I invite your attention back
to Leviticus chapter 1. The book of Leviticus is the
record that God gave Moses concerning the ceremonies and their appointed
sacrifices to Israel. All the rites performed for cleansing
and consecration Various priestly duties and observance of days
are set forth in Leviticus. These are all typical. These
are all typical. They paint a picture, but the
true substance is still shrouded in the language of mystery until
Christ came and unsealed this sealed book, sealed with seven
seals, and showed us who he was and what all of these things
meant. When I say typical, that is to
say that they, though they were actually performed, had a spiritual
significance that was not discernible to those who had not been given
eyes to see and ears to hear. Those who performed or participated
in the rites and rituals and ceremonies without understanding
resided under the veil that covered the face of Moses and the heart
of Israel as it's spoken of in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. That
veil is only removed by hearing the gospel and that mixed with
faith, God-given faith in the heart of the hearer. Look at
a few passages of Scripture holding your place there in Leviticus
chapter 1. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
3. Verses 12 through 16, after Paul sits forth at the ministry that
he does not have. That ministry of the letter that
killeth, the ministry of condemnation, the ministry that kills, the
ministry that has no glory when compared to the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, that ministration of condemnation. He says, that
is what those who are still under the old covenant have. And he
says in verse 12, seeing then we have such hope, that is in
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the person of Christ.
We use great plainness of speech and not as Moses, which put a
veil over his face, and the children of Israel could not steadfastly
look to the end of that which is abolished, speaking of the
old covenant. And that veil was on his face because he got it
and understood it, and they didn't. But their minds were blinded
For until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in
the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away with
Christ. But even unto this day, when
Moses is read, that veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when
it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Then in Hebrews, the book of
Hebrews chapter 4, We read of those who practice
these rites and ceremonies. But in Hebrews 4, verse 2, it
says, For unto us was the gospel preached as
well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, Not being mixed with faith in
them that hurt it. Not being mixed with faith. So
our Lord, that veil is still over the heart of those who are
under that Old Covenant, who are pursuing righteousness and
acceptance before God by the law. They can't understand the
Old Covenant. They can't understand the Old
Testament. For that testament is a picture
and a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the sacrifices spoken
of in Leviticus, they speak of worship. That's what the sacrifice
is about. Primarily, that's what it's about. It's worshiping God. And they
were exact. If you look at the book of Leviticus,
this thing is outlined in very strict detail because each one
of those little details done by men in these precision sacrifices
all pictured an aspect of the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This matter of approaching God
is very exact. Now all of that is narrowed down
in what we call the doctrine of diminishment or reduction,
that all of those things are rounded up and fixed in one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about the Old Testament
tells about that one person who is coming to finish the work
of salvation. So all these exact things which
were overwhelming to read, and to think that this has to be
done this way, and this has to be done this way. All of that's
met in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the perfect sacrifice,
the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world. Now,
all men did not see that these things pictured the person and
work of Christ. and the response of his elect
to that work. But being types, they did not
fully reveal the substance. Our Lord, in times past, spoken
to the fathers by the prophets, but in these last days has spoken
to us in Jesus Christ." That's what you're going to hear from
God. That's the language of God. But to those whom God had enlightened
even back then, these types whetted the appetite and created a thirst
for something, a hunger for righteousness, and a hunger for the substance
rather than the shadow. One writer wrote it this way,
are institutions intended to deepen and expand and ennoble
the circle of thoughts and desires, and so to heighten the moral
and spiritual wants as well as the intelligence and susceptibility
of the chosen people. That's what types were for. Moses
didn't fully understand, but he was looking. He was looking. And so was David, and so were
all the Old Testament saints whom God righteously saved by
the work of Christ according to Romans 3. It is clear from
the Word of God that there were those, they were the elect remnant
of Israel, that election being by grace, who believed on Christ
through these types. They looked for him and desired
him as the coming ancient of days and the desire of all nations. When we read the Gospels, we
find early on at the birth of Christ men talking about what
the Old Testament said about Jesus Christ. Zacharias preached
a great deal from the Old Testament defining who this child born
in Bethlehem was. These people who believed were
redeemed at Calvary by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
declared His righteousness. in the salvation of those who
were in the past, it says in Romans 3 in verse 25. And these typical elements would
not engender bondage. Now, if you stick to the elements
alone as salvation, as Israel still is trying to do, they really
don't have a religion now because the three elements that were
mentioned in this passage of Scripture in Leviticus 1 are
missing. They don't have a priesthood.
