Let's read together Leviticus
chapter 7, verses 1 through 10. The more I study this book of
Leviticus, the more wondrous it is before my eyes. What marvelous revelations are
here given in the very opening books of the law in the Old Testament
concerning the accomplishments of redemption by our Lord Jesus
Christ. Leviticus 7, verse 1. Likewise,
this is the law of the trespass offering. That is, as I've told
you before, I'm going to tell you again, likewise. He's giving
specific instructions now to the priest who minister in the
holy place. It is most holy. In the place where they kill
the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering. And
the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar, and
he shall offer of it all the fat thereof, the rump and the
fat that covers the inwards, and the two kidneys and the fat
that's on them, which is by the flanks and the call that is above
the liver, with the kidneys it shall he take away. and the priests
shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire
unto the Lord. It is a trespass offering. Every
male among the priests shall eat thereof. It shall be eaten
in the holy place. It is most holy. As the sin offering
is, so is the trespass offering. There's one law for them. The
priest that makes atonement therewith shall have it. And the priest
that offers any man's burnt offering, even the priest shall have to
himself the skin of the burnt offering which he has offered.
And all the meat offering that is baked in the oven, and all
that is dressed in the frying pan, and in the pan shall be
the priest that offers it. And every meat offering mingled
with oil and dry shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much
as another. Now, in these verses, there are
several things that are obvious. Let me give those to you, and
then we'll look more closely at these ten verses. First, understand
this. It is taught throughout the scriptures.
It is illustrated in all the law and in all the sacrifices. Sin brings death and judgment. The wages of sin is death, and
the fact that all things in this world move toward death is a
demonstration of the fact that we are all born in this world,
children of wrath, under the judgment of God, moving toward
that day when we shall finally meet God in judgment and in everlasting
death, unless God intervenes. One of the clearest proofs of
the universal depravity of all men is the fact that the smallest
of babies get sick and die. If there were no such thing as
sin, there'd be no such thing as sickness. If there were no
such thing as sin, there'd be no such thing as death. If there
were no such thing as sin, there'd be no such thing as sorrow in
this world. But sin brings death. It is the result of God's judgment. People ask, do you reckon this
was God's judgment? Of course it is. Of course it
is. We are all by nature under the
judgment of God and we have been ever since Adam lifted his fist
and tried to shove God off the throne in the garden. We were
born under condemnation. We lived in condemnation. and
we shall be forever condemned unless God steps in by mercy
and grace and satisfies his own wrath and judgment. Here's the
second thing. Details are immensely important
in the worship of God. Would to God I could get every
church member, every religious leader, every preacher, every
teacher of religion in every college and university in the
world to understand what I'm trying to tell you here. If we
would worship God, Larry Chris, we must worship God the way he
said. You can't worship him on an altar
of hewn stone. You cannot worship God on an
altar made by your hands. You cannot worship God just any
way you decide you want to. Well, we're going to do this.
We're going to do that. Go to churches and the vast majority,
the vast majority of time effort, energy, money, and care is spent
on figuring out some way to entertain folks while they go to hell so
nobody would be suspicious they're going to hell. Churches give
their constant concentration to trying to make you feel good.
Preachers want to have this program and that. Got to have this for
the children, this for the singles, and this for the divorcees, and
this for the adults, and this for the old folks, and this for
the young folks. What that boy right there needs is the same
thing that man right there needs. Christ crucified. You understand
me? That's exactly right. You don't
need to be entertained on your road to hell. Men and women need
to be taught the gospel of God's grace. There's plenty of entertainment
outside this place. And if we would worship God,
we would worship him the way he has prescribed. We will not
have. I thank God I can speak for this
congregation and speak plainly. And I would do it if I couldn't.
But so long as we who are involved in this work have anything to
do with it, there won't be in this place anything not in this
book. It ain't going to happen. It just ain't going to happen.
I don't care how popular it is. I don't care how out of step
we are with the religious world. I don't care how men look at
it and laugh. I'm telling you, in this place, we're concerned
for God's glory more than we are for your approval. In fact,
man's approval just doesn't matter. Just doesn't matter. Understand this, that which is
given to God, that which is consecrated to God, must be the very best. All children of God, hear me.
In verses three, four, and five, the very best is given to God. You see, God will not have He will not accept our leftovers. Won't happen. Won't happen. Very
often people have things they think they're going to do God
a favor. They've got something they can't use, so give it to
God. Got some clothes I can't use. They're wore out. They're
too small. They're too big. I'll give them to the missionaries.
