For quite some weeks now we've been studying the theme of timeless types. There are types of Christ in the Old Testament. We've been emphasizing this over and over again. The Lord Jesus is the one who particularly draws our attention to the typology of the Old Testament by showing us in that great incident on the road to Emmaus that the things concerning himself are spoken of in the books of Moses and in the prophets and the Psalms. We have looked at some things already in the books of Moses. There are types, there are ceremonies there that remind us of Christ's work, remind us of Christ's person. When we come into the book of Leviticus, we find that that particular book of Moses is full again of examples of that which speaks of Christ. We've been talking about the tabernacle in recent sermons and of course the Bible speaks in the book of Hebrews of the ministry of the tabernacle, the ministry of the sanctuary. and it's referring there to the ministry not only of the high priest Aaron and his sons, but the priests in general, the Levites who ministered there in the holy place. The book of Leviticus begins in the first seven chapters by talking about the offerings. Now these offerings are most interesting. There are five of them in all. Sometimes preachers will give them different names, but we would call them the burnt offering, the meal offering, sometimes called the meat offering, though there's no meat as it were, red meat or chicken or fish or anything like that involved. It's really a meal offering. Then there's a peace offering or peace offerings. There is the sin offering and then there is finally the trespass offering. Five offerings and immediately it reminds us of the grace of God in the Gospel because five in the Bible is the number of grace. And the grace of God is most certainly set forth in chapter 1 when it speaks about the burnt offering, in chapter 2 where it deals with the meal offering, in the third chapter when it talks about the peace offering, in chapter 4 the sin offering and in chapters 5 through 7 when it talks about the trespass offering. Though, as we noted in our Bible reading, there's mention made of all the offerings even in chapter 7 itself. When we think about these offerings, we think about their necessity. They had to be offered. First of all, because God commanded it. The Lord said, offer unto me, or do this. And the people of God did it. There was a necessity because of God's command. But in turn, these offerings were necessary because of God's holiness. The Bible talks a lot about the holiness of God. It speaks of Him in Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13 as being of purer eyes than to behold evil and one who canst not look upon iniquity. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. So we read in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 3. God is a holy God and man is a sinful creature. It's interesting just as you begin reading in the book of Leviticus and you come into the fourth chapter to see the various references there. to this particular theme. Leviticus chapter 4 verse 2, 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 and so on, there was a necessity, we read, for him to bring unto the Lord a sin offering. even though it was a sin that was done through ignorance. You know, ignorance is no excuse when it comes to breaking the law of God. The Lord doesn't just give you a free pass because you don't know. God's law is inflexible. As Himself, God is a just God. and he demands punishment for sin. But man's sinfulness is emphasized all the way through that chapter. In Leviticus chapter 4, for example, in verse 13, it says of the whole congregation of Israel, sin through ignorance. In verse 20, It talks about the priest making an atonement for them, and it shall be forgiven them. The constant theme that's visited here is of man's sinfulness. We also know that these offerings were necessary because of God's righteousness, because of His justice, and because of His love. It's the love of God that has provided an offering for sin. And as we've emphasized in other messages, these offerings were not meritorious. They only had any real merit, if you could call it merit, insofar as they pictured the work of Christ. They were not meritorious in themselves. They could never take away sin. The book of Hebrews makes that very clear. Those who would keep bringing the offerings didn't bring them to make the comers thereunto perfect. Because there was no perfection by the Law or by these offerings. These things spoke about Christ. And so whenever someone would come, he would present these offerings. Individually, we find in chapter 1 of Leviticus in verse 3, there was the bringing of an offering by the individual person. And it says, if his offering, notice it's individual, be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a meal without blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. The individual would come with this presentation of the offering, thus publicly acknowledging his sin. That was the significance of it. He needed forgiveness. He needed his sins to be taken away. There are various things that we see in these offerings that are full of meaning. The burnt offering, for example, would speak to us not just of the Lord's death on the cross for us, but His perfect dedication of Himself to God. Because the entire animal was consumed on the altar. The burnt offering speaks about that. The meal offering would speak to us of Christ offering Himself to God for the service of man. The peace offering would speak of the fact that Christ's work actually made peace with God for us, peace through the blood of His cross. The sin offering, of course, is very clear in its message because it speaks of Christ being