Now if you wish to follow along,
turn to Leviticus chapter one. Leviticus chapter one. Our subject for this morning
is the burnt offering. And you'll actually find the
beginning truth of the burnt offering, that is at least in
the Levitical, under the Levitical law, you'll find it in Leviticus
chapter one. Verses one through 17, and you
also find it in Leviticus chapter six, verse eight through 13.
But I'm not gonna read all of that subject. I want to read
just a few verses from this text. Chapter one, look at verse seven.
And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire upon the altar,
lay wood and order upon the fire, And that's simple enough. They
had live coals they put on the altar, and they laid the wood
on top of it, and it would catch on fire. And the priests, Aaron's
sons, shall lay the parts, the head, the fat, in order upon
the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar, but
his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water, and the priests
shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering
made by fire. And then this is the phrase.
Of a sweet savor unto the Lord. We find that again in verse 13. Concerning not one of the part,
one of the herd, but one of the flock. There was a lamb or a
goat, whatever it might be. And he shall wash the inwards
and legs with water. The priest shall burn it all
and burn it upon the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering
made by fire of a sweet savor under the Lord. And then we find
that even also said of a turtle dove or a young pigeon. And it
usually had to be at least two of each. And it says according
to that in verse 17, and he shall cleave it with the wings thereof,
but shall not divide it asunder. And the priest shall burn it
upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire. It is
a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire. And then here's
the phrase again, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. Now in chapter
six, we read these words. Chapter six, just two verses
here. This is still talking about the burnt offering. This is the
law of the burnt offering. Verse 12, when the fire upon
the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out,
and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay
the burnt offering in order upon it, and he shall burn thereon
the fat of the peace offerings. So we see these two are connected
together. Now here's what I want you to
see. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never
Go out. And now when I sent my text out
last week, I realized that I'd made a slight mistake when I
gave you the title, because I was quoting directly from the passage
in chapter six, at least the part of the title, but I want
to correct that. Here's my title, The Burnt Offering. The fire
shall never go out. That's what I want to try to
zero in on this morning. The fire shall never go out. Now, do not despair when you
begin to read the book of Leviticus, you begin to see all of these
sacrifices and all of these details of specific things that were
to be used. The priest is even told to take
the ashes of this burnt offering and put them beside the altar.
And he's supposed to have on specific clothes. But before
he even removes those ashes to a clean place, he's supposed
to put on other clothes. And as you begin to read through
the book of Leviticus, it has all of these multiple offerings.
And then it gets into clothing and incense and the building. It's very complex. It's very
complex. But remember this, and I'll try
to illustrate it by the book of the Song of Solomon. Jesus
Christ is the key to all of this. Jesus Christ is the key to understanding
the book of Leviticus. As I stated last week, you read
some of these things and your eyes just begin to gloss over
and your mind begins to wonder, But if you think about this,
if God reminds us of this, this is about Jesus Christ. You read
the book of the Song of Solomon, if you think of it as merely
a love story between a man and a woman, it will be just perplexing. It'll be perplexing. But if you
realize Solomon was not writing about some Shulamite woman he
met. Solomon had many women. There was not just one woman
that Solomon loved. Solomon was writing about Christ
and the church. And that was his real meaning.