Send them to the preacher. Keep them. I'm dead set. Keep them. I'm insulted by such
stuff. I'm insulted by it. And you ought
to be. God doesn't ask for your leftovers
and his servants don't either. God Almighty will not receive
your leftovers. It ain't gonna happen. I went
and preached one time in West Virginia years ago, preached
at a church building, nice pretty church building, and it was set
in Merle right back in the cove of a river in the corner of a
lot that stayed flooded all the time. Stayed flooded all the
time. Couldn't raise a frazzling thing
on it. Couldn't raise anything on it. The building sat in the
corner where the railroad, I mean it came down here and circled
around and went right back around. The only place I've ever been
in my life where I had to stop preaching because I couldn't
be heard. Every Sunday morning that thing
comes right around there. Whistle just blowing to beat the band.
Somebody gave God a piece of property to build a church building.
It wasn't fit for anything else, so we'll give it to God. Read
Malachi chapter 4, chapter 1 rather. The Lord God says, you take your
sacrifices, your lame sacrifices, you take your stale bread, you
take your blind and your lame animals and give them to your
governor, see if he'll have them. He said, you have dishonored
my name, you've despised my name. Where have we despised your name?
By the way you come to me with your polluted sacrifices. Now
the religious world may bow and scrape, not God's people, not
God's servants, not God Almighty. If we worship God, we were given
the best we've got. Time, energy, money, whatever
it is. Whatever you bring to God, Bob
Duck, bring the best you got. The best you got. He requires
the first fruits. Well, I'll hold back now. I might not have anything left
over. You might not, but God sure won't
have your leftovers. He won't have them. And understand
this too. Everything and everyone accepted
by God through the merits of Christ is reckoned most holy. Most holy. Through his imputed righteousness,
as he was made to be sin for us, you and I who are born of
God are made to be the very righteousness of God in him. I haven't come close to even
grasping what that is yet, much less preaching it. But we're
declared to be most holy. The Lord God says, bring your
lamb, bring your goat, bring your meat offering, bring your
meal, bring it to me now, bring your turtle dove, bring it. And
that which is brought to me is declared most holy. And you are
declared most holy before God Almighty on the basis of what
that sacrifice represents. Jesus Christ the Lord most holy. Here I stand in the house of
God, in the presence of God, with God Almighty, holy, righteous,
just, and true, looking down on me in His omniscience. in His holiness, in His justice. And God Almighty says this Wretched
Center is most holy. Most holy. Not only that, but
anything I do for Him, no matter how insignificant it may be,
if it's done for Him, if it's done for Him, Anything I do in
his name, any attempt I make at honoring him, doing his will,
whatever it is like this, God says it's most holy. Bring your
sacrifice. Your sacrifice. And God says
your little pigeon is holy. God says your lamb is holy. God
says your ox is holy. God says your calf is holy. God
says your goat is holy. God says your cornbread is holy. Holy! Holy! How come? Because I accept it
through the merits of him who's represented in the sacrifice.
First Peter chapter 2 verse 9. We offer gifts and sacrifices
acceptable and well-pleasing to God by Jesus Christ. So that what we do for Him, He
declares to be perfect. Perfect. What you gave, when
I sit down from a place back there, what you gave, that you
handle it, you want to wash your hands, but it handles sometimes
filthy, that filthy look. You give it, God says it's holy.
You give it for Christ's sake. Give it as unto the Lord with
a willing heart. Give in worship. God says it's holy. I try to
preach to you. My corrupt heart, my corrupt
mind, my thoughts and speech, my weaknesses, my inabilities.
God says it's holy. And you try to listen and learn
and worship God. And your mind wanders a thousand
ways and you recognize your worship so far from being worship that
it's not fit to be called worship. You recognize your best prayers
so far from being a cry of your heart to God it's not fit to
be called a prayer. Your best song is so far from
being a song of praise to God it's not fit to be called praise.
And God Almighty says it's holy. Holy. How come? Because of my
son. You come here in my name. to
worship in my name, worship according to my word, for the glory of
my name, to honor me through the merits of my son, I accept
you and all you do for Christ's sake. We confess his sin. We acknowledge we have done evil
in everything we do. But God says, you've done that
which is lawful and right. God says you've done what's holy.