made sin for us, even though He had no sin, He knew no sin, He did no sin, yet He suffered once for sins. The sin offering speaks of that. And the trespass offering speaks of the fact that the Lord was delivered for our sinful actions, for our transgressions. Christ died not only for what I am, I am a sinner. Christ died for what I did and even for what I failed to do. He died for my sins. All of this we see in the offerings. As I say, the first seven chapters of Leviticus are occupied with the description of these five offerings. And though these are various types, they really convey together the one message of the perfect completeness of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Whenever you look at each offering, and I'm just going to have to give you an overview tonight because we could study each one in turn. It would really merit that. But we're trying to get through this series so that it doesn't become something that lasts for years. There was a preacher once called Joseph Carroll who preached in his congregation in the days of the Puritans on the book of Job for 13 years. And at the end of it all, it was said, the congregation would have needed the patience of Job to continue listening to that series. I don't want to do that. I'm not going to do that. So we're going to just mention some things by way of an overview of these five offerings. But something that we have to notice in regard to these offerings is that in each and every one of them, the five, there are at least three distinct objects that are presented to us. There's the offering, There's the priest who made the offering and the offerer himself. So you have the offering, the priest, and the offerer. And when we apply that to our Savior, in His death for us, Christ is Himself the offering. He's the sacrifice. Hebrews 10 verse 10 speaks of the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. but then again Christ is also the priest. And that's different from the Old Testament economy because the priest was not the offering. The priest would, for example, in the burnt sacrifice, lay it on the altar and he would offer it to God as a sacrifice. But where Christ is concerned, He is both the priest doing the offering and He is the offering itself. He is both priest and sacrifice. We have a great high priest, Jesus the Son of God, Hebrews 4.14 tells us. And really that word, great high priest, could be translated Archpriest. I don't have any time for Archbishops. You would know that. But Christ is the Archpriest. He is the Great Priest. Our High Priest. The Son of God. And then Christ is not only the Offering and the Priest, but He is the Offerer. Because He gave Himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. Furthermore, the offerings as we look at them were divided into two main classes. There were those that were offered as a sweet savour, of which the burnt offering actually stands out most prominently, and there were those that were offered as an expiation for sin, of which the sin offering would be the chief one. The burnt offering, that first one that's mentioned in Leviticus chapter 1, was a sweet savor offering for acceptance. It was completely burnt upon that brazen altar in the court of the tabernacle. You remember that we talked about going in through the front gate. It wasn't really a gate, but that's what they called it. It was a covering of various colors. You'd go in through there into the outer court and there would be a brass or brazen altar there. That's the altar of burnt offering. That's where the offering that's described in Leviticus chapter 1 would be offered. You'll see that it mentions it there in Leviticus 1 verse 4. He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering. It shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Verse 5. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord and the priest Aaron's son 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 it describes all that went on there in the offering of that burnt offering. It was completely burnt. It was a whole burnt offering furthermore. Nothing was kept back. Everything was laid on the altar. And in that, we can see a type of Christ's perfect life of obedience to His Father's will. The Lord obeyed the law in its every aspect. He gave Himself over completely to doing the will of God. And Christ appeared for us as an offering to God, giving His life in an unreserved surrender, the whole mind and heart and will without blemish, wholly given over to God without reserve. And Ephesians 5 verse 2 speaks about that. It says that Christ also hath given Himself For us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour. That really conveys the joy of sacrifice. You know the whole idea that the Lord was dragged kicking and screaming to the cross. He was sort of unwilling and wished that he could do something else. It's not true. He set his face as a flint to go to Jerusalem. The Lord desired to go to the cross for you and for me. He counted it a great joy to do so. Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. And didn't he say, and it's quoted there, the reference from Psalm 40 in Hebrews chapter 10, I delight to do thy will, oh my God. So in the burnt offering, The surrender of Christ's life as an offering to God also reminds us of our own duty in that regard. And we would never be able to give ourselves wholly and completely to God in the doing of His will, even though we're called and commanded to do so. What's the first commandment of the law? Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, with all thy strength. Is there anybody here who is able to do that? Is there anybody here who would have the temerity to say, I've actually done that. I have given my whole self without reservation unto the Lord. You know that that's not true. There's imperfection in us. But Christ is our burnt offering. And He has fulfilled the law of God for us. When we look at the meat offering, which was an adjunct of the burnt offering, the gift of fine flour and oil represented the fulfillment of man's duty to his neighbor. And that's the second commandment of the law. And Jesus, as man, fulfilled both of these in His perfect life on this earth. He did the will of God perfectly, keeping the law of God. And He also has fulfilled the second table of the law perfectly. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Now when we look at that meat offering, there was in that fine flour, flour that was milled, flour that was bruised, flour that was literally ground into powder and then offered by fire. We see pictured there the bruising of the Lord Jesus Christ at the hands of those for whom He was ministering day by day. For each day of the Lord's life on this earth He endured contradiction of sinners against Himself. A life of consecration, the meat offering. And then there's the sin offering. And it differed from the burnt offering. You might say, well, what is the difference? A burnt offering, wasn't it an offering of the animal for sin? Why is the sin offering different? Well, it was offered distinctly in atonement for sin. The fat of the animal was consumed on the brazen altar to show that it was accepted. But all the rest was burnt outside the camp. or as the Bible uses the term, without the camp, to show the exceeding sinfulness of sin. That was the significance of that. And the Lord Jesus became this sin offering for us. Hebrews 9.26 says that once in the end of the world or the age hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And we could never conceive what the Lord Jesus endured in His sinless soul when God's face was hidden from Him, when He was made sin for us. On the cross, the Lord Jesus said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer is really because of our sin. The Lord hid his face from him. Now the tabernacle was the place where the rituals and the ceremonies of worship occurred. And that sacrificial system was intentionally an imperfect picture of the work of Christ. Because we could say that in part the sacrifices there were typical events. but they were such an integral part of the economy of the tabernacle that whenever we consider tabernacle theology, we have to explain these things. In every way, these sacrifices were types. Speaking of Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world But they had no independent significance apart from what they were telling us about Christ. And so the sacrifices, we might say, were portrayals, pictures, sermons, if you will, of the Gospel. And as we look at them in turn, Leviticus chapters 1 through 7, records the most detailed instructions concerning these offerings. Just to return to the burnt offering, chapter 1 of Leviticus speaks of that one which is the most general of the sacrifices. It was actually a sweet savor offering. It ascended unto God. We often sing about that in some of our hymns about the smoke ascending on high. The Bible talks about that which comes up before God as a sweet savour before Him. Now it did share some common features with the other offerings and sacrifices and taught really key lessons about the whole subject of atonement. There was a special designation in regard to this burnt offering. In Leviticus chapter 1 you'll see in verse 3 that the Lord stipulated that the animal, if it was a burnt sacrifice of the herd, it had to be a male without blemish. You go down to verse 10, that is emphasized again at the end of the verse. He shall bring it, a male without blemish. Symbolically, This was teaching that the only acceptable sacrifice was one that was pure and perfect and blameless. Now, since the offerer, the Israelite person, was guilty of sin, this particular requirement made it clear that atonement would have to come from a source outside of that person. And so, typically, this pure victim, this animal without blemish, was a type of Christ. Because isn't He described in 1 Peter 1 verse 19 as a lamb without blemish and without spot? You might think that that is what is called in English tautology or kind of a repetition or using superfluous words. It's not. When it says without blemish and without spot, it's not two ways of speaking about the same thing. It's speaking about two different things. Without blemish, had to do with the inside of the animal. Without spot had to do with the outside of the animal. So therefore, an animal, while it might look as if it was without spot on the outside, you look at the beast, a sheep, or a goat, or a bullock, and say, well, that's a fine specimen there. Look at that. There's nothing wrong with that animal. But you know, you wouldn't realize unless you had found out if it had a disease on the inside. Got something wrong with it. and they were not allowed to offer an animal that was diseased. So even though it might look good on the outside, if it wasn't good on the inside, if it was not without disease, it couldn't be used. And conversely, if it was an animal that didn't have a disease on the inside, but it had something wrong with it on the outside, it had a broken leg, or it had some mark in its flesh that would really spoil the look of the animal, that couldn't be used. And the book of Malachi speaks about that because the farmers there who were bringing offerings to the Lord were thinking, well, any old thing will do the Lord. I will bring them animals that are ones that we're not going to be able to sell in the market. Give those to the Lord. What blasphemy that is. To give unto the Lord that which is not really of any value to