biblestudy: Offerings (Part Two)


John W. Ritenbaugh
Given 24-Jan-87; Sermon #BS-OF02; 76 minutes

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The sacrifices described in Leviticus teach us about the mind, heart, and character of Jesus Christ. The burnt offering symbolizes complete devotion to God in every aspect of life. It has four key features: 1) A sweet savor offering pleasing to God, 2) Offered for acceptance on behalf of the offeror, 3) A life is offered, devoted to death, 4) Wholly burnt up, nothing reserved for the self. The animals offered reveal more about Christ's character: bullock (strength, endurance), lamb (submissive, uncomplaining), turtledove (harmless, mourning over sin), goat (stately, leadership, but independent streak). With the turtledove, the priest does the work, emphasizing Christ's intercessory work for the weak. He is offeror, offering, and priest. Christ's sacrifice began when He gave up being fully God to become human. His devotion was complete, even to death on the cross. We must have the same mind, denying ourselves and sacrificing for God. Sacrifice is the essence of love. It's what makes love what it is. Christ said we must be willing to sacrifice to follow Him and gain true life. Love is shown by sacrifice - God sacrificing Christ, Christ sacrificing Himself.




I am going to continue through the second part of that series that I began last Sabbath. I do not think I am going to give too much in the way of review, but I do feel as though I have to go back a little bit toward the very beginning and kind of get up to speed so that we are all in the same line of thought.

We are going to begin in Romans 10, verse 4, a scripture that I feel is certainly a focus of this entire series that I am going to be giving here.

Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

End here is being used in the sense of being the object. He is the object of the law. He is the object, really, in one sense, of the entire Bible. Now object, when it is used in this sense, means one who is the center or focus of thought. So He is the center or focus of thought in the law, that is, all that law that appears back in the Old Testament. It means that He is the end. He is the end result. He is the goal. He is the aim. He is the purpose. And as I mentioned the last time, that Christ is the personification of everything that is right and good. He is the personification of perfect love. He is the personification of government. He is the standard toward which men are to strive. And so therefore, the goal of the law is to achieve Christ-like character.

With that in mind, let us go back to Hebrews the 10th chapter, verse 1. A very important scripture in this regard, where the apostle Paul wrote,

Hebrews 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

But the law is a shadow. It is not the image, it is not the reality. It is the shadow. Christ is the reality, and what He was in His character, in His mind, in His attitudes, and the way that He conducted His life is the reality. In order for there to be a shadow there must be a reality.

And as I mentioned last week, that coming out of the society, the culture that we have, there is often a mistake made by us of thinking of the sacrifices of Leviticus as being something that is primitive, something that is kind of childish, something that is unnecessary, something that might even be on the edge of being barbaric or insignificant. But they are not in any way. They are a means to an end. They are the means through which we learn a great deal about the details of the character of Jesus Christ. So it would be a mistake to fall into that trap.

We need to be concerned with the sacrifices because they do show us the details of the mind of Christ. It shows us the character of Christ in an animal, a typical form.

In Hebrews 2 (since we are here), verse 10 is another very important scripture in regard to giving a little bit of preface to this sermon. Let us go back to verse 9.

Hebrews 2:9-10 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things [that is, all things have been created for Him] and by whom are all things [that is, He is our Creator], . . .

So things have been made for Him. He is the heir and we are co-heirs with Him, but He is the heir. He is the one who has come and confirmed the promises. He was the promised Seed. And so all things are made for Him and we share in those things because of what He has done.

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

It was that word "author" that I concentrated on last week for a while. It means a pioneer as well as being an author. It means a scout. Its general meaning is that of a someone who does something with the intent that others will follow. And so we might say that He is a pathfinder. He is the founder of something, like a person who founds a city or who founds an institution such as a school or a church, but he does it with the intention that others may enter into the very thing that he has founded.

Therefore, we find that there is very good scriptural evidence that He did what He did for the purpose that we should follow in His steps. He became the example. That is where the sacrifices of Leviticus begin to become very important to us once again because, as they describe the character of Jesus Christ, as He is the object of them, we cannot separate ourselves from them and say, "Well, this is what Christ was like" and then leave ourselves out of the picture. No, this was what Christ was like with the intent that we should try to follow after what He did, follow in the same path, in the same footsteps. Thus we find the apostle Paul said, "Follow me as I follow Christ." So he was following somebody and he was encouraging the people to follow after him and do what he did. So they had a physical example right in front of them. And the man that God put in charge of the work that Paul was doing, that is, Paul himself, became the physical example, the interpreter, the imitator of Jesus Christ.