They don't have an altar, and they don't have an altar for
sacrifices. They really don't have a religion
because their religion is very precise. Very precise. So they don't have
a religion at all. And they don't understand that
all that they did pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. God is
the direct speaker in Leviticus. On every page and in every line
of this book, God is saying, do this, do this, do this. This is the voice of God speaking
through Moses. And the substance of the body
of the law, according to scripture we know, is the Lord Jesus Christ,
or the book. And only the believer truly stands
for and loves and establishes the law, and that is through
faith. By faith we establish the law. We establish the law.
Those who are under the law are simply condemned by it. They
are guilty before it. They can do nothing. They are
sentenced to die, and rightfully so. But the believer who believes
that Jesus Christ fully fulfilled the law and satisfied the law's
demands and satisfied God's justice by His propitiatory sacrifice,
they honor the law. They said, yes, it must be taken
care of. It must be fulfilled. It must
be answered. We don't discard the law. We
just don't try to live by it or use it in any way for righteousness,
justification or sanctification or rule of life. But we honor
it. We know that it took God Himself
to come down here in the person of His Son, in human flesh, to
die in the room instead of people. So great was the requirement. So exacting, all these little
details. And it took God Himself to die
in the room instead of His people to satisfy that law's demand. That law is honorable. And Christ
Jesus honored it. And we honor it. We honor it
because it's dead. We honor it because it's buried
now. Christ has set it aside. For
he said, lo, it is written in the volume of the book, I have
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first to establish
the second. It's set aside. It's no longer
enforced. It's like we who have loved ones in graves. Occasionally
we take flowers to the graves at Easter time or some other
time of the year. We honor the dead, and that's
what we do for the law, but we don't go to the law for anything.
We certainly don't go to the grave site of those loved ones
passed away and ask for advice, do we? Or ask for instructions. Oh, that's kind of a sick thing,
I would think. So we don't go to the law for that, but we honor
it. So perfect and holy was it that
only God could satisfy it. Only God could satisfy it. Only
a believer truly establishes the law through faith. If God
has given you eyes to see and ears to hear, then as you view
the things we're going to look at here in Leviticus chapter
1, these things revealed in this glorious passage, you know what
you'll see? You'll see Jesus Christ. If you
have eyes to see and ears to hear. Now though the Bible is
not always in chronological order, often the chronology of mention
requires some consideration. The first sacrifice mentioned
in Leviticus is the burnt offering. The first one. The first one. Barney, you say we follow the
law of first mention. We follow the law of first mention.
Immediately, two things become evident at the first mention
of this offering. This passage is, first of all,
it's about worship. It's about worshiping God. And
that worship is only found in the believer's identification
with the sacrifice. Only found in the believer's
identification with the sacrifice. That's the title of my message.