you. That's not sacrificial giving. The animal had to be without blemish and without spot, and that's Jesus. There's no sin in Him, and there's no sin in His life. He was perfect and is perfect in every way. And so this animal without blemish, it points to the whole act of obedience of Christ, offering to God a perfect righteousness, and demonstrating to the entire world His entire perfection and sinlessness. The burnt offering was one with a special designation. In the burnt offering, furthermore, there was a dependence that was pictured. When I say a dependence, that is seen in the fact that Leviticus 1 verse 4 talks about the offerer putting his hand upon the head of the burnt offering. You think about that, the symbolism of that. Someone brings an animal, it's a bullock, and he puts his hand upon its head. What is that? What's the significance? What was that for? Well basically it meant that the offeror was leaning on the animal. There was a forcible laying on of his hands and symbolically that represented the transfer of guilt from the sinner to that perfect animal, the otherwise innocent beast becoming the substitute for the guilty party. My faith would lay her hand on that dear head of thine, while like a penitent I stand and there confess my sin." So the hymn writer put it. Leaning one's weight on the sacrifice suggested something about the nature of faith also. The hand resting upon the head of the object of sacrifice. The result of that transfer and that substitution was, in the words of verse 4, it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him." Not literally, but figuratively and prophetically. Because, let's remember again, it's speaking of Christ ultimately. But peace with God was the goal and propitiation, or if you like, atonement of the wrath of God was the means to bring that goal about. Here we have the wonderful truth of vicarious atonement vividly presented in type here. Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The offerer would come with a dependence upon that animal, leaning his hand upon its head. There's another place where you read about that, and we'll come to that when we talk about the Day of Atonement, where the priest would actually lay his hands on the head of the beast and transfer to the animal symbolically all the sins and the trespasses, the unrighteousnesses of the Israelites. It's a type of Christ. There's a designation that's pictured here. There is a dependence that's pictured here. There is a death that is involved here. This was not a living sacrifice, but Leviticus chapter 1 verse 5, speaking about the burnt offering, talks about the offerer killing the animal. The death of that substitutionary beast symbolically was teaching what the terrible penalty of our sin is. See, the demand of God's holy law is absolute. God's law is inflexible. Some have used the illustration of a school teacher grading kids on the curve. You know what that is? That's a device that's used to get the grades up, to make it look like they've done better than they've actually done. My daughter, and I'm sure this other fellow over here, don't grade on the curve. No chance. And I've got to tell you, where God is concerned, our keeping of God's law, the Lord will not view by grading it on the curve, by telling us, well, you've done the best that you could. Well done, sonny boy. Well done, girl. You've tried your best. I'll just take the will for the deed. No, God will not do that. His law is inflexible. He demands perfection, 100%. Not 99.9%, 100% perfection. So who's going to be saved on that basis? No one. There's none of us who can provide that to God. Perfect obedience to His holy law, and of course, as well as the demand of God's holy law, the inflexible nature of it. There was the penalty attached to it. And the penalty attached to it is death. The soul that sinneth. Those who come short of the law. Those who do not keep the law in every part. They're guilty of all. And therefore the penalty for that one is death. But God's gracious mercy has provided a substitute. And while God's holy justice will never overlook the broken law, the wages of sin have been earned and the wages have to be paid, death. There was this wonderful picture that was given of Christ. The Lord Jesus was delivered for our offenses. He died the just for the unjust. He died for, on the behalf of, the Greek preposition is huper, on the behalf of the ungodly. Dying as the perfect sacrifice was the only way that God could be both just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. We're not saved only by the life of Christ. were saved by the death of Christ. So there was a death involved here in the burnt offering. And there was a demand as well as a death. The demand was that blood be shed because the priests, according to verse 5, would sprinkle, they'd bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that's by the door. And that use of the blood shed through death did something. Whereas death was the necessary penalty of sin, the blood shed through that death was the specific means of propitiation. Which as we know from our study of words like that, means the satisfaction of the wrath of God. Turning away His wrath. That's what the shedding of the blood did. And sprinkling the blood on the altar, which was the very first piece of tabernacle furniture that you would find on the way in there in the outer court, showed symbolically that there is no approach to God apart from the blood. You cannot be saved without the shedding of blood. And of course, typically, the priest sprinkling that blood pictures Christ's presentation of the blood of his atonement in glory. And so the believer in prayer has access into the holy place. How do we pray? What is the basis on which we pray? How