Now we can go right to God's Word and we can find a great deal about what the mind, the heart, the character of Jesus Christ was right out of the offerings. I also mentioned to you Romans 8:28-29 (which we do not have to turn to), where it says that we are to be conformed to the image of the Son, of the Firstborn, and we play, therefore, a part in our salvation. It is a very small part to be sure, but it is an important part, and the part that we play is to yield to God. The part that we play—we cannot earn our salvation—but our yielding to God certainly gives Him an indication that we are striving. We are trying to be like His Son and conform to that image.

Back in Leviticus the first chapter, we went through a major portion of the burnt offering. We did not go through the whole thing (I am still reviewing here the things that we had last week), but what we did get through were that we showed four clear distinctions about the burnt offering. And it is those four distinctions that I want to bring to your attention once again because they are very important in understanding the sacrifices.

In an overall sense, the burnt offering shows a man giving to God what truly satisfies God. It is a man giving to God what is due to God. It is a man giving to God what God's portion of that man's life is. I am trying to put this in several different ways so that we see what the intent is here. So it shows a man giving to God what truly satisfies God. It has to do with devotion. It has to do with complete and total devotion, with nothing left out of our response to God.

And so these four distinctions, though they are separate and they distinguish the burnt offering from the other offerings, yet we find that there are some similarities here with the other offerings as well, which we will get to when we get into the second of the offerings today. Those four distinctions were these:

1. It was a sweet savor offering. My Bible says a sweet aroma to God. That is, it is giving the indication that it is pleasing to God. Now, this is in contrast and distinct from the sin offering and the trespass offering which God took no pleasure in. They were not sweet to Him.

As a matter of fact, the sweet savor offerings were offered on the brazen altar which stood right outside of the Temple and the Tabernacle and it was as though the smoke, the fragrance from that offering that was burning there was wafting into the Temple/Tabernacle into the place of God's presence. And He could receive satisfaction from the sweet fragrance of the meat that was cooking there on the altar. But the sin offering and the trespass offering were burned, not outside the Temple grounds, but all the way outside the city, outside the gates of the city, outside the wall of the city. Out away almost, you might say typically, as far away as you could get away from the presence of God and still be in the same general area. It was not pleasing to Him at all. He did not want to smell it.

The burnt offering He did want to smell. He wanted that fragrance to come to His nostrils and therefore indicating that it was something that was pleasing to Him. He liked it. Now, what we found about this was probably the single scripture that illustrates this more clearly than anything is Romans 12:1-2, that God wants us to be a living sacrifice to Him. And Ephesians 5:1-2 where it shows that Christ in His life, in the way that He walked—the way that He conducted His life—was a sweet smelling savor to God. The burnt offering has to do with life; it does not have to do with death. God is concerned about life and He wants us to please Him during the course of our life. So it was a sweet savor to God.

2. It was offered for acceptance, that is, in the behalf of, in the place of, in the instead of, the offeror, the one who was making the offer. Now again, this is an important distinction because it also indicates that there was no sin. Sin does not satisfy God. But the King James Bible and my Bible here, the New King James, both use the word "atonement." And I showed you how in Leviticus 23:10-11, that exact same phrase is translated right in the King James Bible, "that it shall be offered for acceptance" or to be accepted. And that is exactly what the words mean in that phrase. Atonement connotes to you and me a payment for sin. And so that translation there, though it is not wrong, is somewhat misleading unless you take the care to check it out a little bit more carefully. We are not paying for sin in the burnt offering. We are satisfying a holy requirement.

Indeed, atonement, which comes from the Hebrew word kippur or kaphar, is a root word that means to cover, to cover over. Now, certainly whenever there is a sin offering, the sin is covered over. But in this offering, there is no sin. Instead, God is accepting it because He is satisfied. There is something good here, not something bad. He is satisfied because of the offering. And what we are doing here is the same thing or very similar to when you go into a store and you buy something, you are satisfying the retailer because you have met a requirement. You do not walk out with the merchandise unless you meet his requirement. And the requirement did not involve sin. It only involved meeting, satisfying a payment. In this case, the payment was an animal who was accepted because you were satisfying God.

Now, how do you satisfy God? Well, that is part of the whole picture. You satisfy God with your life. That is the picture here in the burnt offering.