God says you've done good, because what you've done, I've washed
in the blood of my son, and I've robed in his righteousness, and
I accept you for Christ's sake. Now then, we read these 10 verses,
and as I read them and studied, I thought, man, we've seen all
this before. Everything, virtually everything written in those ten
verses, we see not only once, but several times already in
these seven chapters of Leviticus. And you look at it and you say,
well, this is the way we think. You ever read the scriptures,
you pick it up and say, well, I read that yesterday. And you
skip over it. Don't ever think repetition in
this book is redundant. Don't ever imagine repetition
in this book is by mistake. Oh no. Repetition of something
good is good. Repetition of something needed
is good. Paul said for me to write the
same things to you is not grievous, but for you it's safe. You need
to hear it again. And here the Holy Spirit by divine
inspiration has given Moses not only given him the instructions
again, but said write it down again. Because this is a matter
of immense importance. We're talking about how sinners
can be accepted before God Almighty and honor him in worship. Folks tell me, well we've moved
on to the deep things. You find me something deeper
than that. You find me something more needful
than that. Not only is this of immense importance, but if it
is given by repetition as it is here, by inspiration, then
this instruction, specifically given to the priest, teaches
us that the priest, those who serve God and serve as God's
ministers, must worship him on the same grounds and in the same
way as all his people worship him. You see, these sons of Aaron,
they wore special robes, and they served in a special capacity,
and they were provided with special equipment to serve in their capacity,
and they had their own special place of property in the land
of Israel. But you know what they were?
They were just the sons of Aaron, who was just the son of Adam,
who was just a sinner, and that's all. That's what preachers are. That's what preachers are. God's
servants ever understand this. I have a responsibility as your
pastor. I have a responsibility to you,
to your children, to the community around us. I have a responsibility
I take seriously to live blamelessly before men. That's my responsibility. But please don't expect too much
from me. The men talking to you, same kind of flesh and blood
you are. Same kind. The things you struggle with
in your heart that you wouldn't discuss with anybody, the same
thing goes on in here. Difficulties you have, same difficulties
I have. The trials you have, same trials
I have. We're just in this thing together.
We're in the same boat. Thank God it's a boat called
grace, but we're in the same boat. And we are just sinners
saved by God's grace. What the Holy Spirit is doing
here is requiring the priest to have these special instructions. With regard to these sacrifices,
the Holy Spirit is saying, you who serve in the holy place,
who minister at the altar, you who serve with these holy things
day after day after day, you come to God just like this fellow
does, confessing your sin, trusting my son that you'll know. That's
all. And then the Lord repeats himself. because he loves us. Oh, how he loves us. And he never
tires. He never tires of comforting
our hearts with the blessed knowledge of redemption accomplished in
his darling son. He repeats himself with regard
to these sacrifices because of his infinite, indescribable immeasurable
love for his darling son. And so he shows us picture after
picture, after picture, after picture. Shelby and I are fixing
to go down to the conference in Cherokee. One of the last
things she did, she's packing everything up, one of the last
things she did, but one most surely she did, she got some
pictures. How come? Because she's got some
babies, nobody down there seen yet. And they're going to see
them. You see, they're going to see them. Walk through a night,
you're going to see them. How come? Because I've got pictures
here to show you of somebody dear to my heart. Dear to my
heart. And I want them to be as dear
to your heart as they can be. The Lord God gives us in his
word. And when you read the booklet
for him, he gives us picture after picture. After picture,
after picture, after picture of somebody in whom his soul
delights. He says, I want you to see him.
Look here, look here. Here he is in the trespass of
breath. All right, now there are four
or five things in these 10 verses that clearly set the course.
First, blood. Precious blood. I won't read
the verses again, we'll just pick up portions of it. Down
in verse two, the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about
upon the altar. The holy Lord God is always looking
for blood. And he's gonna have it. You see,
God's offended justice demands death. God's offended justice
demands punishment. And God's looking for blood.
I'm going to get blood, God says. Either yours or somebody's who
will satisfy me. And that one who will satisfy
me is pictured right here. This blood round about upon the
altar. These things were constantly
held before the eyes of men who came to God's house in those
days. We are terrible sinners. Terrible sinners. And God's a great forgiver. That's what makes the worship
of God delightful. You see, the preacher's business
is to expose your sin. My business, Skip Gladfelter,
is to strip from you Every thought of goodness, uprightness, righteousness,
superiority, excellence. Stiff everything there is about
you naturally. Stiff everything you cling to
and expose your sin to you before God Almighty. That's my business. And show you God's sacrifice
so that you walk out of here as a sinner rejoicing in forgiveness.