are we accepted in prayer? Hebrews 10 verse 19, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us. This is the gospel. We know tonight that approach to God is only possible through the blood of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. Years ago, there was an infidel preacher in our part of the world where I come from, who accused Bible preachers of preaching a gospel of gore. Well, I plead guilty. I do preach a gospel of gore, a gospel of blood. Without the sharing of the precious blood, and it is precious blood, we could never be saved. And tonight as we come to the Lord's Supper, that's one of the things that's brought before us each time. The blood has been shed for our redemption. We're still just at the burnt offering, by the way. We're not going to get any further than the burnt offering tonight. Even though I said we're going to have an overview of the whole lot. You should sometimes take what the preacher says with a pinch of salt. Liberty is a wonderful thing. But there's one final thing about the burnt offering I want to mention. We've already talked about the fact that in this first chapter, there's a designation. The animal had to be without blemish, picture in Christ. There had to be a dependence, the hand upon its head, leaning upon that offering, depending upon it, but also transferring sin to that offering, coming by faith in dependence on it. There also had to be a death. There was a demand and association with that death. It was the shedding of the blood. And finally there was a dedication involved. Because, and I'm going back full circle really to what I said earlier, the priest would burn the entire sacrifice on the altar completely. Leviticus 1 verse 9. But his innards 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. Whereas each of these sacrifices of blood parallels the first four steps, the burning of the whole victim is actually unique to the burnt offering. This is the one that sets that forth. It's that burning of the whole victim that is described as a, verse 9, sweet savor unto the Lord. The Hebrew really signifies it is a smell that placates. You know how sometimes you smell something and you go, oh, what a beautiful smell. That's a sweet smell of an aroma. It may be a cologne. It may be food. It's a sweet smell in your nostrils. That's the idea here. It is the smell that placates. It represents that which is entirely pleasing and acceptable to God. It puts His wrath to rest. He's happy with it. He's content with it. He's satisfied with it. There's nothing deficient in it. It is a complete atonement. And one of our hymns puts it like this. Complete atonement thou hast made. And to the utmost thou hast paid whate'er thy people owed. How then can wrath on me take place, if sheltered in thy righteousness and sprinkled with thy blood? Atonement having been accomplished by the death and the application of the blood to the altar, the burning of the animal is a sign of reconciliation, of satisfaction and of entire consecration." Again, it's a clear prophecy of our Lord Jesus, who according to Ephesians 5 verse 2, gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. When Jesus died upon the cross, it is as though the Father smelled in His nostrils that which was entirely pleasing to Him. Nothing deficient in it. Nothing more remaining to be done. How dare we then think that we're going to add to the work of Christ by bringing some of our own righteousness. I was talking to someone recently and Making this point, isn't it amazing how even as Bible believers, and we believe all of these things, we have all these doctrines down pat as it were, we tend within our hearts to revert towards righteousness. And no more is that, and no less is that seen when it comes to prayer. You know how it goes. I've had a pretty good day. I've done pretty well today. I can't think of too many things that I've done wrong. I can pray. I can pray now to the Lord. But then conversely, well, I didn't have a very good, got off to a bad start today. Went through that drive-thru. They didn't get my order right and I was angry with that person and I told them off and then it went downhill from there. This has not been a good day. I don't think I can really pray. The Lord's not going to hear my prayer. What is that? That's works righteousness. That's what that is. We think somehow it depends on our performance, whether the Lord receives us or not. But I want to tell you, friend, and let's not be complacent about our sins. Let's not imagine that it doesn't matter. It does matter. But here's the thing. No matter how good a day you think you've had, it'll never be good enough to get you into the presence of God. That can only happen through the blood and righteousness of Jesus. And when you had a bad day, the same plea that you had on the day that you thought was a good day is the plea that you must bring. It is the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus. Pleading his forgiveness over all of our sin, knowing that we are accepted, fully accepted at all times, in all places before him. Let not the devil whisper in your ear, telling you, you can't come to the Lord. You're not fit to be in God's presence. You can't take communion. You can't pray. You're not fit. In reality, we could answer that with an affirmation. You're absolutely right. I'm not fit. But I'm not coming in myself. I'm coming clothed, dressed in the righteousness of my Redeemer. my perfect burnt sacrifice. I'm coming standing upon His merit, for I know no other stand, not even where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. May the Lord bless our study of this beautiful offering, the burnt offering. And as we continue to look at the scripture, may we see our Lord Jesus in the book. Amen.