There is but one sacrifice, one mediator, one substitute, one way by which sinners such
as you and I are can and must approach the holy Lord God. Can a preacher, can a sinner,
Really come near God. Dare as a sinner, come to God,
the holy God, God who is a consuming fire. Oh yes. Freely, boldly,
confident, assured of acceptance. If it comes by the blood of God's
own Son. come to God right now, trusting
Jesus Christ the Lord by the blood of his cross, by the merit
of his righteousness, and embrace God Almighty by faith, and be
embraced by him in immutable, free love. God help you to come. Now, that's
my reason for preaching this morning. For the glory of God,
I want us to come to God. Come to God by faith. Come to God and worship. Come to God with the sacrifice
God has ordained for the glory of his name and the everlasting
joy of our souls. Let's turn to Leviticus chapter
six. The title of my message this morning is The Sacrifice
That Could Not Be Eaten. Our text will be verses 24 through
30. And rather than me trying to
give some introduction to the passage, let's just look at these
verses. I want to show you four things.
Number one, in verses 24 and 25, our attention is directed
to the place of the sacrifice. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Speak unto Aaron and to his son, saying, This is the law of the
sin offering. In the place where the burnt
offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before
the Lord. Now look at this. It is most
holy. We saw earlier in this chapter
how that our sacrifices to God, our gifts and offerings brought
to God, our unleavened cakes brought to God, our are themselves
most holy, but they are most holy because they are accepted
of God through the merits of that sacrifice, which is Jesus
Christ our Lord, who is indeed most holy. Everything relating
to the worship of God in the Old Testament, everything relating
to those men and women as they would come to the tabernacle
or to the temple and attempt to worship is marked distinctly
with utter reference. Would to God we'd learn something
about that. Utter reference. During the Mosaic
age, men and women understood if we're going to worship God,
we're going to honor God in our worship. If we're going to worship
God, we're going to show reference for him in our worship. And those
who dared do otherwise, who dared presume upon God's goodness,
who dared think to themselves, well, the tabernacle's always
going to be there, the temple's always going to be there, God'll
accept us any way we come, suffered dire consequences. Ask those
men. God's priest, priest of God's
order, priest of the Aaronic order, priest who had the right
garments and the right clothes because they burned strange fire
before God were consumed like snowballs in a blast furnace
by the fire of God's wrath. There was a man by the name of
Uzziah, great king, great king. When he was young, he was mightily
helped, but when he became strong, Uzziah presumed too much. I fear
for many women who think they have gotten strong. Isaiah dared to go in and burn
incense on God's altar. And Abiathar the priest rebuked
him. He said, this pertaineth not to you. You may be king on
the throne of Israel, but buddy, you got no business in here.
And God struck him with leprosy and he died a leper. mocked God before the altar.
How did they mock God? They didn't sanctify him before
the people. That's what the charge of God
is. Read it for yourself in 1 Samuel. They didn't hallow him. They didn't reverence him. They
showed contempt for him as they went about their priestly services
day after day. And because their father Eli
reproved them not, God killed those two men and took the priesthood
from the house of Eli. David declared after God had
killed Uzzah, the Lord had brought a breach upon the people because
we sought him not after the order. Now I said that because I want
you to understand if God demanded reverence in those days of typical
service, in those days of ceremonial service, in those days of legal
types and shadows, how much more is he to be had in reverence
by us as we worship him in spirit, as we worship him in truth, as
we worship him in Christ in this gospel day. The psalmist said
God is greatly to be feared. in the assembly of the saints,
and he is to be had in reverence of all them that are about him."
Reverence. Reverence. It's one of those words that
we've, it's been used and still used, and hardly anybody has
any idea what it means. Reverence. a sense of being in the presence
of one who is utterly, utterly above us, reverence, respect. As you know, I travel a good
bit and I see everywhere I go just utter contempt for the worship
of God by men and women who are to show utter reverence for God.
People shuffle in and out of services, make all kinds of noise,
yack, yack, carry it on, get up and move in and out during
the services. I know, folks think I'm mean.
