Leviticus chapter 3. You'll find that almost in front
of your Bibles. Most of you know that. Genesis, Exodus, and then
Leviticus. I don't think anybody's using
a few Bibles, but if you are, it's on page 120. We're going to look tonight at the peace
offering. That's what we're just saying about peace, peace, wonderful
peace. We looked in chapter one, if
you remember, at the burnt offering, and one of the characteristics
of that burnt offering was that God got everything of that offering. When they put it upon that altar
to burn it, they burn it all. Nobody took anything from it,
not one ounce of meat. Everything was God's. Turn back
there before we look at chapter 3, and look at this. Look in verse 9, chapter 1, verse
9. But his inward and his legs shall
he wash in water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar,
to be a burnt sacrifice of that offering made by far a sweet
savor unto the Lord. God got all that offering. We
see here in verse 4, look in verse 4. He shall put his hand upon the
head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him
to make an atonement for him. Now can you think of anything
else that is more comforting and gives you more assurance
to know that the scripture says that Jesus Christ offered himself
without spot to God. And to think that He did that
for you. He gave all of Himself to God
on your behalf. And when He did that, we're told
here in verse 4, that it was accepted for you to make an atonement
for you. You're not laboring to be accepted
with God. You're already accepted in the
Beloved. We labor that our motives may
be right. We labor that our works may be
right and done in his fear and faith, but our persons are accepted,
our sins are atoned for by somebody else, by the Lord Jesus Christ. He offered all of himself to
God. And then in chapter two we saw
the meal offered, or the grain offered, the fine flour, and
we saw that that represented the perfect humanity mixed with
the perfect deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. No blood in that
offering, so it wasn't talking about His death upon the cross,
but His walk, His person in this world. He was perfect God, perfect
humanity blended together in this one excellent and glorious
person. Now tonight we come to the peace
offering, and every one of these offerings has something unique
about them. The first one was towards God,
holy to God. The second one was the life of
Jesus Christ, His perfect humanity and His death. And tonight is
talking about peace. This is a peace offering. So
we look at this sacrifice tonight from the perspective, this offering
made peace on our behalf. So let's read it here in chapter
1, or chapter 3, verse 1. And if his offering be a sacrifice
of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be
a male or female, He shall offer it without blemish before the
Lord. He shall lay his hand upon the head of the offering, and
kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron's
son, the priest, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round
about. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering,
that offering made by fire unto the Lord, the fat that covereth
the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and
the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them. which is by
the flanks and the gall above the liver, with the kidneys it
shall be taken away. And Aaron's son shall burn it
on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice which is upon the wood that is
upon the fire. It is an offering made by fire,
a sweet savor unto the Lord." And look over in verse 16, "...and
the priest shall burn them upon the altar, It is the food of
the offering, made by fire for a sweet savor. All the fat is
the Lord's. It shall be a perpetual statute
for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you
eat neither fat nor blood." Now you can go on in this chapter
and read, if they didn't offer a bull, they offered a lamb for
a peace offering, they offered a goat, they sometimes offered
a goat for a peace offering. But beginning in verse 6, it
basically repeats itself. And we'll look at some other
places in just a minute concerning this sacrifice of peace offerings. But some of the similarities
here that we see in the other sacrifices, we find there in
verse 1, I read to you, it had to be without blemish. All the
sacrifices of the animals, this is the requirement. They had
to be perfect to be accepted. No blemishes, no wrinkles, no
blisters. It had to be without blemish.
And the second thing there, in verse 2, you see this in all
the animal sacrifices. In verse 2, it says that they
put their hand upon the head of the orphan. And we looked
at that, I think, last week. This shows us two things. One,
it's the transfer of sins. When they put their hands upon
the head of that sacrifice, they transferred sin from themselves
to the sacrifice. And the second thing this speaks
about is unity. What they were saying is, I am
now one with this sacrifice. What's going to happen to this
sacrifice is what should have happened to me, but it's happening
to him. But when he dies, I die in him. When my sins are atoned in him,
then my sins are atoned in me. It speaks of unity, identification. And then, in the last part of
verse 2, we have something else that's similar with all the other
animal sacrifices. In the last part of verse 2,
Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar
round about. Every sacrifice of these animals,
their blood was caught, and it was sprinkled. It was sprinkled. On the day of atonement, they
went into the most holy place and sprinkled it on the mercy
seat. What does that represent to us?
