Let's go to the book of Leviticus
again today. Leviticus chapter one. Leviticus chapter one. Last week we began studying this
most vital of all the offerings of Israel, and that would be
the burnt offering. Here's what we know about the
burnt offering. It instructs us in the right
way to come to God. There is a way to come to the
Lord, thankfully. the one who made us, the one
who provides for us, the one who is altogether holy. He has
said before us in his word, the way, whereby folks like us who
are sinful, who are wretched, and who are loathsome in ourselves,
there is one way, the way, whereby we can go near to God with the
full assurance that He will accept us and He will receive us. Now there is no question about
our guilt. There is no debate as to our
sinfulness. The Word of God tells us throughout
that man is sinful. Every man, every woman, every
boy, and every girl is alienated from God due to our sins. Well then, that being so, what
is the way whereby we can draw near to God and have some confidence
and assurance that we will be received and that our adoration
and our worship of God will be welcomed. Well, Leviticus chapter
1 gives us the answer to these inquiries that we're raising. There is a way whereby guilty
sinners like you and me can come to God and find that God will
be receptive of us, that he will accept us. And I emphasize that God will
accept us. And the reason I emphasize that
is because we live in a day when so many people are saying, accept
the Lord. Lots of preachers will stand
before congregations today, and they will say to their congregations,
will you accept the Lord? Will you accept what the Lord
did for you 2,000 years ago? They use that sort of language. But I said before you another
question. And it's a question few people
give any consideration to. And it's simply this question.
Will God accept you? Will God who is holy, God who
is righteous in all of His ways, will this God with whom we have
to do, will He accept you? I'm not asking you to accept
the Lord. You won't find that kind of language
anywhere in the Bible. The issue is, will God accept
you? And if so, how in the world can
a holy God accept somebody like you? You say, are you preaching
down to us, pastor? No, so I'll put the question
to me. How in the world can a holy God
accept somebody as sinful, and as depraved, and as loathsome,
and as filthy in sin as I am? How can He accept me? Accept me. The burnt offering gives us the
answer. It was the very basis of the
worship of the Jews. And if an Israelite brought to
the Lord the right offering, And if that offering was accepted
by God, now this is very key to understanding the message.
If the offering was accepted by God, then the offerer of the
offering was accepted by God. Everything hinged on this. Was
the offering accepted by the Lord? And if so, then whoever
offered the offering, And on whosever reason it was offered,
they would be accepted. But the issue is this, was the
offering accepted? Was the offering accepted? Look
at Leviticus chapter 1, beginning at verse 1. The Lord said unto
Moses, He, actually the Lord, called out of the tabernacle
unto Moses, Leviticus chapter 1 verse 1, and spake to him out
of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children
of Israel. Notice the Lord spoke to Israel
through a mediator, through a go-between, through Moses. God had nothing
to say to Israel except what He said to them through Moses. And that which God has to say
to us today, He says to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God speaks to sinners through
a mediator. He will not speak to, nor will
He be spoken to by anybody in this congregation, by this preacher,
or by anybody throughout the world. God will not speak to
us, nor will we speak to our God except through a middleman,
except through a mediator, and that one man is the God-man,
Christ Jesus the Lord. He is not going to speak to you
any other way through any other person except Christ Jesus. The Lord spoke to Israel through
Moses. He says to Moses, speak unto
the children of Israel and say unto them, if any man of you bring an offering
unto the Lord, He shall bring your offering of the cattle,
even of the herd and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice
of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer
it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation before the Lord. And he shall put his hand
upon the head of the burnt offering. And it shall be accepted, the
offering shall be accepted for him to make an atonement for
him. So if the offering was accepted,
he was accepted. That's the point I want to drive
home today. If the offering was accepted
by God, then the man who offered it, he was accepted. So everything
hinged on this. Everything was dependent upon
this. Was the offering unto God acceptable
to the Lord? If so, this man's okay. Then he's accepted. But if not,
then he can forget about being accepted. It all hinges on the
offering. Now, this idea of a burnt offering,
as we discovered last week, is nothing new in the Bible. Because
this sets forth the very gospel of God's grace. And the gospel
is not new. It's new in the sense that it's
fresh, and it's delightful, But it's an old gospel. In fact,
you read in the book of Revelation that it's the everlasting gospel. This is the gospel that reaches
all the way back into eternity past, and it will last all the
way into eternity future. It is the everlasting gospel.
