we recognize that the entire
volume of Holy Scripture is the Word of God. Every word in the
book is inspired of God. That is, God the Holy Ghost,
by direct intervention, guided the hands of every man writing
the book of God to give us exactly the revelation of Himself in
Holy Scripture. There's not one error in the
book, not one contradiction in the book. Every part of the Bible
is the Word of God. Some folks object to the use
of Bibles that have our Savior's words in red. I personally find
that convenient. But don't ever imagine that because
you read a portion of Scripture that has been given in red rather
than in black ink, that that's more important than another portion.
It isn't. Every word in the book is God's
Word. I have a reason for stressing
that. If I were to ask you what book in the Bible contains more
of God's direct words to man than any other. I mean the words
that God spoke from heaven to a man. What book contains more
than any other? You might be surprised to find
it is the book of Leviticus. Here God has given us a record
first in Genesis of all things in their seed. All the truths
of Scripture you'll find them at least in their seed in the
book of Genesis. In the book of Exodus, you have
a picture of redemption and salvation by the grace of God through the
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Leviticus, the Lord God gives
Moses instruction specifically concerning the Levitical priesthood
and the worship of God, telling us how sinners come to God. If we would come to God, we must
come to God in the way he has prescribed By that one sacrifice,
he has ordained, he has accepted Jesus Christ, the Lord. Now let's
look at Leviticus chapter one, verses one through nine. The
only way a sinner can come to God is by Christ the way. The only door by which we can
come into his presence is Jesus Christ the door. That's the doctrine
of the entire Bible. Now let's look at Leviticus 1,
verses 1-9. And the Lord called unto Moses,
and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye 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 for
him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the bullock
before the Lord. And the priest, Aaron's sons,
shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the
altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into his pieces. And
the sons of Aaron, the priest, shall put fire upon the altar
and lay the wood in order upon the fire. And the priest, Aaron's
sons, shall lay the parts, the head and 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 priest
shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering
made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. If we would worship
God, if we would find acceptance with God, we must come to him. We must worship him in the way
he has prescribed by faith in Jesus Christ. The book of Leviticus
speaks of these sacrifices by which we come to God, the means
by which we come. These 37 chapters are perhaps
the least read portions of Holy Scripture, but they shouldn't
be. Every time you read John chapter 17 in our Lord's high
priestly prayer, you ought to have in the back of your mind
the book of Leviticus. It is all about our high priest,
his sacrifice, his work and our acceptance to God by him and
in him. These 37 chapters are a message
to God as much for us as they were for the children of Israel
when God gave them to Moses long ago. In the Old Testament times,
I'm told that this is the first book the Jews taught their children
to read and understand, much like we now teach children and
young believers to read and understand the book of John or the book
of Romans. I remember in our Greek class,
perhaps it's because John was the easiest book to translate,
but most New Testament Greek classes begin with translating
John. But John's gospel is so full
of material, so needful. And we teach young believers,
read this gospel, understand it. Read the book of Romans.
Here's the core of all gospel truth. So the Old Testament saints
taught their young children to read and understand the book
of Leviticus. The message of the book is very
clear. The Lord God says throughout
the book, ye shall be holy. For I, the Lord your God, am
holy. The word holy appears more often
in these 37 chapters than in any other book in Holy Scripture. God calls us here to be holy,
and he shows us how he makes sinners holy. He calls us to
be holy and shows us how he makes sinners holy. One great distinction
from what you hear from this pulpit or the pulpit of any gospel
preacher and most religious people is that most places they call
for you to be holy and tell you how to make yourself holy. God
calls for you and me to be holy. And he shows us how he makes
sinners holy by his mighty work of grace through the blood atonement
of his son, through the perfect righteousness of his son, through
the gift of his son in the new birth. He gives us in chapters
one through seven specific instructions about specific sacrifices and
offerings by which his people would be allowed to approach
him. in this chapter one, that Moses is given instruction concerning
the burnt offering, showing us our way to God. We come to God
by faith in Christ, who was, as a burnt offering, consumed
by the wrath of God, by the fire of God. But this burnt offering,
unlike any other, by the sacrifice of himself, our Lord Jesus, being
consumed by the fire of God's wrath, utterly consumed the fire
of God's wrath, so that his fury and his wrath, his judgment and
his justice are taken away from us. Then in chapter two, Moses
was given instruction by God about the meat offerings by which
he portrayed the character of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God
man. He who is our substitute is most
holy, most holy unto the Lord like the meat offering. This
speaks of our Lord's consecration to God and of our consecration
to God in him. In chapter three, Moses is taught
to instruct the children of Israel about the peace offerings. Speaking
of Jesus Christ, who is our peace. He who made peace for us. He who's reconciled God and man. He who alone is our peace. And
then in the fourth chapter, Moses tells us about our Lord Jesus
as our sin offering, our substitute. That one who was made sin for
us. that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. I remind you again, especially
if you go through the book of Leviticus, and I encourage you
to read it frequently in the next several months. But as we
go through this book, you'll see those words sin offering
numerous times everywhere in the Old Testament where you see
those two words combined sin offering. Remember what I've
told you many times, there is no corresponding word in the
Hebrew text for sin offering. Not one. Every time those two
words are used together, the word is sin. And God the Holy
Ghost tells us plainly what He intended by the teaching of Scripture
when He speaks of Christ being represented in sin portrayed
in that offering. That's the reason it's called
by our translators a sin offering. It is sin. portrayed in an offering
as Jesus Christ, the offering and sacrifice to God for us,
was made sin for us. The sin offering always speaks
of Christ who was made sin for us, everywhere in the Old Testament.