3. We did find that indeed a life was offered and that life was the life of an animal. And what it was intended to show is that our life is devoted all the way to death. It is not that we are giving a life in satisfaction for justice that has been offended, that is, a law that has been broken. But rather we are showing instead that we have met God's requirement of keeping His commandments all the way to death. Like Shadrack, Meshach, and Abednego—all the way to death. Like Jesus Christ—all the way to death; that there was nothing that could get Him to break the law of God. He was that devoted—all the way to death.

And I described to you the kind of animal that that these people would most likely be offering, that it was almost like a member of the family. That these were not people who had tremendously large flocks of thousands of animals that they could just go out and pick one at random. Most likely, though, they were offering animals that had been with the family for a goodly period of time because the average Israelite at that time was raising sheep, not for its meat, but rather for its wool. The meat was secondary and very likely one of the few times of the year that an Israelite ever had meat was when he made an offering and usually that was around the holy day time.

And so very few times of the year do we find them just willy-nilly sacrificing an animal, so the animal that they tended to sacrifice was very likely the one that was most dear to them, the one that they cared for like a pet. And so there was an awful lot of heartfelt emotion, usually, in the offering of that lamb or that goat or that bullock that they were offering on that altar. So God wants us to see that a person's heart has to be involved in this offering and this giving of one's life.

4. It was wholly burnt up, the burnt offering was wholly burnt up. It shows very clearly there that the animal was killed, the animal was cut up into its various parts, its head, its legs, its entrails, and the fat, and that they were all washed with water and they were put on the altar.

The head, of course, represents the thinking portion of a person's mind, that the head too was devoted. The thinking portions of a person's body, of his life, was devoted to God. The legs indicating the way the person conducted his life, that is, the walk. The entrails, the inwards, the feelings, the emotions, also devoted to God as well. And the fat indicating general health and vigor. And so the whole life was totally surrendered to God. Nothing was reserved for the self.

So wholly burnt up means exactly what it says. Nothing was given to the offeror, nothing was given to the priest, everything went to God. That leads us then to a scripture which sums up the burnt offering more clearly than perhaps any other scripture in the entire Bible.

Matthew 22:36-38 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment."

That is what the burnt offering symbolizes: a person completely, totally devoted to God in every aspect of life. Remember, what we are describing here is the mind, the heart, the character, the attitudes of Jesus Christ. He is the standard. He is the object of the law. We are going to have an awful difficult time attaining to what He has already done. But He is our example and we should strive in our life to achieve as great a growth in this area as we possibly can. That is, being completely devoted to God in every area.

Back to Leviticus 1 again because we still have not finished the burnt offering. There is more to come, a great deal of teaching here. Let us look in verse 2.

Leviticus 1:2 "Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: 'When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock—of the herd and of the flock.'"

There are three general varieties within those animals being offered: the herd, the flock, and a fowl. In verse 14, just to add this.

Leviticus 1:14 'And if the burnt sacrifice of his offering to the Lord is of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or young pigeons.'

Leviticus 1:5 'He shall kill the bull before the Lord; . . .'

Leviticus 1:10 'If his offering is of the flocks—of his sheep or of the goats. . .'

So there we have the animals that were offered. Those were the varieties within the burnt offering. You could offer a bullock, you could offer a sheep, you could offer a goat, or you could offer a turtledove.

Now the question is, do any of these animals give an indication of any more of the details of the character of Christ? We have already seen four details, all of which added up to complete and total devotion to God. Indeed, these animals do show us characteristics of Christ's characteristics that we need to strive to emulate as well. Let us look first at the bullock. What does it typify?

Let us go back to the book of Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 4. We will not spend a great deal of time on these because I think that once you begin to see the principle involved, it becomes self-evident. There is one animal here that I think is really rather interesting and we will spend a little bit more time on it.

Proverbs 14:4 Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; but much increase comes by the strength of an ox.

Remember that: much increase comes by the strength of an ox. Now, what does an ox symbolize? Certainly, if not the strongest domesticated animal, it is certainly one of the strongest. It indicates strength. Now, with strength comes other characteristics that might mean more to us spiritually. You know, raw physical strength is not of very great notice to us spiritually. But what about endurance, which certainly takes a great deal of strength. What about perseverance? What about untiring labor? What about patience? Another characteristic of an ox.

Let us go to another place in the book of Psalms, chapter 144, verse 14. The psalmist here is describing an ideal and we are kind of breaking into a thought so it may not make too much sense to you because the flow is broken. But he says,

Psalm 144:14 That our oxen may be well laden; . . .