I've had folks say it, they'll say it to me, tell other people,
so mean, so mean, so hard. I'll guarantee you, but I am
talking this morning, teaching seventh grade. I'll guarantee
you she wouldn't have somebody bring her babies in, sit in her
classroom while they swallow water around on the floor and
play with baby rattles while you're teaching school. You can't
do it. Why? Because it's called reverence. And that's nothing compared to
this. We're worshiping God. You can't have folks running
in and out and paying attention to anything. Reverence or the
lack of it. Reverence or contempt are displayed
in a lot of ways. Our attitude toward the word
and ordinances of God. Our preparation for divine worship.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine this? I know
people... I hope you know better. I hope
you do. People have the idea somehow
that it really is not too important. Can you imagine anyone daring,
daring to presume to stand in the camp of Israel while this
service is going on and say, this is not worthy of my attention. I've got something more important
to do. Can you imagine? Well, I stayed up late last night. Well, you ought to go to bed.
Well, I had things to do yesterday. You ought to let them undone.
All right. I just take it up with God Almighty. Now I warn you, I warn you, my
friends, the worship of God is not optional. Oh, it is optional. God will be worshiped only by
those who want to worship him. But if there's no want to in
you, hell will be your portion forever. Worship him with reverence. Come to the house of God dressed
like you come to worship God. I go places, I see folks come
sit down and Sweatsuits and shorts and pants, ladies. If you were standing, if you
were coming to meet the President of the United States today, I'll
guarantee you'd be concerned about how you looked. I'm going
to be, man the whole world's going to see me. Damn, I'm going
to stand here with the President. Now don't overdress. Don't underdress. Don't neglect, don't treat this
like you're going to a ball game. Don't treat this like you're
going to a theater. Don't treat this like you're going to just
have a little entertainment. Set your heart to worship God. And in every aspect of what you
do, go about it with seriousness. Now I go places and see women
come to church. Sometimes I see it here. They
don't have enough clothes on to make wadding for a shotgun. Just contempt, contempt. Our attitude in the house of
God ought to be one of reverence, submission to his word, an anxious
desire to hear him, punctuality, coming to, we come to meet God.
He might just meet with us. Every preacher, you don't know
what came up. I've been going after this a
while. I see two things don't come up. How come? Because it's
important. I guarantee you, I guarantee
you, if you had the idea that I had come here as a lawyer representing
a very, very, very, very wealthy man, and the appointed time for
the reading of that man's will is at 10.30 a.m. on Sunday morning,
I guarantee you, If you had any slight suspicion of a notion
that maybe he might have named you in the will, you'd be here
at nine o'clock. Listen to me. I've come here to read the last
will and testament of the son of God. He might just have named
you in that will. He just may have. But he can
wait on me. Let's see. Let's see. It was required that the sacrifice
be brought to him and slain in the place that God required.
It was not enough that the place, that the sacrifice be brought
exactly the same sacrifice God required. It was not enough that
it be brought with a sincere attitude. The sacrifice must
be brought to the specific place and slain in the specific place
that God required. It must be brought before the
Lord to the door of the tabernacle at the altar and slain on the
north side of the altar in exactly the same place as the burnt offering.
And it is specified three times over in the first chapter of
Leviticus. On the north side of the altar, that's where the
sacrifice is to be slain. Well, why all this fuss? Why all the bother? Why all the
closer attention to detail? Why are we so concerned about
about the way we worship God. Why are we so concerned about
the songs we sing? Why are we so concerned about
every aspect of worship? Why is it that nothing is trivial,
nothing is looked at as being just a good time Charlie affair? Now come, read verse 25, the
very last phrase. It's most holy. West Rose Bloom, we've come here
today To do business with the holy Lord God about that, which
is most holy. Now, I'm going to be honest with you.
There is that one and nothing that even begins to compare with
significance to this business of worshiping God in this place. Nothing, nothing, nothing. And that's true wherever God
is worshipped, wherever men proclaim the gospel of his grace. This
is most holy. Other things may be important.
