I read a story yesterday about
a little boy, 10 or 11 years old, who had been through a terrible
ordeal when he was about nine, just a couple of years earlier.
And now his younger sister is going through the same difficulty.
and she needed a blood transfusion. The doctor explained to this
little boy that his sister could only be saved, her life could
only be spared if someone who had beaten the disease could
give her his blood and thereby save her life. And since the
boy and the girl had the same rare blood type, he was an ideal
donor. Would you give your blood to
Mary, the doctor asked the little boy. His name was Johnny. He hesitated a moment. And then
his lip began to quiver. But he smiled and said, for my
sister, sure. Soon the two children wheeled
into the operating room. The little girl, Mary, was pale.
thin. Johnny was robust and healthy.
Neither of them said a word, but as they met, the little boy
grinned a little at his sister. The nurse then put the needle
in his arm and then in hers, and his smile faded. He just
watched while his blood passed from him to his sister. And when it was almost done,
In a shaking, quivering voice, he broke the silence in the operating
room, and he said, Doctor, when do I die? And then the doctor understood
why he hesitated and why he quivered, because he thought that by giving
his blood to save his sister, he must die. Now, certainly that
wasn't the case. He did not in actuality have
to die. But he, in a moment of tremendous,
tremendous love, deliberately, purposefully, willingly, gave
his life for the sister he loved. You and I, however, have a condition
far more serious. We have the plague of our hearts
called sin. We have within us death that
will bring us to eternal destruction. And the only cure is not a willing
sacrifice, but a sacrifice. And the Lord Jesus Christ, because
of his great love for his church, His dove, his sister, his love,
his undefiled, because of his great love for those whom he
had taken into union with himself from old eternity, willingly,
voluntarily, deliberately, determined to lay down his life. And in
the fullness of time, 2,000 years ago at Mount Calvary, the Son
of God, the Lord of glory, poured out his life's blood unto death.
that by his death we might have life. It is written, with his
stripes we are healed. He has, by bearing the stripes
of God's wrath unto death, healed us of our soul's plague. He has
healed us of death and given us eternal life. I want us this
morning to look once more at our Savior's great sacrifice,
asking God the Holy Spirit to make it real and effectual to
our hearts. Let's look at Leviticus chapter
1. Leviticus chapter 1. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For God commendeth
his love toward us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Herein is love, not that we loved
God, but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. You'll find my text here in Leviticus
1 verses 10 through 17. Now in this chapter the Lord
God describes the sacrifices of the burnt offerings by which
sinners in those ceremonial days of the legal dispensation under
the Mosaic law in the Old Testament When they drew near to God, they
brought these sacrifices of burnt offerings. They brought these
sacrifices and offered them up as a sweet smelling savor unto
the Lord. The sacrifices were killed, and
by the killing of the sacrifice, the sinners found acceptance
with God. Now understand this. None of
those who worship God in the Old Testament, none of them,
none who truly worship God, none of them, look to those sacrifices
for acceptance with God. That would be base idolatry.
That's what Israel degenerated into when they incorporated with
the worship of God the worship of Baal. That's what happens
when men forget God. They substitute the ritual and
the ceremony for the Savior. But those sacrifices were useful
and instrumental only as they were emblems, types, pictures,
and representations of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and His
great sacrifice for sin. And those who truly worshiped
God in that day, like those who truly worship God today, worshipped
God, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ and his great finished
work of redemption as the Lamb of God, and they trusted him
as he was pictured and represented in these sacrifices. The Lord
God here in verses 1 through 9 gives us instruction concerning
the sacrifice of burnt offerings from among the bullocks. But
in our text this morning, verses 10 through 17, we read about
the sacrifices of the flocks. and the fowls. Now these were
the sacrifices of the poor. These burnt offerings, like all
the sacrifices of the Old Testament, understand this, all the sacrifices,
all the law, all the commandments, in all the scriptures, All the
stories, all the events in the recorded history of Israel in
inspiration. I'm not talking about what Josephus
wrote. I'm not talking about what other historians wrote.