Blood atonement, does it? Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. This is the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is the blood that makes an
atonement for the soul. And then here in verse 16, this
was to take place with all the sacrifices. They had to take
away the fat. They always took away the fat.
They weren't allowed to take the fat from these sacrifices
and fry it and boil it or whatever and eat it themselves. The fat
belonged to the Lord. Now there's a lot of saying,
and Bob knows more about this than I do, but there's an old
saying of old, the mark of perfection. When you talk about a cow or
a pig that you're going to kill, the old timers used to say the
mark of perfection It's the fat. The mark of, and Bob, you wouldn't
go buy a cow without fat on it, would you? And most of us can't
break ourselves from eating fat, can we? When we go to look, find
a big steak, what do we want? We want that fat around the edges,
don't we? We want them little streaks of fat in it. Why? That
sweetens the meat, doesn't it? Makes it good. Makes it good.
The fat belongs to the Lord. Not only The sacrifice without
blemish. He wanted the best in your herd.
But when you brought the best, the best part of that was His.
He didn't say, I want the hoofs. What would we have thought about
the Lord if He said, Spur the hoofs and give them to me? He
wouldn't be much of a God, would He? No, He said, You give the
best to me. I require the best. It has to
be without blemish and take the fat. That's the sweet part. and put it on the fire to me."
That's Jesus Christ's answer. Jesus Christ was the best heaven
had. When search was made and it couldn't
be found, who could open the book? The Lamb of God. He stepped
forward. And all the sweetness of Him,
a sweet smell in the room, He was the best. He was the best.
One of the distinctions in this peace offering was this, and
we'll look at this just a little bit later. But one of the distinctions
in this peace offering, This is unique about being a peace
offering. In all of these other animal
sacrifices, there were just two parties that partook of this
sacrifice. God got his part, the thigh,
and then the priests got their part. They kept either a shoulder
or a breast, but they got their part. That's what they lived
with. But in this peace offering, it was split in three parties. God got his part. They burned
up on the altar. The priest got their part. But
then the priest shared their part with the man who brought
the offering. And he could invite his family
and the guests, and they all sat down and ate it before the
Lord together. Now that's something good about
a peace offering, isn't it? It speaks of unity. It speaks of
communion. Not only before God, but as they
sat and ate it one to another. So that's one of the distinctions
in this peace offering. Now what does this Peace offers
speak to. What is this? When we talk about
peace, what does this speak to? Well, it speaks of reconciliation,
doesn't it? It speaks of the peace of being
reconciled to God. Now, I want you to turn your
Bibles over to the New Testament. I want you to look in Colossians chapter 1. Look here in verse
19. Watch in chapter 1 in verse 19. Look in verse 19, Colossians
1.19. For it pleased the Father that
in Him and His Son and the Lord Jesus Christ should all fullness
dwell. In His body, the Scripture says,
is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When you've seen Jesus
Christ, You've seen all of God there is. In Him dwells all the
fullness. in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight." Now when Jesus Christ made reconciliation on
the cross, He made peace. He made peace between God and
the believing sinner. Now let's look at these three
or four things here about these verses that I've just read to
you. Let's see some things. And first of all, let's see this.
There's no peace with God for any man apart from reconciliation
of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, get this. It's very
important. Our world's talking about peace,
isn't it? Talking about world peace. We want peace, peace,
peace, peace. But there is no peace between
God and any fallen sinner without reconciliation of the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you say, Bruce, why is that?
Well, we're told here in verse 21, man by nature is alienated,
he's a foreigner from God. And he says here that he's an
enemy of God. And where does that enemy rest
at? Where does his enmity rest? In the mind. See what he says
in verse 21? You that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. That's our problem, isn't it?
Enemies in our mind. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. And when Paul uses the mind here,
he takes it really for the whole heart of man. The mind is the
seed of our intellect, and what's the matter with our intellect?
We don't know God, do we? We don't understand. There's
none that understands. It's the seed of our affections,
and what's the matter with our affections? We love darkness
rather than light, and it's the seed of our will. What's the
matter with our will, by nature? Well, it's warped. It's in bondage
to sin. You will not come to me that
you might have life. So man's problem is not so much
as what he's doing. It's not so much as what he's
saying. It's where all this is coming from. The seed of his
whole problem is his mind. And how can a man who is alienated
from God, who is the enemy of God, have peace with God? It's impossible, isn't it? It's
impossible to have peace with God while we're in this condition. And here's our problem. There's
a great gulf between what's in God and what's in man. What's
in God? Well, hold on a second. What's
in God? Justice. He's of too pure eyes to behold
iniquity and cannot look upon sin. The Bible says that in God
is light. God is light and in Him is no
darkness at all. Now, we have Him. What do we
have in man? When we read the scripture about
man, what's in him? Well, in him is no light at all
but darkness. In man is no purity at all, but
corruption. In man is no righteousness at
all, but unrighteousness. He fades like a leaf. We're all
corruptors, aren't we? We're all deceitful and desperately
wicked. Listen to Isaiah 59 and 2. Here's
the trouble. Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God. Now, that's a gulf, ain't it?