That's what he actually meant, but he used this illustration,
this metaphor of King Solomon and the Shulamite woman. You
see, the burnt offering is distinguished as such from other offerings
that are called burned offerings. There were many offerings that
were burned on the altar. Most all of them, not all, but
most all were to some degree or another burned on the altar. Even the meat offering, the KJV
calls it, which was a grain offering, in some cases it was first fruits,
it was vegetables, whatever it might be, it might be wheat or
whatever it was they had there. Our KJV calls it corn, we think
of corn as maize, it wasn't maize, but be that as it may, The Book
of Leviticus distinguishes the burnt offering as such from other
burnt offerings in that all of the burnt offering was to God
only. And many other, the meat offerings,
that is the grain offerings, the drink offerings, many of
the, the priest, Aaron and his sons were allowed to partake
of certain parts of those offerings. and they were burned upon the
same altar as the burnt offering. But this is specifically called
the burnt offering. Many others are called a sweet
saver, but this is a sweet saver to God and God only. That is, this offering, the burnt
offering, was meant for the enjoyment, and I say that with no disrespect
toward God, for the enjoyment of God Almighty. That's what
it was about. You see, three thoughts, I'll give you
three thoughts first. All of these multiple offerings, all
of this complexity, and it is very complex. As I decided to
engage in this, I realized I'm not going to be able to touch
all of it because I can't adequately explain all of it. The problem's
not with the book of God, the problem's with me. But what God
has shown me, I pray he'll enable me to share with you. Now, three
thoughts about all of these offerings, three things, and this is just
the beginning. Number one, the reason there
is all this complexity, all of these multiple offerings, are
for three main reasons. One, it is to show their burdensome
nature. That is, these offerings themselves,
they were very burdensome. These priests were constantly
at work. And others have pointed out,
and rightfully so, there were no chairs inside of that white
linen fence that surrounded that tabernacle. There were no chairs
inside. Because these men were not allowed
to sit down once they entered that front door, because the
work was always to be done. Every morning, burn offerings.
peace offerings, other offerings, sin offerings, trespass offerings,
offerings for ignorance, offerings for willful sin, offerings for
those in authority, offerings for those that are under authority.
And it just goes on and on and on and it is so perplexing. Is it not? And like I said last,
don't get holy on me now. And like you understand it all
and you got, now I understand the Jewish religion. No, most
of the Jews don't even understand the Jewish religion. Peter put
it this way, he calls it a yoke of bondage. That was put around
the neck of the disciples. He said we're not gonna do that
anymore. These things had their place and purpose. And they're
there, they still can teach us some things. But it's not about
those things, it's all about Jesus Christ. Secondly, these
things are so complex and multiple because they're They're there
to remind us of sin and sins. This is exactly what Hebrews
chapter 10 verses one through three says. Every time they offered
a sacrifice, it reminded them they were not perfect. The very
fact that you had to offer it over and over and over and over
again was a constant reminder, I'm not right in God's sight. That's what the book teaches.
Some people say, well, the Bible's so contradictory. No, the Bible's
not contradictory. Our hearts and minds want to
contradict God's word. God's word says, in the Old Testament,
that male children, if they want to be a part of God's covenant
people, should be circumcised. And that's what it teaches. Does
it not? But even then, it shows us that
Abraham was declared righteous before he was ever circumcised.
And Paul picks up on that and says, listen, true circumcision
is not what you do to a male flesh, it's what God does for
the heart. It's what God does for the heart. The Bible's clear. It's our minds
and our hearts that are foggy at best. At best, that's the
second thing. They're so complex and multiple
to remind us of sin and sins. Joe's already touched on that.
Sin's what I am. Sins are what I do because I
am sin. Number three. Number three. It took these many offerings,
these many, overlapping in many cases, overlapping in many cases,
it took these many offerings to depict our Lord's glorious
person and work. One single offering couldn't
have done it. You know what I'm saying? That's why I mean, we
go through the Old Testament, Genesis, Exodus, you see burnt
offerings. You see a few other offerings. But all of a sudden
in Leviticus, it explodes. It explodes. And we have shadow
after shadow after shadow. And I know this. Those in that
day that God had opened their hearts and minds to the truth
of the gospel, they understood these things were shadows. King
David himself said in burnt sacrifices and offerings, thou wouldest
not. He understood that it's a heart work. It's a heart work. It's not going through forms.
So with that being said, let's consider three facets, and I'll
only consider three facets of the burnt offering in detail.
Let me show you what I mean by, there's just three, but there
are many others. Just in the burnt offering, but,
and some people love this one, boy. Chapter one in verse, Three,
it uses the phrase of his own voluntary will. Oh, there we
go, right there's free will in it. Ain't that clear? But wait a
minute, the actual offerer, if you understand the book of Leviticus
correctly, is Jesus Christ himself. He of his own voluntary will
came down to do the Father's will. That's the voluntary will. They'll, we have to be made willing
in the day of his power. He of his own voluntary will.
