Word of God. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priest, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron's sons, the priest, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish, and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. And he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat, and the priest shall arrange them on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or pigeons. And the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. He shall remove its crop with its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side in the place for ashes. He shall tear it open by its wings but shall not sever it completely. And the priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. The Word of God. Let's pray. Our gracious God, we come to Your Word humbly, seeking Your help to understand it. We confess, Lord, apart from Your Spirit helping us, we would not understand Your Word very well or if at all. Yet God, You are a God who delights to enlighten us with Your truth. You delight to open Your Word and show us the wonders contained in it. You joyfully share the knowledge that You have with Your people of Your revealed will. Therefore, we pray tonight with all sincerity, with love for Your Word, that You would open this text for us and that You would allow us to see to behold wondrous things therein. Let us see our Savior. Let us see His glorious work on our behalf and show us who we are in Him through this word. This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Kids, Someone asked you to tell them, if one of your friends asked you to tell them what the Bible's all about, how would you answer that question in a very short period of time? Remember, you don't have long to answer these kind of questions. People's attentions are very short. Someone said to you, please explain the story of the Bible in just a few sentences. How would you do that? It's not the easiest thing to do, is it? There's a lot in the Bible. Here's a proposal for you, an idea for you to mull about. Think of it this way. God created man. For what? For fellowship with Him. God created man, Adam and Eve. presumably all their children, to dwell with Him in His presence forever in blissful love, to triune God with His creation, living in harmony. God created man to live this way, but man did what? Man broke fellowship with God by sinning against God, by breaking His commandments, by taking that which was forbidden him, doing so against the will of God, and in doing so becoming a person who's understanding not only good in which he was created to live, but evil as well. He broke fellowship with God, severing that relationship. And God is holy and just and He cannot dwell with uncleanness or evil. Therefore He must expel man from His presence. So God created man for love. Man broke fellowship with God in his sin. Man was expelled and put far away from God's presence. And the story of the Bible is how God draws man back inside. The story of the Bible is how God draws His people back in to fellowship with Him. It begins in Genesis, ends in Revelation, and God is saving a people for Himself that we might dwell in His presence forever. In the book of Leviticus, if you look at just the first five books of the Bible, considered by the Jewish people the most important of the books of the Old Testament, I would argue that the book of Leviticus is perhaps the most important. Because the book of Leviticus gives detailed answers to this question of how. How will God do this? How will God bring sinners back into the holy presence of God? And Leviticus is written to answer that question. It is divine legislation for how God's people who are sinners might enter back in to the gates of God and dwell in the garden again. As we look at this text, we have a lot to think about. I want to give some handholds, some footholds as it were, as we seek to climb this mountain called Leviticus. Let's start with the most basic things. The title. The title of the book. Well, the Hebrew title of Leviticus is not Leviticus, believe it or not. It is a Hebrew word, Vayikra. It means, and he called. That's the Hebrew title of the book, and he called. It's the first line of the book. And he called. Who called? God called. Where was he? That brings us to the location. Where is Leviticus as the book is being delivered to us? Where are the people of Israel at this moment? They are at the base of Mount Sinai. They have been given instructions from God. God told His people through Moses to build Him a house, a place that would be in their midst wherever they go. Think of it like a portable Sinai. Sinai was where God's glory dwelt, but He can't stay there because Israel must go away. They must go to the Promised Land. and God must be with him. So he told him to build this tabernacle as a portable Sinai, a three level house as it were, where God calls his people to enter in and ascend up by faith. And so here we are at the foot of Mount Sinai through Moses' instructions. We have now this portable mountain, this portable house God called the people to build. And now at the end of the book of Exodus we see that God's glory has descended from heaven upon this house, has entered into it. And Leviticus is a continuation of that dramatic scene that we left off last week where we saw in verse 35, and it said, and Moses was unable to enter into the tabernacle. We'll touch