That's what the whole business of worship is. You come in, and
God shows you His wrath, His holiness, His justice, and God
shows you the satisfaction of justice in the sacrifice of His
Son, and He declares, forgiveness is done by the sacrifice here
displayed. But others, if they dare, speak
lightly of the blood. Let others, if they dare, derive
the preaching of the crucified substitute. All who know and
worship God count the blood of Christ precious. Precious. We're told in verse
one that this offering is most holy. Most holy. Because only one who is most
holy can satisfy the wrath and justice of God for us. The offering
speaks of Christ, the Lamb of God, who is himself intrinsically
holy because he had no sin. He knew no sin. He did no sin. Not only is he personally intrinsically
holy, but our Lord Jesus Christ is representatively holy. Now,
this is what I mean by that. Where's Rose Bourne? If you and
I are in Christ, if God chose us, put us in Him, if we believe
Him, Jesus Christ lived in this world as our covenant, surety,
and representative in perfect holiness before God Almighty. Now the apostle says, follow
peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. He's talking about Christ. Got to have Him. He's
representatively holy. But is that good enough? Will
his holiness stand me in good stead with God? Oh yeah, because
he's infinitely holy. This is not the holiness of a
mere man. This is not the holiness of a mere angel. This is not
the holiness of one of the mere creatures of God. This is the
holiness of a man who is himself God in human flesh. His holiness
is of infinite value before the infinite holy God so that God
himself cannot require more than we offer to him in the sacrifice
of his son. The blood must be shared. The sacrifice must be offered
in the place where they kill the trespass offering. The sacrifice
had to be offered upon God's altar, in God's place, before
God's presence, because the sacrifice is made to God. Not only was
it necessary that Christ live in holiness, not only was it
necessary that he live in righteousness as our representative, it was
absolutely vital for the saving of our souls, Lindsay Campbell,
that he die before God in the holy place. This one who is the
Lord our righteousness was made to be sin for us. And when he was made to be sin,
the justice of God was poured out upon him in unmitigated fury. until justice was gone insofar
as its fury is concerned. Until wrath was gone. Until anger was gone. God has
turned away the fierceness of his anger. He's put away all
his anger because he put away all my sin when he slaughtered
his son in my stead. And the blood had to be sprinkled
round about upon the altar. Isn't it something
how the Holy Spirit uses language? I would have said the blood's
supposed to be sprinkled at the altar. Or the blood's supposed
to be sprinkled around the altar. Or the blood's supposed to be
sprinkled on the altar. But the Holy Spirit says the blood shall
be sprinkled round about, upon the altar. How come? So that everybody can see it.
Blood's everywhere. round about and upon the altar
so that everyone coming as they walk to the house of God see
the blood of God, make the blood of God present through the preaching
of the word that we may walk in your house knowing we're accepted
of God through the sacrifice of your Son. It was the sight
of blood, blood required, blood provided, blood shed, blood accepted
that makes the house of God Delightful to me, he says. The Lord commands his servants,
speak ye comfortably to my people. Speak to their hearts. Comfort ye my people, saith the
Lord. How? Talk about the blood. Show them the blood constantly
in every way you can. Show them Christ crucified so
that they recognize that He is our acceptance with God and we
now draw near to God with full hearts and a full assurance and
full confidence rejoicing in acceptance with Him. And then
in verses 3, 4, and 5, we see the Lord's portion of the sacrifice. the blood was shed. And then
the fat and the rump were burned upon the altar. Now the fat and
the rump were the richest portions of the sacrifice. I know in these
days, you know, everybody's trying their best to eat healthy so
you don't eat any fat or anything close to fat. But the picture
given here, the fat is the richest. the richest portion. If you happen
to drive up my house some evening and it's just about dark and
you get a smell and it's just, man, a lot of somebody's fixing
steaks on the grill. You know what you're smelling?
You're smelling that fat dropping down on that fire. And that's
what gives it the rich flavor. That's what gives it the rich,
rich smell. and the fats burned on the altar
with the rump, because the rump's the choicest cut of the meat.
Because you see, the Lord God demands the best. He demands
Christ the Lord. Not only that, what the Lord
demands is what he gives us. He's given us his The sweet smelling savor of his
burning sacrifice. And the rich, rich, rich sacrifice
of Christ Jesus himself. Can you show us that from the
scriptures? Listen. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and
fatness. And my mouth shall praise thee
with joyful lips. Oh, everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, he that has no money, come ye buy, eat
ye, come buy wine and milk without money, without price. Why do
you spend your money for that which is not bread? How do you
spend your labor for that which will never satisfy you? Hearken
diligently unto me, eat ye that which is good. and let your soul
delight itself in fatness. Delight yourself in the fat sacrifice
of God's own Son by whom justice has been satisfied, the sweet-smelling
savor of which is ever pleasing to God. Oh, may God make it pleasing
to you to satisfy your soul's need. Now look at verse six. Here's the priest portion. Every male among the priests
shall eat thereof. It shall be eaten in the holy
place. It is most holy. Now there's several things here.
