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verses there at the beginning
of the chapter, and then we'll ask for the Lord's help in our
study this morning. Leviticus chapter 3. And if his oblation be a sacrifice
of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be
a male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the
Lord. He shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, and
kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron's
sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round
about. And he shall offer of the sacrifice
of the peace offering an offering made by fire unto the Lord, the
fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon
the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them,
which is by the flanks, and the call above the liver, with the
kidneys, it shall he take away. And Aaron's son shall burn it
on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is
on the fire. It is an offering made by fire
of a sweet savor unto the Lord." Well, we'll end our reading there.
We'll look at more passages in this before we're through. But
let's seek the Lord's face in prayer this morning and ask for
His help in our study. Gracious Father, we are thankful
that this morning we are met in Jesus' name. We ask that you
would help us to exalt that name in our hearts. We know that thou
hast exalted the name of Christ above every name, and that even
now he sits at thy right hand, ruling and reigning. Lord, in
this church, we wish to exalt Him. We wish to do that which
is pleasing unto Him. We wish this morning that we
would know His presence, His power, His grace upon each believer. Lord, we would come and call
upon Thee this morning that Thou wouldst be pleased to come and
meet with us. Lord, we plead the blood of Christ
over our gathering. We ask that You would cleanse
us from every sin, even from every earth-gathered stain for
this past week. And Lord, we ask that we would
come and ascend the hill of God this morning, and know what it
is to commune with thee in the Holy of Holies. Lord, come and
help us in this class, in this hour. We also, Lord, ask for
our Sabbath school teachers, that you would bless them, that
they would know your help and power and grace, even as they
would seek your face this morning. Lord, we pray for each one of
our young ones, that they would come to Christ, that you would
open their hearts the way that you opened Lydia's heart, and
that they would receive the truth of the gospel, and that they
would believe upon Christ. Lord, do this gracious work.
It is thy work. Lord, we ask for your help and
power, even as we meet together this morning, for we ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen. We began a study a few
weeks back on the tabernacle. And we have looked at the tabernacle
in general, and we have said that the tabernacle served a
number of functions in the Old Testament. One, it showed the
people that God was a God of order, and He was the one who
dictated to them where they were to live and how they were to
behave. We also said that it showed the people something about
God's holiness. And there was in the tabernacle
a holy place and then a most holy place or the holy of holies.
And that was teaching the people that our God is a holy God and
that we are to be holy like him. And then we said that the tabernacle
taught something concerning salvation. The people would see by the blood
atonement that there was only one way to approach God, and
they would look forward to the Messiah who would come and wash
away their sins. And then in connection with that,
we also said that the tabernacle was a picture of communion. Not
just that we are saved by the blood, but that we commune by
the blood. And they have in each one of
these pictures concerning the furniture in the temple, in the
tabernacle, in each one of these pictures you have something being
described to the people of God concerning their communion with
the Lord. Now, we said that the first piece
of furniture that you would come upon as you came into the courtyard,
as you passed through the curtains, before you got to the holy place,
before someone would go into the holy place, a priest or a
high priest in the most holy place, anyone could go into the
courtyard. And in the courtyard, there were
two pieces of furniture. And the first one you would see
was the bronze altar. The second was the brass laver.
Both of those are symbolic concerning our communion with the Lord.
And we have been looking at the bronze altar. It's also called
the Altar of Burnt Sacrifices, where the sacrifice was placed,
especially the one that was placed morning and evening, which was
the burnt sacrifice. Now, we looked at the dimensions
of the altar. We said that the top had horns
on it, four horns on each corner. There was a horn, and that these
horns symbolized power, but they also had a practical application
in that you could tie the animal to the altar as it was burning,
so it wouldn't roll off. And we find that actually being
referred to in the psalms. But we said that most of this
Altar is defined for us by what was put on it by the sacrifices
that were laid there So that began a study of the five sacrifices
that were put on the bronze altar Throughout the week you had every
day a burnt offering and that's what's in Leviticus chapter 1
a burnt offering offered in the morning and in the evening and
Burns offering indicated there was need of cleansing. But even
more specifically, as it's found in Leviticus, the Burns offering
has the idea of consecrating your life to the Lord. Now, Israel
was to be a consecrated nation. And even in their consecration,
there would be imperfections, there would be sin. And so God
made a sacrifice, demanded a sacrifice to be offered in the morning
and in the evening six days a week. And then on the Lord's Day, we
would call it the first day of the week. But in that age, it
was the last day of the week. When they came together, two
burnt offerings were offered in the morning and two in the
evening. So there was no way possible you could miss the need
of a blood atonement in your dedication in your worship. You
knew that you had to come to God through the blood and it
focused your attention on the fact that there was coming a
day when the Messiah would come and he would wash away the imperfections
of your consecration, your dedication. But beyond that, There was also
added to, as we saw last week, there was added to the burnt
offering a meal offering. And that was picturing the perfect
humanity of Christ. The meal offering never stood
by itself. It was always added to another
offering that was made by blood. Cain offered a meal offering.
