How can a sinner, a sinner, that's what you are
and that's what I am, how can a sinner come to God? That's the question I want to
answer in this message. How can I, a guilty, a vile,
loathsome, wretch such as I am, a sinner. Words cannot be found
suitably to describe the vileness and corruption of our hearts
and souls before God Almighty. Men sometimes think that we speak
too bluntly. I can't possibly speak bluntly
enough. Sometimes folks think that language
is just too offensive. Be that as it may, I haven't
yet begun to describe what we are. Sin. Sin. Sin. Now how can we, sinners, come
to God Almighty? the holy, righteous, just, true
God who has sworn and will not repent the soul that sinneth
it shall die. How can we come to God Almighty
and find acceptance with Him? If you're interested I want you
to turn to the book of Leviticus chapter 1 and I'll show you here
in Leviticus 1 how it is that sinners can come to God. Here
we see that there is a way whereby sinners may indeed come to God
and find acceptance with him. Thank God for that, there is
a way. However, and this is vital, it must be understood, it must
be understood. The only way sinners can come
to God, the only way you and I can draw near to God, is by
faith in Jesus Christ the Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, the
one sacrifice God has ordained, God has appointed, God has given,
and God has accepted. There is no acceptance with God
upon any other ground. You cannot find acceptance with
God. You cannot approach God. I cannot
approach God on the footing of our good works. Our works are
not good, no matter how men may commend them. You cannot approach
God on the footing of religious ritualism. You cannot come to
God by coming to an altar at a Baptist church any more than
you can at a Catholic church. You can't come to God by coming
down to the front of this building and going through some kind of
religious incantation any more than you could if you were going
to some stump out in the woods and worshiping at a witch doctor's
altar. You can't come to God by something of that nature.
The only way sinners can come to God is by faith in Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God. Not faith in your imaginations
of who Jesus is. not faith in your thoughts about
who Jesus is, not faith in your concept of Jesus, but faith in
the Christ of God. Now you can't come to God any
other way. You can't come any other way. God will not receive
you any other way. God will not accept you on any
other grounds. And yet he does declare that
if we come to him confessing our sins like the publican of
old, Acknowledging who and what we are. Trusting the merits of
his darling son. He says, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe it. Believe. Not believe
and do believe. Not believe and go believe. Not
believe and say believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. If we confess our sins. He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God
hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now that
language is repeated in churches all over this country all the
time. So winners, or so deceivers as
they ought to be called, Go all over the country making proselytes
to religion and getting folks to quit drinking and cussing
and smoking and chewing and things like that and join the church.
And they do so by reciting verses and say, if you'll just say this,
everything will be alright. To confess Christ is not to just
say, I believe in Jesus. To confess your sin is not merely
to acknowledge that you committed something that was wrong. To
confess your sin is to take sides with God against yourself, acknowledging
what you are. With the mouth, confession is
made unto salvation. The word confession is a very
strong word. It has the implication of a public
agreement with, a public acknowledgement of, a public oneness with the
thing we're saying. So that when we confess Christ,
we stand before God Almighty and acknowledge in the court
of heaven, we're guilty, we deserve your wrath, and there's only
one way we can find acceptance with God, and that's your way.
We can only come to you as you said we could. We can only come
to you on the grounds you said we could come. We can only approach
you through the blood and righteousness of your dear Son. For with the
mouth, or with the heart, men believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth this confession is made unto salvation. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. If you care
to at your leisure sometime, get your concordance and look
up that word call. We read back in the book of Genesis,
men began to call upon the name of the Lord. Well, what's that
mean? It doesn't mean just to say things. That means to worship Him. Worship
Him. If you worship Him, whoever you
are, wherever you are, whatever you are, whatever you've done,
if you worship Him, salvation's yours. Worship Him. Worship Him. You see, salvation
is looking to Christ. Like the Israelites looked to
the brazen serpent, looking to Him, the crucified Lamb of God,
lifted up for the crucifixion of the divine justice for our
sins. Salvation is coming to Christ.
He's able to save to the uttermost all them that come to God by
Him. It's not coming to the preacher.
It's not coming to a priest. It's not coming to an altar.
It's not coming to the baptismal pool. It's coming to Christ.
Coming to Christ. Salvation's leaning on Christ.