And we say this, I don't know if it happens just this way,
it's a way of trying to, he struck hands with the father and said,
I will do your will. I am surety for your people.
I will go and suffer in their steads. He's the one with the
own voluntary will. Another one, chapter one of verse
four. and he shall put his hand upon
the head of the burnt offering. You must relate to the burnt
offering. Well, you must. God will have you to lay your
hands upon his burnt offering or you'll perish forever. But
this is not about us. This is about him laying his
hands on me. This is about him laying his
hands on you. If he don't lay his hands on
you first, you will never seek to touch him. Men loved darkness,
not more than light, but rather than light. And they hate the
light. Neither do we by nature come
to the light, lest our evil deeds would be exposed. That's a paraphrase,
but that's what he's talking about. So remember those three
things. But let's consider three facets
of the burnt offering. Number one, the burnt offering
was not particularly an expiating sacrifice for sin. I read one
Bible dictionary that says it was not an expiating sacrifice
for sin. It actually said that. And I
read in verse four again, and he shall put his hand upon the
head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him
to make atonement for him. But I am saying the burden offering
is far more than just expiating sin. That means to put away sin,
to make atonement for you, to reconcile you to God. It's much
more than that. Its main emphasis is for God. And God don't need expiating,
we do. God don't need atoning for, we
do. God don't need to be reconciled,
we do. We do but the burn off in was
not primarily an expiating sacrifice for sin. I'm not saying it was
not expiating but it's only expiating because it was God said I like
that Now maybe if you're not a meat lover like I am this won't
this illustration won't matter to you But I know even right
now I'm hungry And if it wasn't for I know that I'm here to preach
the gospel this morning, I'd quit right now and I'd go to
the store and I'd get me something to eat, I'm hungry. But even
when I'm not real hungry, even if I've had my belly full and
I drive by one of these restaurants, the cooking is fat, juicy, high
cholesterol hamburgers, it's like, oh, I'd eat one now that
would run out my eyes and my ears. You know what I mean? And
there are certain things that we all like, whether, I mean,
I go to the West Virginia State Fair, I hadn't been for a little
while, and they're cooking those roasted ears of corn, they slob
it down in butter, and I smell that cooking, it's like, oh,
that smells good. That's what this is talking about.
This is Jesus Christ to the Father. Let me give you a couple things. It was, as we've already read,
a sweet savor unto the Lord. Now let me tell you, if it's
a sweet savor unto the Lord, you best hope God gives you grace
to taste it or smell it as a sweet savor too. But that's not the
point in the burnt offering. The burnt offering was to smell
good to God. To smell good to God. Secondly,
Christ was a sweet savor in far more than his death. Do you understand
what I'm saying? It's much more than just sin
expiating. It's righteousness established
by man. But that righteousness was established
even before the world was beginning. Proverbs chapter eight. I remember
years ago Earl preaching a message or probably a series of messages
maybe from this passage. This passage in Romans 8 is talking
about wisdom, but this wisdom is personified as a person. And
that is the truth. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of
God. But here's the particular verse
I want us to look at, verse 30. This is this personified wisdom,
this person who's called wisdom, and that's Jesus Christ. This
is what it says about him. Then was I by him, that's even
before the foundation of the world, look at the other verses.
Even before the world was made. Then was I by him, as one brought
up with him, and I was daily his delight. God, smelled his
son back then. And Mason, he was pleased with
that smell. You know what I'm saying? This
was back yonder, Joe. Back yonder. Rejoicing in the
habitable part of his earth. Now that's amazing coming from
a man named Solomon who may not even have known, I don't know
if he even knew about North America and South America. I don't know
if he knew about all the depths of the great seas upon this planet,
but he knew there's only certain places human beings can live.