It's called a meat offering in scripture, but in that day, a
meat wouldn't indicate a whole meal. It wouldn't necessarily
indicate flesh. This is actually a grain offering
when we say a meat offering. It is a grain offering. And so
I use the terminology of meal offering. Cain offered such an
offering and he was rejected. Why? There was no blood atonement.
But when God demanded that the people give offerings to him,
he also put within the five offerings a meal offering that it might
more fully symbolize Consecration and how that you and I are accepted
because of the consecration of Christ and because of his blood
atonement So the burnt offering and the meal offering went together
and in both of them there were pictures about the work of Christ
now when you come to the book of Leviticus in the third chapter
you have another offering it's called the peace offering and
Many times in scripture it is just called peace, and it is
understood by the context you're talking about the peace offering. Same is true of the sin offering.
There are times when the sin offering is just called sin,
and it was understood by the translators talking about the
sin offering, and so they would add the word offering to the
word sin. Now when you look at your notes,
you'll note that I have listed for you sin offering, burnt offering,
peace offering. As we have stated before, the
order in Leviticus chapters 1 to 6 is not the order you and I
would follow if we had sinned against the Lord. If we had sinned
against the Lord, we wouldn't come first with a burnt offering
and meal offering and then a peace offering and then a sin offering.
No, you would start with the sin offering. And the sin offering
was confession of sin. We'll see that next time we have
opportunity of studying the offerings. But in the sin offering was confession
of sin. Then in the burnt offering, you
were dedicating your life back to the Lord. The very instruments,
the hands, the eyes, the mind that was used to sin was dedicated
back to him. And then you came to the peace
offering. Now, you see this order in a number of places when Hezekiah
cleanses the temple. And the people are trying to
get right with the Lord. You have a lengthy description of
the offerings that were made, and they started with the sin
offering. They went to the burnt offering, and then they went
to the peace offering. We have that picture for us again
in the book of Exodus, and we have it in Leviticus, and actually
in Ezekiel. Now, I've given you two passages
here so you can see this, but turn if you would to Leviticus
9. I only give you one verse. Let's go to Leviticus 9 where
you can see the context. Verse 15. And he brought the people's offering
and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people,
and slew it and offered it for sin as the first. Here's a sin
offering offered for sin. You would confess your sin over
the animal, you would kill the animal, and then the blood would
be manipulated and the body burned. Then you came to verse 16, and
he brought the burnt offering and offered it according to the
manner. And he brought the meal offering and took a handful thereof
and burned it upon the altar beside the burnt offering of
the morning. And so you have the burnt offering
following the sin offering and meal offering combined with the
burnt offering. And then you have what? Verse
18. He slew also the bullock and the ram for a sacrifice of
peace offerings, which was for the people. And Aaron's sons
presented unto him the blood which he sprinkled upon the altar
round about, and the fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump,
and that which was covered, the inwards and the kidneys, and
the call above the liver, And they put the fat upon the breast
and he burnt the fat upon the altar. And the breast and the
right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord
as Moses commanded. And Aaron lifted up his hand
toward the people and blessed them and came down from the offering
of the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offering.
You'll note that the meal offering isn't mentioned because it's
Considered almost a subset of the burnt offering and so you
just have sin offering burnt offering and peace offering verse
23 and Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle the congregation
came out and blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared
unto all the people and there came up fire out from before
the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering in the
fat and that which when all the people saw they shouted and fell
on their faces now and The glory came when? After all three sacrifices
were given. In those three sacrifices, there
is a completed picture of Christ's one sacrifice. We don't offer
three sacrifices. Christ offered the one sacrifice. But what you and I do in the
sacrifice of Christ is very similar to what was done in the Old Testament.