It means our oxen may draw heavy loads. The indication or the appeal being that the fields will bring forth such a great abundance of fruits that our oxen will have to be really loaded up because there is so much being produced. But again, it gives an indication that oxen and strength go together in the biblical symbolism. I can give you a series of scriptures regarding Jesus Christ, only one of which I am going to read because it tells us a great deal about what He was like.

John 6:26-29: He tells us what we are to labor for. John 4:31-34: where He said that "My meat is to do the will of God." That is what energized Him. That is what He was here for was to to do the work. Now, did He do the work? Again, we will not go into this. But the very first words that are recorded that Jesus Christ ever said came when He was 12 years old. I do not mean in the story flow necessarily, but I mean, His earliest words were, "I must be about My father's business." His last recorded words were, "It is finished." He meant the work, not His life, because there was just going to be a momentary pause there. But He finished the work. He was an untiring laborer, the strength of an ox in persevering and enduring whatever was laid upon Him by the Father in doing the work of God.

Let us go back to the one I want to read in its application to you and me. It is in I Thessalonians 1. Now there are other scriptures like this in other portions of the Bible, but let us look what Paul said here,

I Thessalonians 1:2-4 We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of our God and Father, knowing, beloved brethren, your election by God.

What we are involved in is a labor of love. Because we love God and because we love men, because we love the Kingdom of God, because we love Jesus Christ, because we love everything that we are involved in, we give ourselves over unstintingly. Do we? Do we follow the example of Jesus Christ here in giving ourselves in a labor of love, whether that labor be laboring in prayer, laboring in study, laboring in service within the congregation (laboring in Plain Truth distribution, laboring on the phone, in the waiting room program [these were part of the WCG]), laboring in ministering to the needs of other brethren. There is an awful lot of areas that we can labor in and it is awfully easy to get turned aside by the distractions of life.

With Christ, you see, there was an example of a steady, patient, untiring laborer, like an ox. On and on He went; and I am going to show you before we leave this section, some examples of how He spent His life in labor in the doing of the work of God.

Now let us leave the bullock and go on to the next one, which is the lamb. This is probably the best known type in all of the Bible. Let us go to Isaiah the 53rd chapter, verse 7. This is a quite clear example.

Isaiah 53:7 [Isaiah writes] He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, He opened not His mouth.

A lamb represents passive, uncomplaining submission, even in suffering. Just like a lamb, He opened not His mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before its shearers is silent.

Let us turn to Jeremiah the 11th chapter, verse 19.

Jeremiah 11:18-19 Now the Lord gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings. But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I do not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more."

Jeremiah speaking there. Passive, uncomplaining submission even in suffering following without reservation.

Perhaps one of the outstanding types in all of the Bible that gives us a little bit of insight into the mind of Jesus Christ is David. David in his relationship to Saul. Because there was Saul, what was he doing? David was anointed king, but he did not actually take over the government yet. And what was Saul's attitude toward David? David reflected the mind of Christ about as well as a human being possibly could under those very trying circumstances. He was hounded, he was harassed, they attempted to take his life, you know, with Saul throwing his spear at him, chased him from place to place so that he had to live like an outlaw in caves and had to struggle for survival, wandering around the country.

So he was driven, he was hunted, he was treated tyrannically and unsparingly. And David said, "I won't lift my hand against God's anointed," even though humanly you would think that he had every right to do it. Even when he cut off that small portion of Saul's robe when Saul was relieving himself, he felt bad about it, that he had been sneaky enough to do that, and he felt terrible and apologized for what he did.

That is what a lamb is like. Passive does not mean dumb. Do not get that idea. A lamb is not dumb. They are intelligent enough, but they are passive and they are uncomplaining and they follow without reservation their leader. A good example of this in John the 10th chapter. We will just read this very quickly, again, without a great deal of comment.

John 10:3-4 "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice."

You do not find sheep, brethren, in a flock saying to the shepherd, "I think I'll go this way. I don't like the way that you're leading the flock." You do not often find a sheep doing that. I mean, even if we can see it figuratively, they go where the shepherd leads them and the shepherd speaks and they follow. So a lamb represents passive, uncomplaining submission even in suffering, following without reservation.

Now, the turtledove. We are going to jump over to the turtledove before we get to the goat, because the goat is the one I want to spend a little bit more time on.

Matthew 10:16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves."