Identification. Identification. First and foremost
and preeminent in the worship of God is approaching the Lord
in the proper order. You remember David when he was
going to recover the ark. took a vote of the people and
there was a big meeting and everybody was shouting and happy and glorious
and he built him a brand new ox cart with mag wheels and he
went out and got that ark and put it on there and they were
so happy and God killed fifty at Beth Shemoth. Uzzah was slain
and the word there is it means he was he was quartered like
a beast he was cut and quartered like a beast when he touched
the ark when it just stumbled and David said You know? He was mad at God for killing
us. But he says, you know, we didn't
seek God after the right order. So the next time they went to
get the ark, they did it in the right order. They sent priests
with the golden staves to slip in the rings of that ark and
carry it on their shoulder. Because that's what God says. That's
the way that God says that thing is to be transported. There's
an order here. First and foremost and preeminent
is God does things in order, requires things in order, the
proper order with the proper sacrifice and for the proper
reason. All these are necessary. In every
instance where God is truly worshipped, three elements are always present
in Scripture. Whether Old Testament worship
or New Testament worship, three elements are always present. An altar, A sacrifice and a priest. Always. Mark it down. Those three
elements are always there when God is properly worshipped. Many
years ago, Don Fortner told me a story of him preaching in Australia. And he was out back, and it was
an open door. The church had open doors, and
it was not air-conditioned. And you know, Australia, I expect,
can be a pretty hot place. And he was preaching and he said
that very thing. He said, there are three Elements
absolutely necessary for you in worshiping God, an altar,
a priest, and a sacrifice. And it just so happened, mine
might call it coincidence, others might call it providence, and
they would be right. There was a Jewish man walking by the church
with the open doors. And you know Don don't need a
microphone, so he just went on out the back door when he was
speaking. And that Jewish man heard, you can't worship God
unless you have a priest, an altar, and a sacrifice. He knew
that was true. And I don't know whether the
Lord saved him or not, but there was a correspondence between him
and Don for years after that. He knew that. Israel knew that. And every true believer knows
that. And these all are met perfectly in the Lord Jesus Christ in His
finished work. Christ is our high priest, our
federal head and representative before God. Christ is our altar
according to scripture. according to Hebrews. And Christ
is our sacrifice, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
In fact, if you want to know what the revelation of the Lord
Jesus Christ is about, the book of the Revelation, it's all about
that Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. It speaks of God
in certain capacities, but the general gist of that book is
that Lamb upon that throne. That lamb, because that's how
we know Christ. That's how we first reveal Christ.
That's how we worship God, is through this sacrifice that our
Lord Jesus Christ made. And here it is described, the
animals are described here, though different animals are used, and
that was based on the worshippers and what they could afford. Some
could afford a cow, some a sheep, some a goat, some a turtle dove.
But everybody had an offering to make. The ritual is basically
the same. So we'll look at the thing God
mentions first here in verses 1 through 9 of Leviticus chapter
1. One thing needs to be noted.
No matter what the animal offer was to be, the direction and
the result was always the same. Three times here in verse 9,
verse 13, and verse 17 of this first chapter, it speaks of a
sacrifice being a sweet-smelling savor unto God. Now that sweet
savor was born of the fat. And the fat belongs to the Lord. That was that part of sacrifice
when you know that. You've fried pork chops. You've
grilled pork chops. What really smells good? Fat. It has an aroma that makes everything
smell. It just makes the meat smell
good. You can put a steak on the grill and don't have no fat
on it. It's got very little aroma. But if it's got a big chunk of
fat around it, if it has a strong aroma, the fat belongs to the
Lord. You remember what Hockney and
Phineas did over there in 1 Samuel when they were prostituting the
work of the Lord by prostituting the sacrifices. What they did,
they said, the fat is mine. But the fat ain't theirs. The
fat belongs to the Lord, because that's what offers its sweet-smelling
savor unto God. It means it's accepted by God. It makes God joyous. It makes
God joyous and happy toward God, and it's pleasing or propitiating
to God. In Hebrews 10, those very words are used, the sweet-smelling
savor. And this all points to the Lord
Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. In Ephesians 5, it's called,
Let us love one another. Be kind one another, because
Christ did die for us and offered a sweet smelling sacrifice unto
God. What I'm doing here this morning, or what I'm endeavoring
to do, not doing it very well, but nonetheless, that's what
I'm here for, so I'll stand up on my hind legs and give it my
best shot. When we tell folks of Christ,
when we preach the gospel, when we teach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that smells good to God. It's like throwing that
fat on that burnt offering. Look over at 2 Corinthians 2. You're familiar with this. But
we'll look at it anyway. I know sometimes when we talk
to folks about Christ and they cross their eyes and they hang
their head and they get all antsy and start telling us what they've
done for God. And I know sometimes we feel,
boy, that's just a dead end. It never is. The problem is we look for results.