We come and we sin against the Lord. We confess our sin. And
so we come, like the sin offering, laying our hands on Christ and
saying, You are my offering. We're confessing our sin. We're
claiming the blood to cleanse our sin. But we also give our
bodies back to the Lord. We give ourselves to Him. We
don't continue on in our sin. We give back to the Lord that
which we took and used for sin. And so we give it back to Him.
That was the burnt offering. We claim the blood over the imperfections
of our dedication. And then what do we do? We enjoy
the peace. the peace that comes to us through
the atonement of Christ. And if you never get to that
point, you're not seeing the blood atonement correctly. Three
offerings were used to try to show the people how that they
were now reconciled and at peace. So that is the offering we're
looking at now, the peace offering. All three of these offerings
went together to show us something about the work of Christ. That
we confess our sins through his atoning work. That we dedicate
and consecrate our lives through his atoning work. And that we
commune with God through the blood, through his atoning work.
Now, you'll note that in Ezekiel, We have this glorious vision
of the temple. I'm not going to try to get into
Ezekiel, this passage, and explain it all to you. But I would just
say this, Ezekiel 43 gives you what is really going on in the
vision that begins in chapter 40 and runs all the way to chapter
48. And if you would look in chapter 43, you have this given
to the people as an inducement to repent. Did they repent perfectly? No, they didn't. Was God then
obligated to give the temple in that fashion? No, He was not.
But what happened was Christ came, He took away the types,
the symbols, the ceremonies, with the reality of His sacrifice. Now He is the temple, we are
the temple of God, and what you see in the book of the Revelation
is that from that temple flows the perfection that you see in
Ezekiel 40-48. Now, that was a mouthful. And I'd probably be better if
I walked you through it, rather than just say it. I say all that
to say, when you come to Ezekiel 45, he is showing the perfection
that would have come on that side of the cross if they had
repented perfectly. If they had repented perfectly,
God would have brought in a perfect temple. He would have brought
in perfect sacrifices. It would have been a perfect
blessing. But they didn't repent perfectly. But in describing
for them on that side of the cross, where everything was done
in ceremonies and types and shadows, you have described the sacrifices
again. And look at what it says in verse
15 of Ezekiel 45. Now, you have this in your handout. If you want to turn there, you
can. But verse 15 of Ezekiel 45. And one lamb out of the flock,
out of the two hundred, out of the fat pastures of Israel, for
a meat offering, and for a burnt offering, and for a peace offering,
to make reconciliation for them, saith the Lord." What was the
peace offering portraying? Reconciliation. Now, back in
the days when our translators worked on the authorized version,
you came to Romans chapter 5, Verses 9 through 11 they translated
the Greek word reconciliation reconciliation, and then they
translated reconciling the verb But then they came to the last
time the word reconciliation occurs, and they translated it
atonement Now that's the way we pronounce that word atonement,
but it was pronounced earlier at one mince at one mince being
at one with God, with one another. That is what we call reconciliation. And so truly atonement or at-one-ment
and reconciliation is the exact same thought as it's being used
in Romans 5. Well, when we start to think
of our reconciliation and the peace that flows from that reconciliation,
it's one of the major themes of the New Testament in describing
your salvation. This then was picturing that
for the people. You do the burnt offering, then
you come to the peace offering, and everything is at peace. At
one. Everything has been reconciled.
Now, when we come then to the description of this peace offering,
there are a number of things that were done in the peace offering.
In verses 1 and 2 of Leviticus 3, We saw that it was stated
there that you could bring a male or female. By this point, the
sin offering and the burnt offering, which were only the male, was
surely picturing the fact that sin could only be atoned for
by this one man who was coming, the Lord Jesus Christ. But now
in dealing with fellowship, sin has been dealt with. Now you
have female animals are being used as well. But you know, Estelle
was had to be without blemish. This teaches us that it was a
sinless representative that would make the people whole before
God. They would never be made whole by a sinful representative. They had to have someone represent
them, some man who would represent them who was sinless. Secondly,
you see in verse two, they laid their hands upon the head of
the offering. And so, as the offering came, you took your
hands and you put it upon the head of that animal. As you pressed
down on that head of the animal, you were in effect saying, this
animal now has my sins and we're going to deal with them accordingly.
So, sin offering, you did that. You did that in the peace offering.