The gospel is new in the sense it's fresh, it's delightful to
our souls, it always meets our needs. But understand this, the
gospel is as old as God Himself and He is eternal. And as far
as this, the burnt offering is concerned, this is not a new
idea. This is not a new concept. And
the very first mentioning in the Bible of the burnt offering
is in Genesis chapter 22. Go back there with me. Genesis
chapter 22. Here's the first mentioning of
the burnt offering. And it comes from the lips of
God to Abraham. And you know the story quite
well. But it's interesting to note
the number of occurrences of the burnt offering in these few
verses in Genesis chapter 22. You know the story. It begins Genesis 22, 1. It came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham. He said unto him, Abraham, and
he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, God said to Abraham,
take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for
a burnt offering, first usage in the Bible, offer him there
for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will
tell thee of. Now this was dreadful work that
God instructed Abraham to perform. We can only imagine how horrible
it would have been if he had had to have gone through with
this. Because we know that he didn't. Though he did go through
with it in his own mind. Because Hebrews chapter 11 says,
he received Isaac back as from the dead. So he actually went
through with it in his mind and in his heart. But here's what
was required. He'd have to slit his throat, cut him open, remove his entrails, wash them,
divide Isaac's body into four parts, quarter him in other words,
and then lay every piece up on the wood, and then lay all of
his entrails up on the wood, and then set the wood on fire. That's a burnt offering. A gory picture indeed. Notice verse 3. Abraham rose
up early in the morning and saddled his ass, took two of his young
men with him and Isaac, his son. He claimed the wood for the burnt
offering. There it is again, burnt offering.
He rose up and went to the place of which God had told him. Look
down in verse 6. Abraham took the wood of the
burnt offering, laid it upon Isaac, his son. He took the fire
in his hand and a knife. They went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, My father,
and he said, Behold, am I my son? Here am I my son. And he
said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for
a burnt offering? Over and over again this is kept
before us. This is a burnt offering. Verse
8, And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.
God would provide himself. God would do the providing and
God would provide himself. And of course this looks on into
the future when God would send His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh. He would be the burnt offering.
He would be the substitute. He would be the satisfaction
of divine justice. He would die in the sinner's
stead. He would be that offering offered
unto God which was an acceptable offering. If the offering is
accepted, whoever the offering is offered for, they are accepted. Everything is dependent upon
this being an acceptable offering. And Abraham tells his son, God
will provide. God will see to it. Then you know the story. Go down
in verse 13. I just want to show you this.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes. Of course, God told him to stop.
Don't go through with killing his son. Abraham lifted up his
eyes. He looked and behold, behind
him, a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went,
he took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering, there
it is again, for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And you'll notice back over here
in Leviticus chapter 1 that this offering shall be accepted for
him. Just like that ram was acceptable
to God in the stead of Isaac. In the stead of Isaac. A burnt
offering. What does fire speak to us of?
It speaks to us of the wrath and the vengeance of Almighty
God against sin. The ram in this story pictures
our Savior. And all of a sudden, Isaac, he
pictures us. Isaac is released. Isaac is freed. Because the Lord said to Abraham,
take the ram instead. A substitute was found to die
in the stead of Isaac. Just like Christ Jesus died in
the stead of His people. He was the sacrifice that went
up to God. A burnt offering means that which
goes up. Just like the fire goes up, the
ashes go up, the smoke goes up, the offering is for the Lord.
It's for the Lord. The ram was offered in the stead
of Isaac to God who commanded the sacrifice to begin with. And the substitute was accepted
and Isaac lived. If the substitute, if the offering
is accepted, then the one for whom it was offered goes free. And he's accepted. Now go back
to Leviticus chapter 1. So this is what we're working
on today. That the acceptance of the worshipper,
was fully dependent upon the acceptance of the offering. You see, there's only one way
that we're going to be accepted today. Is if the one who died
for us and his sacrifice to God, if that was acceptable to God,
then we're accepted. Everything is dependent upon
the acceptance of the offering. That's what we need to see. That's
the key to this whole thing. In Leviticus chapter 1, we learn
several things about this offering. Number one, it had to be male.