Your iniquities, like mountains that's built on our head, has
put a gulf between us and the Holy God. And your sins have
hit His face that He will not hear. For your hands are defiled
with blood, your fingers are defiled with iniquity, your lips
have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness. And where's the seed of all this?
Where's all this coming from? the mind, the seat of our affection,
our will, and our intellect. And therefore, there's this great
division between the fallen sinner and God. And therefore, there's
no peace. There's no peace. Have you ever
seen a man, a husband and wife, and they get so full of enmity
towards one another, there's no reconciliation. And therefore,
no peace. The husband says, I can't be
at peace with her. And she said, I can't be at peace with him.
There is no reconciliation. Well, there's no reconciliation
between the holy God and a fallen sinner unless somebody is mighty
and able to reconcile us. One of the reasons I dwell on
this just for a minute, we've been told, have been told for
years, most of my Christian life, I've heard this, and you read
it in some commentaries, of this millennial age. that Jesus Christ
is coming back from heaven, is going to set up a kingdom over
in Jerusalem. Some even go as far to believe
that the temple is going to be rebuilt, going to start offering
the sacrifices again. Jesus Christ in His person is
going to settle over there, and men from all over the world are
going to go there and worship Him, and there's going to be
world peace for 1,000 years. Now, if you're here and you believe
that, I'm not going to get in your conscience. and bother you
or condemn you. But think of this. Think of this. Was there peace when Jesus Christ
was here? Did men love Him? Did they worship
Him when He was here? Why, they hated Him, didn't they?
Even His own refused Him. He's despised and rejected of
men and finally crucified Him. Just His physical presence does
not bring peace to a man's heart. The mind has to be changed. The
heart has to be reconciled. So if he comes back again, how
is an unregenerate man going to have peace when his mind is
enmity against God? There cannot be a world peace.
See what I'm saying? I came not to send peace on the
earth, but a sword. The only peace that men have
are those who are reconciled to the Son of God by living faith
in Him. Him. And no lost man has peace
with God. He may say, peace, peace, but
I'm telling you there's only one place for peace, and that's
reconciliation. It's not just in Christ. It's
a reconciling Christ. I have peace in Jesus. Everybody
does, don't they? Go out there and talk to people.
Oh, I've got peace in Jesus. What kind of Jesus? Is it a reconciling
Jesus? Is it one that reconciles you
to God through the blood of His cross? One that took hold of
God, as it were, with one hand, and took hold of the sinner with
the other hand, and did something that the host of heavenly angels
could not do? Satisfy everything that's in
God, His eternal attributes, and reach down and get the sinner,
and wash him from everything that's vile, and cleanse him
and justify him, and bring a holy God and a fallen sinner together
in His broken, crucified body? That's where peace is. God looks
upon Jesus Christ, and He says, I'll meet that sinner right there
in My Son. Because there's where I'm satisfied.
There's where my justice is honored. There's where my justice is glorified
in my Son. And here's a poor sinner. He
can look to Jesus. And he says, there in Him, I
see the love of God. There in Christ, I see a merciful
Father. There in Christ, I see the smile
of God. So in this crucified Christ,
what do we have? God and man. A holy God and a
fallen man being brought back together in Him. About to get
my throat worked up. That's a wonderful subject, isn't
it? No, there's no peace apart from Christ. It's impossible.
A reconciling Christ. But in Him, in His cross, God
and the sinner has made peace. Jesus Christ has made peace through
the blood of His cross in His broken humanity. You know something about it?
It's a real peace. It's a real peace. God is at
peace. It's God that instigated this.