Transference, as it were, of guilt. Well, we know that that
has to do with Christ being the substitute for us. In a very
real sense, it wasn't the Romans that nailed Christ to the cross.
You nailed Him there. I nailed Him there. By our sins. And we have placed our hands
upon Him. And when we come to confess our
sins and to claim the blood over our sins and claim the reconciliation
by that blood, even as believers now, we are still, as it were,
putting our hands upon the sacrifice and saying, Christ, You are my
sacrifice. You have died for me. My guilt
is upon You. I was actually the father that
did that, putting our guilt upon him, but we do that from our
hearts when we own him as our Lord and Savior. Then they killed
at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and it was
the man who laid his hands upon the offering that did the killing,
and then Aaron's sons, the priests, got involved. So you are the
one that slew the animal as well. Again, this shows, symbolically,
you are the one who is killing that animal. In a very real sense,
Christ died for our sins, we put him on the cross, we're the
ones who slew him, even though God himself was the one doing
the punishing for our sins. Then you have the sprinkling
of the blood. And the sprinkling of the blood symbolizes satisfaction. God is now satisfied. That was
the old word that the Puritans loved, and the theologians, a
generation or two ago, loved to express what we call now the
atonement. They loved to use the word satisfaction. Why? God's law is satisfying. God's wrath is satisfying. And
you have that depicted in that sweet-smelling savor. The wrath
is turned away. The noscos have been placated.
The man who is angry is no longer angry. Or in this case, the God
who was justly angry is no longer angry. He's at peace. And so you have then in these
first two verses a sinless representative, a substitution for the sinner
and satisfaction by blood atonement. That's what the sprinkling of
the blood was all about. Now, in verses three to five,
you have something that seems quite strange to us. You have
the fat being taken away from this sacrifice and burned. The
fat was burned, and if you were to eat the fat, you were in trouble.
That was something was an abomination. The fat being burned meant that
part of this sacrifice was burned to God. And so your peace, obviously,
is based upon the fact that atonement was made to God, and so the burning
of the fat was giving to God the part of the animal that he
demanded, what they would have considered the best part of the
animal. It's actually called food. You
see that in verse 11. Food for the Lord. And the flesh
and the hide, Shoot, I'm in chapter 9, let me get down to chapter
3. Verse 11 of chapter 3, "...and the priest shall burn it upon
the altar. It is the food of the offering
made by fire unto the Lord." The word food there is the word
bread. Lachem. Same word that you have
in Bethlehem. The house of bread. It was the
Lord's food. Again, what's being symbolized
here is a meal. Where God has given part, his
part is consumed by the fire, and then part is given to the
priest, and then part will be eaten by the worshiper. Now,
when you come to chapter 7, Well, before we go there, the bread
was offered by fire to the Lord, fire symbolizing the consuming
by the Lord, and then you have the offering said to be a sweet
savor to the Lord, offering therefore was in a sense appeasing wrath,
making everything at one, but God used three pictures to do
that, the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering,
and the peace offering was the last of those pictures indicating
God is at peace. No longer is he angry. The sweet
savor has come into his nostrils, and God himself is satisfied. Now, when you come to chapter
7, verse 14, then again later on in verses 32 to 34, you have
the heave offering and the wave offering being mentioned. Of
it, he shall offer one of the whole oblation for heave offering
unto the Lord. And it shall be the priest that
sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings." Right? The priest
could now eat the heave offering. Question, what was the heave
offering? We don't have much explanation for that. So, when
men have come to study that, one explanation is that the heave
offering was this offering that's stated here as being an oblation,
was given to the priest and he would hold it up. indicating
that this blessing came to him from heaven. But he also would
wave it. There was a wave offering that
you see later on in verse 34. For the wave offering and the
heave offering have I taken. What was the wave offering? The
wave offering was something that was waved perhaps from side to
side, indicating blessings upon earth. And so commentators have
said that this right shoulder given as a heave offering was
lifted up indicating God's blessings are coming upon him, and the
wave offering then indicating this peace, this reconciliation
is throughout God's people. And therefore, great blessing
was upon the people. Now, that's one way of explaining
that. I have not heard of a better way. But having said that, the
heave offering and the wave offering were then used. The heave offering
was something that the priests could eat, perhaps the wave as
well. It was to be eaten in a clean
place. 14 of chapter 10 we're on the second page now the way
of offering the heave offering shall you eat in a clean place
thou and my sons and my daughters for thee and for and for they
be thy do and my sons do which are given out of the sacrifice
of peace offerings for the children of Israel in verse 15 it talks
about the worshiper eating of Leviticus 7 The flesh of the
sacrifice of his peace offerings for Thanksgiving shall be eaten
on the same day that it is offered. He shall not leave any of it
until the morning. So now we're talking about the
worshiper, the one who came, put his hands on the animal,
slew the animal, and then part of that animal was cut open and
part of it was burned to the Lord. Part of it was given to
the priest who lifted it up before God, indicating all blessings
came from him. And then another part of that
animal was now given to the worshiper. to eat, not with the blood. The
blood was removed, but the worshipper was to eat. So what you had were
God, as it were, being satisfied with a meal, the mediator being
satisfied with a meal, and then the worshipper being satisfied
with this meal. All is at peace, a communal meal. Everyone is satisfied in the
sense that there's no anger, no animosity. We're all sitting
down together, eating, indicating that we're at one, one with another.