on that in just a moment. But as I said, Leviticus is a continuation of that drama. Some people see Leviticus as answering an unspoken but very real question, which is this, how can the tent or the tabernacle become the tent of meeting. It's one thing to have a tabernacle, but it's an entirely different thing for it to become a place where the people of God can meet. Another way of asking that question again is, how can a sinful Israel enter into the dwelling place of God? Again, that dramatic verse would have been shocking to Israel to hear verse 35 or to see it played out in real time. And Moses could not enter into the house of God, which has just been built. And the question is this, if Moses can't enter, who can? We touched on this last week, right? But again, if Moses, the man who entered into the Shekinah glory on the mountaintop can't go in there, who has any chance of entering in? That question's left unanswered for now. It's picked up here. Man's inability to enter into God's fellowship could only be rectified, can only be fixed by God Himself. Hence the opening line. God is in His house and He called out to man. He called out to Moses. God initiates the solution. God's Word spoken forth from His presence beckons His people to hear His instructions. So it's no wonder that the Hebrew people, through the Spirit's inspiration, titled this book, not Leviticus, but, It's the very Word of God that sets in motion the solution to their problem. And thus God begins to give divine legislation for His people to enter in. Through a priestly mediation, through a system of sacrifice, blood shed, lives ended, vicariously substituted for this sinful people, lambs, goats, bulls, pigeons, turtle doves, slain on the altar of fire and blood, lives given for lives so that the people of God might have a substitute to cover their sins and allow them access to God through priestly mediation. This is glorious. This book is glorious because it reminds us of the most basic thing, man's need to dwell with God, man's need to be with God to be made holy again, to be made right with Him, and to be given access to Him, the source, the fountain of all life and truth. And so God alone could initiate this. Hear now the first line. And Yahweh called Moses from the tent of meeting, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. Now we have to camp out here. This is verse two. Four times he uses a Hebrew word here. This would go unnoticed, but you need to pay attention to this detail. It's very, very important. The word offering is given here four times in various forms. That word offering in the Hebrew is the word korban. You probably read that in the New Testament, korban. Corbin appears four times in this verse. Here's Bruce Waltke opening this up for us. Bruce Waltke, wonderful Old Testament scholar, he said this, Leviticus begins with God making a way for Israel, represented by Moses, to draw near. Pause here. The word Corbin comes from the root word korab, which means to draw near. The offering is a play on words. The offering is the means by which Israel draws near. You see. This is profound. God has provided this way. God has provided this system of offerings and sacrifices for them to draw near. So he hits you over the head, the Hebrew man, woman, boy or girl. He forces you to deal with this word again and again. This offering, if you bring an offering to the Lord, if you offer an offering to the Lord, it's how you draw near. This is the drama that he's setting up for us here. Let me continue with Walkie. He's made a way for Israel, represented by Moses, to draw near. The verb means to come close enough to the object to see it, to speak to it, or to touch it, to draw near. Korah means intimacy. This intimacy can be secured by the offering or the korban. And this wordplay is the way in which God begins the book of Leviticus. So again, to make it very plain, very clear, God is signaling to the people that I am making a way through these offerings, these animal sacrifices, the way for you to draw near. You could almost stop the sermon right here and just elaborate on that. We won't do that tonight. But this is a continuation of the drama which we saw in Exodus. And if you are willing to consider, it is a continuation of the drama begun all the way back in Genesis. After Adam and Eve sinned, God came looking for Adam. Remember that story. I'm going to read a part of it to you again. He came looking for Adam while Adam and Eve hid behind a constructed covering. You remember? Kids, how did Adam and Eve hide from God? They hid in the bushes with these sad little loincloths made out of fig leaves, covering their naked bodies because they were ashamed. Their sin became apparent to them. And God spoke from His garden sanctuary to man. You see the echoes? God in His sanctuary, walking in the cool of the day, spoke out and called to man. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord and among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, where are you? And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told you that you were naked? And then God proceeds to create a solution. for man to enter back into fellowship with God. And guess how he did it? Through a sacrifice of blood. A life for life. God made a way. This is a continuation of that drama. This is a continuation of that way of access to God through a sacrifice. So, as we look at Leviticus, remember this. This system of sacrifices, priestly ceremonies, religious festivals and purity laws, all symbolically. Very important that we understand this concept. This is a symbolic way of communicating. Pictures are powerful. We remember pictures. The Jewish little boys and girls who saw their fathers bringing that goat or that bull to the priests and saw their father cutting the throat. and the blood running out. And that animal chopped into pieces, brutally chopped into pieces and put on that flame. Those children watching that animal burn before their very eyes. That animal that they had just that earlier that day perhaps pet on the head and called it by name and they saw that animal now burning on the fires. Because that animal represented them and their sins before God and that was the only way for them to have access with Yahweh their God. That would never be forgotten. The priests would teach these children the meaning of these sacrifices. They would teach them the meaning of the priestly vestments and the robes and all the glory of their ornamentation. They would be taught the meaning of these different pieces of furniture, the table, the lampstand, the altar of incense, the great bronze altar in the courtyard, the laver of washing. All of that would have been taught by the priests, the meaning, the symbolism that was embedded into these imagery. And they would never be forgotten. And therefore, God wants his people today, who have the fullness of the gospel in Christ, to see these images for what they are. They are ancient symbols that point forward to the reality of Jesus Christ, the great high priest, who is the Lamb of God, the spotless, perfect Lamb of God, whose blood was shed for all of God's people to be given access again into the Holy of Holies, to be given access to know and walk and live with our God. and holiness and righteousness. This is amazing stuff. I hope I've whet your appetite a little bit for this great book. And so we're gonna dive into this text now. The main idea is before us. We're looking at the burnt offering. This is the first, the most important of the sacrifices. And God teaches His people through this burnt offering. He teaches the people of Israel. the essence of God's grace in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So let's look together at this text. The first thing we're gonna look at, and because there's so much repetition we're gonna just compile things together in its order. We're gonna look at the general description of this offering, the burnt offering, then we're gonna look at the spiritual significance of it. So keep your Bibles open and walk through it with me. First of all, let's look at the general description of this offering. It's called the burnt offering in the English. Most of your English translations use this phrase, the burnt offering. Again, it's the most important and the most common of all the sacrifices in the system. It's often called the whole burnt offering. It comes from the Hebrew word holah. Holah. And this word literally means ascension. It literally means to ascend, hola, to ascend. So I'm going to refer to this offering not primarily as the burnt offering. I think the better way of translating it is the ascension offering. And this will make much more sense as we get into this text. In this particular sacrifice, the worshipper's sacrifice literally goes up in smoke. Now, this phrase, up in smoke, when we use it, we refer to it as something, oh, that went up in smoke, that was a wasted effort, that was a failed attempt. But when this sacrifice goes up in smoke, this is a complete success. It's a victorious outcome. It's, in fact, exactly what you want it to do. You want your sacrifice to go up in smoke. It is not a sad waste or total loss. It is a total victory. In fact, the text tells us that through this sacrifice, the man, the worshipper, and his household are accepted before the face of Yahweh. That's the goal. To be accepted before the face of Yahweh. So, when the Israelite worshipper's sacrifice goes up in smoke, it accomplishes something. What does it accomplish? The name Ascension Offering describes the ascension of the smoke of the burned animal. It refers to a fundamental transformation. That animal, which was a living, breathing creature, a bull, a goat, a lamb, a little bird, just moments before, now has been transformed through the killing and through the burning, has been transformed into smoke. And smoke does what? Smoke rises. You see the picture forming. This creature, which represents the worshipper, is transformed and ascends into God's presence, where He metaphorically breathes it in. He breathes in the smoke, and the text tells us three times, three times it tells us this very important phrase, verse 9, verse 13, verse 17, that when that smoke rises into the presence of God, He breathes it in, and it is there. Not an offensive smell. When we smell smoke, it's irritating. It's bad. We want to get away from the smoke. But God says the smoke rises to His presence, and it's a sweet aroma, a pleasing aroma to Him. By the way, in the Hebrew language, there's a play on words here. This idea of God smelling smoke, that's metaphorical language, that's sort of baby talk for God to talk to us this way. He doesn't literally have a nose, that he's literally smelling smoke. It's an idea. The Hebrew word for nostril, by the way, is