in complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help this afternoon. I wish to direct your
very breathful attention to the portion that we read in the book
of Leviticus chapter 7. And by way of text, our thoughts
are summarized in verses 37 and 38. Book of Leviticus, chapter 7,
verses 37 and 38. I'll just read the verses through
the once. This is the law of the burnt
offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and
of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations. and of
the sacrifice of the peace offerings which the Lord commanded Moses
in Mount Sinai in the day that he commanded the children of
Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord in the wilderness
of Sinai." Every one of us here this afternoon
is here, I trust, because they desire to be. Not because anyone
has cajoled us, not because anyone has pressed us, but because this
afternoon we were preferred to be here than anywhere else. That's got nothing to do with
the preacher. It's because we desire to worship Almighty God. Any motive, any reason that is
not primarily that reason is deficient. We come and we're
here this afternoon to worship Almighty God. There are other
reasons we gather we know. But, that's our motive. And thus, this place here, and
this service, much like that of which we've read about. Consecration. The law of consecrations is that
which is an expression of a heart that has been changed. That's
the difference. That's the difference. And so
here this afternoon, we must have it clear in our minds as
to what the book of Leviticus is all about. What is it all about? Well, that
question was asked. Some of you were aware of our
friend, the late Don Faulkner, who traveled many hundreds of
miles preaching nationally and internationally the gospel of
free grace faithfully. And he was on a plane and one
man saw him reading his Bible and said, I've never understood
what the book of Leviticus is all about. Some of you here may
be asking the same question. What's the purpose? What's the
principle of everything we've read this afternoon? And his answer was excellent.
He said read through the book of Leviticus and then immediately
Read through the book of the Hebrews. Go to the epistle of
the Hebrews. You see the fulfillment of all these things. It's about
a person. It's a person. It's the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. It's summarized, actually, summarized
for us. Paul summarizes it in the epistles
of the Hebrews. When he says this, chapter 3
and verse 4, for every house is built by some man, But he
that built all things is God. And Moses, verily, was faithful
in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things
which were to be spoken after. But Christ is a Son over his
house. whose house are we, if we hold
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."
That's our message. That's our message. And that's
our message this afternoon. When we read the book of Leviticus,
it's vital. It's not Moses, it's Christ that's
seen. Christ has seen. And if we establish
ourselves in that principle, then all these other things should
follow. Now, that being said, without
question, there are those things in the book of Leviticus that
are difficult. There are those things we may have questions
over. But if we grasp the fundamental, then we really have something
here to profit. And that's our desire here, to
grasp the fundamental. Now, by way of context, as we
come to the book of Leviticus, we see at the end of the book
of Exodus, there was that commanding there of worship, and Moses was
to follow that worship in respect to the tabernacle. And the tabernacle
was built by Moses exactly according to the order that the Lord had
given him. What's the principle there? The
principle is this, that worship is always prescribed by the Lord
himself and we follow. We're here at the chapel anniversary.
And the order of worship, we have to say, is that of which
is the New Testament that we follow. The worship of the Old
Testament, here, everything here is prescribed in detail. What's the purpose? Well, all
of these things speak something to us, all of those offerings,
some of which we'll consider this afternoon, speak to us of
an aspect of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, of what
it means. No single illustration can do
the Lord's atonement justice. It's a vast work. It's a vast
work. I'm no fan of quoting the hymn
book as a means of authority, but we do quote the hymn book
when it's helpful to act as a commentary on what we're saying. And hymn
88, I believe, if memory serves me correctly, states this, How
wondrous are the works of God displayed through all the world
abroad, immensely great, immensely small, yet one strange work exceeds
them all. He formed the sun. They're fount
of light, the moon and stars, to rule the night. But night
and stars and moon and sun are little works compared with one. Redemption. Redemption. And is this, all this book of
the Leviticus is speaking to us of redemption. Redemption full and redemption
free. So as we read All of these offerings,
these sacrifices, we must read them in light of the Lord Jesus
Christ and Calvary. Otherwise, we simply grasp an
empty shade. What we have before us is wonderful
indeed. And so, here in coming to the
Book of Leviticus, we can see Really, chapter 6 and 7 do belong
together. By necessity, we couldn't read
them both. But they are summarized. They
are summarized in our text. This is the Lord of the burnt
offering, and the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and
of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations of the sacrifice
of the peace offerings which the Lord commanded Moses in Mount
Sinai in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer
their oblations unto the Lord in the wilderness of Sinai. What's
this? What is this? The law of consecration. What is consecration? What is
it? Well, it's not what men think
it is. Men think of consecration in
terms of pious actions, pious talk, religious behavior, and
so on. Taboo subjects doing this thing
and not doing that. That's got nothing to do with
consecration. That's just religion. Consecration
follows one principle. Just one. Just one. It is walking by faith for the
honor and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's it. That's it. The Lord's Commands
are not grievous. Notice here. Notice here. We have this prescribed worship
here. In all these things that must
be followed. What is the prescribed principle of the New Testament?