We're at peace. So God made them not only kill
an animal, not only sprinkle the blood, not only burn it on
the altar. He made them eat, indicating that all was at peace.
Now, it was to be eaten the same day. This shows a close connection
with the peace offering, with the other offerings. It shows
that the fellowship has been restored. And it was to be, as
it were, indicated by this meal. You were to eat that same day
the peace offering. Now, the vow offering could,
which was a type of peace offering, the vow offering could be eaten
at a different time within two days. But the peace offering
was to be eaten immediately, indicating the fellowship has
been restored. If the next day that fellowship
was disrupted by sin, what did you have to do? You came back,
sin offering, burnt offering, peace offering. And then you
ate again, indicating everything has been restored. I think sometimes
as God's people, we come and confess our sins and we know
he said he forgives us, but we don't get the sense that we have
peace with him. We haven't come to eat yet. We
still think he's angered, and we go around with the guilt of
our sin, and we keep trying to work it off. We keep trying to
deal with it, even though we've already confessed it. And by
Scripture, it's gone. But in our hearts, we're not
eating the peace offering yet. We haven't come to enjoy that
fellowship. They were made to eat it that
very day. That very day. They could not
wait to the next day. If they did, it was an abomination.
And it says in verse 7 of Leviticus 19, that if anything was eaten
on the... now this is, excuse me, this
is the vow offering, a type of peace offering, that if you ate
any of that on the third day, it was an abomination, not acceptable,
and everyone that eat it will bear his iniquity, because he
profaned the hallowed thing of the Lord, and that soul shall
be cut off from among the people. The vow offering could be eaten
on the day that you offered it, that type of peace offering,
it could be eaten the next day. It wasn't so closely connected
with the sin offering, it was connected with peace. But that
third day was out. You could not do it or you became
something that was abominable to the Lord. Now, the picturing
of this offering, as we have said, is the idea of peace. And
what a tremendous theme in the New Testament there is concerning
peace and reconciliation. Now, I haven't given you all
the verses, just a smattering of verses. Our Lord said that
he gave his peace to his people, and he did. There's a real peace
that he has given to us, that he has earned by his atoning
work. When you come to Romans chapter 3 and verse 17, it says
concerning the unsaved, the way of peace they have not known.
The ungodly do not know the way of peace. They're trying to find
peace, but they can't find it. So what they do is they drink
themselves drunk so they aren't thinking on what's going on in
the world, can't remember their guilt until the drunkenness wears
off and then their guilt comes back double. Or they take drugs,
and while they're on the high from the drug, they can't remember
the guilt, they don't feel, as it were, the pain and the agony
of conscience, and then as soon as the drug is over, bam, it
comes back again. No peace for the wicked. So,
the way of peace they've never found. Where is the way of peace?
It's found in Christ. In Acts chapter 10, The word
which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by
Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. That's where
peace comes. It's by Jesus Christ. Ephesians chapter two, Paul's
dealing there with reconciliation between Jew and Gentile and reconciliation
between that new body of Jew and Gentile, that new congregation
being reconciled to God. And so we find then in verse
14, it says this about Christ, for he, Christ, is our peace.
He's our peace offering. He is our peace offering, who
hath made both one, he's made both Jew and Gentile one, and
hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us. Having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain of
two one new man." The word make there, to make in himself, literally
is the word create. He creates in himself one new
man. So the reconciliation is there.