We have seen that a bullock represents untiring labor. We have seen that a sheep represents submissiveness, uncomplaining submission, being willing to follow a leader. And now a turtledove indicates harmlessness. Let us go to another place back in Isaiah 59. We will add another characteristic to the turtledove. The dove is mentioned in the midst of a long monologue here, and the context within which it appears is interesting.

Isaiah 59:11-15 We all growl like bears, and moan sadly like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them; in transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing from our God. Speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. So truth fails, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

This characteristic, together with what it says in Matthew 10:16, indicates innocence, harmlessness, mourning. It carries with it a tinge of sadness. It indicates, as it is seen in the context here in Isaiah 59, sadness because of sin. Now, Christ wept over Jerusalem. He said, "How often would I have saved you, but you would not." It indicates sorrow because we have caused so much trouble. It indicates childlike qualities.

Now you are beginning to get a picture of the mind of Christ. You see, on one hand, there was the aspect of untiring labor and endurance. On the other hand, He was a submissive and uncomplaining follower of God. On the other side, there was the mourning, innocence, the childlike qualities of the turtledove; sadness because of sin. He is a man of sorrows, see, and covered with griefs. But all of this, you see, completely devoted to God. Never, never lose track of that.

Let us look at the goat. I will give you some scriptures here that you can look at later. Psalm 34:17 and Psalm 147:3. These are scriptures that indicate our responsibility in the area of the turtledove—the harmlessness, the childlike qualities. It is kind of a winsome, attractive, peacemaker quality.

Now the goat. Let us begin in Proverbs the 30th chapter.

Proverbs 30:29-31 There are three things which are majestic in pace, yes, four which are stately in walk: A lion which is mighty among beasts and does not turn away from any; a greyhound, a male goat also, and a king whose troops are with him.

This will give you the beginning of the picture of a goat. But do not zero in on that one because that is only one aspect of it, because unlike the other animals, this animal has a flaw in it. It is not that Christ has the flaw, but it is a warning to you and me because He was without flaw. God allowed a goat to be used because it still represented some of the qualities that His Son had. But a goat is not looked in the Scripture in the same favorable way that a sheep is.

Now, we have seen here that a goat indicates stateliness, dignity. Let us go to another place in Jeremiah 50. And it is interesting; God is consistent in His use of these animals figuratively. In verse 8, in my Bible, this is a little bit vague in the way that it is translated.

Jeremiah 50:8 Move from the midst of Babylon, go out to the land of the Chaldeans; and be like the rams before the flocks.

My Bible has a margin and it says goats, specifically male goats. And if you will notice back in the offering, it had to be a male goat that was offered. Be like rams before the flock. Now, what does that indicate to you? That not only is a goat stately, dignified in its bearing, but also it is a leader. It is out in front. Let us look in Zachariah 10, verse 3.

Zechariah 10:3 "My anger is kindled against the shepherds [a shepherd is a leader], and I will punish the goatherds [is what my Bible says]."

The reason it says goatherds is because the word for leader and the word for goat is interchangeable in the Hebrew. A goat is a leader. And my margin says that. It says "leaders," where my Bible has, in the context it says "goatherds." "My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders [or the goatherds]. For the Lord of hosts will visit His flock."

We will go to one more.

Isaiah 14:9 "Hell from beneath is excited about you, to meet you at your coming; it serves up the dead for you, all the chief ones of the earth; it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations."

You see that chief ones? That is the same word that was translated goatherds back in Zechariah 10:3. That ought to be very clear that a goat indicates dignity and bearing and leadership. We might also say singleness of purpose.

Now let us look at the other side of the coin. Let us go back to Matthew 25. In Matthew 25 we find a picture of something that is going to take place during the Millennium.

Matthew 25:31-33 "When the Son of Man comes in all in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left."

You know the story. Go down to verse 41.

Matthew 25:41-42 "Then He will say to those on the left hand [the goats], 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels [He says]: For I was hungry and you gave me no food; I was thirsty and you gave me no drink; . . ."

And on and on. Now, what is the problem here? Do you know what happens when you put a single goat in with a flock of sheep? He takes over the herd, he becomes its leader. You see, there is dignity. There is stateliness, there is leadership, there is singleness of purpose, but he takes over. Who gave him the authority to take over? You see, there is in a goat a tragic flaw, and that is that it tends to think independently and it tends to go off in its own direction.