Who is this that cometh up out of the wilderness, leaning on
her beloved? Salvation is trusting Him. It's just trusting Him. All those
various words are used to express this thing called faith. How
I pray that God will give you grace to trust Christ. I've known some of you for a
long, long time. You're my family, my friends.
But I don't want you to go to hell clinging to religion and
a profession and an experience. I want you to know Christ. Oh,
how I pray. God may be pleased to grant you
grace right now to come to Christ. to come to God by him. Joseph Hart put it so well, he
said, come ye sinners poor and wretched, weak and wounded, sick
and sore, Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, joined
with power, he's able, he is willing, doubt no more. Come
ye needy, come and welcome, God's free bounty glorify, true belief
and true repentance, every grace that brings you nigh, without
money, without money, come to Jesus Christ and buy. Come to
Him, don't wait. for another second. Come to Him
right where you are. Don't say a word, don't move
a muscle, don't even close your eyes and bow your head. Just
come to Him. Come to Him. That's what it is
to believe Him. That's what it is to worship
Him. That's what it is right now to come to Him. That's what
worship is. That's what faith is. That's
what walking with God is. 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 by Christ the door. This is the
doctrine of the entire Bible. Beginning in Genesis chapter
1, going right through Revelation 22, this is the doctrine of Holy
Scripture. We must come to God by faith
in Jesus Christ alone. Now look with me if you will
at Leviticus chapter 1. This book of Leviticus is one
of the least read books in the Bible. And yet this, that's strange
because this is preeminently the book in the Bible in which
God himself directly speaks. If you read through the book
of Leviticus, you'll find that God himself directly speaks more
often to man in this book than in any other book in the Bible.
Sometimes folks read the book and on the surface it seems to
be that these 27 chapters have no apparent message or relevance
for us today. After all, this is called Leviticus.
That means law of the priesthood. It's all about the functions
of the priest of the Old Testament Levitical order. The whole book
is about Levitical laws, ceremonies, and priestly functions that have
been abolished for more than 2,000 years. What on earth does
that have to do with us? That's the way folks often look
at passages like the book of Leviticus. And that's precisely
my reason for bringing this message and the ones that will follow.
The entire book of Leviticus, listen carefully now, the entire
book of Leviticus is about Christ and God's salvation to sinners
in Christ. That's what it's all about. In
the Old Testament days, the very first book children were taught
to read and study was the book of Leviticus. The Jews taught
their sons and daughters to study this book first. Much like today,
I remember when I was in college and started taking New Testament
Greek, Lindsay had some study in it, and it's almost universal
that this is the case. Whenever you start to do translations
of the New Testament, they begin with the book of John. Because
that's where the ABCs are. That's where the essence of it
is. If you want somebody that says, well, I don't understand
the Bible, where do you start reading? 99.9% of the time, fellas
will say start in John. Read the book of John. Or read
the book of Romans. That's exactly the position the
book of Leviticus was in in the Old Testament. The purpose of
this book is echoed throughout the book. And this is the purpose. God says, be ye holy. That's what God requires. Be
ye holy. He doesn't say do the best you
can to be holy. He doesn't say strive well as
you can to be holy. He doesn't say do good and I'll
accept that for holiness. God says be ye holy. For I the Lord your God am holy. What does God require of men?
Only perfection. That's all. Only holiness. Not an effort of holiness. Not
a measure of holiness. Holiness. Now, holiness is one
of those things that there's not even degrees to it. Either
you're holy or you're not. Either you're righteous or you're
not. Either you are perfect or you're not. God says, Be ye holy,
for I am holy. And that's the message of this
book. For in the book The Lord God tells us how he makes sinners
holy in his Holy Son. That's what it's all about. In the first seven chapters,
the Holy Spirit gives us five offerings, five sacrifices that
are described in the first seven chapters of the book. All of
them speak of Christ. The burnt offering we'll look
at this morning shows us the way to God. The man will come
to God, he must come by Christ, represented in this burnt offering,
by a substitute, one who is consumed by the fire of God's wrath. The
meat offering portrays the Lord Jesus Christ's character as our
Savior, as the God-man in chapter 2. Then in chapter 3, the peace
offering, of course, speaks of Christ, who is our peace. In
chapter 4, the sin offering is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ
as our substitute. And in chapters 5 and 6, the
trespass offering sets before us a picture of Christ, our atonement,
our Lord Jesus Christ, who made atonement for the sins of his
people by paying their debt. That's what's represented in
the trespass offering. I hear the Savior say, Thy strength
indeed is small, child of weakness, watch and pray, find in me your
all in all. Jesus paid it all. All the dead I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it. He blotted it out. White as snow. White as snow.