I grant that. Other things may be significant. I grant that. This is most holy. This is it. You see, the sin offering, like
the burnt offering, pointed to Christ. Our Lord Jesus Christ
and his great sacrifice for sin. by whom God has redeemed and
saved his people. It had to be brought to the same
place, killed in the same spot, on the north side of the altar,
as was the burnt offering, because that's the place, the spot. I'm told the very exact spot
of ground on which the Lord Jesus Christ was later crucified. Calvary
was on the north side of Jerusalem, and that's the place where the
sacrifice was to be made. The sacrifice was killed then
on that very spot of ground, made sacred by the blood of our
Savior, not made sacred in the sense that the ground is somehow
become holy, made sacred because of what took place there. The
psalmist said, beautiful situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion on the sides of the north. Merle Hart, that's the
joy of the whole earth. If there's any joy to be had
in this world, it's because of what took place 2,000 years ago,
yonder on the sides of the north of Mount Zion, when Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, was sacrificed for sinners. It was as if the
priest and the worshiper were standing upon the ground where
the Lord Jesus was crucified at the foot of the cross with
those holy women watching him die as he died in their stead. Oh, I would to God we could worship
like that. Come here and stand here today. And with the eye of faith, see
him sacrificing himself for us. It
is as if they stood at the door of heaven with the heavenly host
before God Almighty as the Lord Jesus Christ cries, it is finished,
and with his blood enters into the holy place, having obtained
eternal redemption for us. It is as if they stood here They said, God's about to show us
who he is. Oh, man alive, that'd make this
place come alive, wouldn't it? How come you're going to church
this morning? Where's my buddy Lindsey? He's
teaching Sunday school class down there. He does a pretty
good job. He's an interesting teacher. I've known him for a
long time. Faithful man. How come you're going? God Almighty
is about to show me something else about who He is. I want
to go see Him. I want to go hear about Him.
Maybe He'll give me eyes to behold what I haven't seen before. How
come you go in the house? How come you go in over there?
How come you wanna meet with those people there? Fancy or
pretty or nice or rich or places to go? Nobody who's anybody goes
down there to church. Yeah, there's somebody who's
somebody who does. God Almighty comes down here.
And he makes himself known down here. I think maybe the problem is
most of the time, most of the time, we go to church. And we go to church to hear a
preacher defend the creed, to promote a denomination, to promote
a way, go to church to see friends. Oh, God give me grace to come
here and see. That gives me some Christ is most holy as the sacrifice
required by God, the sacrifice offered by God, and the sacrifice
accepted by God. This is what Isaiah saw when
the Lord God took Lyocles off the altar and purged away his
sin and spoke peace to his heart. And this is what every believer
sees. This is the thing that makes us and our sacrifices worthy
of God. worthy of God. That's sitting back there, I
reckon. You gave your offerings. I don't know. Maybe somebody
came into a lot of money, wrote a check for $10 million. It ain't
worth two cents. It ain't worth two cents before
God Almighty. Oh, but if you came in here and
gave your two cents, Because you love Christ. Because
you're devoted to Christ. Because you believe Christ. His
blood, Bobby Estes makes our two cents worth a heapsot more
than ten million dollars. Makes it worthy of God's acceptance. His blood makes us worthy of
God's smile. His blood makes us worthy of
God's approval. This is what it is to eat and
drink worthily. We eat and drink at the Lord's
table. We eat and drink here as we worship Him. We eat and
drink at this great banqueting table because we believe in the
Son of God and believe in Him. We're worthy of God's smile because
He's worthy. You understand that? We're accepted
in Him. All right, now second, look at
verses 26 and 29. These verses describe the eating
of the sacrifice. The priest that offereth it for
sin shall eat it. In the holy place shall it be
eaten. In the court of the tabernacle of the congregation, verse 29,
all the males among the priests shall eat thereof. It is most
holy. Now there are three things here.
First, substitution is portrayed in the offering made by the priest.