In fact, when Paul quotes, by divine inspiration, Isaiah 53
10, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he
quotes it just that way. He who knew no sin was made sin. Not a sin offering, made sin.
And when he was made sin, he made an offering to God by which
we're made the righteousness of God in him. And then in chapter
five, the trespass offering is given. And that trespass offering
portrays the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ, that one who
has made sin for us by paying our debt, he has atoned for our
sins and made man and God to be in agreement, reconciled. The word atonement means at one
with. Christ came and made us to be
at one with God by his precious blood atonement. Let me just
show you two things in these nine verses and I will be done
as quickly as possible. First, in Leviticus 1, verses
1 and 2, we see a sinner coming to God. And the Lord called unto
Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them,
If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring
your offering of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock.
The Lord God spoke to Moses that he might speak to the children
of Israel as God's representative. He spoke to Israel through Moses,
thereby teaching them again of the necessity of a mediator. They saw this and expressed it
themselves at Sinai. The Lord spoke on Sinai and they
said, Moses, you go talk to God. We can't talk to him. We've got
to have a mediator. And the Lord God demonstrates
that again and again, reminding the children of Israel constantly,
man must have a mediator, someone to intercede for us, a go-between,
a daysman who can bring God and man together, one accepted of
God, one who comes in human flesh, who brings God and man together
as one. Christ is that mediator. the
one mediator between God and men. The fact that the sinner
comes to the door of the tabernacle with an offering in itself is
a declaration of desperate need. The sinner comes with an offering. Look what he says in verse three.
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. and he shall offer it at the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. Now, I'll say more about this
sin offering later, but for now, let me show you just three things
here. First, the offering was brought to the door of the tabernacle. The altar of brass was right
at the door of the tabernacle. It faced it, and this was the
first thing to meet the eye of the worshiper as he came to God,
this huge altar of brass. Here, the high priest met the
worshiper who brings his sacrifice, and he brings it to the altar.
The object in bringing the sacrifice was that he might get access
to God, who said, I'll meet you on the mercy seat in the Holy
of Holies. The sinner comes bringing a sacrifice to the priest at
this brazen altar right before the door of the tabernacle, and
the priest takes the sacrifice. And the priest puts the blood
on the altar. And the only way the sinner can
come to God whose glory place is represented in that tabernacle
is by that sacrifice. Christ is the sacrifice. the
sacrifice for sin, who alone has opened the door of access
to sinners. And as we come to God, believing
on Christ, we should come to God always with bold confidence. Hold your hands here in Leviticus
and turn again to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. The Lord God by these sacrifices
points to the blood atonement of our Savior and says to needy
sinners, behold, I set before you an open door. An open door
by which we come to God. Now I'm gonna tell you why we
have trouble in prayer, trouble in calling on God, trouble with
assurance, trouble with peace, trouble with ease of conscience
and ease of mind. It is as we look to ourselves
for something to make us accepted with God. The only time you have
trouble coming to God is when you look to yourself to bring
something of your own acceptable to God. When you look out of
self to Christ alone. You tell me what it is to make
you uncomfortable coming to God. Tell me. But look to Christ,
what is there in that man yonder in glory that would make you
think God will not accept him? Coming to God by faith in Christ
is coming to God in Christ, with Christ, trusting Christ and nothing
else. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse
19. Having therefore brethren, look at that word boldness, boldness,
fearlessness. confidence ease of mind full
assurance all of those things are implied there having therefore
brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest
over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in
full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Second,
back here in Leviticus 1, the offering had to be brought by
a man of his own voluntary will. What a strange commandment. What a strange commandment. Not
strange at all. You see, God demands a willing
heart. God will not be worshiped except
by a willing heart. God will not be served except
by a willing heart. God demands a willing heart.