All right, now let me show you just two things in Leviticus
chapter 1, verses 1 through 9. We'll read the text as we move
along. First, in verses 1 through 4, here is a sinner coming to
God. That's the first point. A sinner
coming to God. And the Lord called unto Moses
and spoke unto him. How come? Why didn't he just
go over here and start talking to these Jews? He called Moses
and spoke to Moses and said to Moses you speak to the people.
So as to teach them their need of a mediator. It is as though
the Lord God said no sinner can see my face or hear my voice.
But by a mediator I will not speak to nor will I be spoken
to by any man except through a mediator. So the Lord calls
Moses who received the law as a mediator to give it to Israel
and God says Moses you go speak to the people. And the people
themselves acknowledge the need of a mediator. When Moses and
Ammar signed out, they said, Moses, you go talk to God. Don't
let God speak to us, you go talk to him and come back and tell
us what he says. And that's what Christ Jesus is. There is one
mediator, just one, between God and me and the man, Christ Jesus. The Lord spoke to Moses out of
the tabernacle, the place where God said he would meet men, the
tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children
of Israel, and say unto them, If any man of you, now underscore
those words, they're important. If any man of you bring an offering
unto the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the cattle,
even of the herd, and of the flock. And the fact is, that
sinner who comes to the door of the tabernacle with an offering,
is by that very act making a declaration of desperate need. You see, only
a sinner needs a sacrifice. Only a sinner needs a mediator. Only a sinner needs a substitute. Only a sinner needs to make some
kind of an appeasement by which he's accepted of God. Now, all
men acknowledge to some degree their sin. They, you know, they
acknowledge they've made some mistakes, and they acknowledge
they've done some wrong, and they acknowledge they're not
perfect. You know, none of us are. That's not what I'm talking
about. I'm talking about a man who sees
that God Almighty, in his holy place, must Send me to hell unless
somehow his wrath and justice can be satisfied, his law can
be honored and him still forgive my sin. So I bring him a sacrifice,
acknowledging my need because I'm a sinner. I've got to have
someone to bear the wrath of God for me. I've got to have
someone to satisfy the justice of God for me. I've got to have
someone to put me in good stead with God Almighty because I can't
do it myself. So I come to Him acknowledging
my need of Him, my need of a substitute, not the righteous, not the righteous
sinners Jesus came to call. There's nothing on this earth,
there's nothing on this earth you ought to fear. like self-righteousness. Nothing. Nothing. There's no contamination like
the contamination of self-righteousness. No evil like the evil of self-righteousness. You see, your sin will never
keep you from God. It won't do it. It'll drive you
to Him. It's your righteousness that
keeps you from it. The man who comes with a sacrifice comes
acknowledging, I am sin! God, be merciful to me, the sinner. If his offering be a burnt offering
of the herd, verse 3, let him offer a male without blemish.
And I'll say more about that in a moment. He shall offer it,
look at it now, of his own voluntary will. at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation before the Lord. Now there's three things
here. First, the offering must be brought to the door of the
tabernacle before the Lord. As you read through these seven
chapters, you'll see that everything is done before the Lord, before
the Lord, before the Lord, before the Lord. Oh, there's a sermon
in that and I may preach it. If you worship God, you worship
before the Lord, not before me. If you serve God, you serve before
the Lord, not before me. If you would come and do business
with God, you do business before the Lord, not before men, before
the Lord. And it's brought to the door
of the tabernacle. The door between God and man
has been shut by reason of sin. By reason of offended justice,
by reason of God's holiness being attacked by man, the door has
been shut, barred and sealed and no man can enter in except
by a sacrifice. And so if a man will bring an
offering to the Lord, he must bring a sacrifice to the door
of the tabernacle. And the Lord Jesus Christ, our
sacrifice and our door, now having opened the door, says, Behold,
I set before you an open door. The door's open. Come on to God.
The door's open. Open by Christ the Lord. Secondly,
the offering had to be brought by a person of his own voluntary
will. Oh, now how are you sovereign
grace preachers going to handle that? Just like it says. If you
come to God, you're going to have to come because you want
to. That's it. Nobody's going to
drag you. Nobody's going to force you.
