The Offerings of Sacrifice

Leviticus

The Offerings of Sacrifice

February 9th, 1958 @ 8:15 AM

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, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. 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. And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest 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, 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 wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. And if his offering be of the flocks, namely, of the sheep, or of the goats, for a burnt sacrifice; he shall bring it a male without blemish. And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar. And he shall cut it into his pieces, with his head and his fat: and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar: But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and the priest shall bring it all, and burn it upon the altar: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the LORD be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, or of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar: And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east part, by the place of the ashes: And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon: And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof; and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD: And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire. And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil. Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering. And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in the fryingpan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the LORD: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar. And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. And that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire. No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto the LORD. And if his oblation 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. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron's sons the priests shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an 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 on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the LORD be of the flock; male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. If he offer a lamb for his offering, then shall he offer it before the LORD. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron's sons shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar. And he shall offer of the sacrifice of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the LORD; the fat thereof, and the whole rump, it shall he take off hard by the backbone; and 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 caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the LORD. And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the LORD. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of it, and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation: and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round about. And he shall offer thereof his offering, even an 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 caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And the priest shall burn them upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savour: all the fat is the LORD'S. It shall be a perpetual statute for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that ye eat neither fat nor blood. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them: If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the LORD for a sin offering. And he shall bring the bullock unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD; and shall lay his hand upon the bullock's head, and kill the bullock before the LORD. And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock's blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary. And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; 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 caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away, As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering. And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung, Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. And if the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, and they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which should not be done, and are guilty; When the sin, which they have sinned against it, is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock for the sin, and bring him before the tabernacle of the congregation. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands upon the head of the bullock before the LORD: and the bullock shall be killed before the LORD. And the priest that is anointed shall bring of the bullock's blood to the tabernacle of the congregation: And the priest shall dip his finger in some of the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the LORD, even before the vail. And he shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar which is before the LORD, that is in the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall pour out all the blood at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he shall take all his fat from him, and burn it upon the altar. And he shall do with the bullock as he did with the bullock for a sin offering, so shall he do with this: and the priest shall make an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them. And he shall carry forth the bullock without the camp, and burn him as he burned the first bullock: it is a sin offering for the congregation. When a ruler hath sinned, and done somewhat through ignorance against any of the commandments of the LORD his God concerning things which should not be done, and is guilty; Or if his sin, wherein he hath sinned, come to his knowledge; he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a male without blemish: And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the goat, and kill it in the place where they kill the burnt offering before the LORD: it is a sin offering. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out his blood at the bottom of the altar of burnt offering. And he shall burn all his fat upon the altar, as the fat of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall make an atonement for him as concerning his sin, and it shall be forgiven him. And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the LORD concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar. And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat is taken away from off the sacrifice of peace offerings; and the priest shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour unto the LORD; and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and it shall be forgiven him. And if he bring a lamb for a sin offering, he shall bring it a female without blemish. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay it for a sin offering in the place where they kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood of the sin offering with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar: And he shall take away all the fat thereof, as the fat of the lamb is taken away from the sacrifice of the peace offerings; and the priest shall burn them upon the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the LORD: and the priest shall make an atonement for his sin that he hath committed, and it shall be forgiven him. And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. Or if a soul touch any unclean thing, whether it be a carcase of an unclean beast, or a carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him; he also shall be unclean, and guilty. Or if he touch the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty. Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him; when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing: And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD for his sin which he hath sinned, a female from the flock, a lamb or a kid of the goats, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his sin. And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering. And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer that which is for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide it asunder: And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it is a sin offering. And he shall offer the second for a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him. But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon: for it is a sin offering. Then shall he bring it to the priest, and the priest shall take his handful of it, even a memorial thereof, and burn it on the altar, according to the offerings made by fire unto the LORD: it is a sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for him as touching his sin that he hath sinned in one of these, and it shall be forgiven him: and the remnant shall be the priest's, as a meat offering. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul commit a trespass, and sin through ignorance, in the holy things of the LORD; then he shall bring for his trespass unto the LORD a ram without blemish out of the flocks, with thy estimation by shekels of silver, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for a trespass offering: And he shall make amends for the harm that he hath done in the holy thing, and shall add the fifth part thereto, and give it unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and it shall be forgiven him. And if a soul sin, and commit any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the LORD; though he wist it not, yet is he guilty, and shall bear his iniquity. And he shall bring a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: and the priest shall make an atonement for him concerning his ignorance wherein he erred and wist it not, and it shall be forgiven him. It is a trespass offering: he hath certainly trespassed against the LORD. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour; Or have found that which was lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely; in any of all these that a man doeth, sinning therein: Then it shall be, because he hath sinned, and is guilty, that he shall restore that which he took violently away, or the thing which he hath deceitfully gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing which he found, Or all that about which he hath sworn falsely; he shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom it appertaineth, in the day of his trespass offering. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, a ram without blemish out of the flock, with thy estimation, for a trespass offering, unto the priest: And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the LORD: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Command Aaron and his sons, saying, This is the law of the burnt offering: It is the burnt offering, because of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be burning in it. And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall put off his garments, and put on other garments, and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place. And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out: and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order upon it; and he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out. And this is the law of the meat offering: the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the LORD, before the altar. And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour of the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, even the memorial of it, unto the LORD. And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it. It shall not be baken with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire; it is most holy, as is the sin offering, and as the trespass offering. All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall be holy. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer unto the LORD in the day when he is anointed; the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a meat offering perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at night. In a pan it shall be made with oil; and when it is baken, thou shalt bring it in: and the baken pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for a sweet savour unto the LORD. And the priest of his sons that is anointed in his stead shall offer it: it is a statute for ever unto the LORD; it shall be wholly burnt. For every meat offering for the priest shall be wholly burnt: it shall not be eaten. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the LORD: it is most holy. The priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy place. But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brasen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in water. All the males among the priests shall eat thereof: it is most holy. And no sin offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be burnt in the fire. Likewise this is the law of the trespass offering: it is most holy. In the place where they kill the burnt offering shall they kill the trespass offering: and the blood thereof shall he sprinkle round about upon the altar. And he shall offer of it all the fat thereof; the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, And the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the caul that is above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away: And the priest shall burn them upon the altar for an offering made by fire unto the LORD: it is a trespass offering. Every male among the priests shall eat thereof: it shall be eaten in the holy place: it is most holy. As the sin offering is, so is the trespass offering: there is one law for them: the priest that maketh atonement therewith shall have it. And the priest that offereth any man's burnt offering, even the priest shall have to himself the skin of the burnt offering which he hath offered. And all the meat offering that is baken in the oven, and all that is dressed in the fryingpan, and in the pan, shall be the priest's that offereth it. And every meat offering, mingled with oil, and dry, shall all the sons of Aaron have, one as much as another. And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the LORD. If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried. Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the LORD, and it shall be the priest's that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten: But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the LORD, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the LORD, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it. For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the LORD shall bring his oblation unto the LORD of the sacrifice of his peace offerings. His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD. And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron's and his sons'. And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part. For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel. This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the LORD made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the LORD in the priest's office; Which the LORD commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations. This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings; Which the LORD commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the LORD, in the wilderness of Sinai.
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THE OFFERINGS FOR SACRIFICE