But all the recorded history of Israel in inspiration. Every
event in the Old Testament was designed and recorded specifically
by God, arranged by His purpose, brought to pass by His providence
to point to Jesus Christ and our redemption by Him. Now let's
read verses 10 through 17 together. We'll read verses 10 through
13 first. In these verses, the sacrifices
of the flocks are described by inspiration. These were sacrifices
taken either from among the sheep or the goats. All right, let's
begin reading in verse 10. And if his offering be of the
flocks, namely of the sheep or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice,
he shall bring it a male without blemish, and he shall kill it
on the side of the altar northward before the Lord. and the priest. Now notice the man, the sinner
must bring the animal and the man, the sinner must kill it
because we have crucified the Lord of glory. We nailed him
to the tree. We hung him up to die. We displayed
our enmity against the Son of God. You say I wouldn't have
done it. Oh yes you would. And you who are yet without faith
in Christ, you're trying right now. The rebellion of the sinner,
the denial of faith is nothing but the sinner's enmity against
God saying, No! You've got no right to be God.
The sinner takes him and by his killing the sacrifice, acknowledges
that he himself deserves the wrath of God and that he himself
is that one who has shoved his fist in God's face and attempted
to shove God from his throat. And the priest, Aaron's sons,
shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar. and he
shall cut it into his pieces, the man shall, with his head
and with his fat, and the priest shall lay them in order on the
wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar. But he, the
sinner, shall wash the inwards and the legs with water, and
the priest shall bring it all and burn it upon the altar. It
is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire of a sweet savor
unto the Lord. The victims offered from the
flocks must either be goats or sheep. You cannot help noticing
that there are numerous animals used in the Old Testament to
be representations of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this particular
chapter, there are five used. And as I read that, I sometimes
wonder, why so many? Why so many sacrifices? Why so
many different sacrifices? Well, the answer is quite simple.
No one type could fully represent and portray the person and work
of our Redeemer. And so the Lord God takes a variety
of types and shows us the full picture of redemption a little
bit here, a little bit there, a little bit there, until the
whole thing is set forth in type and in picture. And yet, as John
Gill pointed out, each of these sacrifices were very good and
fit emblems and types of the sinner's substitute, the Lord
Jesus. The bullock or the young ox portrayed both our Redeemer's
strength and his labor for our souls. The sheep, like our Lord,
is harmless, innocent, patient, and meek. The goat is also a
proper picture of our Savior, both because it is stronger than
the sheep and because it is commonly thought, it is commonly thought
to be an unclean animal, a filthy, dirty animal. You get around
them, you won't get away from them if there's more than two
or three around. You just don't want to be around them. Though our Lord Jesus Christ
had no sin, knew no sin, and did no sin. He was commonly thought
to be a sinner and accused of such. He was commonly considered
a vile, reprehensible man. Indeed, he came into this world
in the likeness of sinful flesh and was made to be sin for us,
having our sins imputed to him when he died as our substitute
on the tree. And then the turtle dove, the dove or the young pigeon,
beautifully portray our Savior's meekness, humility, and peace,
as well as the peace that he brings to his people. The offering
from the flocks. could be either from the sheep
or the goats. Now, those who were wealthier
commonly brought rams. You read this in Numbers chapter
7. In Numbers the 7th chapter, all the princes of Israel brought
an ox, a bullock, a young calf to the Lord. Those who were poorer
brought sheep or goats. And the poorest of the people
brought turtle doves or pigeons. There's a reason for that. You
see, God is no respecter of persons. And even in the law, he demonstrates
plainly that he does not pay respect to those things that
men respect. He does not pay respect to those
things that distinguish men among men. Because before God, you
and I don't distinguish ourselves. Oh no, no no. Education will
separate men. A little learning will separate
men. Read a few books, that will separate men. A little money
will separate men. A little property will separate
men. Just what you wear will separate men. Just the way you
talk will separate men. But God Almighty, God Almighty
looks on the human race as one mass of sin. One mass of corruption. And He doesn't respect you. He
doesn't respect you. Before God, there's no dignity
to man. Before God, there's no comeliness
in man. Before God, there's no righteousness
in man. I stress that a little bit because
along the road, I try not to read them too much. I get a little
upset. There's these silly church signs and billboards. I saw one
great big placard about half the size of that back wall back
there sticking up on the highway going into Little Rock the other
day. It said, it said, the church where nobody's ever put down.
