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[0:00] I'm glad that I'm a gospel minister and not an old covenant priest.

[0:10] ! Can you imagine what the temple must have been like?! Nothing like this place, that's for sure. Remember the smell of blood everywhere? Have you ever smelled a butchered animal?

[0:30] Kids, maybe your dad has shot a deer and hung it up in the garage and it's really gross and you go out there and there's a certain thick smell about it and that is what the temple smelled like all the time. It was a bloody, messy place.

[0:49] Animals were skinned and intestines were washed and death hung over the temple. Death was everywhere, everywhere you looked.

[1:03] But the whole scene, the animals, the blood, the smell, the sounds and the sight was the gospel dressed in an Old Testament gown and it all pointed to Jesus Christ.

[1:19] It pointed to the same thing that the supper that we are taking tonight points to, to him. And tonight I want to look at one of the Old Testament sacrifices and see how it points to Jesus Christ.

[1:32] So we're going to look at Leviticus chapter 1 and we're going to use our New Testament magnifying glass and look at the burnt offering from Leviticus 1 and see how Jesus is our burnt offering.

[1:49] He is our burnt offering. So turn there to Leviticus chapter 1. The whole chapter is about the burnt offering. God divided the burnt offering by economic ability of each person.

[2:04] We're only going to look at the first nine verses that have to deal with the bull. If you were rich, you offered a bull. If you were of middle income, you offered a sheep or a goat.

[2:15] And if you were poor, then you could offer a dove or a young pigeon. But whatever animal that your economic status fit into the burnt offering at its heart was the same.

[2:28] It had the same picture. And so we're just going to look at the first nine verses at what it says about the bull. I have seven points tonight. Some are a little bit longer than others, but they're all fairly brief.

[2:40] And we first see that the Lord provides the sacrifice. The Lord provides the sacrifice. Let's read the first two verses. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting.

[2:53] He said, speak to the Israelites and say to them, when any of you brings an offering to the Lord, bring as your offering an animal from either the herd or the flock. Now, the most important question that anyone here can ask is, how can I have fellowship with God?

[3:11] How can we have communion with God? How can sinful, unholy, mortal creatures have anything to do with the immortal, the completely holy, completely perfect God?

[3:27] Now, without God, there is no life. Without God, there is no light. We desperately need God. But how can that be?

[3:37] How can we have a relationship one with the other? How can we have fellowship with God? Well, in these first two verses, the Lord answers that question.

[3:48] He tells us how we can have fellowship with him. He speaks to sinful men. The solution comes from God. The solution does not come from men. So how can sinful, unholy, mortal creatures have fellowship with God?

[4:03] Yahweh tells us. And he says, I have a plan. Men may come through a sacrifice. Men may come through a sacrifice, through the pain and death of a substitute.

[4:15] You can come to me. The Lord begins with the gospel. The law is already thundered in Exodus. And now Leviticus begins the gospel.

[4:28] And he says, I have provided the required sacrifices. Now, the first sacrifice the Lord provided was the burnt offering. You see that in verse three. Now, we're going to have to go outside of this passage and we're not going to take the time to do that.

[4:44] But as you look at other passages that have to do with the burnt offering in the first five books of the Bible, you can see that the burnt offering is the foundational sacrifice. It's the first one.

[4:55] It's the most basic. In the book of Numbers, the Lord commanded that the priest every morning and every evening offered, offer a burnt sacrifice, a burnt offering on behalf of God's people.

[5:08] And so it was the foundational sacrifice for their ongoing relationship with the Lord. So what was God saying? Israel, you are too sinful.

[5:21] You are too wicked to have anything to do with me unless there is a sacrifice made. You're too sinful to come on your own. I am a consuming fire.

[5:34] But I provided a way for you to come to me. Now, brothers and sisters, didn't the Lord provide our sacrifice? How could we have anything to do with God?

[5:47] We're not Israelites, but the same question applies. How can we have anything to do with God? Remember Romans 325. God presented him, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood.

[6:04] God presented him. God provided the sacrifice, the sacrifice of atonement. So Jesus is our teacher. He's our master. He is our Lord.

[6:15] He's our shepherd. But foundational to all of those realities that are true. This reality is true. This is the foundational reality that Jesus is our sacrifice.

[6:26] He is our substitute. So God gave him to die and to suffer on our behalf. Now, Abraham and Isaac were on the Mount Moriah, which is just outside of the city of Jerusalem.

[6:45] And Abraham was offering his son Isaac as a burnt offering. And Isaac was on the altar. And Abraham's knife was in his hand.