This is the warrant of the gospel. Whosoever will, let him come. There must be a willing heart,
else God is not worshiped, Christ is not trusted, and those who
are not willing to trust Christ, his atoning work, his righteousness,
his person, his power, his grace cannot come to God. It is true,
none are willing to come, none are willing to trust, except
those whom God makes willing by the power of His grace. But
all who come to Him with willing heart have been made willing
by the power of His grace. This is wonderful. Are you willing
to go yonder to the altar? Willing to trust the Lord Jesus? If you reply, yes, pastor, I'm
willing. I'm willing to be saved by Christ
alone. I'm willing to come to Christ. I'm willing to trust Christ.
Then you have been saved by God's grace. He makes sinners willing
and none but he can. Leviticus 1.3 says nothing about
our feelings, our experiences, our knowledge, our worth. It
speaks only of a willing heart. A soul willing to be bathed in
the blood of Christ. God demands a willing heart.
Lindsay, that makes it your responsibility and mine. But only God can give
a willing heart. That makes it altogether the
work of God's grace. You understand this? God requires
that we give him our hearts, and yet we can't and won't do
it. If we come to God with willing heart, he's made us willing in
the day of his power. Third, the offering was brought
for acceptance with God. The phrase, he shall offer it
of his own voluntary will, might be translated this way. He shall
offer it to be accepted. And reading it that way, it refers
specifically to an act of faith. I don't often speak of faith
as an act because most people fail to grasp what I'm saying
and most people automatically look at faith as something they
have done. But Hebrews chapter 11 speaks of great acts of faith. And believers are men and women
who act in faith. We come to God trusting Christ
alone for acceptance with Him. Trusting His blood as our only
atonement. His obedience as our only righteousness. That's an act of faith. We walk
before God day by day, trusting our Redeemer who holds the reins
of the universe in His hands, trusting His providence, His
goodness, His mercy, His will, His power, His promises. That's an act of faith. Yes,
believers live by faith. And living by faith, acting by
faith, we come to God by Christ. We see this stated emphatically
in the fourth verse. The sinner who comes to God trusting
Christ finds acceptance with God in and by the Savior. He shall put his hand upon the
head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him
to make atonement for him. Not only was the worshiper required
to acknowledge his need of a sacrifice to gain acceptance with God,
The worshiper was required personally to identify himself with the
sacrifice. He brings his lamb or he brings
his calf and he puts his hand on the head of that sacrifice.
He presses hard on the head of that sacrifice and thereby identifies
himself with the sacrifice that he's offering. This suggests
a transfer of sin. a transfer of guilt from the
worshiper to the sacrifice the worshiper brings. That's what
happened at Calvary. By a wondrous transfer that no
mind can comprehend and no tongue can explain, God, the Holy Lord
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, transferred sin from his elect
to his son and made his son sin for us. This picture pressing
hard on the head of that sacrifice expresses and portrays the confession
of sin. The believer comes and brings
Christ and he lays his sin before the Lord, confessing his sin. And it declares approbation or
approval of God's ordinance. The sinner comes with all his
guilt and sin. Every sinner who comes to God
comes with all his guilt and sin. That's the only thing you've
got to bring to God, just sin, that's all. And he comes with
all his sin and acknowledges there's only one way God can
receive me. And that's by his son, his sacrifice,
his own gift, Jesus Christ the Lord. And this speaks of faith. The word put has more than we
commonly think about when we think of the meaning of such
a word. It means to lean. to lean. These days sometimes I have to
lean on something to move around, but that's just sort of leaning.