There's not two bodies to Christ, there's but one. So there's a
reconciliation, Jew with Gentile, soul making peace. How did he
do it? He did it through what he did
on the cross. It was he abolished in his flesh
the enmity. On the cross, when he suffered
in his flesh, he abolished the enmity and he's bringing both
together now. Then it says, verse 16, and that
he might reconcile both where? Unto God. That's what we normally
think of reconciliation. It's God word. that he might
take both Jew and Gentile and reconcile them to God in one
body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby." The enmity
is now gone. The enmity between Jew and Gentile
is gone, or should be. From God's standpoint it is.
The enmity between this body and God is gone. Christ slew
the enmity as He died on the cross for our sins. And verse
17 then says, "...and came and preached peace." To you which
were far off, that's the Gentiles, and to them that were nigh, that's
the Jews. They came to preach peace. That's what they went
through the world, preaching peace. It's a gospel of peace,
according to the armor that we put on our feet. We're to put
on the preparation of the gospel of peace. That means that we're
ready to go into the world and tell the world about the fact
that there is a peace now between God and man through the sacrifice
of Christ. If you will have Him, there is
a peace. A sacrifice has been given that will result in your
reconciliation in all being one. Now, when you come to Romans
5, this is also used, this language of peace, in relationship to
your justification, not just your reconciliation. Reconciliation
indicates two parties are at odds. They're at war, one with
another, and a gift is given, perhaps from one party to the
other. The offended party is receiving
a gift, and by that gift, their anger is turned away, and they
are satisfied, and both parties are brought together. But justification
is a courtroom term. It implies we're coming before
the judge of all the earth. And as in a courtroom, there
are those who would come and bring accusations. We call them
a prosecuting attorney. And some of our cases are decided
simply by a judge. And they would bring the accusations,
the judge would hear the case, and then make a verdict based
on the law. Right? This is what the word justify
means. It has to do with the verdict that the judge makes
where he says, you are righteous. Or, he says, you are not righteous,
and then the word would be condemnation. Paul uses these two words, justification
and condemnation, especially in the book of Romans, to explain
the gospel. You and I come to God's courtroom.
How do we come? We come guilty. No question about
that. No debate about that. We come
guilty. Yet we leave his courtroom declared
righteous. That means he had to do something
to get rid of our sins. That means he had the final righteousness
that we didn't have to be able to declare us righteous. Because
we haven't kept the law. We did break it. So how does
he declare us righteous? It comes into the courtroom a
substitute. And that courtroom stands in our place. That substitute
stands in our place. And God says this man should
die because of his sins. And that substitute says I died
for him. The law says, this man must keep
the law perfectly, and the substitute says, I have kept it perfectly
for him. And so what you read in Romans
5 and verse 1 are these words, therefore being justified, being
declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God. How?
Through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one in the courtroom.
saying, I died for his sins. He is the one in the courtroom
saying, I have provided perfect righteousness. I have imputed
it to that person. Let him go. And we go out of
the courtroom righteous. We go out of the courtroom at
peace. If there was anything left for us to do, then we would
not be at peace yet. We would only be at peace when
we have done that. But we leave the courtroom declared
righteous. That's what justification means.
You can't see it so much in the English because righteous and
justification come from two different roots. But when you think of
the word just, that means righteous. You see that in the word justification. Justification is declaring someone
to be righteous. If you're looking at this in
the Greek, you would see it very clearly. The word righteous and
the word justification are all from the same root. Justification
is declaring someone to be righteous. We come into the courtroom guilty. We leave the courtroom righteous,
declared righteous. Why? It's through Jesus Christ. Not because of anything we did. How good was his work? Great
peace. That's what Paul says. Therefore,
being declared righteous for this great God, we are now at
peace. I'm not talking about in the
future. Yes, that'll be true at the Day
of Judgment. But he's talking about right now. We have peace
with God. Reconciliation, yes. Justification,
legal. What God has done is legally
right. You can't find a loophole here.
You can't undo this later by saying the judge was corrupt
and somehow the law was set aside. No, everything has been met.