[6:57] And it was raised in the air. And the Lord cried from the heavens, Abraham, Abraham, stop. Don't slay your son. Don't lay a hand on the boy.

[7:08] And when Abraham looked up, he saw in the thicket a ram whose horns were caught there. And listen to what it says. So Abraham called that place, the Lord will provide.

[7:24] And to this day, it is said on the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided. It was on one of those very mountains outside of Jerusalem, perhaps that very same mountain, that the Lord provided the final burnt offering.

[7:43] He provided Jesus, our burnt offering. So that's point one. The Lord provides the sacrifice. Two. The sacrifice must be perfect.

[7:54] Must be perfect. Look at verse three. If the offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he is to offer a bale without defect. So the burnt offering had to be without defect.

[8:07] There had to be no blemish in it. In verse five, it says it had to be a young bull. And so God requires in this sacrifice a young, strong, completely healthy, completely perfect sacrifice.

[8:21] It had to be the best. Nothing else would do except for the very best. Now, in Malachi, the Lord berated the people because they were offering crippled animals and blind animals.

[8:33] And the Lord calls it robbery. He calls it fraud. He says, stop cheating me for I am a great king. The perfection of the sacrifice points.

[8:47] It's an indication of how glorious God is. He says, for I am a great king. I deserve the best and nothing less than the best will do.

[8:59] Everything else in Malachi says everything else is showing contempt for me. It's showing contempt for my majesty, for my holiness. And so the sacrifice had to be perfect because the king was so great.

[9:14] And it had to be perfect because it represented sinlessness. The sinner substitute could not be a blemished, sin stricken, sin cursed animal himself, itself.

[9:27] Or how could it be a fitting substitute? Now, what about Jesus? Peter says he was a lamb without blemish or defect.

[9:41] And then later he says, and he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. Jesus was the human par excellence. His mouth was without sin.

[9:55] And if a man doesn't sin with his tongue, James says, he's a perfect man. Jesus did not sin with his tongue at all. He was a spotless lamb and he was strong.

[10:06] He was young. He was in the prime of his manhood. And then he was taken. When he was going out to be executed, there were some women there and they were mourning.

[10:21] And he said, don't mourn for me. Mourn for yourselves. If they do this when the tree is green, what are they going to do to you? When it's old, rotten, and withered away.

[10:31] And so there he was, a green tree, and he was chopped down. He was the perfect human. He was the choicest of the flock. Was there anyone wiser? Was there anyone kinder?

[10:43] Was there anyone more God-centered, more lovely, more God-glorifying than our Lord? And that is why he was chosen. He was the best of the best.

[10:55] He was the most beautiful of ten thousands. And for those reasons, he had to die. Now, his death would shout from the rooftops that I am a great king.

[11:08] It would say that the Lord is a great king. Only the blood of the pristine Son of God, the incarnate God-man, could bring God and man together.

[11:20] Only the perfect Son of God could make this relationship come together. Only his sacrifice would be worthy of restoring God's honor. And only his sacrifice would be enough to satisfy and cleanse our sin.

[11:35] He was the perfect burnt offering. Now, three. The offering must be made before meeting God. Before meeting God.

[11:46] Look at the middle of verse three. He must present him. That is the worshiper. He must present it at the entrance to the tent of meeting so that it will be acceptable to the Lord.

[11:56] So that he will be acceptable to the Lord. So before coming into the tent of meeting, the worshiper presented at the entrance the offering.

[12:07] There was no worship. There is no worship without sacrifice. Sinful men. Any Israelite. Anyone here.

[12:19] Cannot come into God's presence empty handed. And brothers and sisters, this is the good news as it's seen in Leviticus, because men can joyfully come into God's presence and worship him through the atoning sacrifice.

[12:38] And that's the idea when it says so he will be acceptable to the Lord. Sin doesn't forever have to shut people out from God's presence. Yes, they are sinful.

[12:49] And yes, he is completely holy. But there is a way for that to be overcome. And it's through Leviticus says through the atoning sacrifice. So God can smile on man's worship when they come through the blood of the sacrifice.

[13:08] Now, brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is our perfect burnt offering. And as sinful as I am. Sinful as you are.

[13:19] There is a way that we can come into God's presence and worship him joyfully. And it's through his atoning sacrifice. There's a new. This is what Hebrews says.

[13:29] There's a new living way to come to God through the curtain, which is his body. And so through the sacrifice, through his body, we can come to God.

[13:42] And we can come and he smiles on us and he shows us favor and kindness and he receives our worship. God accepts us when we come through Christ.