Stop looking for results. Results always happen. We just
don't necessarily know what they are. You can't hear the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the power of God and the salvation
to everyone that believes. You can't hear the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, which settles all matters in humanity
in time and eternity, upon which all eternity hangs. You can't
hear that and be indifferent. You may think you're indifferent,
but you're not. You hate it. You do. And it don't smell good
to you. It ain't to fat-burning. But
to some, it smells good. Paul said, now thanks be unto
God. Chapter 2 of I Corinthians verse 14, now thanks be unto
God, which always, underline that, always causes us to triumph
in Jesus Christ and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by
us in every place. Now he's talking
about going about preaching the gospel. You know, Paul didn't
always have what people would call human success. He didn't. He was stoned at Lystra, left
for dead. I think he did die. I think that's
when he went to the third heaven. The time line is right there.
He was beaten. He actually received more stripes
over a period of time than the Lord Jesus Christ did with the
cat-of-nine-tails. He was abused. He was thrown
in prison. I said, boy, that guy's just a failure. Even those
who preached the gospel, some of them said, used him according
to Philippians 1 to add sorrow to his bondage by saying, well,
you know, Paul says he preached the gospel, you know, and he's
in jail. I'm preaching the gospel and
I ain't in jail. There's something wrong there. That's why they used him. That's how they used him. But
Paul said everything. When they laid the stripes to
my back, when they turned and walked away and would hear me
no more, when they cared not for the things of God, when they
laughed at me and mocked me, when they throwed me in jail
and put me in chains, when they did all that, you know what?
I was victorious. It was a triumph. Because it
always is. Don't be discouraged. When the
opportunity arises for you to tell somebody about Christ and
they turn and walk away and think you're a fool, don't be discouraged.
You're triumphant. Now thanks be unto God which
always causes us to triumph in Jesus Christ and make manifest
the savor of His knowledge in every place. For we are unto
God a sweet savor of Christ. The same language of the burnt
offering. It's the very same language.
A sweet saver of Christ, and we're a sweet saver of Christ
to God always, in them that are saved and in them that perish. Both of them. Smells good to
God. Well, I thought God wanted to
save everybody. God wants to save everybody,
everybody be saved. God does what He wants to do.
He's God. So, in them that perish and in
them that are saved, the gospel smells sweet because it's done
something. old Scott Richardson used to
say, you ain't gonna leave here like you come. You never will. You'll never come in and hear
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It'll be the same when
you go out. It ain't going to happen. You'll be different.
You'll love Christ more. You'll hate Him more. One death
is going to happen. That gospel says, For we are
unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved, and in
them that perish. For to one we are a saver of death unto
death, to the other we're a saver of life unto life. And who is
sufficient for these things? I'm certainly not. Paul didn't
feel like he was, but God is sufficient for these things.
