I want to begin reading in verse
62. This is about the 12th or 13th
time we've been in this passage of scripture. Verse 62, 1 Kings chapter 8,
And the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice before
the Lord. And Solomon offered a sacrifice
of peace offerings, which he'd offered unto the Lord. Now look
at these numbers, two and 20,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the children
of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. The same day did
the king hallow the middle of the court that was before the
house of the Lord. For there he offered burnt offerings and
meat offerings and the fat of the peace offerings because the
brazen altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive
the burnt offerings and meat offerings and the fat of the
peace offerings. And at that time, Solomon held a feast and
all Israel with him, a great congregation from the airing
in of Hamath under the river of Egypt before the Lord, our
God, seven days and seven days, even 14 days. And on the eighth
day, he sent the people away and they blessed the king and
went under their tents, joyful and glad of heart for all the
goodness that the Lord had done for David, his servant, and for
Israel, his people. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
for your presence, for your blessing, for your spirit, that we might
be enabled to worship thy dear son. Would you exalt and glorify
him in our midst? Lord, forgive us of our sins
for his sake. And Lord, accept our thanksgiving.
We're so thankful for who you are. We're so thankful for the
glory of your son. We're so thankful for the salvation
that's in him. Lord, give us grace to behold
his glory. to love him more and trust him
more. Have mercy upon us for his sake. And Lord, as we face this coming
year, we ask for your blessing that you'd order our steps in
your word and let not any iniquity have dominion over us. Now bless
us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. Now, in this eighth chapter of
1 Kings, the temple was finished. The glory of the Lord filled
the temple, so the priest couldn't even enter in to the temple.
And Solomon spake to the people, he prayed to the Lord, and he
once again addressed the people. And then we read of this sacrifice.
This chapter began with sacrifice. This chapter ends with sacrifice
and the number of sacrifice, 122,000 or 142,000 animals were
slain. Now I want you to think of the magnitude of that. 142,000 animals were slain, 22,000 oxen
and 120,000 sheep. Now, men may think that seems
almost barbaric. Why would you have that much
bloodshed? Why would you have all of that
slaying? What is the point behind all
that? Well, the only reason that we
would Ask a question like that is that we don't understand God. God is just, God is holy, God
is right. That's so important. Sin cannot
go unpunished. God would cease to be God if
he could let one sin go unpunished. And I want you to remember this,
we're talking about these sacrifices, 120,000 sheep, 22,000 oxen. This whole universe was created
for the one sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is the
most God-like thing God ever did. And this universe was created,
Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And this universe was created for this purpose, for God to
make himself known in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
I'm gonna give a real brief history of the Bible. Before we get into
this text, right after the fall, there was sacrifice, wasn't there?
An animal was slain to cover Adam and Eve when they had disobeyed
God and sinned against God. God provided them a covering.
That's the first sacrifice. And then I think of Cain and
Abel, the first story after the fall. They both brought a sacrifice. Now, one sacrifice showed great
disrespect to God. And that was the sacrifice of
Cain. He demonstrated great disrespect
and irreverence before God because he offered up his best. And he
brought God down to the level where God, he thought God could
accept his best. And he didn't realize it was
nothing but sin and evil. It was that represented his works.
He had great disrespect for the character of God in offering
that sacrifice. And you know what? God didn't
respect him either. To Cain and his offering, God
had not respect. He disregarded it. He knew that
it was evil. He knew that it was irreverent,
but. Abel demonstrated great respect
for God when he offered that blood sacrifice. He says, I can't
come into your presence on my own. I can only come through
the blood of the coming lamb. He's the only one who can satisfy
you. He showed great respect to God
in doing that. You know what the scripture says?
God respected Abel. Now I want you to think about
that. Something that would make God respect somebody, he respected
Abel and his offering. Abel couldn't be separated from
his offering, but this created the respect of God. Now, what
about the story of the flood? What's the first thing Noah did
when he got off the ark? He offered up a sacrifice. He
knew the only way he could be accepted is through the blood
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the first thing he did.
Did he know it pointed to Christ? Of course he did. Of course,
by faith, Noah did this. Hebrews 11, six, by faith, by
faith he moved. Think of Abraham. Abraham did
not call upon the Lord until he first had an altar for sacrifice. He couldn't even call on his
name without that altar for sacrifice. Now you go on looking through
the history of the children of Israel, I think of when the Ten
Commandments were given in Exodus chapter 20. At the end of that
chapter, he tells them to build an altar. And it's an altar without
steps. There's not steps to God. It's
an altar that had stones. If you put a tool to it, it was
polluted. It was no good. Now, what's that altar for? He
knew that the children of Israel would not keep the Ten Commandments.