Nobody's going to break your neck and make you come. Oh, no, no, no. Now, it's
true. You will never be willing to
come unless he graciously makes you willing. But willing you
must be. You see, God will not receive
anything that is not done with a willing heart. All the soldiers
in Christ's army are volunteers. They're willing soldiers. All
who give, give with a willing heart, or their gifts are meaningless.
All who worship, worship with a willing heart, or their worship
is just pretense. All who come to Christ, come
with a willing heart. Now, listen, listen. The warrant
of the gospel is just this, any man I don't qualify for much, but
I qualify there. I'm one of those, any man, whosoever
will and come and take of the water of life. Is any man thirsty? That's the language of scripture,
isn't it? Do you want Christ? Is there in your soul, in the
depths of your heart, a need, a desire, a yearning, a pining
to be bathed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, saved by
his grace, accepted in him? If there is, God did that. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. God requires that you come to
him, and come to him voluntarily. of your own voluntary will. That makes this your responsibility. You must come. He bid you come. He calls you come. He commands
you to come. That's your warrant for coming.
God said come. God said come. That's all. But
this also is a declaration of God's free sovereign grace. You
will not come except he draw you. draw you. No man came coming to me except
the father which has sent me, draw him. People look at that
and say well that means that you know God tugs at your heart
and he pulls and he pleads and he oh won't you come. No. Now some of you folks know
what it is to live in the country back before everybody had running
water. I used to go visit my great aunt and grandmother and
they had a well. And they'd send me, I'd say,
Don, go draw some water. You know, I never once, I mean,
when I was that, well I never was that high, when I was that
high, I never once imagined they meant for me to go out over the
mouth of the whale and say, water, water, water, please come get
up here in my bucket, I want to take you inside. Then they'd
check me into the funny farm, even as a kid. No, no, what's
wrong? Go out to the well, drop the
bucket down to bring some water home. That's what it means to
draw water. And when God the Holy Spirit comes to draw sinners,
He puts the pail of His grace in your heart and draws you to
Christ and makes you willing to come. Not conquering by the
power of omnipotence, oh no. Conquering by the power of omnipotent
grace. Not by twisting your arm, by
melting your heart. Not by forcing you to do what
you don't want to do, but by forcing you to want what you
would not want otherwise. That's called grace. Here's the
third thing. Those same words, he shall offer
it of his own voluntary will. It might better be translated,
he shall offer it in order to be accepted. So the third thing
here is that the offering was brought for acceptance with God. If a man comes to God, let him
bring an offering. Let him bring it to the door
of the tabernacle before the Lord. And as he brings the offering,
let him bring it because he wants God. He wants Him! and let him bring it to be accepted
of God. Now this is what I do with Jesus
Christ right now. Are you listening to me? I've
had some experiences and I thank God for the experiences I've
had of his grace. I've had some high times and
some delightful times in worship with my God. But I forget every
bit of that. Yesterday's insignificant. I
don't care how good it was. Don't go back to yesterday for
your assurance. Don't go back to some religious
experience where I will say, I'm saying because I know I...
Oh, no, no, no, no. This is what I do. Merle Hart,
this senator, is coming to God with his own voluntary will. Oh, because I want it. Give me
Christ or else I die. I've got to have Him. I've got
to have Him. I'm coming to God with an offering
before Him for acceptance. Lord God, here I am, this center,
this center, with Your Son in these hands of faith. Take Him
and take me. And that's what it is to believe
on Christ. The sinner who comes to God,
trusting Christ, finds acceptance with Him. Look at verse 4. 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. Not only was the worshiper required
to acknowledge his need of a sacrifice to gain acceptance with God,
He must personally identify himself with the sacrifice. He lays his
hand upon the head of the ram, upon the head of the cat, and
presses his hands on his head. And by doing so, confesses his
sin over the head of that ram, over the head of that cat, and
acknowledges his sin. He identifies himself with the
ram so as to symbolically and ceremonially make himself and
the ram to be one. And he brings the ram for an
offering and God says it shall be accepted for him. Christ, the lamb of God, Slain
from the foundation of the world, has been accepted, Bob Duff,
for you. Bring him to God, God will accept
him every time. He has accepted him, and he does
accept him, and he will accept him. Now listen, and we are accepted
of God for Christ. Can't divide this one who brings
the sacrifice and lays his hands on the head of the sacrifice
from the sacrifice. We are one with him. Now, our
acceptance with God is not achieved by us laying our hands on Christ. Our acceptance with God is not
achieved by us believing Christ. Oh no, no, our acceptance with
God, our atonement was made when Christ died as our substitute.