the word af. Af is also the same word that is used to describe God's wrath. When God's nostrils are satisfied, God's wrath is satisfied. It's the picture of the appeasement of God's anger and wrath. When he smells the sacrificial smoke rising into his presence, he's not angry with them anymore. They are accepted now by God. His justice has been satisfied. This is very important. There's one more aspect that you need to know as it relates to the smoke. Verse 4 tells us that when the worshiper comes and he brings his offering to God to be killed, bled out, chopped up, set on the fire, burned, and the smoke rise to heaven, there's something he does before all that happens. Kids, did you catch in the text what the man does? The man who brings his animal comes and he lays his head on the animal's head. Now the Hebrew is actually more vivid. It says that he leans his hand on the head of the animal. It's as if he's putting all his weight on the head of that animal. Commentators talk about this quite a bit and they muse over what this means. And we have a pretty good idea of what it means. It's very similar, by the way, of what the priest does on the Day of Atonement. He lays both hands on the head of the goat, the scapegoat, and that symbolizes the transfer of all the sin onto the scapegoat who then goes off into the wilderness. This is a little different. What most commentators believe, and I think is accurate here, is that what's happening is when the worshiper leans his hand on the head of the creature, He's identifying himself with it. It's as if he's saying, I am this animal and this animal is me. He's identifying himself with it such that when that animal becomes smoke and rises to God and becomes a pleasing aroma, that's what happens to the worshiper. The worshiper is caught up with the sacrifice and he's brought to God and he's made acceptable to him. This pictures a doctrine which we call propitiation. What is propitiation? Pastor, propitiation simply means the appeasement or removal of God's anger, the removal of wrath, and the acceptance of the offender. It's a beautiful doctrine and it's pictured here in the Ascension Offering. As we look at the basics of this offering, again we have the Ascension offering. The animal is transformed through the fire into smoke. He rises up as a pleasing aroma. This animal then has become a vicarious substitute for the worshiper. The worshiper and the sacrificer are united together. through the ceremony. So I hope that makes sense to you. I hope this is somewhat clear to you. This is a very, very important concept. The priest would have explained this to the people and they would have understood exactly what this meant. And by the way, this is showing how man, sinners, are unable to draw near to God. Smoke quite literally drawing near to God by His gracious provision. So this is, first of all, the basics of the sacrifice. Let's look at the animals that are sacrificed. There are three main sections here in this chapter. These three main sections really focus on different kinds of animals. The first and the second are livestock. The first section deals with bulls. The second section deals with goats and lambs. And then the third section deals with birds. By the way, notice here, God allows the Israelite people to bring pigeons as a burnt offering. Why was that? Why did God allow you to bring... If you could bring a bull, you should bring a bull. If you could bring a goat, bring a goat. But if you can't even afford that, God made a provision for the poorest of the poor to bring the cheapest, easily obtained animal that you could possibly find. A pigeon or a turtle dove. Something they can easily purchase with very little money. By the way, this is God's kindness and grace. He did not allow poverty to prohibit anyone from worshiping the Lord. He did not allow being of poor means to hinder their access to God. In other words, God makes a provision for all of His people, from the greatest to the least, to have access to Him. Money is no object to God. He doesn't need your money. He owns all the cattle on a thousand hills and He wants all of His people to have access to Him. By the way, this reminds me of James chapter 2. The sin of partiality is a great sin in the church. My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, you sit here in a good place, while you say to the poor man, you stand over there or sit down at my feet, Have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" God abhors any such separating of God's people or hindering God's people from worship. He invites the poor and the rich alike to come and He makes provision for them. So I think that's worth noting here. So they bring the sacrifice. Whether you bring a bull, whether you bring a goat, whether you bring a pigeon. The big picture here is not about what you bring to God. We need to understand this. All the sacrifices, this is true. The most important thing here is about what God has graciously given to Israel. He does not need our sacrifices. He does not need bulls and goats. He has given Israel a gift. And that is a way in which, by faith, they can have access to God. And so this system is the gift. The sacrificial system, the priestly ceremonies, is the gift that God has given. Listen to the description of these animals. Verses 3 and 10 tell us that these animals, particularly the livestock, must be without blemish. They