And that altar is for sacrifice. Even in the law, we have this
altar for sacrifice. And I love the way the Lord says,
don't put a tool to it. Any of the stones, don't put
a tool to it. And that's to remind us that this sacrifice of Christ
mean you don't have anything to do with it. It's what he does
by himself with no help from you. And after the giving of
the law in Acts, in Exodus 24, I think it's interesting. After
Moses gave all these words of the law, the people said, all
that you've spoken will do. We're gonna do it. Now, Moses
knew they wouldn't, because you know what he did? As soon as
they said that, he started sprinkling blood on them. Blood. Somebody said, well, that's a
pact of obedience. No, it's not. It's because Moses knew they
would disobey. He knew exactly the way they would be, so he
started sprinkling blood on them. The sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, this is what this all points
to. In these 120,000 sheep, these
22,000 oxen, An amazing number. But now let's
look at our text. 1 Kings 8, verse 62. The whole Bible is about blood. I love that message by Joe Terrell,
didn't you? The testament of the blood. The whole Bible is
about the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. Now let's look in verse 62. And
the king and all Israel with him offered sacrifice. I think it's interesting it doesn't
say sacrifices. sacrifice. Yeah, there are 142,000
different sacrifices, but they all pointed to the one sacrifice. There's only one sacrifice we
offer. And the King and all Israel with
him offered sacrifice before the Lord and Solomon offered
a sacrifice of peace offerings. which he offered unto the Lord,
two and 20,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. So the king and all the
children of Israel dedicated the house of the Lord. The same
day did the king howl of the middle of the course that was
before the house of the Lord. And there he offered burnt offerings
and meat offerings and the fat of the peace offering because
the brazen altar that was before the Lord was too little to receive
the burnt offerings and meat offerings and the fat of the
peace offerings. Now, The first offering that
is mentioned is the peace offering. We read of burnt offerings and
meat offerings. We're gonna get to that in a
minute. But the first thing he mentions is the peace offering. Now, what is it that gives me
peace with God? What is it that would cause God
to be at peace with me and to be satisfied with me? The sacrifice of Christ. The
peace offering, Colossians 1.20 says, he made peace through the
blood of his cross. Now, anytime somebody says, if
you've made your peace with God, the only answer is, no, I haven't
made my peace with God. Christ made my peace with God. And this peace that is spoken
of in this peace offering is the peace of sinlessness. Now what is it that makes you
afraid? What is it that makes you nervous? What is it that
makes you fear standing before God if you have sin? That's the
only thing that makes someone truly afraid is sin. But here's
what Christ did by the blood of his cross. It says in that
same passage of scripture in Colossians 1, he's made us holy
and unblameable and unreprovable through his blood. that he shed
on Calvary's tree. You know what that is? That's
sinlessness. Everybody Christ died for, he
put away their sin. You see, his death was not offering
anything to anybody. It was offering to God, but it
wasn't an offer to me or you. God's offering you this. No,
his blood actually accomplished the complete redemption of everybody
he died for. I love that. Peace offerings. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God. Now, most people think, well,
we feel peace. Well, maybe you do, maybe you don't. That's a
good feeling. But this is better than a feeling. It doesn't say
being justified by we feel peace. It says we have peace. We have
peace. The great justifying work of
Christ on Calvary's tree made my peace with God. John chapter 14 verse 27, the
Lord says, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. John 16 33, these things have
I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. Acts 15 or Acts 10 36, the word
which God sent to Israel preaching peace by Jesus Christ. Now that's the message. That
is the peace offering. He made peace. And the peace I have is caused by the peace God has
with me because of what Christ did. That's it. That's it. I have peace because
God is satisfied with what Christ did. That's where my peace comes
from. I have peace. Oh, what a wonderful thing it
is to know that God is satisfied with me. Think of this scripture.
The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness
and peace. If I'm righteous before God,
you know what? That gives me peace. God's at peace with me,
I'm at peace. I don't need anything else. I don't need to worry about me
not doing enough or me not being this way. No, my peace is in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's the peace offering.
42,000 animals are slain at this time.
I can't even, I can't get my mind around that. How many priests
did it take to do all that, you know, to all that work? But that
was done to show us the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ. 142,000 peace offerings. And then he speaks of the burnt
offerings. Well, what's the difference between
a peace offering and a burnt offering? A burnt offering is
an offering that was completely consumed. Now everybody got to
eat of that peace offering. There was a piece of meat for
everybody, but the burnt offering is something that was completely
consumed so that there was nothing left. You would burn the animal
that was slain and the fire would completely consume it and you
would have nothing left. Now what that represents is the
satisfaction of God with the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the peace offering, God's
at peace with me. I'm at peace with God through
that sacrifice. But here's the reason for that
peace, the complete satisfaction. that God has with what Christ
did. And that was proved when he raised
him from the dead, that burnt offering was wholly consumed.
So there was nothing left. Remember when Elijah offered
up that offering and the scripture says, the fire of God came down
from heaven and consumed. The ox oxen and the dust and
the water and everything else, everything was consumed, showing
God's complete satisfaction with that. Now, somebody may think,
why can't God just forgive sin? Why does there have to be a sacrifice?