The words, the priest that offereth it for sin might better be translated,
the priest that makes it sin. As the sacrifice was brought
before the door of the tabernacle And the worshipper, the sinner,
came and laid his hands upon the head of the sacrifice. And
the priest accepts the sacrifice and brings the blood of the sacrifice
before God. It is ceremonially accepted as
that which deserved judgment and wrath, because it was made
to be sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when he
went up to Calvary, when he went up to that place by the sides
of the north, the scripture says, his own self, bear our sin in
his own body, owed the tree. Specifically, when he came to
bear the wrath of God, he was made to be sin for us and suffered
the just wrath of God in the room instead of his people. Secondly,
the ending of this sacrifice by God's priest is a picture
of faith feeding upon Christ. and thereby drawing life from
him. Listen to what the master said. My flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. This is that bread
which came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead. You could have all the angels
food there is and still die. But he that eateth this bread,
he that eats me, shall live forever. What's that talking about? It's
not talking about eating the bread and wine at the Lord's
table. Oh no, it's figurative language. Sam, this is what it's
talking about. By faith, we take Christ for
ourselves and receive from him the vital nutrient of life everlasting. By faith we feed upon his blood
and righteousness for ourselves and draw life from him, just
as you draw life from the food you're going to have at lunch
today. Thirdly, this is a picture of communion, the communion believers
have with Christ by faith. Our great God and Savior, who
by himself purged our sins, holds intimate, sweet communion with
those whose sins he's purged away as we feed upon him. The sacrifice was not eaten by
one man alone. Obviously, you're talking about
a big cat. One man is not going to eat all
that, but all the priests who ministered in the sanctuary,
in the court of the sanctuary, all of them, all the males of
the priesthood, ministering in that sanctuary, ate the sacrifice,
and they ate it in the holy place. What's that mean? We all feed
upon the same sacrifice. We all have the same provision
of grace, and that provision is Christ. All God's people are
accepted of God on the same grounds, on the same footing, at the same
inheritance, and live by the same means. The sacrifice was
to be eaten in the holy place, in the court of the tabernacle
of the congregation. This is a picture of believers
feeding upon God's bountiful provision in God's house, at
God's table, by the gospel. I've said this to you so many
times, I wish you'd write it down and don't forget it. The single most important aspect
of every believer's life is the worship of God in the assembly
of his saints. The single most important aspect
of every believer's life. I'll guarantee you, I'll guarantee
you, it is a thermometer by which can be read your spiritual life
as a whole. I guarantee it. I guarantee it. You see, this is the temple of
God. 1 Corinthians 3.16. The Lord God says, you are the
temple of God. And he's not talking about the
individual body of the believer. He deals with that in another
place. He's talking about that local church. Read 1 Corinthians 3.
as we come together in Christ's name. The Lord Jesus says, where
two or three are gathered together, reminding, there am I in the
midst of them. God the Holy Spirit meets with
us, his temple. Sometimes he makes himself known,
sometimes for reasons known only to himself, he hides himself,
but he meets with us. And this is the place where he
feeds his people. He's given his church pastors.
He promised it, after my own heart, Jeremiah 350, who shall
feed you with knowledge and understanding. Now, that's God's promise, David,
and that's God's work. It's not mine. I study and prepare. I labor hard to prepare the meal
for you. But if your feeding depends on
me, You'll go away as empty as when you came in. But if God's
pleased to speak by these lips of clay, this is the place where
he will feed your soul with knowledge and with understanding. Feed
you with bread to carry you through the day. Feed you with bread
to carry you through tomorrow. Feed you with bread to carry
you through the week. And walk in the strength of the
bread for many a day. All right, now look at verse
27 and 28, and see here the demands of the sacrifice. Whatsoever
shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy. And when there
is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt
wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place. But the earthen
vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken. And if it be sodden
in a brass, a brazen pot, it shall both be scoured and rinsed
with water." What an awesome sign. The blood of God's Son is here
dealt with ceremonially, in symbol, in title, as something extraordinary. Extraordinary. Extraordinary. I'd take the blood of an animal,
take a hose, wash it off. Couldn't get it off then. I'd
throw a little something on there, clean it off, off it'd go. This
animal represents one who is God incarnate. The blood of God
himself by which his church is redeemed. It is such a great
picture that even those lifeless, inanimate, physical objects which
came in touch with the blood. Once they had been touched by
the blood, once there was any, any blood on them could not be
used any time again for anything common and ordinary. All who touched the sacrifice
were by the sacrifice made holy. In verse 18 and again in verse
27, whatsoever touches it shall be holy. It wasn't them touching
the sacrifice that made them holy. That wasn't it. That's
not what it's talking about. That's not what it's talking
about. Only those were allowed to touch it who had already been
sanctified and made holy as God's priest. You see, it is not our
touching Christ by faith that makes us holy. Oh, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no. We were sanctified by God the
Father in eternal election. Sanctified by God the Son in
blood redemption. Sanctified by God the Spirit
in the new birth. And being sanctified by God when
God brings us to faith in Christ and we, to Him now, we receive
the blessed experience of acceptance with God through the blood of
the sacrifice. and it is our connection with
the blood. It is not so much our touching
Him as it is Him touching us that makes us holy before God.