[13:54] And that's good news. There are times I know, brothers and sisters, when our consciences condemn us and we say, how can I come to God?

[14:07] How can I come before him? How can I go and meet with him? And if you have reservations about worshiping God, then look again to your burnt sacrifice. Jesus Christ was slain.

[14:21] And you can come to the father through him. And Leviticus and all the Bible says, if you come through him, he will accept you. Your worship, he will accept it.

[14:33] He will smile on you. He will take delight in you. Now, verse point four. What was the burnt offering's purpose? What was its purpose? Well, look at verse four.

[14:46] He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. Now, the burnt offering is for atonement.

[14:57] That isn't a very familiar word in our day. We don't use that in normal conversation. And so it needs some explaining. Well, what does atonement mean? The Hebrew word is kafar and it has two meanings.

[15:11] They're somewhat different, but they're still related. And the first, it means the removal of sin. It means the removal of sin. And the fancy theological word for that is expiation.

[15:25] It expunges, it cleanses sin. And so if you have your record expunged, that means you have all the bad things in your record taken out. And that can be really nice, can't it?

[15:40] So if you are a very naughty elementary student, something very beautiful happens when you go to junior high or high school, I assume. I think this is how it works. And it's basically your record is expunged.

[15:53] All the naughty things that you did in fifth grade are taken away. And it's a fresh start. And so none of the teachers have to know how you were. They're probably going to know in Bremen. But all illustrations have a point where they break down.

[16:10] You get a fresh start. And that's what atonement means. It means the removal of sin. It's a stain remover. And don't you love stain removers?

[16:21] I love stain removers. I get stains on my clothes. I've used a number of illustrations lately that have to do with these. And so I get up on Sunday morning and I get dressed. And very often I get something on my shirt or my pants.

[16:35] But I don't take them off and throw them away. I go in the laundry room and I squirt stain remover on it. And I give it a good rub. And the stain is gone. The stain was scrubbed out.

[16:47] And that is what atonement means. It means to have your sins scrubbed out, removed. That's part of the meaning. Kapar also means propitiation.

[16:59] That's another fancy theological word that's very important. It means that it appeases God's wrath. Propitiation is appeasing God's wrath.

[17:11] And so that's what the sacrifice is for. It soothes God's anger. Now when the stain is removed, when the guilt is taken away, then the Lord's wrath is turned away.

[17:25] He's turned away from the sinner. And that's what the burnt offering is for. It's a stain remover. It removes sin and it also removes the wrath of God.

[17:36] It soothes God's anger. Now that idea of atonement is at the very heart of the gospel. And you see it here and you see it throughout all of scripture.

[17:47] At the cross, Jesus became our burnt offering. He became our sacrifice of atonement, as Romans 3 just said. And when he came, he brought full and final atonement.

[18:02] So his death removed our sin. It scrubbed it out. And it also turned God's wrath away from us. It soothed God's anger. Now there's one verse that brings those two ideas together.

[18:15] Listen to Romans 5.9. Since we now have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? So our records are washed clean.

[18:27] We're justified. We're made righteous through his blood, on the grounds of his blood, on the grounds of his sacrifice. And so we're justified by his blood. And the result is that God's anger is taken away from us.

[18:41] We're saved from the wrath to come. And so justification, the making of righteous, declaring righteous, it leads to reconciliation, where now there's a friendship can develop.

[18:53] It removes wrath. Now Jesus Christ is our atoning sacrifice. And that's what we remember tonight. That he took away our sin, as bad as it was, as much as it was.

[19:08] He took the guilt away, and he turned God's anger away from us. Now five. The body was broken, and the blood was shed.

[19:22] Let's look at the rest of the passage through verse 9. He, that is the worshiper, he is to slaughter the young bull before the Lord. And then Aaron's sons, the priest, shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the tent of meeting.

[19:41] He is to skin, again, that's the worshiper. The worshiper is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron, the priest, are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.

[19:55] Then Aaron's sons, the priest, shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar.

[20:10] It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord. So put yourself there.

[20:23] Can you see it? The victim is torn limb from limb. It's cut into pieces. And the blood is sprinkled on all sides of the altar.

[20:38] Now the sprinkled blood, it was a public sign. That's what it was doing. It was showing that a sacrifice had been made. Death had come. Life was lost.

[20:51] Now in the same way, Jesus' body was broken for us. He was slaughtered.

[21:05] And his face was beaten to the point where you could not recognize who he was anymore. And according to Isaiah 50, it says his beard was torn out.

[21:19] So his chin and his cheeks were nothing but a bloody mess. And he was flogged. And he was flogged. So the skin of his back was cut open and his skin was stripped off in shreds.