We find that out from verse 3, got to offer a male without blemish. Also again in verse number 10.
If the offering is taken from the flocks, either the sheep
or the goats, for a burnt offering, he shall bring it a male without
blemish. Now, there were other offerings
that Israel offered, as we shall see in the next few weeks. They could be presented to the
Lord, or they would be presented to the Lord, and they could be
a female. They could be a female. But not
the burnt offering. Not the burnt offering. And this
is the main offering right here. The very first thing that is
said, let him offer a male. Which indicates to us that this
one who is foreshadowed by this offering, the promised Messiah,
he would be a man in the strength and power of a mighty man. He was the Child that was born.
He was the Son that was given, whose name was Emmanuel, God
with us. The Savior is the Man, Christ
Jesus. And this is a vital part of the
Gospel message, that the God-Man has come into the world to save
His people from their sins. No wonder the angels said to
the shepherds, at the birth of the Savior. The angel said, Behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Great is the mystery of godliness. And this mystery of godliness
consists in this. God was manifest in the flesh. God joined His deity to manhood. This is a foundational teaching
of God's religion, of true religion. That Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh. He's the God-man. What an extraordinary,
what an amazing and miraculous thing that God joined himself
to humanity. How wonderful that God should
become man. That he should be born of a pure
virgin without any concern of a human father in it. and that
this should be brought about by the overshadowing power of
the Holy Ghost. And all of this was necessary
so that this God-man could effect the salvation, that glorious
work that He came into the world to accomplish. He would effect
the salvation, He would bring in the salvation of all of those
that He came to save. God sent His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. God sent forth His Son made of
a woman. Make no mistake about it. The
Son of God really did take upon Himself human nature. Amazing. He took upon Himself
human nature. And after his resurrection, he
remained a real man. He was a real man his whole life. And listen, he's still a real
man. That hasn't changed. He's not
man deified. He's not God humanized. He's the God-man. Once He joined
His deity with humanity, that was an everlasting union. He's the man Christ Jesus. A real man. When He was born,
like all other babies, He began to grow. He needed the milk from his mother. He needed the nourishment. He
needed someone else to provide for him. And yet, all the while,
he's providing for the whole human race everything that everybody
needed. He's God and man. He was a real
man. When he was born, his body grew. He increased in stature. He came
forth eating and drinking as all men do. He grew weary. He grew hungry. He grew thirsty
as all men do. He wept as all men do. The body he assumed was mortal,
which is only fitting because the reason he came into the world
was to give his life a ransom for many. He had to be able to
die. But when he was raised, that
body became immortal and never die again. He's the first fruits
of them that sleep. He was really a man. He had a
real body. He had a real soul. He said,
my soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. And at His death,
as at our death, the body and the soul separate. That's what
happened at His death. When we die, the soul doesn't
lose any consciousness. The soul goes on living. The
soul goes back to God. It's what Solomon said. Well,
what happened when our Lord Jesus Christ died? His body ceased
to live. When he breathed out his last
breath, when he commended his soul to God, his body went limp. That mystical connection between
the soul and the body, which Solomon describes in Ecclesiastes
chapter 12, the bowl was broken. And his body was limp and lifeless. His soul made an exit from his
body and went straight to paradise. Because he told the believing
thief, today you'll be with me in paradise. That's where the
Savior went. He had a real soul. He had a
real soul. If he hadn't have had a real
human soul, he wouldn't have been the perfect man. Like you
and me, He had body and soul. He was the man. This is the first
qualification of an offering. If an offering is going to be
accepted by God, the burnt offering, it had to be a male. Our God,
Man, Christ, Jesus met the first qualification to be the offering
unto God. He was a man. He is a male. He was made in all points like
unto His brethren. Those He came to save. He had
human feelings. Love, joy, anger, sorrow, amazement. The Scripture says He was tempted
in all points as we are, yet without sin. He had a real body. A real body that felt agony and
pain. A real body that was wounded
and bruised and scourged and crucified. His death was a real
death. He was not a phantom. He was
a real man. Every bit of man. Even after his resurrection,
he said to his disciples, he said, touch me and see. A spirit doesn't have flesh and
bones as you see me have. Reach out and touch me. He's
a real man. Christ Jesus had a real body. And that body really died. And
Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilate and said, I beg of you, let me
take his body down from the cross and prepare it for burial. And
so he did. He was a real man. The man Christ
Jesus. Now God the Father prepared that
body for him. In old eternity, this body was
ordained for Him. And actually, the body of Adam
was made in the likeness of the body that God ordained for His
Son back in the covenant of grace. He is a real man. The Holy Spirit
overshadowed Mary. And she conceived by the very
power of God. And that which was born in her,
that which was conceived in her, was a holy thing. The Son of God was formed in
her. Miraculously and mysteriously,
even as He is formed in us, miraculously and mysteriously, He comes to
us. What was the moving cause of
Him becoming a man? The love of God. The love of
God. Because God so loved the world
of His elect that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth on Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. In
this was the love of God manifested. He gave His Son to be propitiation
for our sins. He was a real man. A real man. Second qualification. Not only
had to be a male this offering, but it had to be a male without
blemish. Without blemish. It was to lack
nothing. In other words, it was to be
absolutely perfect. It couldn't be deformed in any
way. It couldn't have any sickness
in any way. Look over at Leviticus, the 22nd
chapter. Leviticus chapter 22. It had to be a male without blemish.