Again, when we consider these things, we must always, first
of all, and this is a principle of exegesis and a principle of
understanding and of application for you all here, is that we
always go to the New Testament and we go backwards. We don't
start in the Old Testament and work our way forwards. There's
a name for that. But we inevitably end up with
illegal religion. If we begin in the New Testament
and go back, which is what we've done this afternoon in respect
to the Hebrews, then we can see what all these things mean, the
fulfillment of them. So in application, what is it
for the New Testament Church? And they continued steadfastly
in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship. and in the breaking
of bread and in prayers. It's simple, isn't it? It's very
simple. And that is what we have before
us here is a New Testament Church. It follows preaching the Gospel. Preaching the Gospel. We're here
now, preaching the Gospel. Preaching the Gospel, doctrine
and Fellowship. They go together. They go together. It's not a case of leaving the
moment it ends and no one speaks, everyone goes home in silence. It's not the spirit of the New
Testament. There might be things upon our mind and upon our heart
we might want to occasionally slip away quietly. I understand
that. That's not the principle. Paul's doctrine and fellowship,
and in the breaking of bread, the communion service. There's
no church without the communion service. Comes to the communion
service, that's the mark of the church. Those who are in, and
those who are out. And in prayers. Prayer meetings. Public prayer. Gathering together
for prayer. Desirous. Those are the marks
of the New Testament church. If we have those, regardless
of all the gifts and many other things we may lack, that's the
New Testament Church. If we don't have those things,
you know, I and some of you here preach in chapels where there
are no members, no table, no church. Here we have a church,
the church that's been maintained for all these years. how much
we have to be thankful for here and to the present day. And here we see this, the consecration. These were the offerings that
we have here, some of these offerings, were those who were offered out of thanksgiving, out of love. out of a heart that had been
moved. Yes, in the natural sense, in
terms of deliverance, but hearts that were moved in
terms of forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin. And that's,
I trust, what we desire is to come this afternoon. We'll come
to that in a moment. To see sin forgiven. To see Christ
in our place. Substitution. You see here, what we have is
that which was an outpouring of gratitude. Now, you may say
to me, here, well, where is this? Well, look here. The law of the
peace offerings. In verse 11 we read this, and
this is the law of the sacrifice of the peace offerings which
he shall offer unto the Lord. He shall offer it for a thanksgiving.
Then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened
cakes mingled with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil and
cakes and fine flour and fried. We go on in a moment there, but
what is that? That is the sacrifice of those
of whom, in that Old Testament way, in that shadowy way, we're
professing forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin. You know,
we have to be clear here that these were, in that right sense,
New Covenant believers. I'm choosing my words very deliberately.
The New Covenant has always been there. Always been there. In the Old Testament dispensation,
the people were not saved by obeying the sacrifices. That's
the thought men have today. It's not true. Every Old Testament
believer was delivered in exactly the same way as we are today.
They experienced the new birth. Abraham was given a new name.
Sarah was given a new name. Here we see the change, and there
were changes, we see the change, brought about in one character
and another all the way through the Old Testament dispensation.
And this was it. This was it. The law came by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. the Law. Moses was that, and this is where
many are confused, Moses was the means by which the Law came. Yes, but we know that Moses did
not rely upon the Law, did he? For his salvation. Absolutely
not. Now you may say to me, and you
may have encountered others that say, well, there were No. Christians in the Old Testament,
there certainly were. What's a Christian? A Christian
is one who has Christ. A non-Christian is one who doesn't
have Christ. That's the difference. Hebrews
11. What do we read in respect of
Moses? By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to
enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." Here it is. Esteeming
the reproach of Christ, greater riches than the treasures in
Egypt. for he had respect unto the recompense
of the reward." This is it. This is it. What we have here.
You may say to me, are those, all those who observed the sacrifices,
were they all saved? It's a fair question. We don't
have the answer to that. But what we can say is this,
there were those that were saved. The continual theme of the Book
of Leviticus is to look forward, to look forward, to look forward,
to look forward, all the way, continuously. It's a looking
forward. Looking unto the author and finisher
of our faith. And we have to be clear, friends.