[21:37] And his wrists and his ankles, his feet were nailed to the cross. And his blood was shed. The offering had been made.

[21:49] The blood was shed. And there wasn't an inch of his body that was not covered in blood. And then remember, the Roman soldier. He takes his spear and he pierces Jesus' side.

[22:03] And blood and water came out. The blood was shed. The sacrifice had been made. It was a public spectacle.

[22:14] It was a public declaration that the sacrifice had been made. Life was lost. His body was broken. And his blood was shed. Six.

[22:28] The burnt offering was a complete surrender to God. It was a complete surrender to God. And we read it in verse 9. The priest is to burn all of it on the altar.

[22:40] It is a burnt offering. An offering made by fire. Unlike the other sacrifices, on most of the other sacrifices, the priests could take some of the offering and eat it.

[22:54] They could use it as part of their food. And in others, the worshipers could take the sacrifice, some parts of it, and eat it. But this one is different. The priests don't have any part in it.

[23:06] The worshipers have no part in it. It is all burned up. So there was nothing left except the skin, which in number 6 says the priest was able to keep that.

[23:24] But everything else, everything else, it all went up in smoke. There's nothing left. And that is what's meant by burnt offering. It comes from a word that means ascending.

[23:37] And so the whole sacrifice ascended to God. It all went up into smoke. It was a total surrender to God. Now, brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ and His sacrifice totally surrendered Himself to God.

[23:56] It was a complete surrender. He gave Himself completely. There was nothing left when the sacrifice had been made.

[24:09] And He did it for you and He did it for me. So it was a total sacrifice. Emotionally, He was destroyed.

[24:21] And you know the story, but think about it again. Peter denied Him three times to a servant girl. Jesus is facing the leaders of all of Israel.

[24:37] He's facing Pilate. He's facing King Herod. And Peter is denying Him to a servant girl and other nobodies. He's saying, I don't even know this man.

[24:49] I'm too embarrassed even. He's too embarrassed to say that. And Judas sold Him for 30 pieces of silver. That's 30 days wages. A couple days before that, Judas saw an alabaster jar of perfume broken.

[25:07] And he valued that jar at least a year's wage. So that's 365 pieces of silver. And he puts that jar and he puts Jesus.

[25:18] And Jesus isn't worth a tenth of that jar of perfume. So Peter, the first of his disciples, he always comes first in the list.

[25:29] He denies Him. And Judas, the last, betrays Him. And as for the rest, Matthew 26 says, Then the disciples deserted Him and fled.

[25:40] So can you imagine Jesus' sadness as everyone abandons Him in His hour of need? He was fully God.

[25:54] He was fully man. He hurt like you hurt. Then His own people killed Him. He weeps over Jerusalem and they cry out, crucify Him, crucify Him.

[26:09] Maybe you know what it feels like to be rejected by your family. And I can imagine there's nothing more devastating than that. And here Jesus is rejected by the people that He loves.

[26:24] But worse than all that, worse than His friends and His people, God forsakes Him. God forsook Him. And so on the cross He cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

[26:37] He was totally consumed in the sacrifice. And we talked about this last Sunday. Jesus lived and breathed communion and fellowship with God.

[26:51] He lived constantly under God's smile. He had forever and ever, and as a human, he had known God's comfort in all the difficult times that he went through. He enjoyed God's smile.

[27:02] And it must have been joy nonstop. nonstop. He's called the man of sorrows. But alongside of that, just joy at being with God. Now here at the end, his body is wracked with pain.

[27:19] His friends have left him. His nation has turned against him. And he looks now to his father for comfort. And there is no comfort.

[27:31] There is no smile. The father turns his face away as wounds which mar the chosen one bring many sons to glory. So, parents, can you imagine slapping your children's hands when they reach to you crying out in pain?

[27:48] They fall on their bicycle and they run to you and they're crying and they're very hurt and you slap their hands away. But that's what God the father did to his son.

[28:00] So, Jesus was physically, emotionally, spiritually consumed. It was complete surrender.

[28:12] Then at the end, he gave up his life. There was nothing else that he had. He says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

[28:26] So, his body is ruined. His heart is crushed. He's spiritually distraught. And, now, he gives his life to his father.

[28:38] And remember, no man takes my life from me, but I lay it down in my own accord. Jesus has one more thing that he can give in the sacrifice. And he gives up his life to his father.

[28:50] It was a complete surrender. So, all the burnt animals, all the burnt bulls and goats and birds and all the smoke rising constantly day and night in the temple.

