blemish. without blemish. Whether it was
male or female, it had to be an animal without blemish. Why? Because it is a picture, a type
of our blessed Savior who was without blemish. He did no sin. He knew no sin. There was no
sin in Him. Now here's a second contrast. In the burn offering, all the
parts of the animal, everything was burned except the skin, all
the parts of the animal. Remember the man brought the
animal, the man, he was to kill the animal and then to cut the
animal up into pieces and God gave the instructions as to how
those pieces were to be cut and all of that. But all of it, all
of the animal was to be burned. It was all to be offered upon
the altar. But in the peace offering, there's only a few parts that
are to be burned. And they're all inward. Inward
parts. If you notice, in verse 3 through
5, it says, And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace
offering, an offering made by fire unto the Lord, the fat,
there's the first thing, the fat, the fat that covereth the
inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the
two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks,
and the call above the liver with the kidney, it shall he
take away. In other words, that part of
the animal was offered in sacrifice and it was all consumed. It was
all burnt in the burnt offering. The whole animal was burnt. And again, it reminds us that
Christ, body, soul, and spirit offered Himself fully, wholly
unto God. And I emphasize that because
we must remember His obedience is our obedience. And His obedience
was perfect. perfect from the moment of His
conception until He died upon the cross. Every breath He took,
every action, every word, every thought, it was all perfect and
it was all offered perfectly unto God on our behalf and in
our stead. And we are accepted in Him. His
righteousness is imputed unto us, becomes our righteousness. So in the burn offering, all
the parts of the animal were consumed by fire, but not in
the peace offering. In the peace offering, only those
inward parts that we just read about in this passage. Now here's
a third contrast. In the burn offering, no one
ate any of the animal. No one. This sacrifice was all
to God. It was all for God. But in the peace offering, the
offerer and the priest, they were to eat. If you notice in
this chapter, chapter 3, I want you to look at two verses. In
verse 11 and verse 16, That part which was burned on the altar,
the fat and those other things listed there, that is referred
to as the food of the Lord. Verse 11, And the priests shall
burn it upon the altar, it is the food of the offering made
by fire unto the Lord. And then again in verse 16, And
the priests shall burn them upon the altar, it is the food of
the offering made by fire for a sweet savor. All the fat is
the Lord's." Now, I said at the beginning that the law of the
peace offering is given last. So let's look over to chapter
7 where the law of the peace offering is given. And what we
want to see here is that This offering, yes, part of it was
consumed by the fire, and that was the Lord's food, but part
the offerer and the priest would eat. Notice in verse 11 of chapter
7, we read, and this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings. We're not going to read all of
this law, but I want you to notice two things. There are two reasons
given why a man would offer a peace offering. The first one, thanksgiving. Notice that in verse 12. If he offer it, that it, the
peace offering, for a thanksgiving. And the other reason, in verse
16, for a vow. So there's two reasons why this
peace offering would be offered. One would be out of thanksgiving
and one would be for a vow. It says in verse 16, but if the
sacrifice of his offering be a vow. But in both, both if he
offered the peace offering as an offering of thanksgiving or
because he was taking a vow, both the offerer was to eat the
flesh. Notice that in verse 15, chapter
7. And the flesh of the sacrifice
of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the flesh shall
be eaten." If he offers this offering as an offering of thanksgiving,
part of it was consumed, part of it was God, for God, his food,
but part, the offerer, and we will see the priest, were to
eat the flesh. And the same thing is true if
his peace offering was because of a vow. Notice that in verse
16, but if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow or a voluntary
offering, notice it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth
his sacrifice. Now there was rules concerning
the eating of the flesh, but the point I want to make is that
in this offering, in the burnt offering, it was all offered
up to God. It was His food. It was for God. But in the peace offering, part
of it was for God, part of it is to be eaten by those who offered
it and the priest. And notice this also, along with
the flesh, they were to eat cakes of fine flour. Notice, beginning
with verse 11 in chapter 7. This is the law of the sacrifice
of peace offerings, which ye shall offer unto the Lord. If
he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the
sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes mingled with oil, unleavened
wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, a fine
flour. Now that reminds us of the meat
offering, doesn't it? The meat offering had to be a
fine flour, showing his perfect humanity. Also, the priests were
to eat this offering, And they were to eat the breast and the
shoulder. Notice that down in verse 31
of chapter 7. And the priest shall burn the fat
upon the altar. That was God's part. But the
breast shall be Aaron's and his son's. The right shoulder shall
you give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifice
of your peace offerings. Now, I know I've given you a
lot of information. I pray that we can absorb it. But here's the second thing.
Observe the reality of this. What did this picture It's easy
to learn all these words, but what does this mean? What did
this picture? Well, it's a type. As many of
these offerings were, they were types, they were pictures. And
this particular type is a picture to show us how it is that through
Christ, we as believers have fellowship with God. We have
fellowship with God through Christ. Just as this offerer, he brought
his sacrifice, part of it was consumed, part of it was for
God, part of it was for himself and the priest. So they have
a fellowship. You're familiar with the term,
let us break bread. Let us meet together and break
bread. When people break bread, what's it a picture of? It's
a picture of peace, isn't it? It's a picture of tranquility.
