I want to point out to you here
in Leviticus 1, I want to look at three verses. Verse 3, verse
10, and verse 14. Let's begin reading in Leviticus
1, verse 3. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice
of the herd. Of the herd. This was the bullocks,
the ox, and the large cattle. Verse 10. And if his offering
be of the flocks, namely of the sheep or of the goats, And then
verse 14 says, And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to
the Lord be of fowls, of fowls. Now you know that these burnt
offerings all typify the one sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's who the burnt sacrifice
pictures. It took all these various sacrifices
to picture Him. He's the mighty God. There's
pictured in the bullet. He's the spotless lamb. There's
the lamb. He's the one who was made sin
for his people. There's the goat. And he's the
fowl. He's the dove, the turtle dove,
the peace of his people. All of these sacrifices picture
Christ. He's the one burnt offering for
his people. And in these sacrifices, we see
what God says about all kinds of sinners, from the richest
to the poorest. Now, I've titled this, A Sacrifice
for All. The first thing we see here is
God is no respecter of persons. God's no respecter of persons.
In those first nine verses, we saw the bullet. The bullock was
brought by the rich folks. This was the sacrifice that God
provided for the more wealthy folks. The princes, the nobles,
they offered bullocks. And then this text in verse nine
says of the flocks, the sheep or the goats. This was provided
for those in the middle class, for those that were not rich,
but they were not as poor as others. They were the middle
class. And then you had verse 14 is
the offering of fowls, of turtle doves, and of young pigeons.
This was the offering God provided for the poorest of the poor.
And we see our Lord's humility here. He was God. He is God. Not robbery to be equal with
God. And yet He humbled Himself and took upon Him the form of
a servant. And when He came into this world, this offering of
of turtle doves, of pigeons. This was the offering that Mary
and Joseph took to the temple whenever they went to give the
Savior unto the Lord. This was the offering they brought.
They were the poorest of the poor. And that's the family Christ
came into. But even in this law, what we
see here is God's declaring that He's no respecter of persons.
The upper class, the middle class, the lower class, all had to come
to God with a sacrifice. It didn't matter where you were,
where you ranked in society, you had to come to God with a
sacrifice. God would receive nobody, nobody,
except through the blood of Christ. It doesn't matter in this world
how many honors you get from this world, how high you climb
in this world, or if you never get off the ground. You got to
come to God with a blood sacrifice. The soul that sinneth must die. And that's what's pictured in
this sacrifice. That's what we are saying by faith in Christ. We must die. We must die. And the gift of God's eternal
life. He gives us life in the sacrifice. That's the only way we come to
God is through Christ. One awful characteristic. One
terrible characteristic of depraved sinners is we want to we want
to we want to rank people and we want to judge after the appearance
of things and base it on carnal distinctions. We'll base it on
gender, on race, on social class, and many other things. Anything
we can find. And God hates that. That's a
respect of persons. Let me show you that over in
James 2. James chapter 2. The truth is, we're all equally
wretched, bankrupt sinners. And no sinner has any, he has
no reason to exalt himself or any other sinner above another
sinner. We're all equally in the dust before God. We're all
equally sinners before God. And God hates the respect of
persons. Look at James chapter 2, verse 1. He says, Have not
the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect
of persons. For if there come unto your assembly
a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also
a poor man in vile raiment, and you have respect to him that
wears the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a
good place? And you say to the poor man,
Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool? Are you not
then partial in yourselves? He says, are you, are become
judges of evil thoughts? That's how God regards it. Evil
thoughts. Having a respect of persons.
Read verse 5. Hearken, my beloved brethren,
hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith,
heirs of the kingdom which He promised to them that love Him?
But you've despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and
draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme
that worthy name by which you're called? Not all do, but the majority
do. The majority do. And the majority
of those God's chosen to save are poor sinners. They're not
wealthy. There's not many wise, there's
not many noble that God's called. He's chosen the foolish things
of this world to confound the wise and the mighty and the noble.