And ours is not to set forth some type of sufficiency in the
ministry. Ours is to declare the Word of God. To preach the
gospel and leave it with men and let them go their way because
that's what they're going to do. We're not to invent ways
to try to get them to do things. We're not to invent places where
they can come so they can publicly confess Christ. We're not to
do that. We're not to grab them by the
arm and gang-sail them and run them down the aisles. We're not
to do that. We're to tell it out. That's what we do. And we have confidence that this
Word is the power of God unto salvation. This Word is the Word
by which our Lord upholds the world. This Word, the Word of
God. And it's always gloriously successful. In this text, in Leviticus, this
burnt offering is the first one mentioned. And why is this sacrifice
presented first? In the chronology of human history,
it seems it would place the fall as the first thing, and thus
the sin offering ought to precede the burn offering in the chronology
of human events. Adam sinned before he was clothed
with the covering of skins of the slain beasts, and the slain
beasts were a type. A type, however, is not a pattern. A type is a reflection, and for
a reflection to exist, there must be There must be the existence
of the substance that it reflects, or the object that it reflects. So in truth, the burnt offering
is the first offering, because before man's sin, before the
world was, Christ was slain. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. Why is the burnt offering the
first one spoken of? Why? Because it's a reflection
of Him who already existed as the burnt offering, the offering
acceptable to God. And worship, though it in part
addresses the confession of sin, it is not about the confession
of sin. Worship is about the remedy for
sin. It's the remedy for sin. It's
about how God has glorified Himself in putting away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself and accomplishing the salvation of those for whom
the sacrifice was made and thereby making the elect accepted in
the beloved sacrifice in the manner of knowing God, in the
manner of pleasing God, in the manner of communicating God with
God. Worship is first and foremost.
It's the first thing we do. Everybody that met Him in Scripture,
they hit the dirt, didn't they? They didn't jump and bounce around
and act like fools. They hit the dirt. They took
the headquarters up in the dust, worshiping Him. Let's look at
this passage of Scripture quickly. That's a long introduction, isn't
it? Well, I hope you're staying for lunch because we've got fried
bread and chili. Verses 1 and 2, And the Lord
called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle
of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel,
and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto
the Lord, he shall bring your offering of the cattle, even
of the herd of the flock. The first thing to note is the
language. Unlike the Ten Commandments, which were given in Exodus 20,
which were exacting edicts and laws, such as, Thou shalt not,
or Thou shalt, our Lord doesn't say, Thou shalt. He says, If
any man bring. Now that's a different language,
isn't it? The significance of this is that from Sinai came
thundering and fearful words that showed men their ruin and
utter helplessness and assigned sentence to their crimes of which
they were already guilty when the law was handed down. The
law was added because of transgression, it says in Galatians 3. And in Romans it says the law
entered Well, it wasn't anywhere before. It entered. There's a time for the law, and
the time has expired, but it did enter. Why? That the transgression
or iniquity might abound, that it might be seen for what it
is, as against God. From the tabernacle, the language
was the sweetest dulcet tones. It was different from Sinai,
the sweet dulcet tones of grace, and not the terror-filled words
of the law. from the tabernacle, it says,
and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Tabernacle among
us. And we beheld His glory as the
only begotten of the Father, full, full of grace. and truth, and we have received
grace for grace from Him. Worshipping God must be and always
is a voluntary act compelled by love for God, born of gratitude,
expressed in thanksgiving and praise with intent to ascribe
honor and glory to God alone. That's what worship is. I know
people say, well, I didn't get anything out of the worship service.
Well, you ain't supposed to. You're not supposed to get anything
out of worship. God is. God's the one that gets something
out of a worship service. We offer praise and thanksgiving
to Him. Praise and thanksgiving to Him. Secondly, the worship is particularly
and singularly the business of the elect. He says, if any man
of you bring offering." Who's he talking to? He talked to natural
Israel, which was a picture of true Israel, the elect according
to grace, any man of you. He didn't say this to the Assyrians,
or the Kenites, or the Jebusites. He didn't say this to the Egyptians.
He says, if any man of you, if any man of you bring an offering,
of you rules out all but the elect of God, the remnant according
to the election of grace. They that worship the Father
must worship Him in spirit and in truth, it says. That's what
our Lord said to the woman at the well. And those two elements,
they belong only to the regenerated, truth and spirit. Only the regenerated. Now, men
have a spirit. But it's not the Spirit of Christ
unless God gives them a new birth and gives them the Spirit of
God indwelling in them. Verse 3 says this, If his offering
be a burnt offering, of the herd. Let him offer a mail without
blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. The offering is first to be a
mail without spot or blemish. That pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Lamb slain without spot or blemish, foreordained
by God. If we are to worship God, this
is how we must come, in the merits of our perfect substitute. That's
how we come. We don't come as ourselves. We
come as His Son. We come in His Son. We come bringing
His Son. Lord, accept me in the merits
of Jesus Christ. Don't look at me for what I am.