Now, whenever you put sheep in a flock, though some will occasionally wander off and kind of do their own thing, they do have a tendency to stay together in the flock. But when you have goats, you have to be constantly [words cut off] . . . do have natural leadership ability, but that natural leadership ability has to be controlled or they will try to take over things. They have a strong independent streak within them that nobody is going to tell them what to do. They are not going to be passive and following and uncomplaining like a sheep. They are going to do their own thing and the ones who have the most natural ability are the hardest ones to get to be a part of the group because they think they are above it. And so that is why God does not look upon the goat in the same evenhanded way that He does with the other animals that He allows to be sacrificed.

We will just leave that right there. There are plenty of examples. I will just give you some examples. Matthew the 20th chapter is a good example of a couple of goats in the flock beginning to take over. You know what happened in Matthew 20th chapter? That is when James and John went to Christ and say, "Hey, how about us sitting one on the right hand and one on the left." They were undoubtedly men of good ability, the sons of thunder. Another example in Luke 14:10. James 3:14 where he talks about people with selfish ambition. There is leadership there, but it is very difficult to control. And a goat is good.

I said that I would give you some scriptures in an overall sense and the place you have to turn to this, the best place is the book of Mark. Let us go back to the book of Mark. And I chose these scriptures out of Mark because Mark tends to concentrate on this aspect of Christ's ministry, of His being the untiring laborer in the work of God.

Mark 1:32-35 At evening, when the sun had set, they brought to Him all who were sick and those who were demon-possessed. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. Then He healed many who were sick with various diseases, and He cast out many demons. He did not allow the demons to speak, because they knew Him. Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, . . .

Remember the whole city was at His door? I do not know, maybe a couple of thousand people. That is just a guess. But He healed the ones who came to Him. Now He went to sleep for a few hours, got up way before dawn

Mark 1:35-39 . . . He and went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. And when they found Him, they said to Him, "Everyone is looking for You." But He said to them, "Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth." And He was preaching in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and casting out demons.

Mark 1:45 But he went out and began to proclaim it freely [that is, the man that He healed], and to spread the matter, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter the city, but was outside in deserted places; and they came to Him from every direction.

The Man was just hounded everywhere He went! But did He rebuke them and chase them away? He did what He could.

Mark 2:2 Immediately [after going into Capernaum] many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.

Mark 2:13 Then He went out again by the sea; and all the multitude came to Him, and He taught them on.

Mark 3:7-10 But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him. So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him. For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him.

I said I was reading from Mark because he tended to concentrate on that in showing Jesus Christ as the untiring labor doing the work of God. And He just worked and worked and worked and worked, and gave Himself over to that responsibility.

Back to Leviticus 1. We are still not done with the burnt offering. But I think you are beginning to get the picture that there is a great deal there.

Leviticus 1:6-9 [this is what they did with the animals] And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar, and lay the wood in order on the fire. Then the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar; but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

Well, we could go on there. Let us go to verse 14. I want to show you a contrast here.

Leviticus 1:14 'And if the burnt sacrifice of his offering to the Lord is of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or young pigeons. The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off its head, . . .

Did you notice a difference? With the other three animals, the animal was slain by the offeror and then it is cut up, its various pieces put on the altar, and the entrails and the legs are washed with water. But with the turtledove, it is merely brought to the priest, the offeror does nothing except bring it, and then the priest wings its head.

Leviticus 1:15-17 'The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; its blood shall be drained out at the side of the altar. And he shall remove its crop [see, the priest is doing this] with its feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east side, into the place of the ashes. Then he shall split it at its wings, but not divide it completely; and the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.'

Now, the water symbolism, I think we ought to be able to see very clearly. Ephesians 5:26 where it says that we are washed by the water of the word, the water representing the cleansing action, the cleaning action of the Word of God. And it is used to wash the various parts of the offering, which shows that God wants us to have our various parts of our life cleaned up as well by the action of His Holy Spirit.

Then there is the work that is done with the turtledove. In the offering with the turtledove, there is a dramatic change, and that is that the offeror is seen only in the bringing of the offering. Now, what does that indicate? Well, I will tell you what I feel that it is. Let us go back to Luke 12. Incidentally, the offering of the turtledove was just as acceptable to God as was a bullock. It had nothing to do with it being a lesser offering at all. It was just as meaningful and just as important, just as good of an offering.

Luke 12:48 "But he who did not know, yet committed things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few. [here is a principle] For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."