He says here then, look, verse 8. If you fulfill the royal law
according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,
you do well. But if you have respect to persons,
you commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
He's saying if you love somebody, you love all men and you treat
them with the same respect, He said, That's the law of Christ.
That's the royal law. But if you have a respect of
persons, that's coming back under the law. That's making yourself
guilty before God. And He said, For if you offend
in one point, you're guilty of all. For he that said, Do not
commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit
no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor
of the law. Here's how we're to speak and to do. Look, verse
12. So speak ye and so do as they that should be judged by
the law of liberty, by the gospel, by the gospel. For he shall have
judgment without mercy, that it show no mercy, and mercy rejoices
against judgment. You want to meet God and have
no judgment? Then go through this life with
that old, legal, hard, carnal heart, showing no mercy to others. And God certainly won't show
you any mercy, because it's manifestation of a heart that's just natural,
depraved, sinful. But if He's given you a new heart,
faith in Christ, made you see what Christ has done for you,
then you'll rejoice to show people mercy rather than judgment, because
you rejoiced that God rejoiced to show you mercy rather than
judgment. So this respective person, we see right here in
this law, because God provided all three of these men, three
of these people, kinds of people, He provided them all a sacrifice,
He shows God has no respect to persons. You've got to come in
the sacrifice. You've got to come in the lamb.
I tell you this, you look through the Old Testament and you look
and you see where the bullocks were brought and the lambs were
brought and the fowls were brought. You'll find a lot more lambs
and goats and fowls were brought than bullocks were brought. And
not a lot of wise, rich folks that God saved. He saves the
poor. the poor and makes them rich.
And if you are rich, He makes you poor. He makes you see you
poor in yourself. And He makes you rich through
faith in Christ. But in Him, there's not a Jew,
there's not a Gentile, there's not a rich or a poor, a bond
or a free, a male or a female. In Him, we're just sinners before
God. And in Christ, we're just complete.
Just complete. Now, here's the second thing.
And in this, we see the good news that God has provided Christ
one sacrifice, one sacrifice, the same sacrifice to save all
kinds of men. He's going to save all kinds
of men. But it's going to be through this one sacrifice because
it doesn't matter where you are. You got to be saved by the one
sacrifice. But he's going to save all kinds of men. God is
not going to save all men without exception. That's a lie. He's
not trying to. That's what men say. God wants
to save you and He's trying to save you. God's not trying to
do anything. God's doing what He determined to do before the
foundation of the world. He's not saving all men without
exception. Christ said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. He came to save His people from
their sins. We see in this sacrifice that
God provided the sacrifice for Israel, but He didn't provide
it for those outside of Israel. That tells you God provided Christ
for His elect people, and that's who He's going to save. But in
His, amongst His elect people, there are all kinds. There are
rich, middle, and poor. There's all kinds. There's kings
and there's paupers, and everything in between. Look at 1 Timothy
2. 1 Timothy 2. This scripture right
here is often used, and it's used falsely. It's used wrongly.
It's used by men to say that, see there, Christ, God wants
to save all men. That's not what this verse teaches.
This verse is teaching God will save all kinds of men. Kings
to beggars, He'll save all kinds of men. Look here, 1 Timothy
2.1, I exhort therefore that first of all, supplications,
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. He's talking about for all kinds
of men. Let me show you that now. For
kings and for all that are in authority. Those are your more
powerful, your more wise in the world. That we, there's your
poor with no authority. Kings, from kings to us. From kings to us. All kinds of
men. that we may lead a quieter, peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty, for this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all kinds of men
to be saved. You see, he's praying for kings,
he's praying for those in authority, as well as for Paul and for Timothy
and for those poor saints. He's talking about all kinds
of men, because God will have all kinds to be saved. When it says here, God will,
it doesn't mean God wants for all to be saved. It means God
will save. He will save. He will save all
kinds of folks. Look here, it says, it says,
He will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge
of the truth. Now, you know that doesn't mean
all men, because not all men come to the knowledge of the
truth. But whoever God's determined to come to the knowledge of the
truth, they will be brought to the knowledge of the truth. Some
rich, some poor, some male, some female, some Jews, some Gentiles,
some kings, and some beggars, all kinds. Look here now, he
says, he says verse 5, for there's one God. You see, our Lord gave
one sacrifice. It's not the different kinds
of sacrifices you focus on. It's the fact that He gave a
sacrifice. One sacrifice. They all had to come in blood.