I don't want nobody to know what I am, least of all God. But He
does anyway. So we come worshiping by bringing
a perfect sacrifice, and that sacrifice is Jesus Christ. This
sacrifice is called a burnt offering, and this speaks to two things.
First, the word burnt here means that which ascends. Remember
the sweet-smelling savor unto God? That's what the word burnt
means here. It means it ascends. It ascends. It is analogous with the word
incense. It's almost the same word in
the Hebrew language. This refers to the sacrifice
rising to the nostrils of God as a sweet-smelling savor and
to the person of Christ who ascended on high after having led captivity captive
and sits at the right hand of the Father. Why is he there?
Why is Christ at the right hand of the Father? Because he finished
the work of salvation. He didn't try. He didn't make
it possible. He finished it. That's the report
we have. I know men want to change the
report, but you can't change a report unless you lie. A report
is a statement of something that's already taken place. And all
we do is tell folks what took place on Calvary Street. Jesus
Christ said, it is finished. That's the finished work of salvation. This word burnt speaks of that
finished work of Christ, Him ascending on high, sitting at
the right hand of the Father, because He finished the work
of salvation. He was obedient even to the death
of the cross, wherefore God is highly exalted in Him, and given
Him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord to the
glory of the Father." The word used in interpreted burn in reference
to the sin offering means something altogether different. It literally
means to burn or to consume with fire. This doesn't. It means
to ascend. It means to a sin. And on the sin offering, that
burning up or consuming refers to the wrath of God poured out
upon Christ as a substitute for His people. The burn offering
does not address wrath poured out, but rather the acceptance
of the merit of the sacrifice and thus the acceptance of those
for whom it was made. That's what this burn offering
is about. That sweet-smelling savor. Acceptance. We see also
that this offering was to be brought voluntarily, an act of
non-compelled willingness. If you want to say a freewill
offering, you can say it, because that's what it was. It was offered
freely. It was offered freely and willingly. A willing offering, an offering
that the offerer wanted to make, desired to make. And this offering
is not made with an eye on gaining something, but is rather offered
as a reminder of something accomplished and possessed. The reason for
this is that the meaning of the phrase, of his own voluntarily
will, actually is translated, he shall offer it for or as his
own acceptance. That's how it's to be offered.
So when we come to God with Christ, honoring the glory and majesty
and the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're saying, I'm accepted.
I'm accepted in the beloved. He is offering this sacrifice
on the only ground of acceptance before God, and that's the merit
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This offering is not offered
to gain acceptance. It is offered rather as a declaration
of acceptance. It is not offered to gain relationship
with God, but as a declaration of an already existing relationship
with God. Verse 4. And 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. It shall be accepted. Note that this offering does
not involve confession of sins as a sin offering does. No confession
of sin here. No confession of sin. And the
hands are placed on the sacrifice. It's not about confessing sins.
This act of the offerer speaks to the substitution and imputation
and reconciliation as things accomplish. The offerer is identifying
with the sacrifice. He puts his hand on the sacrifice
and identifies. He is as much as saying, this
animal, this sacrifice is me. That's what they're putting on
the hands of. Of course, the concept of atonement is present
with the shedding of the blood, but this speaks to the result
of the atonement, which is reconciliation unto God. The word atonement
is an Old Testament word. It meant covering. It meant covering. Two examples of that in Scripture.
Noah pitched the ark within and without. Same word used throughout
the Old Testament as atonement. covered the ark, inside and out.