That's what it means to lean. Knock that out from under me
and I'm down. That's what it means to lean. God's people lean
on Christ. We have no stay for our souls
but His Son. We have no prop for our hearts
but his Son. We cannot come to God but by
his Son. Who is this coming up out of
the wilderness? Is that how the Song of Solomon
describes us? Leaning on her beloved. And it shall be accepted
for him to make atonement for him. Glorious gospel. Bring your offering. Lay your
hands on his head, lean on the sacrifice, confessing your sin,
receiving God's Son, and your sacrifice, the Lord Jesus is
accepted for you, for atonement, to make atonement for you. Faith
doesn't make atonement. Faith doesn't give us acceptance
with God. Faith receives what God has done in his Son. By faith in Christ, Romans 511,
we receive the love of God. We receive what God gave us in
his son, the Lord Jesus. This is, I receive this water. I didn't produce it. I didn't
even put it in a glass. All I did is take it. That's
all I did. And faith. receives Christ, takes him. To as many as received him, to
them gave he power, the authority, and the right to be the sons
of God. As is often the case with a lot
of things, two words translated receive in the New Testament.
One means to receive like that glass received water. That glass
received water without doing anything, totally passively. Somebody poured some water in
the glass. The other means to receive just
like this. It means to reach out and take.
And God-given faith personally takes Christ, believes on the
Son of God, and finds acceptance with God and atonement from God
in him. Now, look at the second thing.
Look at verses three and then five through nine. Here is the
sacrifice by which sinners find acceptance with God. Now hear
me well, I repeat myself deliberately. There is but one sacrifice by
which you and I can and must come to God, and that sacrifice
is Jesus Christ, God's own Son, our Redeemer. Look at verse 3. 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. Christ is both our sacrificing
priest and the sacrifice for sin. He is the one who makes
the sacrifice and he is the sacrifice. Look at verse nine. And he shall
kill before the Lord. And the priest Aaron's sons shall
bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the
altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into his pieces. The man who comes got to kill
it, cut it up in pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priest,
shall put fire upon the altar and lay the wood in order upon
the fire. And the priest, Aaron's sons,
shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon the
wood that is on the fire, which is upon the altar. But his inwards,
his intestines and his legs shall he wash in water and the priest
shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice and offering
made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. And let me call
your attention to just a few things. First, everything is
done before the Lord. Everything done before the Lord. Not something done to be seen
by people. Not something done to impress
men. Everything involved in this sacrifice,
in this approach to God, is between the sinner and God. That's all. That's all. And the man who brought
the sacrifice was required to execute the sacrifice. Now, I've
looked at this for a long time today. I called Brother Todd
Nyburn. He and I talked about it a little bit. I don't know what all's involved
in this. On the day of atonement, Aaron
took the sacrifice and slid his throat. But here, bringing this
burnt offering, the sinner who brings the sacrifice is required
personally to slay the sacrifice and cut it up in pieces before
the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. I take this
much from it. Every sinner who comes to God
recognizes his own guilt in the shedding of Christ's blood. You killed him, and I did. You killed him, and I did. That involves certainly the depravity
of our hearts, the enmity of man against God, certainly, but
it involves more than that. It involves substitution. Our
Lord Jesus laid down his life for us, but he could never have
died except to be made sin for us. when he was made Mark Henson
what you are, all that you are. Justice cried for blood. And the sinner who comes to God
by faith acknowledges that it is his sin that put the Lord
to grief and his sin for which the Savior died. Sure never till
my latest breath Can I forget that look? It seemed to charge
me with his death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience
felt and owned the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw
my sins, his blood had spilt and helped to nail him there.