Dr. W. A. Criswell

Leviticus 1-7

2-9-58    8:15 a.m.

 

 

I cannot help but remark on that teenage choir.  These youngsters – they’re getting to where they sing anthems like our big choir.  I wish the boy – I do not know who he is – I wish he’d hold up his hand who sang that solo.  I’d like to see what boy it is.  Stand up, son.  My – is that right?  Oh, that was just beautiful, that teenage boy.  Billy said he goes into the hospital in the morning for an operation, and we’ll be praying for you that God will make you well.  Then when he gets out, may he be a better singer than ever for the Lord.  God bless this bunch of youngsters – the most faithful group you could ever know.

Now, we all turn to the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus – the third book of the Pentateuch, the third book of the Law of Moses – the book of Leviticus.  I would suppose that your life as a Christian and your education, if you have been taught in the Word of the Lord, has been largely like mine.  The book of Leviticus was looked upon and considered as the driest and most uninteresting and without pertinency for us today as much so as any piece of literature that you could read in this world.  But if you look at it carefully, it has in it some of the great, great messages and some of the great revelations of the whole Book and Word of God. 

Now, by no means, by no means would anyone consider – and least of all I – that what I say this morning is exhaustive.  We are going to take the five sacrificial offerings and just look at them just cursorily – briefly, summarily, not exhaustively.  We have been for these Sundays and Sundays speaking of the types in the Old Testament; and these five offerings, the offerings of the sacrifice, the sacrificial system of the tabernacle and later of the temple – all of those offerings were types.  They were typical of the great, great sacrificial offering, sacrifice, of our Lord Jesus.  They all tell of Him.  They all speak of Him.  They all present Him. 

Now, the offering will be different, and the way it is offered will be different: how it is burned, how it is cut up, how it is offered, whether it is eaten, whether it is burnt, whether part of it is burnt, whether part of it is eaten, whether all of it is eaten, all of it is burned.  There will be many, many ways of making the sacrifice, but they all tell the same story.  They all speak of Christ; they all point to Him.  And these ancient rituals, established of the Lord 1,500 years before Jesus died, all of them have a meaning.  And what the Lord inspired Moses to write here in the book was not just something, or nothing, but it had a meaning.  And that meaning can be found as we read it and then as we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us.  And there you will find one of the most rewarding of all of the studies in the world, that is, if you love the Lord and love the Book.  And these early morning services in the First Baptist Church in Dallas are dedicated to people who love the Lord and love the Book – just looking at it and seeing what God hath writ large here on the page of the sacred Scriptures.

Now, with your book of Leviticus before you, you will notice that the first chapter tells of the burnt offerings.  Then the second chapter tells of the meal offering.  You have it translated, we have it translated in the King James Version "meat offering."  The Old English word for "meat" referred to food, a food offering.  We’d call it a meal offering.  Now, the third chapter of Leviticus, the next one, is the peace offering.  Then the fourth chapter, the next chapter, is the sin offering.  Then the fifth chapter through the first part of the sixth tells of the trespass offering.  And those are the five offerings of the Leviticus sacrificial system: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering – these five.

Now, may I say a preliminary word that I have said before but a word which cannot be mentioned too much?  The great purpose of all of this system, the sacrificial ritual, the worship in the temple, how it was set up in the tabernacle, all of this was to emphasize that we are a sinful people and that without the shedding of blood there is no expiation of sin [Hebrews 9:22], there is no atonement [Hebrews 9:6-7], and there is no approach to God.  All of that was for that one great enduring purpose [Hebrews 9:9]. 

Now, may I say a corollary?  May I draw a conclusion from that?  Whenever sin is minimized, then the sacrifice or the offering or the ritual or the atonement that could take it away is also minimized.  Don’t you see that?  If sin is a slight thing, then what could take it away is also a slight thing.  But if sin is an awful thing and a terrible thing, then the sacrifice that could take it away is a most marvelous and precious thing.

Now, let’s apply that to Christ.  When sin is minimized – it’s a peccadillo; it’s nothing.  When sin is looked upon with just the raising of an eye, just almost overlooked, then the work of Christ is also minimized and almost overlooked.  It is practically optional.  The purpose of these old rituals and these old systems was to teach the people of the enormity, the awfulness, the terribleness, the damnableness of sin.  All of these things, all of them, teach that sin builds, creates, an awful abyss between the soul and God [Isaiah 59:2].

Now, the sacrificial system was to teach how that abyss is bridged – how a sinful man comes to God.  And all of that is in the atoning work of Christ.  If we are damned and our souls condemned to eternal perdition and separation and damnation and hellfire, if we are a lost people, then He that could save us to God from the flames of judgment and the fires of fury and the damnation of hell – He that could save us is above all in this earth, glorious and precious.  And that becomes the love we have toward our Savior.  He saved our souls [1 Peter 1:9], delivered us from damnation [1 Thessalonians 1:10], saved us to God from the flames and the fires of an eternal hell [Matthew 13:41-42; 1 Thessalonians 5:9].  How wonderfully precious becomes Jesus. 

But if sin is nothing and if we don’t need atonement and washing in blood, if sin is a little something, maybe a stumbling upward in the progress of life, and if it is to be overlooked, and if one can sin with impunity, without judgment, then the one that could deliver us from that judgment is also as nothing because the judgment is nothing, the penalty is nothing.  If we’re saved anyway without the blood of Christ, without the sacrifice of Jesus, if we all going to heaven anyway, if all mankind are just universally to be saved, or there’s not any judgment to come, then the expiating work of Christ, the atoning work of Christ is also nothing. 

I am just trying to emphasize that our judgment of the Lord, how we feel about Christ, is conditional upon this one thing:  how we feel about sin.  If sin is nothing, Christ is nothing.  But if sin damns our souls, He that could take it away is of all gifts most unsearchably, indescribably precious. 