But by laying our hands of faith on the substitute, we receive
from God this word of acceptance. Believe on the Son of God, and
I'll tell you what God does for you. I'll tell you what He'll
do for you. Look to Christ right now, and I'll tell you exactly
what will happen. Something never happened to you in your life.
Look to Him right now, O sons and daughters of God Almighty,
sinners, needy sinners, look to Christ right now, and God
Almighty will look on you in Christ and He'll smile at you. He'll smile at you with approval,
with acceptance. Heaven smiles, let the world
frown. Heaven smiles at me, let me and
do what they will. Heaven smiles at me, I'm accepted
in Christ. Now then, look at verse 5. Here
is the sacrifice by which sinners find acceptance with God. This
is the second thing. Now hear me well. There is but
one sacrifice by which you and I can and must come to God. That sacrifice is the Lord Jesus
Christ, God's own dear son. In verse 3 we read that if his
offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a
male without blemish. Look at verse 5. And he shall
kill the bullock before the Lord. Now look at that. He shall kill
it. The man. The man shall kill it.
What? The man shall kill it. Because
anybody and everybody, anything and everything is used of God
to execute wrath. The whole world, the whole creation
will execute God's wrath upon men. Every man. Men perish in hell and in hell
men will torment one another, tormentors of God. Tormentors
of God. Your conscience will torment
you. The memory of everything you've ever experienced will
torment you. For ever and ever, tormentors from God! He shall
slay the Lamb. But only the priest can sprinkle
the blood. Only the priest can bring the
blood before the Lord. Only the priest can bring the
blood to the altar. Only the priest can sprinkle
it round about. Because only through Christ God's
priest is atonement made and mercy given to sinners. He brings
the sacrifice, verse 5. And the priest Aaron's sons shall
bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the
altar. And that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And he shall flay, the man shall flay, the burnt offering, and
cut it into his pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priests,
shall put fire upon the altar, and lay the wood in order upon
the fire. And the priest, Aaron's son,
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, the man, wash in water. 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. Now what on earth
does all that mean? Here's the sacrifice. First,
the sacrifice by which we come to God is a burnt offering. It's a sacrifice on which falls
the fire of God's wrath and consumes the sacrifice. That fire which
stood before the tabernacle, before the door of the tabernacle,
when the sacrifice was put on the altar, falls down and consumes
the sacrifice. And when Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, was made to be sin for us, Justice found sin on God's
darling son, and the fire of God's wrath fell on him and consumed
him. But hang on, here's one sacrifice
different from all the others. This burnt offering, Jesus Christ
the Lord consumed the fire that consumed him. So that there is
no more fire of judgment against those for whom Christ died. Number
two, The sacrifice had to be a male of the herd. This portrays our Lord Jesus
Christ, the second Adam, the God-man by whom righteousness
has been brought in and by whom sin has been put away. He is
a sacrifice from among the herds, from among the cattle. He's the
kind of sacrifice Abel brought, sacrifice that God provides,
not the sacrifice like Cain that man makes. Three, he's a sacrifice
without blemish. If the Lord Jesus Christ would
put away sin, he must himself be holy. He who undertakes to
make Bobby Estes holy before God must himself be holy. He's the holy God and he's the
holy man and he took the place of this sinful man and makes
him holy before God. He died for the unjust that he
might bring us to God. He was made to be sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He is then killed
before the Lord. Pay absolutely no attention to
those who would suggest to you that there is no penal aspect
to the atonement. that substitution, this doctrine
of penal substitution, is a morbid legal doctrine. Pay no attention
to those who suggest to you that the death of Christ, like his
life, was just an example which he sets before men. Now do not
fail to understand, our Lord Jesus, in his life and in his
death, gives us a noble, glorious example of holiness, faith, and
faithfulness to follow while we live in this world. But a
holy life wouldn't atone for anybody's sin. Obedience wouldn't
make up for anybody's disobedience. His fulfilling the will of God
in his life would not put away any sin. The sacrifice has got
to be killed. The lamb must be slain. Jesus
Christ the Son of God must die for without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sins. Our Savior's death is before
the Lord. You see, atonement is God's work. Man doesn't put his hands in