It's the way it's always been, the way it's always gonna be,
but then here's the thing. Rejoicing, that is Christ rejoicing
in the habitable part of his earth. In my delights, this is
an amazing thing. In my delight, the Father's delight
was with him daily. Think about that. In my delights,
were with the sons of men. Now he is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. Even before the world began,
he knew what we would become in Adam. Do you hear me? He knew what we'd become in Adam.
And anybody who don't, I don't mean, I believe he purposed what
happened in Adam. But he knew without question
what would take place concerning us and Adam. And yet his delights
were still with what? The sons of men. Isn't that amazing? Look, now therefore hearken unto
me. Oh ye children. For blessed are
they that keep my ways. Hear instruction and be wise,
and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth
me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me, findeth
life, and shall obtain favor of the Lord. But he that sinneth
against me wrongeth his own soul. and they that hate me love death. That was true before the world
began. That was true of us and our father Adam and our mother
Eve in the garden. And we just kicked it to the
side. That's what we did. Somebody said I didn't do that,
the book says you did. The book says you did, the book says I
did. See, Christ is eternal sweet saver to God. He didn't become a sweet saver.
He's always, even before the world was made, he's always been
a sweet saver to God. But then, he came into this world,
was made flesh, and as Joe aptly pointed out, there are what men
call, Christophanes. That is, human appearances of
Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. But that was not fixed from that
time. He became flesh when he was born
of Mary the Virgin. Then in his baptism, it says
this. God said this in Matthew chapter three, verse 17. God
the Father recorded this of Jesus Christ. This is my beloved Son,
in whom I am. Am, not will be. Not one day
when he dies on the cross. No, in whom I am well pleased. The fire on the burnt offering
was still going up, Jim. It was still going up. So much
so that at his transfiguration, it goes even further. It plays
off of Proverbs eight, as we've already read. At his transfiguration,
when Matthew, was it Matthew? Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter, James,
and John. And they actually seen Christ
in his original glory. So much so that Joey still had
on regular clothes, but they shone. A fulgence of light. And God spoke from heaven, and
all God said was these words, this is my beloved son, hear
him. He's already said he's pleased
with him. Didn't have to say that again, Joe. He's always
been pleased with him. He said he was pleased with him
for our benefit, not for his own. But he said, this is my
beloved son, you better listen to him. That's what he said,
did he not? So he was a sweet saver unto
God, even at his baptism. He was a sweet saver to God in
his life, his whole life as a man, and his obedient death on the
cross. Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two. And
listen to what the apostle Paul writes concerning Jesus Christ.
And he says this, this is a tall order. He said, let this mine
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. That's saying something
right there. That's saying something right
there. But then look at what I wanna actually get to. Who,
talking about Christ Jesus. Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself
of what? No reputation. He had the right
to come down here and say, I'm God. And visibly show that to
every fallen son and daughter of Adam. But he didn't do that,
did he? What did he do? He hid his glory in that veil
of flesh. And you looked at Jesus of Nazareth,
he was the Christ. He's God Almighty. He's the one
that the Father was still. That smells good. Even though
he had the stink of human sweat under his armpits. Even though
he had dirt probably under his fingernails and his toenails.