God has overseen it. God is the one who says, you're
righteous. God is the one who says, I'm at peace. I have laid
down mine arms. I'm no longer going to war with
you. The enmity is removed. I am legally at peace. How is
that pictured in the Old Testament? This peace then becomes a practical
peace. If you really believe that, you're
going to pray, and you're going to give all of your burdens to
the Lord. And in Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7, he
says, Be careful for nothing, but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known
unto God. Why? You're at peace with God. Let them all be made
known. And then he says in verse 7, In the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, so keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. There is a peace now that is
subjective, that is in your heart. When you realize you're at peace
with God, and you take all of your burdens in this life and
give them to Him, because you're at peace. What a peace floods
the soul. When I was a child, I could come
to my father and I could give him my burdens, and once I knew
he knew about it, I could just let it go. I didn't have to think
about it, didn't have to worry about it. He was going to take
care of it. And this is what Philippians
4, verses 6 and 7 is telling us. There is a practical aspect
to this peace, where your mind and heart are put at peace, when
you believe you're at peace, and you come and you bring your
burdens, you leave them with Him, and that gives you peace
in the heart. And so, Paul goes on to say,
those things which ye have both learned and received and heard
and seen in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you. Again,
Colossians chapter 3 and verse 15, Paul says, let the peace
of God rule in your hearts. Let the fact that the peace offering
has been offered rule in your heart. Come and reflect on that
peace offering. Come and reflect on what Christ
has done. Come and reflect on the glorious statements about
your reconciliation or your justification, and see that you are truly at
peace with God. Now, reconciliation, as we have
said, is talked about in Romans 5, the latter part of that early
chapter. Justification is talked about
in the latter part of Romans 5. Reconciliation is talking
about 2 Corinthians 5, Ephesians 2, Justification Philippians
3. I mean, we can go through verse
after verse after verse on those two themes, and they all leave
us in the same place. We're at peace with God. Legally
and practically, we're at peace with God. Let it rule your heart. The word rule there, we studied
this on a Sunday evening a few months back. The word rule literally
means, let it be the umpire. The word comes from the root
from which we get our word, umpire. What does an umpire do in a game,
such as a baseball game? He rules things in as being okay,
and he rules things out as not being okay. That was a strike.
That was not a strike. That was a fair ball. That was
not a fair ball. He's ruling things in, and he's
ruling things out. Paul says, let the peace of God rule your
heart that way. Anything that comes to your heart
and it denies the peace that you have with God, that is ruled
out. Get rid of it. Anything that comes into your
life and teaching that comes to you that rules in the fact
that you're at peace with God, the atoning work of Christ, let
it be ruled in. Let it stay there. Let it rule
your hearts. Let the peace of God govern you.
Very few Christians do that. They're looking at their lives
the same way the unsaved look at their lives. And you and I
are not to see ourselves that way. We're to see ourselves through
the gospel of Christ, through the peace that we have with him.
Now, there is a counterfeit peace that the world has. They think
God's at peace with them when he's not. And even in the day
that the Lord returns, there'll be people saying in 1 Thessalonians
5, 3, peace and safety, and then sudden destruction will come
upon them. What is that sudden destruction? It's the return
of Christ. But false prophets always tell people that they're
at peace when they're not. We're not making up with peace.
We have real reason to believe we're at peace because we can
see the atoning work of our sacrifice, Jesus Christ, our peace offering.
Again, Isaiah chapter 57, you have the Lord saying, I create
the fruit of the lips, peace, peace to him that is far off
and to him that is near, saith the Lord. That reminds us of
Ephesians 2, doesn't it? I create this peace to the one
who is far off, the Gentile, as well as to the one who is
near. And I will heal them. But the wicked, like the troubled
sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt,
there is no peace, saith my God to the wicked. As long as the
wicked are at war with the living God, no peace. He would have
to die before there could be peace. Because God is at war. That warfare doesn't stop with
this life, it goes on into the next life. He is at war. There is no peace for the wicked,
yet He creates peace for you and I. How does He do it? Through
the blood atonement of Jesus Christ. Now, we have said that
there are some offerings that are more than Just a peace offering
in that there could be a Thanksgiving offering, which would be a peace
offering. And you would come and offer
that to the Lord. Again, it shows that your Thanksgiving
is gratitude. You're not trying to earn it.