Let me tell you something. You better
pray God puts you down. You better pray God puts you
down. Unless God takes you off your high horse, unless God Almighty
strips you naked, unless God Almighty brings you down, unless
God Almighty puts your face in the dust, unless God Almighty
causes you to fall before Him acknowledging your corruption,
your guilt, your depravity, and your sin, you're going to hell
in your pride and arrogance. God must put you down, and the
Word of God does, and faithful men do. We recognize no distinction
among men in Christ Jesus. For in Christ there's neither
Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, learned or unlearned,
rich or poor. But in Christ, all is found in
Christ, for Christ is all and in all. You see, the savior of
the world is equally within the reach of sinners among all people. Our great high priest welcomes
sinners under the broad, wide name. Listen to it. Listen to
it. Here's the name. So am I welcome to come? Him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. What a name. How why the ears of our Aaron
find no sweeter sound, no sound sweeter to the ears of our great
high priest than the sound of a sinner coming to God by him. Oh, him that cometh to me, the
Savior says, I will in no wise cast out. The sacrifices of the
flocks point to our Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. You see, the Lamb stands out
in scripture as the imminent type of Christ. Our Lord is called
the Lamb of God, not the Ram of God, not the Bullock of God,
not the Ox of God, not the Dove of God, but the Lamb of God.
How come? Because the Lamb was the imminent
picture, that which was constantly presented before the people.
Other sacrifices were made. But every morning and every evening,
every daily sacrifice involved a lamb. Every Paschal lamb was
a lamb. That sacrifice offered once a
year for the sins of the people and atonement for the people
was a lamb portraying the Lord Jesus Christ. So that all the
priests of Israel, now listen, all the priests, every day, every
morning, every evening, all of them, every day, Every year in
their monthly sacrifices, in their Sabbath sacrifices, in
Jubilee, the priest of Israel did exactly the same thing that
all God's prophets did throughout all the history of Israel. They
all pointing to the sacrifices they made, said, behold, the
Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world. Oh, behold
Him. Hear me, hear me. Look, look,
Look unto me, the Savior said, and be ye saved all the ends
of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Behold him
now and live forever. These sacrifices were made in
a distinctly described place. Notice verse 11. He shall kill it on the side
of the altar northward before the Lord. Why is that stated? It's not
stated anywhere else. It's not said concerning the
bullock. It's not said concerning the
turtle dove. But here concerning the sacrifice of the flocks,
there's a specific declaration that the animal must be killed
on the side of the altar northward before the Lord. Why is that
distinction made? Reckon what it means. Let's see
if we can find out. Turn to Psalm 48. Psalm 48. Great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his
holiness. Look at verse 2 now. Beautiful
for situation. The joy of the whole earth is
Mount Zion. on the sides of the north, the
city of the great king. The Lord Jesus Christ, our sin
offering, was killed by the priest of Israel in Jerusalem, in Mount
Zion, which is on the sides of the north. Specifically, our
Savior was crucified at Mount Calvary, which is on the northwest
side of Jerusalem. at precisely the same spot where
for hundreds of years the priest in Israel had sacrificed lambs
unto God on the north side of the altar before the Lord. Now
the priest sacrificed the Lamb of God with their own hands as
God sacrifices His Son in the place of His people. Do you see? and stand in awe of the infallible
inerrancy of Holy Scripture. Do not just stand in awe when
you read the Scriptures and see how precisely, I mean detail
after detail, how precisely the types are given, and how precisely
the prophecies are given. Well, Tom Harding reminded you
in his message here a couple of weeks ago, how our Lord, 250 years before Silas was ever born,
250 years before he was born, called him by name and declared
what he would do and exactly how he would do it. Now, I stress
this for a reason, because in our day, folks, Folks like to,
in their brilliance, in their learned expert opinion, look
upon religion and say, religion is all bunk. That's what Albert
Einstein said. I'm sorry, Thomas Edison said,
it's all bunk. All bunk. They like to look at
it and say, this book, it's a book of religious fables, myths. Why? You don't really believe
God gave his word on paper with ink, do you? And in their brilliance
they say this book was just compiled over a period of years by men
who put things together and they got the page together and got
the story together and put it together. It's not really the
word of God. Men who make such statements only display for everyone
to see who has eyes to see. the utter rebellion and enmity
and insolence of their hearts against God Almighty, such is
it that they prefer willful ignorance to the acknowledgement that God
is. They prefer willful ignorance
to just the acknowledgement of God's being, much less his authority. Now, unlike the book in verse
six, There is no requirement that the sheep or the goats be
flayed. You see the flaying of the bullock
portrayed the helplessness of the sinner stripped and naked
without a covering before the Holy Lord God. But the sheep
And the goat are naturally helpless, defenseless animals. And therefore
our attention is here fixed not on the nakedness and helplessness
of the victim, but rather fixed upon the slaughter of the victim.