Jacob, when he was going to try to appease or cover the face
of Esau, because he was afraid Esau was going to tear him up,
sent a whole bunch of animals in herds, separated, each one,
the first being worth a little, the second being worth more,
the third, fourth, we got down to the fifth herd, there's worth
a whole lot, and he did it to cover the face of Esau. That's the word of Tone. That's
an Old Testament word. It's used in the New Testament
one time. Romans chapter 5, verse 11, where
it says, We have received the atonement. The word there is
reconciliation. Because in the New Testament,
covering won't do. Atonement was a type. It was
a type of propitiation. Propitiation is the substance
where sins are. God is satisfied for sins. And
they are expiated or put away by the sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The offerer here does not look for his sins to
be covered by this sacrifice, but rather by placing his hands
on the head of the sacrifice, he's declaring that his whole
person is accepted because of the merit of the sacrifice in
that sweet-smelling savor unto God. The Lord has accepted this
sacrifice as if it were me. And that's the position of every
child of God, every one of the elect. I'm accepted by God. Why? Because of the merit of
Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. I'm accepted in the beloved.
Accepted. That's what it means. That's
why he put his hands on the head of that sacrifice. Fifth verse. And he shall kill the bullet
before the Lord, and the priest Aaron's son shall bring the blood
and sprinkle the blood round about the altar that is by the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation. The offer is accepted
because there is now a record of his death, of his union with
Christ in his death. Puts his hand on there and says,
this is me. And what I owe God is one death. And then he kills the sacrifice. This is me. I'm dead. What Scripture says, ye are dead
and your life is hid with Christ in God. Being in Christ, the
accepted sacrifice is the doctrine addressed in this offering. As
the offerer placed his hands on the live beast and said, this
is me. This is my life. Now as the beast
is killed, the offerer is saying, this is me. This is my death. This is my death. And the sprinkling
of the blood and the death of the beast pictured the sacrifice
of our Lord as our high priest who poured out His blood to God
as He died in the room instead of His people. He obtained eternal
redemption for us by entering in once into that holy place
with the blood, His own blood. Thus the record shows that when
our Lord died, His people died with Him. That's the language
of Scripture, Romans 6. We are baptized. Why? We are
baptized unto His death. For when He died, we died also. We died also. The ordinances
of baptism in the Lord's table are analogous with putting your
hands on the head of the sacrifice. Does baptism do anything for
you? Does it make you something you weren't working for other
than wit? It doesn't. It doesn't do anything for you. It's an opportunity for you to
put your hands on the head of that sacrifice and say, when
Christ died, I died. We take the Lord's table. Certain
religions call baptism at the Lord's table sacraments. They
believe that they're sacred. And by doing them, you receive
grace from on high. And so they're required. If you're
going to get grace, you've got to do the sacraments. Marriage,
baptism, all those things. Christening, that stuff. But
they're not sacraments. All they are is you voluntarily,
willingly taking of that cup and that bread. And what you're
doing is putting your hands on the head of that burnt offering.
That's what you're doing. You're saying these things represent
These things represent Christ and what He's done for me. And
by understanding that, we discern the body and blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Then in verse 6-8, And He shall flay the burnt offering
and cut it into 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 priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the
head, the fat, in order upon the wood that is on the fire
which is upon the altar." This entire offering was incense to
God. His entire offering. No part
of it was to be eaten. It was sacrificed unto the Lord.
And the result was that when God, being pleased, accepted
the sacrifice, He accepted all who approached Him by and in
that sacrifice. You come to God by Christ, you
are accepted. You are accepted. That's what
it says in Ephesians 1, 6. We are accepted in the Beloved
to the praise of the glory of His grace. This is the burnt
offering. This is the first thing. This
is the first thing. Reflected in Leviticus. A reflection
of Jesus Christ, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
That's where our acceptance is. In that person and that person
alone. And if you're going to worship
God, that's how you worship God. in that sacrifice and nowhere
else. Father, bless us through our
understanding, we pray in Christ's name. Amen.