So when you come to this sacrificial system, that’s what the purpose of it was:  teaching God’s people of the abyss between them and the great mighty God – and God is beyond the veil, and the sinner is outside the court, and the only way he has access to God is through the blood of expiation [Hebrews 10:1, 10].  Beyond the veil, the only way he could ever come to the Mercy Seat through the blood of atonement.  And that’s why the whole purpose of this sacrificial system.

Now, when you study it, when you read it, when you look at it, that’s what you’re looking at:  God’s judgment upon us and how in the sacrifice of the Lord we have access to the throne of God – how a lost man can be saved, how vile sinners could ever walk into the gates of glory [Hebrews 10:13-22].  That’s the Levitical sacrificial system [Hebrews 9:1-10:39].  Now let’s take it, and, I say, in the little moment of time I have this morning, there are just some things that I can point out about it; and some time we’ll take it up and really look at it. 

All right, the first offering.  The first offering is the whole burnt offering [Leviticus 1:1-17]; that is, it was all burned up.  When you entered into the tabernacle grounds, the first thing you came to was the great altar. The burnt offerings were laid upon that altar.  They were of the herd, in the third verse [Leviticus 1:3], they were of the herd.  If they were of the herd, they had to be cut up and washed and laid in order [Leviticus 1:5-9].  They could be of the flock.  That’s the tenth verse – could be a sheep or a goat [Leviticus 1:10], or, in the fourteenth verse, they could be of the fowls [Leviticus 1:14]:  a turtledove or a pigeon.  There might be someone who was poor and couldn’t afford to offer a bullock or to offer a sheep or a goat; and for the poor, that poor one could offer a turtledove or a little pigeon [Leviticus 5:7].

Now, that offering was wholly burned [Leviticus 1:13].  All of it was consumed on the altar.  And its meaning is made clear.  In the sixth chapter of the Book of Leviticus, in the ninth verse and the tenth verse, you have the commandment of how they were to make that sacrifice – your further instructions about it.  And it says in Leviticus 6:9: "Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering . . .’" Now then, the tenth verse: ". . . and he shall take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar" [Leviticus 6:10].  After the sacrifice was burned up, they took the ashes and placed them beside the altar.  Then, of course, as the days passed and the ashes accumulated, they were instructed to take them outside the camp and place them in a clean place [Leviticus 6:11].  But first, they were placed beside the altar, the burned up ashes. 

Well, what does that mean this burnt sacrifice and the ashes placed there beside the altar?  It meant, it referred to the fact, that the consuming wrath of God has spent its force.  The fire has burned out and the whole thing is consumed, and there it is, the burnt ashes by the side of the altar.  Or if I could say it in the words of Jesus: "It is finished" [John 19:30].  There it is, the sacrifice made.  The fire has burned.  This is the end of the way and there the ashes are. The fire of God, the judgment of God, the wrath of God, has done its utmost.  "It is finished" [John 19:30].  The ashes there speak of the justification of the sinner [Romans 5:1].  That’s a picture of the wrath of God against our sin, our iniquity [Isaiah 53:10].  On Calvary, it did its worst; it did its utmost [Colossians 2:13-15].  This is the end of it, and there are the ashes by the side of the altar speaking of the justification now of a poor lost sinner no more under the wrath of God, no more under the judgment of God, no more facing the awful penalties of our sins from the hands of God.  The fire is burned out.  It is finished.  This is the end of it, and now we are justified in His sight.

I came across, in my studying, a thing that I thought was one of the most beautifully effective ideas I have ever read of in my life, and it was this.  The author took those ashes there by the side of the altar and compared them with the Mercy Seat on the other side of the temple grounds [Exodus 25:17-22].  And this is what he said.  He said, "As a poor, lost sinner enters in to the tabernacle grounds, the first thing he comes to is the altar of burnt sacrifice; and there he stands, a poor, lost sinner.  On the other side, farthest on the other side is the Mercy Seat of God beyond the veil where the Lord dwells in the Holy of Holies."

 

Now, he said, always in the building of the tabernacle and in the building of the temple, always, he said," The entrance is on the east, always, and that far beyond, the veil, throne, and presence of God was always on the west, always on the west."  And he said, "The poor lost sinner always enters from the east, and he stands there before the judgment and the fire and the wrath of Almighty God.  On the other side from him, on the west side from him, beyond the veil is the throne and presence of God, dwelling between the cherubim."