The slaughter of the victim by the knife, hewing the slain animal
in pieces, making it ready for the fire. And thus when the Lord
God cried awake, O sword, against one that is my fellow, smite
and slay the shepherd, our Savior, the Lamb of God, was pierced
to his very soul, smitten indeed of God, when he was made to be
sin for us, and God Almighty poured out the fire of his holy
wrath upon his son. Now notice this too. You read verses 12 and 13, much
like the preceding verses of this chapter. The priests show
great reverence. Great reverence. The same honor
is given to the sacrifice of the poor as was given to the
sacrifice of the rich. Because the only thing that made
the sacrifices meaningful. Are you listening? The only thing
that made them meaningful. People today, you know, they
We live in this multicultural society, which means a society
with no culture. We live in this society where
everything is right and nothing is wrong and we want to respect
everybody's opinion about everything. Doesn't matter what their opinion
is or where it came from. We have no right, no right to
call into question. Let me tell you something. I
don't care how sincere the man is, If he's offering his child,
brings his child down to an altar before some pagan god, slits
his throat and sets it on fire, you want me to respect that?
You want me to respect that? I respect that just as much as
I respect what's going on across the street down here today. I
respect it just as much as I respect what's going on in every church
in this town today. Just as much. How come? Same stuff. You see,
the sacrifices that these priests offered, the sacrifices these
men brought, were meaningless. It didn't matter how sincere
they were. It didn't matter how devoted they were. It didn't
matter how much the sacrifice cost, or how little. It didn't
matter how many sacrifices they brought. It didn't matter how
solemn the ceremony. Except for one thing! The sacrifice
pointed to Christ the Lord. Now that gives it some meaning.
That gives it some significance. That gives it some importance.
Listen carefully. The sacrifices were very simple
and crystal clear in all the laws pertaining to them. But
we must not allow ourselves to be taken up with the ceremony
and the ritual. It is not the ceremony that made
atonement, but the sacrifice. Did you hear me? It's not the
ceremony that made atonement, but the sacrifice. Understand
what I'm saying. It is not the meekness and humility
of Christ that saves us, but rather the meek and humble Christ. It is not the righteousness of
Christ that saves us, but rather Christ who is our righteousness.
It is not substitution that saves us, but rather Christ our substitute. It is not the sovereignty of
Christ that saves us, but rather Christ our sovereign God. There's
a huge difference. Now understand me, we don't separate
the work of Christ from the person of Christ. But the work of Christ
is not the object of our faith. The person of Christ is the object
of our faith. The work of Christ is not our
savior. Christ is our savior. All right,
now briefly, look with me verses 14 through 17. And here the Holy
Spirit describes the offering of the fowls, the sacrifices
of turtle doves, young pigeons or young doves unto the Lord. And if the burnt sacrifice for
his offering to the Lord be of the fowls, that he shall bring
his offering of the turtle doves or young pigeons, and the priest
shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn
it on the altar, and the blood thereof shall be wrung out, squeezed
out, pressed out at the side of the altar. And he, the sinner,
shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside
the altar on the east part by the place of ashes. 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 of a sweet savor
unto the Lord. I can't give a full exposition
of this. I knew I wouldn't be able to when I started. I'll
have to come back to it another time lest I weary you and fail
to do it justice. But let me show you just the
highlights of what's here revealed. First, the dove. Oh, what a type
of Christ he is. We read in the Song of Solomon,
the flowers appear on earth. The time of singing of birds
has come. The voice of the turtle is heard
in our land. the voice of Christ, the Son
of God, heard in our land. We read his eyes are the eyes
of doves, by rivers of water washed with milk and fitly set.
Like the dove, our Savior is meek and humble, chaste and pure,
tender and peaceful. It was the dove, you will remember,
that came back to the ark with an olive branch in his mouth
and brought it to Noah. That dove proclaimed to Noah
and to his house that the storm of God's wrath was over. and
that the waters of God's wrath had subsided from the earth.