A second look he gave which said, I freely all forgive. This blood
is for thy ransom paid. I die that thou mayest live. The sacrifice spoken of here
is a burnt sacrifice. Consumed by fire. Consumed by fire. And our Lord Jesus was consumed
by the fire of God's holy and just wrath against him when he
was made sin for us. And blessing be God as the fire
on the altar fed on the sacrifice. So the fire of God's wrath fed
on Christ our sacrifice until at last Christ had fully satisfied
the justice of God and he satisfying justice consumed the fire of
God's wrath. The sacrifice God required had
to be a male of the herd. portraying Christ, the last Adam,
the God-man by whom righteousness has been brought in and sin has
been put away. This male of the herd must be
a sacrifice of God's providing, not of man's doing. A sacrifice
that is himself the work of God. We cannot bring God the work
of our hands We bring God the work of his hands, and it must
be without blemish, holy, and without blame. He who is our
Redeemer is the Holy One of God, the Holy One of Israel, that
one who did no sin, who could not sin, who had no sin. He, the Holy One of Israel, is
our Redeemer, that one who's accepted of God as our substitute. is a sacrifice of infinite worth
because this holy man is himself God. And then the sacrifice had
to be killed, verse five, before the Lord. His holy life could
never make atonement for sin. Now hear me well, hear me well. When I say that God cannot do
something, I weigh my words with great care. Lindsay read back in the office,
God is not a man that he should repent. He won't do it. God can't change because he's
God. God cannot lie because he's God. God cannot sin because he's
God. And God Almighty cannot put away
our sins in any way but by the sacrifice of his son. Justice
must be satisfied. holiness must be maintained. God's law must be honored. He said, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. and the only way God could satisfy
His justice and still forgive our sins, the only way He can
by no means clear the guilty and yet forgive iniquity, transgression,
and sin is if He, by the sacrifice of His Son, makes complete atonement,
renders full satisfaction to divine justice. Otherwise, as
Paul said in Galatians chapter two, Christ is dead in vain. If there had been some other
way by which sinners could be saved, Christ died for nothing. This is the only way of acceptance
with God. Killed before the Lord. Our Savior's
death then was God's work. A sacrifice made to God, made
before God, made for God, and made by God. Atonement, redemption,
substitution, salvation is God's work. And the blood of the sacrifice
had to be sprinkled by the priest. The man came and offered the
sacrifice. He killed the sacrifice, but
the priest, not the man, the priest, he alone could sprinkle
the blood. And so it is with us, only Jesus
Christ, our great high priest, could enter in once with his
own blood and obtain eternal redemption for us, sprinkling
his blood at the mercy seat of God, at the very throne of God. And only Jesus Christ, our high
priest, by the power and grace of his spirit, can sprinkle the
conscience and purge our hearts from evil works and guilt and
sin by the power of his spirit. The blood is sprinkled only by
Him who is our Savior and our priest. And then again, we're
told that the sacrifice must be flayed, cut in pieces. This speaks of the believing
sinner's confession and contrition before the Lord. Justice, you
see, requires the complete exposure of our souls. portrayed in the
skinning of the sacrifice. Justice demands the deliberate
slaughter of the criminal. And this hewing of the sacrifice
shows the excruciating torments due us because of our sin. God's sword of justice, like
Abraham's knife, spares not the sacrifice. And everything is
done in divine order. Look at verses 7 and 8. And the
sons of Aaron, the priest, shall put fire upon the altar and lay
the wood in order upon the fire. And the priest, Aaron's sons,
shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon the
wood that is on the fire, which is upon the altar. There's God's
priest, God's sacrifice, God's altar, God's fire, God's altar. And the inwards, the intestines,
the legs of the sacrifice had to be washed. What does that
mean? You can't separate Christ, God's
sacrifice, from his people. And the washing of the animal's
intestines, his legs, speaks of us. Though redeemed by his
precious blood, our sins are atoned by that blood. Yet we
must be washed by his spirit. And that which is called the
washing of water by the word, the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost. And one more passage, verse nine. All of this is a sweet savor
unto the Lord. 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 of a
sweet savor unto the Lord. The whole altar, not, I mean,
the whole sacrifice, not just the blood, but now all that has
been washed, presented all as one sacrifice, laid on the altar,
laid on the wood, laid in order on the altar, and burned upon
the altar by God's priest. And it's a sweet smelling savor Obviously, that's our Redeemer. Paul says so in Ephesians 5,
verse 2. A sacrifice of sweet-smelling
savor to God. But remember, the man is represented
here. The sinner who comes worshiping
God, often the sacrifice is represented here in the head, in the inwards,
and in the legs. He's all burned together. You and I, in Jesus Christ the
Lord, coming to God by faith in His Son, confessing our sin,
acknowledging our corruption, hiding nothing, the Lord God
receives us. Would to God I could communicate
this in such a way that every one of you who believe God could
go out of here dancing in your souls. God receives us as He
receives His Son in the totality of our lives as a sweet savor. A sweet savor. An aroma He loves
to smell. Something that delights Him.
Something that pleases Him well. That's what Claus and Ruth Peterson
are in Jesus Christ the Lord. Something that pleases God well,
always. Amen.