[29:02] It points to this one complete surrender. It points to this one burnt offering where Jesus gave everything he had. And so, it was outside the gates of Jerusalem.

[29:17] Jesus surrenders it all to God and it is enough. The sacrifices are done. There's no more to be had. There's no more to do.

[29:27] His surrender was enough. Now, that brings us to point seven, our last point. The result is that God is satisfied. God is satisfied.

[29:41] So, look again at verse nine. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

[29:53] So, the Lord smells the sacrifice and he is pleased. His wrath is turned away and now he's delighted with his people. The relationship goes on.

[30:06] And so, what was the Israelites hope? Sometimes I think we get this confused, but really, what was the Israelites hope for this ongoing relationship with God? It wasn't their good works, it wasn't their law keeping, it wasn't their earnest pursuit of righteousness.

[30:21] righteousness. And here it was. It was right here. It was the atoning sacrifice. How is God going to keep smiling, keep being delighted and happy with us despite our sin? And it was here, the sacrifice.

[30:35] It was resting by faith on the appointed sacrifice. And through those shadows, not stopping there, but through the shadows to the final and last sacrifice, Jesus Christ the Messiah.

[30:51] It was through that sacrifice. And when by faith they offered up the sacrifice, God was pleased. And he was delighted with his people and his heart went out to them and he was ready to bless them.

[31:03] He was ready to love them. He was ready to protect them. His love flowed into their lives and the relationship was beautifully maintained. The Lord smelled the sacrifice and he was pleased.

[31:14] He was delighted not only with the sacrifice, but now with the sinner. And so brothers and sisters, our hope is not in some dim shadows of sacrifices, some dim shadows of Christ.

[31:30] We put our hope in a finished work. And so when Jesus said, it is finished, he spoke the truth. There was no more sacrifices to be made.

[31:40] He had made the final sacrifice. And so he had forever gained God's blessing for his people. So every day you drink and you eat and you enjoy God's blessings in your life.

[31:54] And where does that come from? It comes from the cross. It all comes from the cross. And why on the last day is God going to let you into his heaven?

[32:05] It's because of the cross, because the final atonement had been made. God was pleased with Jesus Christ's sacrifice. There was no wrath left.

[32:16] So when you see people thrown into hell and you, just as bad as they are, are welcomed into heaven, why will that be?

[32:27] It will be because of Jesus and his sacrifice. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. God is well pleased with the sacrifice.

[32:38] He's well pleased with all those who put their trust in the Lord, in Jesus Christ. Christ. And so God forgives the sin. He forgives the sinner. And he smiles on all those who will put their hand on the offering, who will put their hand on Christ's head and say, I am a sinner, but here is my substitute.

[33:03] This is my sacrifice. Whoever does that finds mercy with God. If you stand with nothing between you and God's wrath, you have no mediator, you have no sacrifice, then listen.

[33:25] At the very beginning of Leviticus 1, it says, if anyone, if any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, there was no one too rich, there was no one too poor, there there was no one too sinful who could not come, could not put their hand on the offering, put their hand on the sacrifice, and find God's smile.

[33:54] Now, if you stand without a sacrifice, and if it's just you and God's wrath, then there is still time now to put your hand on the sacrifice, still put your hand on Jesus Christ and say, you know what?

[34:05] I am a sinner. I am a sinner. I need a substitute. And if you do that, and if you say, Christ, you are my substitute, you have done enough, your sacrifice was enough, then God sees that, he smells that, and he is pleased.

[34:25] It's an aroma pleasing to him. And so, there's still room. There's still room on the head of Christ to put your hand and to be saved.

[34:36] And so, why would you perish when he's right here waiting for you? So, do it and be saved.

[34:48] Do it even now. You're going to see the body and the blood in symbol form pass before your eyes. You're going to see Christ sacrificed before your eyes, a memorial of that.

[35:02] And so, these things point to Christ. So, don't miss him. Don't miss him even when he's right in front of your face. So, put your hand on him. Brothers and sisters, tonight, let's remember God's love.

[35:19] It started with God. He gave the sacrifice. And who would have thought, what Israelite would have thought, that all those sacrifices would point to the Son of God?

[35:32] God would so love the world that he would give his only one and only Son. So, let's tonight rejoice in how God has loved us.

[35:43] Let's rejoice in what Christ has gained for us. And let's rejoice in the new life, the justification that we have in Jesus Christ.

[35:55] And let's rejoice in God's grace that when we come through an atoning sacrifice through Jesus Christ, God smiles and he's well-pleased with us.

[36:07] Thank you.