And now God Almighty had remembered His covenant and peace is established. And the Lord Jesus Christ by
the gospel comes and brings us the voice of the turtle dove
in the springtime of grace and proclaims peace to sinners by
the blood of His cross. He declares to us that sin is
gone. Justice is satisfied. Wrath is
over. The storm is ended. God now gives
peace to sinners by the blood of his son. The turtle dove,
the pigeons, were bountiful in the land of Israel. So bountiful,
so bountiful. I really had not noticed this
before, and I should have, but in my reading and studies I didn't
pay much attention to turtle dove. The turtle doves were so
bountiful, so bountiful, and in fact the word that's used
here for turtle dove refers to older doves, older doves. You'd
have a tough time catching a pigeon, have a tough time catching one
unless you're young and fast and smart. But the older dove,
not too hard to catch, because sometimes the older dove begins
to lose its feathers. The turtle dove then, or the
young pigeon could be brought. And they were bountiful in Israel.
So plentiful that anyone, he didn't have to buy it, he didn't
have to buy it, anyone, anyone, young or old, no matter how poor,
no matter how weak, could get hold of a turtle dove and bring
God an offering such as God required. Ah, what a picture that is. The
doves were free for the taking. And the Lord Jesus Christ, our
Redeemer, is a bountiful Redeemer, in whom there is plenteous redemption. He is such a large, bountiful
Savior, that any poor sinner in all the world, yes, you and
me, who has nothing to bring to God, nothing! You say, Pastor,
what can I bring God? I've got nothing. You're the
man I'm looking for. Thank God. I can't do it. You're the one
I'm looking for. In a poor, empty-handed center in all the world, God
Almighty says, Come ye without money and without price and buy
wine for me. Buy the wine of my grace. Buy
the milk and honey of my goodness without money and without price.
Catch hold of the turtle dove and come to God by faith in His
Son. Bring God Almighty, what God
requires, what God provides, what God gives in the hands of
faith. What's that? Jesus Christ the
Lord. And I tell you what you do, I
tell you what you do. You walk out of here this morning, The peace of sin forgiven. The
peace of justice satisfied. The peace of wrath turned away.
The peace of God almighty being just and declaring you just through
the sacrifice of his son. The turtle dove then was slaughtered.
Slaughtered with violence. All the sacrifices were offered
with salt. The priest would ring off his
neck. Ring it off. And then he would squeeze out the life's blood
by the altar. He'd rub it with salt. And then
he'd offer it to the Lord. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
died under the violent, unmitigated wrath and vengeance of God Almighty
when he died as our substitute. And then the sacrifice brought
by this man, the sinner himself takes his hands and tears out
the entrails. That's what's referred to by
the crop with his feathers and he throws it away on a heap of ashes out of the
sight of the Lord eastward. That crop, his entrails, David Peterson, that represents
what you are. Just dung, sin, corruption, waste,
filth. That's all. That's all. And if
you ever come to God, you'll acknowledge it. If you ever come to God, you'll
acknowledge it. But it's been cast away by the
blood of God's darling son, put away! And the believer comes
to God, confessing Christ, and looking to Christ, the sacrifice. He says, bless God. Oh, my filth. It's gone. Gone. Gone forever. The feathers,
well that's his covering. That's what you've been using
to hide from God. That's your goodness. That's your righteousness. I don't care who the sinner is.
You go out here to North Point Training Center, you find rapists
and murderers and thieves and robbers and liars and drug pushers
and dope heads. You go out and find them. Everyone
of them is self-righteous. Everyone of them. I remember Brother Todd
Niber when he first started church over in Lexington. They were
meeting down on North Limestone. One day sitting here at the house
and he said, you know, honestly, Don, when I first went over there,
I thought that'd be a good place to go because surely we wouldn't
run into self-righteous Pharisees there. He said, no, why are those
just self-righteous as anybody else? You see, the thing that
keeps you from God is your righteousness. That's what keeps you. Your sin
doesn't keep you from God. It's not a refusal to acknowledge
you've done wrong. That's not a problem. Nobody's
that good a liar. Nobody's that good a liar. But
your righteousness. Has God stripped Adam and Eve
naked? He gonna strip you naked. Pluck
off all your feathers. That doesn't look so good now,
does it? all God, and cast with his dung upon a heap of ashes,
and cast by that man's own hand. All my righteousness, all my imagined goodness, All that I once thought, surely
this makes me different from somebody else. All that I once
imagined, surely this will cause God to smile on me. This is what
I've done with it. And David Coleman is what I'm
doing with it right now. This is what I'm doing with it
right now. Cast it over here on that pile
of ashes. with the manure of my sin. Cause it's all the same thing.
And now the sacrifice is burned. God says, I'll take that. I'll take that. I'll take that. Will you? I do. That's all by hope. Let's sing There's a Fountain.
There's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. 222.