You're not trying to earn it. You already have his favor. Favors
come to you through the sin offering, burnt offering, and peace offering,
and now you come and give a thank offering. You see that with Hezekiah,
as they were giving a thank offering after the burnt, the sin, the
burnt, and then that offering. Well, we give the sacrifice of
praise to God continually, according to Hebrews 13, 15. By him, that
is by Christ, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually,
that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. We
have a thank offering. We're giving thanks. We're not
trying to make atonement with our sacrifice of praise. We have
atonement. We are at one. We're not trying
to earn it. We have it. And that's what the
thank offering was. All these other pictures have
been done. Now you offer the thank offering. Everything has
already been rectified. Everything is already at one
through the atonement. Now you offer this thank offering. The vow offering was a similar
one or the free will offering. Those who talked about Leviticus
chapter 7 verse 16. And you and I make vows, but
we don't make vows to earn his favor. We already have his favor.
We're making vows out of gratitude to him. And this is, I think,
the context of Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Paul says, I beseech
you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. What are
the mercies of God? It's the sacrifice of Christ
and all that comes to us through that sacrifice. He's gone over
11 chapters telling you that in Romans. Now he comes to chapter
12, he said, I beseech you, based on these mercies, on this sacrifice,
on this work of Christ, Present your body a living sacrifice
right here. You're coming and presenting
your body to God and saying God take my body and use it It's
dead to me. It's a sacrifice, but it's living
to you Holy acceptable whatever you want to be done in this life.
It's yours That should be the lot of every Christians not just
a lot of the preacher If I didn't try to live this way people would
find fault with me. They would come and complain
They would come and fuss and fume While all the time they
themselves would say, but I'm not living that way. Wait a minute,
that's hypocrisy. This command is not given to
the preacher. It's given to all of God's people. Preacher, as
well as what we would call layman. Elder, deacon, Sunday school
teacher, those who just come and sit and worship. It's given
to every one of us. You are to present your body.
This is the vow offering. What was it? The vow offering
was part of the peace offering. Peace had already been established.
Then you would make your vows to the Lord, whatever you felt
constrained to do. And this is what made the vow
offering so serious. It was something you freely gave,
you didn't have to make a vow. And it says in Scripture, better
not to vow than to vow not pay. Marriage is a vow. Making a vow
to God, you're making a vow to the people. Nobody's making you
get married. It's a vow we freely enter into.
There are contracts you enter into with people that are freely
entered into. Well, there are things we do with God, and you
might make a vow to Him, but you're not doing it to earn His
favor, you're doing it because you have His favor. All the difference
in the world. And this was a part, not of the
sin offerings, this was a part, not of the burn offerings, it
was a part of the peace offerings, when Fellowship had been restored
he would come and give a thank offering or a vow offering or
free will offering Now in a very real sense you and I when we
come to the Lord's table We are depicting this we are eating
like you did at the peace offer We come to the Lord's table,
and it's not a sacrifice don't misunderstand The Lord's table
is not a sacrifice as Rome would say they would say it's a continuation
of the sacrifice of Christ utter nonsense It is not What is the
Lord's Table? It is a picture of the sacrifice
of Christ. But like they would eat the peace
offering in the Old Testament, so you could come and eat the
peace offering. Or you and I come when we come
to the Lord's Table and eat the pictures of the work of Christ.
In order that we might be nourished and walk away from the Lord's
Table saying again, all is at peace. This is the way of peace. The way of peace they have not
known. What is the way of peace? The Old Testament peace offering
pointed you to it. The way of peace is the sacrifice
of Christ alone. Through that sacrifice we are
at one with our God. Let's bow our hearts in prayer.
Father in heaven, we are thankful for all that was depicted through
the burnt altar. We are thankful, our Father,
for those many, many, many years allowing sacrifice after sacrifice
after sacrifice to declare to the people the awfulness of this
great atonement, the awe-inspiring, the wonder of this great atonement. Lord, we pray that you would
help us never to lose the wonder of it. that you would help us
to ever stand in amazement and gratitude for what Christ has
done as he's offered himself to be our sin offering, our burnt
offering, and our peace offering. We're thankful that they are
pleased. We're thankful that they are satisfied. We're thankful,
Lord, that we this morning are accepted in the beloved. Lord,
help us to worship that way. Help us this morning to glorify
thee with our whole being. For we ask these things in Jesus
name. Amen.
The Peace Offering
Series Biblical Typology
| Sermon ID | 1118121028504 |
| Duration | 48:06 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday School |
| Bible Text | Leviticus 3 |
| Language | English |
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