Now, here is what I think is the indication there. In the offering with the turtledove, the offeror is almost completely lost sight of. He does not lay hands on anything, he does not kill the animal. All he does is bring the animal and from that point on the priest does everything. It seems to indicate that to whom much is given much more is required, and that is, the work of the priest is what is important in this last offering. It is not the work of the offeror, but rather the work of the priest.

Who is the priest? Jesus Christ. What is His official relationship to us now? He is High Priest, He is our Mediator before God. Now, what we are seeing here is the intercessory work of the priest, Christ, emphasized rather than the bringing of the offering by the offeror. It is a matter of emphasis. With the bullock, the sheep, and the goat the offeror kills the animal; the dove, the priest kills it. The priest does everything except bring it.

Now, there are those in the congregation who require more help than others do. God has called overall the weak of the world. But there are some of us who are weaker than others. God even points some of these things out. He says, "Pure religion and undefiled" is what? It is take to take care of the widow in her difficulty. In the biblical sense, she is looked upon as being one of the weak in the congregation. There are those who have less intellectual ability than others. They need more help. They are, we would term them, the ignorant. Not in a bad sense. They just may have difficulty in learning. There are others who got a terrible start in life because they were at least partly the victim of a very bad environment. Maybe the father or the mother were not good in carrying out their responsibility and so they became in effect almost street people and their character became very badly damaged, their attitudes, their approach, very low self-image, insecure people, and they need a great deal of help in order to just keep themselves stabilized, keep themselves in the right direction.

There are others who, though weak as God would call them, are nonetheless stronger and they need less help than the others do. They are wiser at making decisions. They seem to have a better grasp of spiritual principles and maybe indeed God has given them greater gifts than others. And so I believe that there are those that God places within the congregation on purpose who are weaker and He intends that those of us who are stronger be responsible in taking care of them.

That is what we are seeing here, the strength of the Priest-Mediator, Jesus Christ, taking care of those who are weaker. And that is what the turtledove represents. Harmlessness, mourning, innocence, childlike qualities. The offering was just as good, but we see emphasized here the work of the priest rather than the offeror giving his offering.

Now, let us go back to John the 10th chapter. This becomes very interesting because as we learn the various aspects of this offering, we see Jesus Christ in three different positions. He is the offeror, He is the offering, and He is the priest. Now, what are we seeing here? We are seeing the priest offering Himself. We do not see that in the other offerings. We see the Priest spending Himself in the behalf of the weak. And so we find here,

John 10:11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep."

John 10:15 "As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sheep."

John 10:17-18 "Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father."

So with the turtledove, what we get is the understanding that the death is seen as the work of the Mediator. So Christ's intercessory work is emphasized for those who are weak and that is all of us, but some are weaker than others.

In Hebrews the second chapter, we will conclude the burnt offering.

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

What I am trying to do here partly with these sacrifices, is to expand your understanding of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was not just the giving of His life. That was the culmination of His sacrifice. That was the end result of His sacrifice with the giving up of His life. But His sacrifice began when He gave up being God. Let us go back there in Philippians the second chapter and we will just review that. So that sacrifice of His life, that is, the way He lived his life, is what is concerned here with the burnt offering.

Philippians 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, . . .

He was our example. He is the Archegos. He is the one who goes before. He is the pioneer. He is the author. He is the one that we are to follow.

Philippians 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

That sums up the burnt offering about as well as I possibly can. That His devotion to God was complete and total in every area, every aspect of life.

Now this is Part Two and this is actually the preface which I will probably just complete and we will have to stop. Then maybe I will just repeat it again next week as the opening for the next sermon.

The Bible is a book about government: God's, man's, and the individual. And love is the channel through which God governs, and man has to come to the place where he too is governing himself and others with love. So there is very much in the Bible about love. But again, remember that Christ is the object of the Bible. He is the one that we are aiming toward. He is our example. That is the end toward which we are heading. He is the standard.

And to this, I want to add another principle and that is this: that since love is the channel through which God governs, then sacrifice must be the essence of love. Well, that is a deduction. I will tell you why I have reached this conclusion.

First of all, the definition of the word essence. It is that which makes a thing what it is. The essence of something is that which makes a thing what it is. What I am saying is that what makes love love is sacrifice. It is the essence of love. It is the real nature of a thing. It is its intrinsic or fundamental nature. It is the foundation or vital principle. All of these are definitions of the word essence. Sacrifice is the essence, it is the foundation, it is the vital principle of love.