We're manifestly made holy as we lay hold of Him, but our holiness
is in Christ alone. Being united to Christ, being
consecrated to God, having touched and having been touched by God's
sacrifice, we now Henceforth and forever are his. You're not your own. You're not
your own. I preach to you, David, like
I do, preach to this congregation like I do. I don't hesitate to
press upon you and me the claims of Christ in the gospel. I don't
hesitate to press upon us the demands of obedience. I don't
hesitate to press upon us the claims of our sovereign Lord,
because we're not our own. You're not yours. You're His.
You're His. You've been bought with a price.
You understand that? You're His. I'm His. He has touched me with His blood. I have no right to use me for
anything common again. No right. The priest's garments, going
about the business of offering sacrifice, were surely going
to be splattered with a little blood. But we're told in this
passage here, that when those garments were splattered with
a little blood, they didn't dare step out of the holy place with
little clothes on. They would have washed them right there
in the labor. You see, the blood of Christ is precious beyond
our highest thought. It is to be reverenced above
all things. But there's more than that here. It won't do you any good to have
the blood sprinkled on your garments. That won't do you any good. It
won't do you any good to clean up the outside. That won't help
a thing. That won't help a thing. People
get the silly notion. Preachers do. And we're all given
to these things. We see what goes on around us.
Man, we live in a world of propagacy, immorality, indecency, homosexuality,
fornication, adultery. Those things are as common in
our day as stepping outside and breathing. drunkenness, dope, prostitution. What do you do? Let's clean it
up. Let's shut down the porno shops. Let's shut down the abortion
clinics. Let's drive the dope dealers out of business. Well,
now listen to me, listen to me. I surely would like to see, I
really would, I'd like to see the sheriff's department, police
department, drive every porno shop in the world out of business.
I'd like to see them shut down every, every place in the world
that sells illegal drugs. I'd like to see them, I'd like
to see them take homosexuality and rid the world of it. I'd
like to see, I'd like to see adultery and fornication brought
to an end right now. But that's not my work, Larry.
That's not my business. The only thing that will help
a man sow is the gospel of God's free grace. I'm not interested
in cleaning up your garments. The blood's got to be sprinkled
on your conscience. The blood's got to be sprinkled
on your heart. The blood's got to be sprinkled on God's altar.
It doesn't make any difference anywhere else. You've got to
be cleaned by him. And if God Almighty ever gets
hold of you by the blood of his darling son, that'll take care of the outside.