Look at verse 17. Leviticus 22, 17. The Lord spake
unto Moses. There it is again. The Lord spake
unto Moses saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons and all
the children of Israel. And say unto them, whatsoever
he be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers in Israel,
that will offer his oblation for all of his vows, and for
all his freewill offerings, which they will offer unto the Lord
for a burnt offering. Ye shall offer at your own will
a male without blemish, of the beeves, that is of the herd of
the sheep, or it could be of the sheep or of the goats, verse
20. But whatsoever hath the blemish,
That shall ye not offer, for it shall not be acceptable to
you." The Lord says, now don't you
bring me an animal for a burnt offering that has any sort of
blemish. Because if you bring an animal
for an offering that has a blemish, I am not going to accept that
offering. Consequently, you are not going
to be accepted. Our Lord Jesus came into this
world. Did He have a blemish? No. He was without spot and without
blemish. Look at verse 21. whosoever offereth
the sacrifice of peace offerings unto the Lord, to accomplish
his vows, or a freewill offering in beeves, or sheep, it shall
be perfect to be accepted." Underline that. It shall be perfect to
be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein,
blind, or broken, or maimed, or having a wind that is a runny
sower, or scurvy, or scabbed. Ye shall not offer these unto
the Lord, nor make an offering by fire of them upon the altar
unto the Lord." Don't bring me anything like that. Why not?
Because this sacrifice, it pictures our Lord Jesus Christ. who was
a male, who offered himself to God without blemish. He was the impeccable Son of
God. There was no sin in Him. He did no sin. There was no guile
found in His mouth. He was absolute perfection incarnate. And when he went to the cross,
that one who had no spot or blemish was nailed to that cross. He
was an innocent man. He wasn't guilty of any of the
crimes that they charged him with. However, all of the sin
debt of all of God's elect had been charged to him. And he therefore
became guilty by imputation. And yet in himself, he still
had to be without spot and without blemish. He had to be the perfect
sacrifice without blemish. Now listen, if he had a blemish,
if somehow another sin got into him, if he became a sinner, then
he would be disqualified Read the Word of God. He would have
been disqualified for being the offering. His offering to God
would not be accepted. Consequently, those in whose
stead He was dying, we won't be accepted either. That's how
serious this matter is. He's the spotless Lamb of God. He died for sins that were not
His own. They are the sins of His people.
He was without blemish and without spot. He was not contaminated
by sin. Thirdly, it had to be a male
without blemish. Go back to chapter 1 of Leviticus.
A male without blemish. It was absolutely freely offered. Freely offered. You notice in
the third verse, if his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd,
let him offer a male, that's number one. Without blemish,
that's number two. He shall offer it, number three,
of his own voluntary will. When the worshiper came to present
his burnt offering, he must bring that offering freely and voluntarily
and without reluctance. Out of his own goodwill and favor,
our Lord Jesus came into this world to give his life a ransom
for his people. There was no hesitation. He willingly
and voluntarily became the sacrifice for our sins. He said, nobody
takes my life from me. I lay it down on myself. I got
the power to lay it down. I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. Everything about our Lord's crucifixion,
it's obvious it was all voluntary. Voluntary. He was the willing
sacrifice. the willing sacrifice. At His
birth, He said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. That is to
accomplish God's will of redemption and reconciliation. That's why
when the time was come that He should be received up, it says
in Luke 9.51, He steadfastly set His face toward Jerusalem.