We sit down at a meal. There's no fighting. We eat together. And that's what this is. It's
a type, it's a picture of the peace that we have with God the
Father, with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. We've been reconciled
unto God. That's the point. We've been
reconciled unto God. The wonderful truth that we who,
as the scripture says, sometime alienated and enemies in our
mind by wicked works, yet now, now hath He reconciled. Reconciliation. Therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. The God of peace has reconciled
us to Him by the blood of His Son's cross. For He, that is
Christ, He is our peace. So the picture, the type is the
fellowship that we have with the Father. We have peace with
God. We're reconciled unto God. And
it's all through the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now who
wouldn't be thankful? There are two reasons a man would
offer this peace offering. And one, the first one, was for
thanksgiving. And who isn't thankful? Like
Brother Bill was speaking of just a few minutes ago. How that
when we were dead in trespasses and sins, when we were blind,
that God came to us and did something for us by His grace. He had mercy upon us. If that
doesn't make us thankful, when we are deserving of the wrath
of God because of our sins. But now, by the blood of His
Son, by the blood of the cross, we've been reconciled unto God. C. H. McIntosh, I want to read
you something that he said on this. And I quote, The sons of
Aaron might stand around the altar of burnt offering, They
might behold the flame of that offering ascending to the God
of Israel. They might see the sacrifice
reduced to ashes. They might, in view of all this,
bow their heads and worship. But they carried nothing away
for themselves. Not so in the peace offering.
In it, they not only beheld that which was capable of emitting
a sweet odor to God, but also yielding a most substantial portion
for themselves on which they could feed in happy and holy
fellowship." Now we're told that the portion that was to be the
priest, and I bring this out to us because we're preached. who loved us, and washed us from
our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests
unto God." We're priests. Now the portion of the priest
was the breast. And the breast, of course, speaks
of the heart, reminds us of the heart, and the heart, of course,
of love. When we feast upon Christ, and
that's what we are doing when we come together to worship,
to hear about Christ, to learn more about Christ. We feast especially
on Him as the Son, God's only begotten Son, an expression of
God's love for us. And then the shoulder. The shoulder
pictures strength. And this is especially precious,
isn't it? The fact that in ourselves we
are perfect weakness. As far as serving God, as far
as honoring God, we're as weak as water, weaker. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, without me you can do zero, nothing. But thank God Christ is our strength. He gives us strength day by day
to serve Him, to honor Him. And I believe we have a beautiful
picture of this in one of our Lord's parables in the New Testament. I want you to look with me. Keep
your place here in Leviticus, but look over with me to Luke
chapter 15. Very, very well-known parable, that of the prodigal
son. Luke chapter 15. We'll just read
a couple of verses here. Luke chapter 15. We all know the story. The prodigal
son comes home. He leaves the hog band. And he's
willing to be made a servant. That'd be good enough. Just make
me like one of your servants. I don't even deserve that. But
no, the father meets him. The father not only meets him,
but he embraces him. And notice in verse 22, But the father said to his servants,
Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring
on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted
calf, and kill it, now notice, and let us, let us, both the
father and the reconciled son, let us eat and be merry. For this my son was dead, and
is alive again. He was lost and is found, and
they began to be merry. There was rejoicing going on.
Why? Because the son had been reconciled. But think about this. Until that
son had that best robe upon him, the righteousness of Christ.
Until he had a ring on his hands. until he had shoes on his feet
showing he wasn't a servant. He was a son. He was received
as a son. They couldn't sit down together
and break bread together and eat that fatted calf. Oh, but
now they could. Why? Because of reconciliation. Because of peace. And that's
a beautiful picture, I believe, of the fellowship that we have
tonight with our God. We've been reconciled. Now one
other thing, if you turn back with me, and I'll be very brief,
very brief, I promise. But I want us to see this. I
want you to observe how the law of peace offering was given last. Now there's five of these offerings.
Let's look first in chapter 6, Leviticus chapter 6 and verse
9. We read, command Aaron and his
son saying, this is the law of the burnt offering. That's the
first offering. Now I look in verse 14 of chapter
6, and this is the law of the meat offering. That's the second
offering. And then in verse 25 of chapter
6, Speak unto Aaron and to his son, saying, This is the law
of the sin offering. Now that was the fourth offering.
And then in chapter 7, verse 1, Likewise, this is the law
of the trespass offering. Now one's left. The peace offering. Look in verse 11, chapter 7.
And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings. Now, why
do you suppose the law of the peace offering was given last? Because the burnt offering, the
law of the burnt offering first, then the meat offering, and then
the sin offering, and the Trespass offering, but now lastly, the
peace offering. Well, God wants us to feed on
a whole Christ. W-H-O-L, a whole Christ. His humanity, yes. A sinless
man. His deity, yes. His sacrifice,
His offering for sin, His offering for our trespasses. He wants
us to feed on a, because this is the offering that we eat. We feed, we feast upon Christ,
the whole Christ. And this is, I think, important,
that we don't overemphasize one thing about Christ to the exclusion
of other truth about him, a whole Christ, that he is God of very
gods and yet he is the God-man, he's man. And all of his many
attributes and the history that were given of his life. I think sometimes We've become
so interested in the doctrinal part of the scripture that we
lose sight of the person of Jesus Christ. And that's what I'm trying
to do on Sunday morning. I don't know if you've noticed,
but I'm trying to preach every Sunday morning about Christ,
about his life, what he did, what's recorded for us in the
gospels. We love the epistles, I'm not
speaking badly of them. But I want to know Christ, don't
you? Not just know about him, I want to know him. Because when we know him, that's
when we come to be like him. To be like Christ. And that's
what we're all predestinated to be. like his blessed son. Well, may
the Lord bless this study tonight. Let's take our hymn books. Bill,
come.