Yet he was to God the Father. Now look. Made himself of no reputation,
took upon himself the form of a servant. God Almighty, taking
upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness
of men and being found in fashion as a man. How do I say that? I don't want to be too, he had
to go to the bathroom like the rest of us do. Do you ever think
about that? He had to do the same thing we
do when we eat. Being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself, the only man that ever truly did. We have
to be humble before we ever humble ourselves unto the mighty hand
of God. And humbled himself, this was before he died. This
was before, he was subject unto his parents. His earthly parents,
his stepfather and mother we could say, right? humbled himself,
became obedient unto death, and not just laying down on the bed
and dying. Even the death of the cross. Wherefore? See the burnt offering
going up? See the fire still burning? Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven, of things in earth, and things
under the earth, and that every tongue should confess, and some
places that word is translated swear. Swear that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Everything our Lord did,
even up until his death, was a sweet savor unto the Lord. And I'm not gonna read it, but
go to the book of the Revelation, chapter 21 sometime, verses 22
through 27, in what we call the eternal state, the new heavens
and the new earth. And it says there's no need for
the temple there. Now remember, the tabernacle finally was abolished,
and they set up an actual temple made of stone. but it still had
all of the other stuff that the tabernacle had other than those
coverings of goat skin, badger skin, all of that. Still all
the sacrifices. But in that day, there will be
no temple, plus the lamb is the temple. There ain't gonna be
no need of the moon and the sun. God's gonna be the light of it,
but you know what that light is? The lamb. The lamb. You see, even in the eternal
state, when God wraps this all up, God's still saying, I enjoy the smell of my son. Truly, truly, the fire shall
never go out before the Lord. Sadly, before some, the fire's
never been kindled. It has been kindled, but they
don't see it. They don't see it. And I was the same way for
years. And you were the same way for
years. If you see it now, at one time you couldn't see that
fire. You cared nothing about that fire. And when you smelled
it, you thought, that is burnt flesh. That's just burnt. I see ashes, but that's all you
see. You don't see that fire burning
before the Lord forever. Oh, but when God opens your eyes,
When God gives you eyes to see and a heart to perceive, all
of a sudden you say, what's that? That smells good. You see, God's people, when God
saves a person, they fall in love with Jesus Christ. You hear
what I'm saying? They fall in love with Jesus
Christ. The steakhouse, Never had a good,
pleasant steak like this one. This is the Christ of God. This
is the Christ of God. Number two. Number two. The burnt
offering was for all classes. You could take one of the herd,
that is a cow. You could take one of the flock,
that is possibly a lamb or whatever it was. Or maybe a fowl, just
a little pigeon, a couple of them. Just a couple of pigeons
or turtle does. Now we know this is what it's
talking about because if you go to Leviticus 5 and 7, it talks
about the peace offering you could use if you weren't able
to have a cow, and not everybody could afford a cow. Not everybody
had cattle. Not everybody had sheep. Not
everybody had goats. But it was possible for anyone
to get a hold of a couple turtledoves. Yeah. They're sold for, what
does our Lord say, just a penny. Just a child could have went
out and took off some trash and made a penny or two. Got a couple
turtle dust. What am I talking about? What's
this talking about? You can take it from the herd
or the flock or the fowl. Now, you didn't choose, well,
I've got all kinds of herd, but I'm just gonna use a fowl. God
knows your heart. God knows your heart. God knows
what you really can afford or not, and I meant to use that
word. But it's not really even about that. Our position in this
world and our state compared to other people in this world
never commands or bars us from Christ or to Christ. It just doesn't. His perfections
are found in himself. Whether I view it as one of the
herd or just a couple of pigeons, just a couple of turtledoves.
Think of it, God saved a Mary. A chaste woman. Remember Mary,
his mother? What was she, 16, 17, 18 years
old? Maybe even younger, we don't
know for sure. Here's a chaste woman. Now don't you get mad
at me if you do, it's tough, I don't care. Go find one of
those nowadays. Now there are some around, I'm
not saying they're not. But there are a few hard to find in between.
But God saved a Mary. But he also saved a Mary. that
had seven devils in her. And she wasn't chaste. She wasn't
clean. But Mary, his mother, was no
more qualified for the grace of God than Mary Magdalene. Because
they were both and were all sinners. Sinners. But God has made provision
and accomplished that sweet smell on the person of his son, for
anyone who knows they're a sinner. There are great sinners, and
there are others when you compare that great sinner to themselves,
they're not so bad a sinner, but we're still all sinners.
We're still all sinners. And I didn't even have this in
my notes, but bless God, if I could only live like Joe's message
encourages me to live, I would quit sinning. I would quit sinning,
but I still thank God I'm a sinner. Do you hear what I'm saying?
Now if you don't understand what I'm saying, go get Joe's message
and listen to it. You ought to. It makes me want
to quit sinning, but it makes me glad I'm a sinner. If God
ever gives you a taste of that, you'll understand what I'm talking
about. The burnt offering was for all classes. Did he not say?