That'll take care of the other stuff. The vessels that were
carried, or the vessels that carried the sacrifice, try to
get a picture. Here's the sacrifice being carried
in an earthen pot. or perhaps in a brass pot. And when all the work of the
day is done, you can imagine that earthen pot has absorbed
the blood. It's dirty, smelly, by the end
of a hot summer's day, just rank. It must be smashed to pieces. If it is a pot of brass, then
it must be scoured and cleansed from within, or while it's yet
within the temple or the tabernacle. Now there's a lot of instruction
here, and if I weren't pressed for time, I'm pressed for ability,
so I'll just scratch the surface. First, this tells us that there
was a deficiency in those sacrifices. When the priest got done, when he got done, Serving God
in the holy place with the blood of the sacrifice, with the most
reverence, in the greatest care he could possibly exercise, the
place still stunk. Because the blood of those sacrifices
couldn't make anybody clean. But listen to me. Will you hear
me? There's no deficiency. in the blood of Christ. As song
you say, his blood still reaches deeper than the stain is called. No deficiency. His blood makes
the vilest sinner clean. Look here, his blood avails me. No deficiency. The breaking of
the earthen vessel I'm certain has some reference
to our Lord's holy humanity that had to be crushed beneath the
wrath of God when he was made to be sin for us, crushed to
death. Those broken earthen vessels,
I'm sure also have some reference to 2 Corinthians 4, 7. We have
this treasure, the rich treasure of the gospel. the rich treasure
of Christ crucified in earthen vessels. God takes broken pieces
of clay pots, like the one talking to you, to carry the gospel around
the world. And the treatment of these vessels
portrays and intimates the complete restoration of all things to
the glory of our God. The earthen vessel being that vessel that had absorbed
the blood of the sacrifice must be smashed to pieces. And so this earth which absorbs
the blood of God's darling son could never, like that vessel
could never be used for anything common. This earth shall at last
be made new, consumed by the fire of God's judgment and made
entirely new so that in this earth the Lord God Almighty shall
be glorified as the brazen pot was scoured in the holy place
so this earth must be purged of every remaining drop of sin
by the fire of God's judgment in the last day and he'll make
a new heaven and a new earth and he says this shall be my
holy mountain wherein dwells righteousness and the knowledge
of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea He's
going to make all things new. But then there's another sacrifice.
Look at verse 30. And no sin offering whereof any
of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation
to reconcile with all in the holy place shall be eaten. It shall be burnt with fire.
Now I read that and scratched my head and read that and scratched
my head some more. Everything spoken of here is
treated with the highest reference as it has been throughout the
passage. The blood of the sacrifice of the sin offering has expiated
the transgression. The flesh of the animal has been
sacrificed and is by virtue of the sacrifice made holy. And
as our risen savior was justified in the spirit, as such it's been
eaten in the holy place. But you've got this sacrifice,
this other sacrifice, which was not to be eaten at all by anyone. How come? Because this sacrifice
is for God alone. This is the sacrifice by which
God and man have been reconciled by which God Almighty has put
away the sins of his people. This is the sacrifice by which
God has been satisfied. It's a sacrifice made to God
alone. And it is a sacrifice consumed
totally by the Lord God. It's the sacrifice spoken of
in chapter 16 on the day of atonement, the Paschal Lamb by whom atonement
was made. Or what's the significance of
this statement? That it was not to be eaten.
Turn to Hebrews 13 and I'll show you. Hebrews 13 verse 10. We have an altar. Do you? I've been feasting at an altar.
You? We have an altar, whereof they have no right, no worthiness
to eat, but serve in the tabernacle. That's what we're talking about. For the bodies of those beasts
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin are burned without the Our Lord Jesus Christ, ultimately
in his sacrifice for us, not only did he pour out his life's
blood, but in the totality of his being, was consumed by the
fire of God's holy wrath. Are you sure that's worth talking
about? Read the next line. Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people. Now this is the word skip, that
he might make us holy. with his own blood suffered without
the gate. Christ is that sacrifice by whom
the justice of God has been fully and perfectly satisfied. By whom
the veil has been ripped from top to bottom. By whom sinful, vile, wretched, maggots of the earth, like the
one talking to you and like the ones listening to me, have the
right. That's the word I wanted to use,
the right. The authority! The power! The worthiness to walk right
in to the presence of the holy Lord God with confidence. Don Fortner, what right have
you got here? The sacrifice. What right have you to come into
God's presence? The sacrifice. What right have
you to come and bring your praise to God? The sacrifice. What right
have you to preach to men in the name of God? The sacrifice. What right have you to ask for
God's forgiveness? Sacrifice. What right have you
to expect eternal life? The sacrifice. God consumed it. God accepted it. And I believe
it. I believe it. In the sacrifice. Amen.