And he said, "That burnt sacrifice, with its blood first offered, then the body burned up, and the ashes there by the side of the altar," he said, "that means that as far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us [Psalm 103:12] – as far as the ashes are from the Mercy Seat, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us" [author unknown].

I thought that was one of the finest, finest pictures I had ever read in my life, and it moved my soul.  The ashes of the burnt sacrifice: God’s wrath has done its utmost and the sinner now is justified, and now let him come boldly through the veil to the throne of grace – just walk into the presence of God [Hebrews 10:19-22].  You’re justified now by the sacrifice of our Lord [Hebrews 10:14], wholly given unto God. Well, that’s the burnt offering.  Now, we go on to the meal offering. 

The meal offering speaks of three things of our Lord – in the second chapter of the book of Leviticus [Leviticus 2:1-16], the meal offering.  First, do you notice it is to be a fine flour, fine flour?  In the second chapter of Leviticus, in the first verse, it is fine flour [Leviticus 2:1].  In the fourth verse, it is repeated again: "It is a fine flour" [Leviticus 2:4]. In the fifth verse, repeated again: "a fine flour" [Leviticus 2:5].  In the seventh verse, repeated again, "made of fine flour" [Leviticus 2:7].  Now, that fine flour refers to the beauty, the symmetry, of our Lord’s life throughout. 

All of us, without exception, all of us have good points and bad points, every one of us.  There’ll be a wonderful man, and when you get to know him, there’ll be some things that are especially beautiful and acceptable about him; but if you get to know him real well, he’ll have feet of clay.  There’ll be a piece of coal in the diamond.  All of us are that way.  But our Savior was beautiful throughout.  If you had fine flour, like you precious women would make a cake out of, and you sift it, and that sifted flour, the same [consistency] all the way through, that’s a picture of the life and character of our Savior.  He was fine and wonderful in every measure, in every degree [Matthew 12:17-21; Luke 4:22]: in His temperament, in His manners, in His speech, in His life, in His uprisings and downsittings, in His goings forth and His returnings back.  In all of His life, whether it was of His mind, intellectual, or of His heart, emotional, or of His will, volitional, all through His life, He was beautifully perfect [1 Peter 1:18-19] – "fine flour."

Now, look again:  this offering was made without leaven [Leviticus 2:4] – nothing in it of the corruption of the world [1 Corinthians 5:6].  And it was brought there to the priests and some of it was eaten – not all of it, but some of it was eaten.  In the tenth verse: "That which is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron’s and his sons’" [Leviticus 2:10].  And when we eat of these loaves made with oil, the Holy Spirit, why immediately there comes a flood of things into our hearts of the communion we have with our Lord as we eat His flesh and drink His blood [John 6:54]. 

Then, will you notice in the fourteenth and the fifteenth verses and the sixteenth verses, it speaks of it as being beaten and as being crushed and as being bruised? [Leviticus 2:14-16].  All of that speaks of the suffering of our Lord.  The loaves were made and the offerings were made of grain that was crushed, and bruised, and beaten – all of it a picture of the pure life offered in sacrifice and eaten by the people who find His word and His life to be manna from heaven and water of life.

Now, let’s take, hastily, the third one, the peace offering [Leviticus 3:1-17].  If I could, I would rename that.  Over here in the seventh chapter of the Book of Leviticus, in the eleventh and twelfth verses, you will see a name that I’d like to call those offerings: "And this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord.  If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then shall he . . . " [Leviticus 7:11-12] so and so, and then in the sixteenth: "for a vow" [Leviticus 7:16] and on and on.  If I would name them, I would call them "thanksgiving offerings, a thanksgiving offering," called here "the peace offering" – a thanksgiving offering. 

There is something that God has done especially for you, and I want to thank God for it.  And the way they did was to offer a thanksgiving offering, and they shared it there in the tabernacle grounds together [Leviticus 7:15-16].  Now, taking that as being pleasing to the Lord, I think it is a wonderful thing for us to follow that today, don’t you?  There is something that God has done especially for us, and this is a thanksgiving offering.  "God, just a little token of appreciation." 

Now, that’s the way we do to one another, isn’t it?  If somebody has done something nice for you, why, if it is possible and you can, just a token of appreciation, we give them a gift.  Like if you go to be a guest in a home and stay in the home a little while, maybe a weekend, then when you go away, why you send back, maybe, a little gift, a thanksgiving gift, or, to apply it to the courts of heaven, an appreciation offering – something God’s done for you and you’re doubly grateful.