Do not the saints say in Revelation 5 verse 9, thou hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of. Now let's get this right. Jesus
Christ didn't come to make redemption possible. He come and redeemed
the people. And he did so in such a thorough
way that they are redeemed and will come out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, nation, people, gender, race, whatever distinction
you want to make. That makes me happy. Because
that lets me know there's hope for me. Because I'm one of that
horde mass of people. Even the Apostle Paul in talking
to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 1, 22-31, he said, you see your
calling, brethren, not many wise men, not many mighty, not many
noble are called. They're just not. God is not
calling many of them. But even them, even them, that
is the wise, the noble, there's still hope there. Is there not?
Because he says not many. He didn't say not any. And I
remember the one queen, she said I thank God for the letter M. I thank God for the letter M
because it says not many. It doesn't say not any. She said
or I'd have no hope. Because she was noble. High bread! She didn't live like you and
I live, folks. I mean, they get up in the morning, they don't
wear their jammies all day long, like you sometimes do on Saturday.
They get up in the morning, they're dressed, well, they even go to
breakfast. And they're dressed to the nines. But thank God it
says not many, it doesn't say not any. And Paul, even speaking
to believers, says that in Christ Jesus, we're all the same. There's
neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, rich or poor, male or female.
Why? Because in Christ Jesus, it's
His smell that matters. Not mine. Now do you hear me? It's His smell. He's the burnt
offering. He's the sweet savor unto the
Lord. You smell yourself? Come on,
smell yourself. I put on deodorant, a little
bit of smellums this morning. I think I'm in pretty good shape
compared to what I was when I first got up this morning. But when God smells me, you know
what he smells? From the top of my head to the
sole of my feet. He smells wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That's nasty, rotting stink. Now who do you want God to be
smelling? You or Christ. And you in Him. You in Him. Outside of Christ, God smells
you. God smells me and He knows what
I am. Number three, the fire of the
burnt offering is the same fire for the fat of the peace offering.
And remember, if you read through Leviticus, if you have read through
it, or if you've read even so far, you find out this truth
in the book of Leviticus. Who gets the fat? God does. God does. No human being, no
fallen son or daughter of Adam ever got the fat. Sometimes they
would give it a whole rump. Herod or his sons would give
it a whole rump, but the fat went to God. The fat on the kidneys,
the fat on the call, the fat is God's. And God told Israel,
you don't eat the fat and you don't eat the blood. That's mine.
That's mine. Isn't that something? And think
that fire. Every morning, Joe, it was rekindled. Every morning. It don't go out. It don't go
out. And that smell is constantly
going up to God. Burnt offering and peace offering,
the fat of it, right there together every morning. Think about it,
fire equals judgment, does it not? But judgment doesn't always
equal condemnatory judgment. It says of Jesus Christ, Peter
said of Jesus Christ, 1 Peter 2, 19 through 25, and he says
this is the way he walked, now he's our example. That's what
it says, that's what it means. But he says this, he committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously. Not just judges to condemn, he
didn't ever judge Christ to condemnation. Never, he was always that, sweet
smell. But think of what our Lord went
through. He was mocked and ridiculed by his own creation. He was called
a drunk. He was called, they insinuated
that he was ill-born. they even would have killed him,
stoned him with stones or pushed him off the precipice of a cliff
had it not been God's sovereign purpose that he wasn't gonna
die till he got to that cross. And yet all of that suffering,
all of that suffering, what did he do? He committed himself to
God in it. And said, Father, I thank thee. What shall I say? Save me from
this cup. Save me from this hour. I'm sorry,
the hour. He said, but for this cause came I unto this hour.