This was no angel that they were looking for. This was no animal
that they were looking for. Simply the animal sacrifices
were that, once again, which pointed, and remember, the violence,
the scene, we read of these things in our authorised version, in
wonderful literacy, and so on, and we can have a false view
of these things. These were real scenes that we have before us
here. Real scenes. But they weren't sufficient,
were they? They weren't sufficient. They were looking unto Him. Looking unto Jesus. And that's
our message. That's our message here. That
peace are offerings. Here we can see, when they come,
thanksgiving. I trust a note of thanksgiving
in the heart here for the maintenance of this cause. Thanksgiving,
and there was that of which it was no trouble. It was no trouble,
it was no chore to come here, to come and offer such a thanks,
consecration. Consecration, it's no chore.
You know, in the natural sense, and we can use the natural illustration
here, if you love somebody, It's no
chore, is it? To do something for them. The
scripture proves itself true. It's better to give than to receive.
One of the greatest human experiences is to be generous. I'm not just
talking about money here. I'm talking about with our time
and with our talents. It's to be generous. It's a heart that simply outflows
from love. Now, I don't know about you,
but I don't want slavish service. It goes completely against everything
the Gospel is about. Slavish service. Do we suppose
the Lord does? This is fundamental. This is
fundamental to understanding that our rule of life is not
the law of Moses. Many say that they believe the
gospel, the believers rule over. They don't know. They don't.
We're living under the law. We see here, these were souls
that were free. Free. And thus they came to Zion. They came to Zion with a glad
heart. They came to Zion with a full
heart. But we notice here, there was
this thanksgiving. Notice unleavened cakes mingled
with oil and so on. So this was how it was to be.
Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread
with the sacrifice of thanksgiving for his peace offerings. There
was that also here which spoke of confession. Confession. Confession, sin. Confession, sin. And I want us
to be clear here. That we never ever get past the
cross. We never get past the cross.
It's not a popular message in our day. But I would be unfaithful
if I said anything else and your souls would not be edified if
we did not emphasize confession of sin. We see here, what do
we see? Likewise, this is the law, in
the beginning of the chapter, this is the law of the trespass
offering. It is most holy. In the place
where they shall kill the burnt offering, they shall kill the
trespass offering. And the blood thereof shall sprinkle
round about the altar. There was an acknowledgement
here of sin. Why was this? Why was this? Well, the people knew. Leviticus
chapter 19. Really, we can sum up the whole
message of the book in this. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the congregation of the children of Israel, and
say unto them, Ye shall be holy, for I the Lord God am holy. holiness, holiness. Men judge holiness by their own
pathetic yardstick. But the Lord speaks of absolute
holiness, complete holiness, that of which The Lord's people
must by necessity have what we read following chapter 20 and
verse 26. And ye shall be holy unto me
for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people
that ye should be mine. You see men talk about holiness
in measure. It's not good enough. It's not
good enough. Not good enough. We need an absolute
and a complete holiness. The text was quoted in conversation
yesterday. I am shut up and cannot come
forth. What is that? That's being shut
up to ourselves. This is the purpose. Moses came
and he brought the law. What was it? condense, and it
condense, and it condense, and it condense. Deliverance can
only come by Jesus Christ. This is He who is set before
us, here. This is He who is set before
us. Holiness, holiness is found in the Lord Jesus Christ and
in none other. It is a fallacy to speak of progressing
in holiness. It is a fallacy to speak of being
progressively sanctified, as they say. Sanctification is in Christ Jesus
and in Him alone. Our holiness, our boast, is in
Him and in Him alone. and this is what is everything
here is pointing is pointing to this person and anything short
of that is deficient is totally deficient and this is what we
see here when we come here to chapel there's always a need
isn't there let me put it very bluntly If we see ourselves this
afternoon as anything more than needy sinners, in need of the
blood of Christ, then I'm sorry for you. Because you'll never
get past it. It doesn't matter how many years
you've been in a profession, you'll never get past it. needy
sinners. What do we trust? We trust we
know something of this, but what do we see here? The sprinkling
of the blood. The sprinkling of the blood.
What is the blood here representing? What is it representing? Well,
it's representing life, is it not? Verse 26 of chapter 7, Moreover
ye shall eat no manner of blood, Whether it be foul, or of beast,
or of any of your dwellings, whatsoever soul it be that eateth
any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his
people." What was the emphasis here? Well, the blood was descriptive
of the life. If the blood does not flow around
our bodies instantly, life is terminated. Is it not? Life is
terminated. That's it. Without the shedding
of blood there is no remission of sins. What is the application,
therefore, of the blood? We need, by necessity, we have
to have our consciences sprinkled from dead works. What is that? Well that's the Living Word applied,
is it not? When Paul said to Timothy, preach
the Word, he was preaching, once again
we come back to it, we can't exhaust this principle, he was
preaching a person. He was preaching a person. A
blood applied to the conscience. That's what we are in need of.