I have often thought that one of the most beautiful things I ever heard a father or mother saying and doing was when the preacher was taking up a collection for the new building, and they were subscribing, the people were, to the new building, to the new church house; and a man stood up and said, "We lost our boy in the war" – like this boy to whom one of these bouquets of flowers is dedicated today, lost his life in the war.  He stood up and said, "We have lost our boy in the war, and in memory of our boy, we subscribe ten thousand dollars to the building fund, to the building of the house of God."  And when he sat down, another couple there, the wife turned to her husband and said, "Husband, stand up, stand up and tell them that we will give ten thousand dollars for our boy."  And the husband said, "Well, wife, why, I don’t understand.  We didn’t lose our boy.  Our boy came back home alive."  And the wife replied, "Husband, that’s what I’m saying.  Let’s give ten thousand dollars for our boy – that God spared him and brought him back home alive." 

That’s exactly what that is, a thanksgiving offering.  God has done something good, and we thank Him for it.  And they were taught to come to the house of the Lord with a special sacrifice.  Why, bless you, I could not think of a more precious thing to do in our lives.  God has done something good for us; therefore, therefore, I am making a special gift.  Give it to missions, give it to one of our missions, or put it in the building fund, or give it to the church where it’s divided half for the work here and half for God’s work around this earth.

Now, we hasten to this fourth one, the sin offering [Leviticus 4:1-35].  I just point out one thing to you in the sin offering.  I want you to look in the fourth chapter of Leviticus.  I want you to look at the twelfth, at the twelfth verse.  I want to show you there the difference in this sin offering and all the other offerings.  Now, look at the twelfth verse.  Do you see it?  "That whole bullock that is offered shall he carry forth without the camp, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire:  where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt" [from Leviticus 4:12]. 

Now, do you see the difference there?  Why, we’ve just been speaking of the whole burnt offering on that altar [Leviticus 1:5-17], but the sin offering could not be burned there.  For what was on that burnt offering ascended up to God, an acceptable and sweet savor in His sight [Leviticus 5:17].  But this sin offering is to be taken outside the camp and burned there with fire [Leviticus 4:12]. Now, what does the Lord say in this Book?  "He was taken outside the camp; let us therefore go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing his reproach" [from Hebrews 13:12-13].  He was crucified outside the gates, outside the city, outside the camp: the sin offering.  And even God turned His face, and the sun forgot to shine [Mark 15:33], and the Son of God cried, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" [Matthew 27:46]: the sin offering.

I want to do one other thing in this little brief minute, then we have to close.  The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah has all five of these offerings in it.  The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah.  I do not have time to speak of it. I just want you to turn to the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, and I’m going to point them out to you, then I’ll have to close.  The fifty-third chapter of Isaiah which is the great, great, chapter of the crucifixion of our Lord. 

This man Isaiah lived 750 years before Jesus died.  Yet you would think he was standing by the cross when he wrote this.  All right, look at it. 

That third verse there is the meal offering [Isaiah 53:3].  Didn’t I tell you a moment ago that the meal was ground and bruised and crushed? "Despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief . . . He was despised, and we esteemed Him not" [Isaiah 53:3] – crushed and bruised. 

All right, now look at the fifth verse: "But He was wounded for our transgressions" – there is the trespass offering.  Now, look: "The chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed" [Isaiah 53:5].  That is the peace offering.  Now look at the next, the sin offering, in the sixth verse: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" [from Isaiah 53:6]. 

Look in the tenth verse: "When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin" [from Isaiah 53:10].  Look in the twelfth verse: "Because He poured out His soul unto death" [from Isaiah 53:12].  That’s the sin offering. 

Now, look at the burnt offering: "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied:  by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities" [Isaiah 53:11].  There is the burnt offering, the ashes by the side of the altar; the wrath and judgment of God is spent: "and by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many" [Isaiah 53:11].  It’s done its works.  It’s over, and we are free and forgiven and justified in His sight.

Well, we must close.  While we sing our song this morning, somebody to give his heart to the Lord, somebody a family or one somebody you to put his life in the church, while we sing the song, would you come?  Anyone?  Someone? As God shall say the word and lead the way, into that aisle and down here to the front, would you come while we stand and sing?