Now you talk about faith. Don Fortner mentioned this just
last Saturday at Dingus. You remember when the disciples
were in that boat, and I mean it was turmoil. They were scared
to death. Where was Jesus Christ at? He
was laying in the back of that boat on a pillow, sleeping. You know why? Because he knew
he wasn't gonna die till he got to Calvary. And if we really
believe God like we ought to, we know I ain't gonna die till
God says so. And if God has said so, I'm going
to die no matter what precautions I take to avoid it. That's not
fatalism, that's faith. That's faith. That's our example. Now, Joe, remember I talked a
little bit about this, but with the heavenly things, better sacrifices,
plural than these. You think it wasn't a sacrifice
for Jesus Christ to come down here in this world in human flesh? Now, not every sacrifice was
a blood sacrifice. Some were meat sacrifices. Some
were drink sacrifices. They all didn't have blood. But
without the shedding of blood, there's never, ever, ever, ever,
ever any remission. Jesus Christ sacrificed himself
for us during his whole life. He endured what he went through
for me and you. But the glory was, the Father
was smelling that and said, this is good. Fire also equals purification. In Hebrews 10, verses four through
14 says, he purified us when he died for us. He did it in
two ways. He sanctified and perfected us.
When he died. When he died. Fire also equals
what? Smoke. And that's the whole point
of the burnt offering. It wasn't to be a blaze that
just all you seen was fire. It is that sweet savor. that
smoke. Now remember, there was fire
and the KGB calls it cloud that followed the children of Israel.
You read it right at the end of Exodus, and we go in now,
Leviticus takes a pause, that fire and cloud was still there
folks. Who was that? That's Jesus Christ. And the
cloud was not these things of moisture we see, it's that smoke
that come up off that fire. Because that smoke, that cloud,
as the KJV puts it, was light to the children of Israel at
night and was darkness to the Egyptians during the night. It
was a fire and the smoke that rolled up off that fire. That's
the cloud. And I can just picture on a man's eye, they begin to
lay these pieces of meat up out of the head and legs. that fire's
burning, and all of a sudden that smoke begins to waft up,
don't it? It's the way it is. And God said
in Titus, that smells good. You see, our smell before God
in ourselves is pure, unadulterated rot. That's what we smell like. We are a stench in God's nostrils,
but Christ isn't. He never has been. Paul Pendleton,
he never will be, ever. If I'm in him, I'm in a safe
place. Am I not? That's why Paul said, I don't
want my own righteousness, the legal kind. I want to be found
in him. I want to be found in his righteousness.
So much so that the apostle Paul put it this way when he was encouraging
us to believe God, to walk rightly, to conduct ourselves as believers
in this world, and he says in Ephesians chapter five, be ye
therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love
as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God. He offered himself for us,
but he doesn't offer himself to us. He offered himself to
God. The burnt offering is exclusively
the property of God's snaws. He likes that. If you're in him,
God likes your smell. You hear me? God likes your smell
in spite of your still present state. Look. and walk in love as Christ also
hath loved us. He'd given us for himself an
offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. Now because of this, turn away
from all this other garbage. Now isn't that what he goes on
to say? The fornication, all uncleanness, covetousness, let
it not be once named among you as becoming saints. Neither filthiness,
nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but
rather do what? Give thanks to God. For this you know, that
no whoremonger, no unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater,
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no
man deceive you with vain words. I believe in grace, so it don't
matter how I live. You on the wrong path, buddy.
You on the wrong path, buddy. Hmm? I'm just, I just don't understand
that you will if God ever shows you how stinky you are. How much
rot you are. You'll say, I'm sick of this.
I'm sick of this. Isn't that what Paul said? No,
Job said, I hate myself. And Paul said, what I hate, I
do it sometimes, but I hate it. Most so-called Christians don't
hate it, they just don't want to get caught at it. Well, that's
the truth. Most so-called Christians don't
hate it, they just don't wanna get called at it. It goes on,
let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things
cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
Be ye not partakers therefore with them. You know what it says? The burnt offering is for God's pleasure. And God
says that's a pleasant aroma. That's a pleasant aroma. Oh God,
I pray that aroma stands for me. And I pray that aroma stands
for you this very day. Father, teach us these things
from your word. May we see that Christ is the
sum and substance of all your word in one avenue or facet or
another. that it's all concerning His
person and His glory. Thank you in Christ's name, amen. Thank you, Joe. I like to burn
off. I like that what he said. He said, yes, you'll be in atonement
for it. But then go on. It's still an
atonement, yeah.