Now here's something else we need to remember. Number four,
where was this mail without blemish freely offered? Well, he brings
it to the door of the tabernacle. That is, when an Israelite wanted
to worship God, he didn't seek to worship God, he didn't seek
to offer the sacrifice in secret, but openly. At the door of the
tabernacle, so that anybody who was walking by would see, there's
a man who's offering a sacrifice unto God. And when our Lord Jesus
offered Himself as the sacrifice unto God that God might be just
and justify the ungodly, when He died as the substitute of
His people, it wasn't done in secret. It wasn't done in a private
way. He died at Passover. Thousands
of people witnessed His death. When the Apostle Paul was speaking
to King Herod, Or King Agrippa. He said, this thing wasn't done
in a corner. It wasn't done in secret. It
was done openly. Number five, I want to point
this out to you. To whom was this offering, this
mail without blemish, brought to the door of the tabernacle?
To whom was it offered? There it says it, before the
Lord. It's for the Lord. The Lord against
whom we've sinned. Christ Jesus died. And He died to satisfy God the
Father's just requirements. It was a death to God. And His death wasn't offered
to Satan. He didn't die for Satan. He didn't
die as some kind of ransom price to the evil one. Nothing is owed
to Satan. The prophet said He died, it's
not offered to us, it's offered to the Father. To the Father,
against whom we've sinned. Nowhere in this book will you
find that the death of Jesus Christ was offered to anybody
other than the Father. The just God. Well, what kind of offering was
Christ Jesus for His people? He was a whole offering. Can
you read down through verses 5 through 9? Everything about
this animal was offered to God except the skin. And I'll talk
about that tonight. Everything was offered to God
except the skin. The Lord said, that priest shall
burn everything upon the altar. Our Lord Jesus offered His entire
self as a sacrifice to God for us. Body and soul. Body and soul. Men punished His body, God punished
His soul. His soul was made an offering
for sin, you read in Isaiah chapter 53. And then here's the last
thing. Of what value was this burnt
offering to the Lord? Well, it says, It was a sweet
savor. A sweet savor. In fact, as you
read down through here, you'll find those words. Look at verse
9, first of all. His inwards and his legs shall
he wash in water, the priest shall burn all on the altar,
to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor
unto the Lord. A sweet savor unto the Lord. The word sweet. It presents the idea of that
which is soothing. That which is restful. To repose. And let me tell you something.
Our God found rest in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That is, His
justice found rest. His justice was soothed. Even
in this offering, there was some sort of temporary rest, because
it says it. In other words, it satisfied
God. It didn't fully satisfy God, but God was pleased with
it. And the worshipper could go on his way knowing, listen,
my offering has been accepted by God, therefore, I'm accepted. I'm accepted. Let me give you
one reference more. Ephesians chapter 5. The book
of Ephesians chapter 5. Look at verse 2. Ephesians 5
verse 2. Walk in love, you followers of
God as dear children. Walk in love as Christ also hath
loved us. and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor."
The justice of God finds rest and repose in the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ. I said our acceptance is totally
dependent upon the acceptance of the offering. Or was the offering
of our Lord Jesus Christ accepted by God? God's own word says,
He smelled a sweet savor. He's accepted. You know how we're
accepted? In the beloved. We're accepted
in the one who's accepted. God accepted him. God accepted
him from old eternity. Because that's when we were entrusted
to Him. And He came and lived and died. He shed His blood to redeem us. And God is satisfied. God accepts
the offering. And therefore, we're accepted.
So you see, everything is dependent upon this. Was the offering accepted? And was the offering of the body
and the soul of our Lord Jesus Christ accepted by God? We know
it was accepted because God raised Him from the dead. And then 40
days later, God took Him home to glory and said, sit here at
my right hand until I make all of your enemies your footstool. How are we accepted? In Christ
Jesus. and in Him only. Well, let's
sing a song.