Why does there have to be blood shedding? Why can't God just
forgive sin? I mean, that's the way we forgive
people. We just forgive them. I mean, we don't have to have,
you have to have blood shed first. Why is God like that? Because
God is holy. That's why. He said, I'll by
no means clear the guilty. By no means. Let's go back to
one of those blood sacrifices, the Passover. Remember when God
said he was going to pass through the land of Egypt and destroy
all the firstborn? The firstborn in every house,
Israel and Egypt died. Only with Israel, it was the
firstborn substitute. But every house had death in
it. Thank God, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. But every house had death in
it because God's holy, because God's just. That's why the need
of this sacrifice. And I want you to think of the,
this sacrifice is God's eternal purpose. It's how He makes known who He
is to us. There is no knowledge of God,
there's no understanding of God, apart from the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And that satisfaction was seen when Christ was raised from the
dead. I want to say this as reverently as I can. I'm saying it fearfully.
Now I want to say this with reverence. When Christ was raised from the
dead, God said concerning Todd Nybert and everybody that Christ
died for, I'm completely satisfied with them. I'm not looking for
anything else. Now that's the satisfaction of
Christ. Offering that sacrifice was consumed
completely to let us know that God was satisfied with the burnt
offering. And that's what the Lord was.
He was the burnt offering. One of the glorious things about
Christ in his offering, and I've said this before, but I like,
I won't say it again. Remember when the fire came down
from heaven and consumed the burnt offering so that was nothing
left. When the fire came down on Christ, he consumed the wrath
and there's nothing left. That's how glorious he is in
his death on Calvary's tree. Now, the third offering that's
mentioned is the meat offering. This was a bloodless sacrifice
and it emphasizes the willingness of the one making the offering. You willingly gave this meat
offering, this grain offering, this meal offering. It has to
do with a willingness. Now, let me ask you a real simple
question. And I think this will be very
helpful to understand what this willingness is. The Lord looked
at that impotent man and said in John chapter five, wilt thou
be made whole? Are you willing to be made whole? Now, are you willing for Christ
to be all in your salvation? Are you willing? Thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. Are you willing for Christ
to get all the glory and none go to you? Are you happy with
that? Are you willing? Have you burned
your bridges and you're looking to Christ only? And this is what
you want to do. You want it to be this way. You
desire being saved by Christ. You desire. This is your will. This is what you want. You see,
God's changed your want to. There was a time when this wasn't
even important to you, but it is now. It's because God has
changed your want to. As I love what Joe McSherry used
to always say, he's changed your willer. Yeah, he has. God's people want to be saved
wholly by the sacrifice of Christ. They want him to get all the
glory. They don't want their works to enter in. This is their
will. This is the way they want it. Now, God's people, Understand
this. God's people all believe the
same thing. There isn't any difference in
what God's people believe. Every single one of them believe
that the sacrifice of Christ is everything in salvation. They like it that way. They praise
God for that. So we see these three sacrifices
at the end. This chapter begins with sacrifice.
And they couldn't, they wouldn't even come when they, the temple
was dedicated, the Holy of Holies, called the Oracle. They had to
have a sacrifice. The glory of God fills the place.
They can't even enter in. Solomon prays for all these different
things. He prays that when you hear,
forgive. He prays that you would incline our hearts to walk in
your ways. He prayed whenever the people
get in trouble and they look back to this temple, you'll hear
him talking about looking to Christ again and again and again.
And it ends up with all these sacrifices. Verse 65, and at
that time, Solomon held a feast. After this sacrifice, I mean,
you can imagine all the food that was there. At that time,
Solomon held a feast and all Israel with him, a great congregation
from the inner end of Hamath under the river of Egypt before
the Lord our God, seven days and seven days, 14 days. And
on the eighth day, he sent the people away and they blessed
the king. Oh, they were so thankful. And
they went into their tents, joyful and glad of heart. Kingdom of God is not meat and
drink, but it's righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. They went glad of hearts for
the goodness that the Lord had done for David, his servant,
and for Israel, his people. Now notice they talked about
the goodness of God. His goodness is his capacity
to save. God's goodness is seen in saving
somebody like me or you. God's good. He's always good. I hate it when people say, how
could a loving God do this? Or how could God let that happen?
God's good. You're the problem, not Him.
I'm the problem. God's always good. And whatever
He does is right. And we rest in that. and the
people blessed the Lord. And notice that God's goodness
was mediated through David, his servant. Speaking of David, the
greater servant, the greater son of David. This refers to
the fact that every blessing we have, every blessing we experience
is given to us for Christ's sake. It's mediated to us through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 4.32, be kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another. even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you." The reason all of God's mercies
and grace is sure is because of the sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And every blessing we have is
mediated to us through that glorious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't ever look, oh my God, give
us grace. Don't ever look at that sacrifice
as anything but perfectly satisfying to God, perfect and successful. glorious the very character of
God made known in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.