It's God that purposed this. And it's God in Christ that accomplished
this. I want you to hold cautions and
look back over in 2 Corinthians. Look at 2 Corinthians, chapter
5. Thank you, sweetie. Thank you
very much. Look at 2 Corinthians, chapter
5, verse 17. This is God's doing. God knew what it took to make
peace. He knew what it took to reconcile Himself to us and us
to Him. And that's why He accomplished
it. Look in verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. All things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God,
who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. That is to say, to wit, that
God was in Christ. See, we say the Son of God, and
yes He was, bless His name, but God was in Christ. The fullness
of God was in Christ when He was here upon this earth. What
was His purpose? Reconciling the world unto Himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them, and have committed
unto us the word of reconciliation." God reconciled the world unto
himself. Now, don't get confused with
that word, world. Sometimes when you read the Bible,
read it with common sense. Sometimes common sense will help
us interpret the Bible. Has God reconciled every man
without exception to himself? Isn't there some men that God
imputes their sin to? Well, sure there is. But Paul
said, you reconcile the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses to them. Well, the way we're to understand
this, the same way John, the apostle, told us to understand
this, in 1 John 2, he said Jesus Christ is the propitiation for
our sins. That is not just the sins of
the Jews, the elect among the Jews, but He's the propitiation
for the sins of the whole world. He's the propitiation for the
sins of people out of all nations, isn't He? He's got to elect people
among the Jews. He's got to elect people among
the Gentiles and all the nations and the families of the world.
God hath not just reconciled the elect Jews unto Himself,
He has elect Gentiles that He's reconciled to Himself. And He's
not imputing their trespasses unto them. But He did it! It's
Him that accomplished this in His dear and blessed Son. And
you know it's a real peace? Because it goes right to the
seat of who you are. It goes right to your heart.
It's the peace of the heart. The peace of the mind. This is
Philippians 4, I think it's Philippians 4, 3. Be not anxious for nothing,
but in everything, by prayer and supplication, let your request
be known to God with thanksgiving, and the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep what? Your heart and your mind
through Christ Jesus. This peace that comes in being
reconciled to God through Jesus Christ is a heart peace. It's
a peace of the mind. And it's a peace, you know something? It's a peace that even devils
can't take from you. My peace I give unto you. Not
as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled. It's a peace that will calm your
heart. Because when you have peace with God in Christ, that's
peace in you. That's peace. The peace of God
that passeth all under How does this piece come? Look
back over at Colossians one more time. Look at Colossians chapter one,
in verse twenty-three. It has something to do, when
it comes to me, it has something to do with me believing in the
one who reconciled me. Me believing the testimony that
God gave, that He's done it. If you continue, look in verse
23, if you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Now what does
faith have to do with reconciliation? And here's where we have to be
careful. We attribute sometimes to faith what we shouldn't attribute
to it. The Lord Jesus said, your faith
has saved you. In what sense does faith save
us? Faith is not a person, is it? Faith never lived for us. Faith never obeyed the law for
us. Faith never suffered upon the cross for us. Faith never
bled and died for us. How then can faith save us? Faith
lays hold of Him who did all of these things. Faith looks
to Him who did suffer and who did die. How does faith, then,
bring this reconciliation to us? When we believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ. When we believe the testimony
of this reconciliation. Then, that's when the peace of
it comes to us. Look in chapter 1, and look in
verse 3. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which
you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for
you in heaven were of ye heard before in the word of the truth
of the gospel." When we hear the gospel, it tells us just
exactly what we're talking about tonight. That Jesus Christ has
reconciled the world unto the Father. And the instant a poor
sinner looks to Him and believes in Him, then this peace becomes
his. That's why when Peter went down
to Carnelius' house, the first thing he said to him, we preach
peace by Jesus Christ. Peace is preached through a person. And when you believe in that
person, peace comes to you. It's a peace because you're reconciled
to God. It's a peace. to your heart.
Now these Jews in the Old Testament, sometimes we feel sorry for them
because they were under the ceremonial law. And in that sense, we do
feel sorry for them because Peter said it was a burden that we
just couldn't bear. Everything had to be just right.
But they hadn't an advantage over us in a way. And here's
the advantage they had. God instructed Moses to tell
Aaron the least priest how to offer these sacrifices. Can you
imagine having guilt upon your conscience? You felt the need
of being reconciled to God. And you brought your lamb. And
you said, Aaron, what do I have to do? What does God tell me
to do? They instructed him that way. And he says, here's what
you do. You do exactly what I tell you
to do because this is what God tells you to do. First thing
you do, you put your hands on the head of this lamb. There
he stands. Poor old man, he's sort of shaking
because he feels so guilty. He says, now you confess you're
a sinner that you've sinned and put it on this lamb. Oh, can
you see all of it? Yes, every bit of it goes right
on. And then, boy, he opens his eyes and the blood's gushing
from that lamb's throat. And he stands back and he watches
those Levites as they flay and cut this lamb to pieces and they
stack it there and burn it. And Aaron looks at that poor
man and he said, it's accepted for you. You can see that, see? That's the advantage they had
over us. They could look at that and see
Him there. Don't you think that helped their
faith? They saw Christ in them. Here's where you and I have the
advantage over them. Christ has come. And He's written
it down in His Word. They would go away, and in a
month or two, they may forget about everything that happened.