must be complete or perfect as the Hebrew word suggests. The idea is this, only the best for God. God does not accept defective offerings. They were not allowed to bring wild game. They could not offer deer. That was cost them nothing. Only perfect animals, particularly livestock or what God wanted. In the book of Malachi, we see the people of Israel being rebuked for giving second-rate animals. Remember David's famous line when he gave the whole burnt offering on Mount Moriah. I will not offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing. There is a cost. There is a great cost. In fact, for the sensitive mind, the person who is in tune with this theology, he understands that it is a profoundly great cost which will allow them to have access to God. These bulls and goats are only a token, only a shadow. There is a colossal sacrifice that must be made. So this only touches on this. There's a real sacrifice for the Israelite, no doubt. Here's Gordon Wynnum, this is what he says. In the overfed West, we can easily fail to realize what was involved in offering an unblemished animal in sacrifice. Meat was a rare luxury in Old Testament times for all but the very rich. And he gives a scripture reference on that. Yet even we might blanch if we saw a whole lamb or bull go up in smoke. That's a burnt offering. How much greater pangs must a poor Israelite have felt? It's worth considering. These are some general regulations about the sacrifice. It's kind of helpful to just summarize these things. They must be the best without blemish. They must be done accurately as prescribed in His Word. Chapter 9 of Leviticus will show us the blessing of when the priests do what they're told. Chapter 10 of Leviticus will tell us the terrible tragedy of when they become creative in worship. They must be the best. They must be done accurately. They must represent the worshipper. A life for a life. The animal literally represents the worshipper before God. And they must be bloody. God told Noah that the life is in the blood. Blood must be shed. A life for a life. Vicarious substitute must be given. And he must die. So here we see in these basic principles something that is already pointing our mind forward to something that we know and love. The ascension offering granted the worshiper access to God's presence, but at a great cost. They had to understand that there was a colossal cost in actually fulfilling what these sacrifices pictured. Last thing we're going to see here at this section is the process, the sacrificial process. If the worshipper brought a bull or a lamb, verses 5 and 11, it says that they must be killed by the worshipper. So if you're the man of the house, you bring the sacrifice to the priest, the priest hands you the knife. You kill the animal. You lay your hand on his head, lean your hand on his head, and then you kill the animal. It says that you must kill that animal before the face of Yahweh. That is at the tent of meeting, at the entrance. So the idea is this, that God is at the tent of meeting, observing. This ought to give you chill bumps, actually. You come before the tent of meeting, and you stand there, and the priest tells you, you're under the face of Yahweh, friend. He's watching you. Okay? He searches the heart. He's not just asking, are you gonna do this, you know, formally, correctly? He's searching the heart. Remember Psalm 51. This wonderful line, verse 16, for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it, you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. And so you know when you're going and bringing that animal before God, Yahweh's watching, Yahweh's searching with his gaze. He sees my heart. Am I coming in true faith? Am I coming with true contrition for my sins? Am I coming truly to seek God's favor? Or am I doing this to impress the priests? Am I doing this to satisfy my own self-righteous ways? God knows. The priest can't see. But Yahweh, He sees. You are under His gaze at the Ten of Meeting. Verse 5, The blood of that animal spilt shall be thrown against the sides of the altar." Most commentators believe that this is sanctifying the altar. The altar itself must be made holy. This place of brutal carnage and death and gore, the stench of burning hair and flesh, this is not a pretty place. Indeed it's a horrible place in one sense, but it is holy. It is set apart. What happens at that altar is of utmost importance in the cosmos. In all the universe there's nothing more important than what happens in that 8x8 box. God is allowing a sacrifice to be made for my sins. And so that blood in that bowl full of blood is just poured out on the side of the altar. It's set apart. It's sanctified for the purpose for which it's been made. Verse 6, the animal then shall be flayed. and cut into pieces. It's not entirely clear whether it's the worshipper or the priest who flays the animal. It's probably the priest at this point taking over. I'm sure they were quite skilled at doing this day after day, this somewhat hideous practice, but they were flaying the animal first and so they take the skin, they tear it in one part and they begin to peel it off. The skin literally ripped off the animal. and then the animal is cut into pieces. This is symbolic and it probably means it's describing now what must happen to this sacrifice, what must happen in judgment. This altar is God's judgment pictured. The fire pictures