Turn with me to Matthew the 16th chapter. Now, you might remember as we turn to that I gave you a definition of the word sacrifice. In its simplest form it means a gift. It is unspecified as to whom it is given. But it is a gift. It is an offering to somewhat. It implies that there may even be some pain involved in it. Now, here in Matthew 16 is a major reason why I feel that sacrifice is the essence of love. It is its vital principle. It is that which makes it what it is.

Here, we have the episode where Christ asked the disciples, who do men say that He was and they gave Him an answer. And then He said to them, well, who do you say that I am? And so they said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And then He said to them, well, flesh and blood has not shown you this, but My Father in heaven. And then after He said that to them, He told them that He was going to have to go to Jerusalem and He was going to suffer many things and that He was going to die. And Peter rebuked it. And that is when Christ turned around and said, "Get you behind me, Satan!" Now, immediately after that, in verse 24,

Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, . . .

You want to be a follower of Christ? You want to be like Christ? You want to be in the Kingdom of God with Christ? Here comes the formula. See,

Matthew 16:24-26 . . . let him deny himself, take up his cross [Was that not the instrument of Christ's death? Was that not the sacrifice where He gave up His life for all of mankind's sins?], and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life [gives up his life, sacrifices his life] for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give [sacrifice, offer] in exchange for his soul?"

What are you willing to give? What is the most vital thing that you could give, that you could sacrifice, that you could offer to God, in exchange for (we are thinking of it as a deal), in exchange for eternal life? Or if we leave eternal life out of it, what if Christ here only means life in the sense of an abundant physical life? I am not talking about being rich. I am talking about having the qualities, all of these blessings that come to us from God as a result of our contact with God, as a result of having God's Spirit, as being a part of this work, as being a part of of His Family, all of those things, all these abundant blessings.

You want to have an abundant life? You want to have life that is brimful and running over and filled with contentment and happiness and challenge? Is that not what everybody wants out of life? What is the vital principle Christ is telling you you are going to have to give up? What would you give in order to have those things? What are you willing to sacrifice?

You are beginning to see what the sacrifices are about. Are You beginning to see that they are not primitive things, that they are not barbaric, that God is telling you and me in very fine detail what it is that He wants from us in exchange for life? What will you give in exchange for your life? It is a question that we all have to answer.

Love is an outgoing concern for others equal to or greater than our concern for ourselves. Let us look very quickly, with very little expounding, at a series of scriptures. Let us begin in John 3, verse 16. These are scriptures that everyone should know. But I want you to notice what He says.

John 3:16 "For God so loved. . .

There is that word. Now, if you love something, what are you going to have to do? You are going to have to sacrifice something. You are going to have to give something or there is no love.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son."

That is how love is expressed. That is why sacrifice is the essence, it is the vital principle, it is the foundation of love. That is why Christ said, "What are you willing to give in exchange for your life?" Something has to be given. When we want things we give money in order to get those things; we sacrifice of what we have earned in order to get back what material thing that it is. We are dealing with spiritual things here. We are talking about the nuts and bolts of life.

Let us go to another one in John 15.

John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends."

That is what you give when there is love.

In Ephesians 5. Let us Look at marriage. We always wonder, why does our marriage not work? Why does it not produce the kind of happiness and joy and fulfillment? I am telling you what the answer is. We are not willing to sacrifice for our partner. We want to hold things for ourselves. Life consists in what we give, sacrifice, offer, in service to the other. I want you to remember this because the second of the two sweet offerings has a great deal to do with it. The next offering that we are going to get into, and I am just laying the foundation here.

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.

Is that clear enough? Love involves sacrifice. It is its heart and core.

Ephesians 5:28 So husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.

Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

That means give yourself to as to the Lord; he does not say he has to be the Lord but as to the Lord. And I recognize in many cases, ladies, that is a great sacrifice because that guy is not worthy of the sacrifices that you make to him. But that is not what it says. He does not have to be worthy.

Let us look at one more in I John 4.

I John 4:19 We love Him because He first loved us.

I included that verse because I want you to see what the result of sacrifice is. Sacrifice produces love in return. That is its fruit. In a sense, if we could make this a business deal, we pay for what it is we want in sacrifice and we get back love. Is that not what you want? Whatever you sow, you reap. You sow in love and you are going to reap love. You want to understand, maybe, why your marriage is not working so well. One or both of you is not loving. Maybe you both need to look at yourselves and see if you are really sacrificing yourself for your mate.

We will stop there and we will pick this up because I really want you to get this next one because it has a great deal to do with marriage.

JWR/aws/drm












 


 
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