Only those who are God's priests serving in God's holy place,
only those who worship God by faith in Christ, to eat of the
altar of Christ Jesus. This is what Paul means in Hebrews
13 when he says we have an altar whereof they have no right to
eat which serves as a tabernacle. Those who think that they can
find Christ at an altar, those who still think that Christ can
be found in material buildings, those who still think that Christ
can be found in a booth somewhere, they have no right to eat at
this altar. We who worship in the Spirit,
we who serve God in the holy place, we call and eat at the
altar, Christ Jesus the Lord. Now don't forget, the fat couldn't
be eaten and the blood couldn't be eaten. Absolutely forget it. Now sometimes
folks look at that and say, there God in the dietary laws of Israel,
he taught you not to eat red meat and not to eat fat. No,
he didn't. That's not what it says. That's
not the intention, that's not the meaning of it. What you talking
about? The sin-atoning blood of Christ,
and the righteousness of Christ, that blood poured out His life,
and His life of obedience offered upon the altar, burned up before
God, the flesh ripped the flesh, cannot be eaten except by faith. That's exactly what law regarding
fat and blood is all about. The only way you can eat his
flesh and drink his blood, the only way you can ever be made
partaker of Christ's righteousness and Christ's atonement is by
faith in him. We don't eat his flesh and drink
his blood when we come to the Lord's table. That's bread and
wine. It symbolizes his flesh and blood. We eat his flesh and
drink his blood, looking to God Almighty, trusting his righteousness
as our only righteousness, his blood as our only atonement,
and say, Christ alone gives me acceptance with God Almighty.
Now I eat his flesh and I drink his blood fast and all. The priest did something symbolically. I wish God would teach me more
about it. You know what that priest did? All the sacrifice except the
fat and the rump and the blood, the priest ate it in the holy
place. And in doing so, Lindsay, Symbolically,
he made his brother's sins to be his own. Bearing the burden of another.
So that he would cry out to God, as Daniel did, we have sinned,
we have done wickedly, we have departed from you. You ever notice how
the men of old prayed like that? They didn't say James Jordan
sure did bad, now we're in trouble. Oh no. We did bad. We said. Because you see, we're
one. We're one. The flesh condemns. The flesh kicks. The flesh gossips. The flesh slanders. The flesh
bites and devours. That's what the flesh does. Grace
teaches men and women to forgive, to associate, and to assume identity
with one another, bearing one another's burdens before God
Almighty, and so fulfilling the law of Christ. Certainly this
is a picture of Christ, our High Priest, who takes our sins, and makes them his own. He said, mine iniquities have
taken hold on me. Isn't that amazing? The son of
God took Don Fortner's sins and said, my iniquities. He said,
my sins are ever before me. They are not hid from me. And in doing so, Peter tells
us, he left us an example that we should follow in his steps. Bearing one another's thoughts,
one another's sins. You know what that kind of puts
me into? You know what it kind of puts me into? That kind of
puts an end to finger-pointing, and judgment, and condemnation,
and gossip, and slander, and bitterness, and wrath, and clamor,
and evil-speaking. Because now we're talking about
me. We're not talking about Merle Harding anymore, we're talking
about Don Quixote. We're not talking about you!
We're talking about me. And I ain't gonna talk too much
about me. I'm not gonna tell you too much about me. Not that
I don't want you to know. bear one another's burdens. And then, there is specific provision
here given for the priest. Verses 8, 9, and 10. God gives
specific instruction with regard to caring for his priest. The
skins of the sacrifice belong to God's priest. There again is our Lord Jesus.
He met Adam and Eve at the gate of Eden, and he killed an animal as a sacrifice for their sins,
pointing to himself. And when he killed the animal,
he took the skins. They belonged to him. They were
his. The skins go to the priest. They're
his. He can do with them whatever
he wants to. They're his. They're his. And the skins of
that slain sacrifice belong to Christ. You know what he did
with them? He gave them away. Gave them
away to a naked, guilty, needy pair called Adam and Eve, first
sinners, and clothed You see, the Lord God has sacrificed his
darling son. And the skins of the sacrifice
belong to him. The skins of the sacrifice are
the white raiment of his righteousness, are the garments of salvation.
They're his! And I tell you what he does,
he gives them away. He gives them away. To everybody
who stands naked before Him. To everybody who needs it. Are you guilty? Do you need righteousness? To stand due in good stead with
God Almighty? Come in. Eat the fatness of the
sacrifice. while he puts on you the garments
of perfection.