This here before us is the Gospel. Now, if we've had the blood applied
to the conscience through the Word, then it's always the application
of the Holy Spirit. We need to be clear here. Holy Spirit conviction in revealing our sinnership.
and then revealing Christ. There we have it. The blood upon
the conscience. Here they were commanded to eat
no blood. But there we see in the New Testament
principle is this. All of these Old Testament Laws
here that we have before us were only ever, and this is where
we must be clear, they were only ever designed to be temporary. The priesthood, of course, which
followed Aaron's line, initially the older son and then the younger
son were not told why it changed, but it did. It was only ever designed to
be temporary. Because the Hebrews tells us
that. The blood of bulls and of goats could in no way take
away sin. And so again it's pointing. There's
only ever really been one true priest. A priest is one who stands
between. One who intercedes. I can tell
you now, every priest today is redundant. Before he even starts. Because there's only one priest.
There's only one who can stand between. And thus, all the food
laws, all the ceremonies, we can't agree with the view that
there's a three-fold division of the law, as men call it. The law is but one. And it's gone. It's abolished.
It's abolished. It's abolished. And here we see
the New Testament believer lives after Christ. That's our principle. That's our principle. And here
we see, this here was a day, the law of consecrations and
the coming before the Lord is that which ever really follows
this great principle of our own sinnership and emptying ourselves
out before Him and a complete looking and a complete dependence
upon this blessed person. I can say in that sense these
are men who have made that profession. We have to remember here there
are those things that do speak in that foreshadowing way. Now, we have to be careful when
we're making spiritual applications that we're not spiritualizing,
as it were. That we're not being fanciful.
We have to ensure that our basis is found in the New Testament. But remember when the priest,
when he partook of that offering, there were those things which
the priests could only eat of. And then the rest every man could
eat of but only in the holy place. It was that which he was taking
the sin of his brother upon himself. The sacrifice of his brother
upon himself. It's that which spoke of substitution. And substitution is vital. Because
where there is debt, and this is what the transgression is
speaking of here, there is debt, there is need of forgiveness.
But you know, we also have something here, which speaks very clearly
to us, I believe again, and we can't be fanciful here, but it
speaks very clearly to us, of that of which is of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the fact that really in Him, the third day
here, notice anything that was left on the third day, verse
17, but the remainder of the flesh and of the sacrifice on
the third day shall be burned with fire. Should be burned with fire. The Psalmist also made the very
same prediction. See, at Osset we take a Christological
view of the Psalms, that is, that every psalm speaks of Christ,
every psalm is messianic. The psalmist said, David, in
Psalm 16 and verse 10, he said, For thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt show me the paths of life, in the Presence is fullness
of joy, and in thy right hand there are pleasures. forevermore. The Lord Jesus rose upon the
third day. Victory here for His Church is
absolute and it is complete. It is complete. There is nothing
lacking. You see, this is the great difference,
isn't it? Salvation is not doing. Salvation is done. It's done. It's done. And this is what Paul
lays before us. Does he not, in Hebrews 10 and
verse 8, he said this, above all, he said, sacrifice an offering
and burnt offerings, an offering for sin, thou wouldest not, neither
has pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then he said,
lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once." That's
it. That's it. It was Jesus Christ
once. Every sacrifice pointed to the
one sacrifice. And that's it. They were looking
forward. Now we're here. Remember, we're
living in the full light of the Gospel here. We have the full
revealed Word. It's paid every price. You know, this is blood that
cleanses the deepest stain. the deepest day. Now do we really
believe that? Do we really believe that? You
know we say that we believe the Lord can save the vilest sinner.
I sometimes wonder. I sometimes wonder. Dear soul, we have here salvation
full, salvation free. This is no universal offer, is
it? This is a salvation that is done. There were those there
present in those sacrifices that felt the power of the blood. And if we need the power of the
blood, the Lord never leaves us so lacking,
does he? He says, come unto me ye that
labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. There's
liberty in the Gospel. There's liberty here. The Old
Testament is not all law. There is Gospel here, isn't there?
And there is, by necessity, liberty. Thanksgiving, praise. Though
we be and will never be anything more than wretched sinners, there's
a power in the Gospel that is greater than all things. Greater
is He that is in you. than he that is in the world.
Amen.