this thing. This is God's work. Christ died by God's hand. He died by God's will. He died
to God, for God, and is accepted of God. He died by God as our
substitute. And the work was accomplished
then and there when he died before the Lord. This silly religious
age of religious spiritual ignorance. The most ignorant society spiritually. The most ignorant society religiously
that's ever existed on this earth. Just turn on television and radio
and listen to these fellas popping off. Where'd you get that? What's he reading? I wonder what
they're smoking. Ignorant. Ignorant. People have
the idea that somehow Jesus sort of made it possible for sinners
to be saved. He died to make it possible for
you to be redeemed. He died to make it possible for
you to have atonement. He died to make it possible for
you to be justified. He didn't die to make anything
possible. He died to do something. with
his own blood he entered in once into the holy place." What does
scripture say? Having obtained eternal redemption for us. You
do not by your faith make the death of Christ anything. You
do not, by your faith, make the work of God anything. You do
not, by your faith, cause God to do anything. The Lord God
Almighty, in the sacrifice of His Son, has redeemed a people. And the work that was done yonder
at Calvary 2,000 years ago, that work is the cause of your faith. That work is the cause of your
believing. That work is the guarantee that
somebody's going to trust His Son. And then the blood of the
sacrifice must be sprinkled by God's priest. With his own blood he entered
into heaven, sprinkled blood, that's blood applied, and he
obtained eternal redemption for us. That's redemption accomplished. And then one day in the power
of his grace, he comes with the word of his grace, and he reveals
in your heart who he is and what he's done by the power of his
spirit and he gives you eyes to behold him. He gives you faith
to believe him and Bobby sprinkles the blood on your conscience
and that's redemption applied. That's what he's talking about
here. And then we're told in verse 6 that the sacrifice must
be flayed and cut in pieces. And this is what the man must
do with it. The sinner takes the sacrifice and peels off the
skin and takes the cleaver and cuts it in pieces. It's talking
about confession and contrition before God. You see, justice
requires the complete exposure of our souls. Adam and Eve put on their little
fig leaf, that's what you're wearing, that's how you're hiding
from God, thank you. That's what you use to kind of
soothe your conscience, so let's get me back. If you ever come to God, not
only will he take his hand and strip off the fig leaf, Wes,
He'll make us willing to strip off everything. God, here I am. You were talking about confessing
sin to each other a little bit ago, if I have. Just suppose
maybe I did do something wrong. No, no, no, no. And the bones which he has broken, Now before him in contrition. And then everything relating
to this sacrifice is done by divine order. Look at verse 7.
The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire upon the altar,
lay wood in order upon the fire. And the priest, Aaron's son,
shall lay the parts, the head and the fat in order upon the
wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar. God's priest,
God's sacrifice, God's altar, God's fire, God's order, everything
done as God prescribes. And then the end words, the intestines
in the legs of the sacrifice had to be washed. Now I'll tell
you what, I have looked this over so many times in the last
two or three months and I scratched my head and mulled it over and
prayed and scratched my head some more and I just couldn't
figure it out. What on earth is this talking about? Until
God reminded me of something. You can't separate God's sacrifice,
the Lord Jesus Christ, from his people. And the washing of this
animal's intestines and legs speaks of us. Though we are redeemed
with the blood of Christ, though our sins are atoned for by his
precious blood, we yet must be washed by his spirit in what
is called the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Spirit. The washing of water by the word so that he comes,
and this time he comes early, he takes your soul, your flayed
soul, naked, corrupt, all the corruption inside you, the inwards. and all the corruption of your
feet your life through this world and he bathes you by his grace
in the blood of his son and you stand before God clean a new
creature in Christ Jesus and then the sacrifice which God
requires God accepts He looks at Christ, his darling son, his perfect
obedience, his horrible death. And He's gathered us all up in
Him. All His people. Every sinner
who believes Him. Everyone of them. He gathers
them all up in Him. All of them. All of them. Listen
now. Listen. And God Almighty... That's what I like. He looks on His Son. as a sweet
smelling savor and he smells us in his son and he takes us
as a sweet smelling savor and that's redemption by a burnt
offering. Christ Jesus the Lord. That's
how sinners come to God. Amen.