In one thing. And here's why. All kinds of
men all have to come the same way. For there's one God and
one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. Who
gave himself a ransom for all. For all kinds of sinners. Still
talking about the same thing. To be testified in due time.
Now that's the lesson in our text, brethren. That's what we
see in our text. God provided a sacrifice for
the upper, the middle, and the Lord clasped, but it was one
sacrifice. There is one mediator. There
is one way to come. He saves all kinds of people,
but there is just one way to come, through Christ alone. When Christ said, Him that cometh
unto me, that opens the door for all kinds of sinners. He
didn't say, now just if you are this particular kind of sinner,
or if you are that particular kind of sinner. He said, Him
that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out. That opens
the door for wherever you rank among men and among sinners,
wherever you are, just know this, we're all at the bottom and we
can only come through Christ. He saves all kinds. He's able
to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him. Alright,
here's the last thing. There's a lesson here for true
sinners too, for true sinners. Look back at Leviticus 1. I want
you to see what each of these sacrifices have in common. It says there in verse 3, He
shall offer it of His own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation before the Lord. And then you read down
in verse 10, And if his offering be of the flocks or the sheep
or the goats for burnt sacrifice, he shall bring it, a male without
blemish, and he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward,
and the priest, heir and son, shall sprinkle the blood round
about the altar. And then you look at verse 14. And if the
burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of the fowls,
then he shall bring his offering of the turtle doves or the young
pigeons, and the priest shall bring it unto the altar. You
see, in every one of these cases, the worshiper is actively involved. He's actively involved in this
sacrifice. And each one of them, the worshipper,
had to come with the sacrifice. And he had to come to the priest
with the sacrifice. You and I are the worshipper.
We're the sinner. If we're going to come to God,
we have to come through Christ. Christ is pictured in the sacrifice.
And He's the priest. He's the high priest. We have
to come to Him with the sacrifice. But this shows us, brethren,
we're guilty. We're guilty. And the only way
God's going to receive us is believing on His Son. God's got to give you the life.
God's got to give you the faith. God's got to draw you. God's
got to teach you. All of that's true. But what
you see right here is you've got to believe on Christ. God's
not going to believe on Christ for you. And I think sometimes
we hear the message of God's sovereignty and we sit there
and we think, well, I'll just sit here and just sit here and
sit here. And there's no doubt God will move you. He's going
to move you. If you're His, He'll move you. He will quicken your
heart and make you see your sin. But let me tell you something,
too. When He does, don't sit there believing. Don't back away from God and
make excuses. Believe God. Seek God, look into
His Word, and believe God. You have to come with the one
sacrifice. In every one of these cases,
they were identified with that sacrifice. We have to come confessing
to God. Here's what they were identifying
themselves. They identified themselves as
being the sinner, the sinner who needed that sacrifice. We're
going to have to confess our sin to God. We've got to come
to God confessing, I need a substitute. I need a sacrifice. And in every
one of those cases, when they came with that lamb, or with
that goat, or with that bullock, or with that fowl, they came
there confessing, I deserve to die. When they killed it, there
with the priest, they were confessing, this is the death, I deserve
to die. And we have to come to God confessing, when we look
at Christ, He's the substitute. The only way God could save a
sinner was in a substitute. He sent His Son to take the sin
of His people and to justly stand before God as the condemned one,
standing in the room instead of His people, so that God judged
Him instead of His people. And God satisfied justice toward
Him instead of toward His people. And God redeemed them, Christ
redeemed them from their judgment by bearing it for them. That's
substitution. And we have to come confessing
that He did that for me. that I'm the one that deserves
to die. I'm the one that put him there. In several of these
verses it says, and he shall kill it. Do you know that, believer,
we put Christ on the cross? We killed Christ. Men want to
blame somebody else, and I think it was the Jews that killed Christ,
or it was the Gentiles that killed Christ. If you look, every kind
of man had a part in it. Jew and Gentile. Rulers and poor
folks. Everybody had a part in killing
him. And that teaches us, the spiritual picture is, every one
of God's elect, no matter if you were in authority or not
in authority, whether you were Jew or Gentile, every one of
God's elect killed Christ. We killed him. And we have to
come confessing that to God. I'm the one that put him there.