Oh, I don't know if I laid both hands on it. I don't know if
I confessed everything. I just can't remember it all.
But you and I have got the advantage. We just turn over here and read
it. We go to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and what do we see
in all of those Gospels? We see our Savior hanging up
on the tree, don't we? And there we see all our sin
laid upon Him. And we see the judgment of God,
the fire consuming His humanity. We see Him making an atonement
for us. And if we forget it the next
day, what do we do? Go back and read it again. Go
back and read it again. And our faith lays hold of this. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. And when you, by faith, can lay
hold of this, I tell you, that's when you'll feel the peace of
God in your heart. That's when you'll know that you're reconciled
to God as an individual, poor, fallen sinner. That you've been
accepted in the Beloved. I forgot where that verse is.
It's in the Bible somewhere. You can go look it up. I think
it's in Isaiah some part, maybe verse chapter 27. Talking about
if a man desires peace with God. He said, let him take hold of
my strength. and he shall make peace with
me." Now, what in the world could that mean? If you desire peace
of God, take hold of His strength, and you shall make peace with
Him. What is the strength of God? It's the gospel, isn't it?
Christ is the power of God, and Christ is the wisdom of God.
Take hold of Him then. See Him up on the cross, reconcile
in you unto Himself. Take hold of Him. Look to Him.
Believe in Him. That's the way this peace comes
to our hearts. And then we can sing from our
hearts, peace, peace, wonderful peace. Where's it coming from?
Why, it's coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit
forever I pray, in phantomless villas of love. Peace, the peace of God. One
last thing, and we'll look at this quickly in closing, is this.
I made mention of it. The way this peace offering was
distinguished from all the other offerings, and this is the only
offering that was distinguished in this way. God got His portion,
the priest got their portion, and then the offerer, the man
who brought the sacrifice, he got a portion. He sat down and
he ate with the priest. Now I want you to see that. Look
in Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 12. Sissy, I thank you for this water,
sweetheart. If you'll read, I think it's
the seventh chapter of Leviticus sometime, you'll see the way
they did this. It's a little bit difficult to
understand sometimes, but they take the breast from this animal,
bullock or a flam or a goat, and they called it waving. The man who brought the sacrifice,
this peace offering, He'd take that breast of that animal and
he'd do it like this. He'd wave it around like this.
Then he took the right shoulder and he put it in his hands and
he lifted up as high as he could. And what he was saying by this,
I give this to God. I offer this to God. I give it
to Him. I give back to Him this breast
and this shoulder. I heave it up to Him. They called
it a wave offering and a heave offering. And what he did, he
handed it to that priest, the right shoulder and the breast. And then, when the priest had
did all his duties, he would go to this man that had offered
this meat and gave it to him, and he would say, we're going
to eat at my house at a certain time. And you bring your guests
with you. He could bring His wife and His
children, His maidservants, His midservants, or whoever He wanted
to come, and they sat together and they ate this peace offering. I want you to see that. Look
here in Deuteronomy chapter 12. This whole chapter, you can read
sometime at your leisure, is made up of this. But look here
in verse 9. The Lord was instructed them
mainly after they came into the land of Canaan. Some things they
couldn't do out in the wilderness. But He said, this is the way
you be sure to do it when you get into the land of Canaan.
Verse 9, Deuteronomy 12, For ye are not as yet come to the
rest, and to the inheritance which the Lord your God gave
you. They were still in the wilderness. But when you go over Jordan and
dwell in the land which the Lord your God gives you to inherit,
and when He gives you rest from all your enemies round about,
so that you dwell in safety, then there shall be a place which
the Lord your God shall choose to cause His name to dwell there."
Now where was that place? Anybody remember? There was a
location in Israel, in the land of Palestine, where the Lord
put His name. Remember what city that was?
Where the temple was built? Jerusalem, wasn't it? That's
Jerusalem. That's the place that God chose
to put His name. Thither there shall you bring all that I command
you. Now look at this. Your burnt
offerings. We've studied three of them already, haven't we?