And we come to God confessing that we believe, we trust God
that He receives us in the blood. They wouldn't have come there
with that sacrifice if they didn't believe God would receive them,
would they? You wouldn't have come there
with that sacrifice that God commanded if you didn't believe
that God would receive you. And so we come there, we come
to God believing God will receive me and trust in this is all my
salvation. Christ alone, nothing else, not
my works. You see here, look at this. The
same honor was given to the sacrifices of the poor as was given to the
sacrifices of the rich. You know why? Because the only
thing that gave either sacrifice significance and importance was
the one it pictured, Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. You see,
it's not the ceremony that made atonement for them. It wasn't
coming there and going through all the motions that made atonement
for them. It was the sacrifice that made
atonement for them. And you and I, it's not our going
through the form of religion that's going to save us. It's
not coming to the church house and and making a public profession
of faith, and being baptized, and observing the Lord's table,
and being in the Lord's house every day. That's not what's
going to save you. It's the object for which we
do those things that saves us. It's the object of our faith.
It's the object of the Lord's table. It's the object of baptism.
It's the object of worship. Christ Jesus the Lord, He's the
one that saves. The ceremony itself doesn't save.
They all were given, they were all made effectual ceremonially
because it shows us, brethren, that it was the sacrifice that
did the saving. And that's what we have to remember.
Christ is the righteousness of His people. He's the righteousness. Not our coming to Him, not our
believing on Him, not our doing anything to worship Him. Christ
is our righteousness. And Christ is our substitute.
He's the one who went to the cross for his people and laid
down his life. That God might be just and the
justifier of his people. You go read Romans 3. Now is the righteousness of God
declared without the law. Without you doing one thing.
The righteousness of God. You want to come to God, you
got to have the righteousness of God. You've got to submit
to the righteousness of God. And a lot of folks think that's
submitting to the law. And so they go and submit. That's
submitting to the law of righteousness. That's bringing something between
you and the righteousness of God. And if you try to come to
God in the law, you're going to die. The righteousness of
God is by the faithfulness of Christ Jesus, the Lord. He is
the righteousness of God. He put away the sin of his people.
He declared God just when he did it. He declared that God
is the justifier. He purged the sin of His people.
He fully established the law of God. He fully established
the everlasting covenant. He fully redeemed His people.
And He is the salvation of people. He is the righteousness of God.
And the only way God will receive you is to come in that one sacrifice.
I pray He will give you grace to believe Him. Let's stand together,
brethren. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. Thank You for showing us how that it doesn't matter who
we are, it doesn't matter what station in life we're in, we're
just sinners. Needy, bankrupt, dead sinners. Lord, we need the one sacrifice
and we pray that You'll make us to see that, make us to lay
hold of Him, make us to come in Him, and make us to rest in
Him. Lord, forgive us for thinking there's something else important.
Forgive us for looking to ourselves and to others and for exalting
ourselves and exalting others on things that to you mean absolutely
nothing. Make us to know that the most
valuable, treasured person in this world is one robed in your
blood, In your righteousness, one brought to faith in Christ,
made rich in Christ. They're heir of God, heir of
all things. Lord, those are the ones that
we should love and should nourish and should give honor to whom
honors due, not to just worldly men. Make us to love one another. Make us to preeminently love
Christ and to love one another because of what you've done for
us. Lord, we pray that you'll bless this word. We pray that
you'll bless the services now and our fellowship together.
Pray, Lord, that you'll hear the prayers of your saints. Forgive
us of our sins, Father. Amen.