The flower offering, the whole burnt offering, and tonight the
peace offering. And your sacrifices, your tithes
and heave offerings of your land and all your choice vows, your
choice offerings which you offer unto the Lord. And ye shall rejoice
before the Lord your God, ye and your sons, your daughters,
your maidservants, your maidservants, and the Levites." You remember
who the Levites was? That was where the priests came
out of. They had no land on their own. That's why they got the
meat from the sacrifices. The Levites, that it is within
your gates forasmuch as he hath no partner in herders with you.
Take heed to yourself. that you offer not your burnt
offerings in every place that you see, but in the place which
the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt
offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that
I command thee. Look in verse seventeen. That
thou mayest not eat within thy gates the tie of thy corn, or
of thy wine, or of thy oil, or the purslans of the herd, or
of thy flocks, nor any of thy vows which thou vows, nor thy
freewill offerings, or heath offerings of thy hand. But thou
shalt eat them before the Lord thy God in the place which the
Lord thy God shall choose." Now that was in Jerusalem. That's
why when you read about the feast days in the New Testament, that's
why you find so many people in Jerusalem. They come out of all
nations, and they came home. They said, we're going to offer
a sin offering. We're going to offer a peace
offering. Why don't you just offer it here? We can't. Why
not? The temple's at Jerusalem. The
high priest is at Jerusalem. We're going up there, and we're
going to offer our peace offering unto God. I'm going to wave the
breast of my offering and give it to the priest. I'm going to
heave up the shoulder and give it to the priest. And this is
what we're going to do then. Look in verse 18. and thou shalt rejoice before
the Lord thy God in all that thou puttest thy hand unto."
So there we have it. We have this offering, this peace
offering, and now it's not just peace between God and the sinner,
but now it's peace between believing sinner and believing sinner.
Here's the Levite that offered Here's the man that brought the
offering, and now here's his family, even his servants. And
they're all sitting around eating. What is that? Well, that's communion,
isn't it? That's peace. So when we talk
about the peace of reconciliation, we're not just talking about
peace with God. We're talking about peace with
one another, aren't we? Remember Ephesians chapter 2 when we studied
on that? Talking about the Gentiles? being alienated from the Jews. We're strangers from the covenant
of promise. But now, in Jesus Christ, He
hath reconciled both Jews and Gentiles and made us one. He's brought peace to one another. That's why I gladly have menus
about peace. Amen. We have fallen out and we quickly
get back together because we've got peace. Where's that peace
at? It's in the sacrifice. That's
what they're eating when they're set in rem, eating this peace
offering, the sacrifice. What communion it was, brothers
and sisters. What communion it was. How in
the world could you fall out when you were set in a table
like that? Eating the peace offering. Boy, can you imagine the peace?
Look at the peace we have in Christ. We have peace one with
another because of the Lord Jesus Christ in Him. Listen to what I.M. Haldeman
said, and I'll close with this. He said, this peace, he's talking
about this peace, this reconciliation. This is the privilege of the
weakest believer. Now, notice what he said. This
is the privilege of the weakest believer. Is your faith weak? Do you feel weak? Well, here's
something for you. This is the privilege of the
weakest believer. Make the sacrifice all your own
by faith. Rest in the complete assurance
of the perfect satisfaction the Father has found in the shed
blood of His Son. Appropriate to yourself more
and more each day the worth of Him who died for you. Rest in
Him as your once crucified but now risen Lord and Savior. Find delight in Him for all He
has done, all He is doing, and surely will do for you. And as
you delight in Him, you will find yourself in conscious with
Him in rich communion and in fellowship with God the Father
who finds His delight in Him." A conscious peace. Not only with
God, but with one another. Here's a little poem I'll read
to you about the church of the Lord's people. The holy place found within the
walls of God's own building contains His very spirit and overflows
with countless blessings. None who enter in truly comprehend
the holy privilege of the grace and honor bestowed
upon the Lord's own heritage. What a beautiful church that
the great Redeemer purchased. The sinners he has bought are
knit together in his purpose. It is an eternal mystery to abide
with his dear people, for the temple where the Holy Ghost abides
is very fearful. Let all who witness the love
and kindness found in him be amazed as the sovereign God purifies
them from their sins, tremble to enter into his Majesty's very
presence where the saints shall reign forever and abide as one
in heaven. Now, I can't write that. Andrea
can't read that. If she writes them, I'll read
them. Ain't that wonderful? Peace. Peace. Wonderful peace.