this consuming holiness of God in his wrath and his judgment. And so this animal is flayed, it probably pictures the idea of in judgment we're totally exposed. We're totally uncovered. And then chopped up. totally undone. In judgment, this is what happens to the sacrifice. Verse 8, the pieces of the animal then are arranged on the wood and then burned in the fire. Again, the fire is a picture of the wrath of God consuming completely the animal. And notice the text tells us, not a single piece is left off. All the whole creature is burned up. Often called the whole burnt offering for that reason. In verse 9 it says, "...the entrails and the legs shall be washed with water." A lot of us read that and go, that's kind of weird. But again, remember, think about what this must picture to the Israelite people. The inward parts, just think of it that way. All the guts full of bile, and filth, and fecal matter, and all those nasty things, they're actually washed out, emptied out, and washed out with water. The entrails are then put on the fire, clean. The legs, the back part of the animal, again, covered in filth, would have been washed. Nothing unclean goes onto this holy altar. What is this picture? What could this possibly picture? Well, perhaps what we're seeing is something about the sacrifice that alone can atone for your sins. It must be both inwardly and outwardly clean. There could be no impurities. Think about what this represents. We have a sacrifice in His outward life and His inward man. No sin. We have a perfect sacrifice who is completely exposed, undone. Not in actual literal flames, but something much worse. The wrath of God poured out upon Him in three hours on the cross. Our Lord Jesus is pictured here perfectly. With the birds, verses 15 and 17 through 17, we see the same basic principles of what happens to the livestock, only on a smaller scale. The head is wrung off by the priest. Notice the priest does everything here. The blood is drained out. They remove his innards. They tear it open by its wings, but not completely. Again, the thing is undone. And he set upon the fire to burn whole. A life for a life, blood for blood, a substitute, a vicarious substitute that is perfect and blemishless and pure and clean, is accepted by God on behalf of the worshiper. And the worshiper vicariously through the sacrifice, through the smoke that ascends into heaven, and breathes into God's nostrils, whose wrath is satisfied, is accepted. by the true, living, holy God of the universe. There's nothing more important than this to the Israelite believer. God is pictured the way back in to His presence. It's been given as a gift. The system is bloody and difficult and tedious and arduous as it was was a great gift for the people. They would not have despised it if you were a believer, a godly believer. Now they did despise it at the end, didn't they? But they should have treasured it. They should have been thankful for it. And the true believers would have been. The spiritual significance of this ascension offering hopefully has already become somewhat plain to you. But I want you to think back if you're an Israelite The commentators, some of them brought this out, that they would have been thinking about historical offerings that were made, particularly in the patriarchal times. They would have thought about different burnt offerings and perhaps even meditated on the meaning of those scenes as they brought their worship. Three scenes in particular stand out in the history of redemption. First of all, we see in Genesis chapter 8, As the floodwaters recede, as the animals begin to come out of the ark, as they begin to filter down the mountain into the world, Noah is busy building an altar. And on that altar, chapter 8 of Genesis tells us that Noah is performing a burnt offering, an ascension offering. And the smoke of that offering rises up. Those clean animals rise up to God and he smells the smell of the smoke and it's pleasing aroma to him. And it said that God then made a covenant with the whole world. He showed grace to the whole world that he would not bring another flood upon the earth. All of these people who had not changed in their inward nature, God shows mercy and grace on the basis of this sacrifice through the mediator. It's amazing. A second story, Genesis chapter 22. You remember this story, Isaac. Isaac is called by God to give a sacrifice to God, one that would test his faith to the core. Isaac, I want you to give a burnt offering to me. Go up to Mount Moriah and I want you to bring the offering to there and kill it and make an offering and fire and it's to be your own son. Or Abraham is to bring his own son, Isaac. In Genesis 22, it says that Abraham is taking the wood and putting it in his son's arms. Isaac is carrying the wood and he says, Father, where is the sacrifice for this burnt offering? And remember what Abraham said. Wonderful. He says, oh my son, God will provide the lamb. God will provide the lamb, my son. He goes up and he begins to put his son on the altar, he raises the knife, the angel comes down at the last moment, grabs his hand, won't let him kill his son Isaac, his own precious son, his only son, the promised son. And he looks over and he hears the rustling in the bushes and what does he see? A lamb? No. A ram. It was a ram. The ram was put in place of Isaac and Abraham sacrificed the ram and the burnt offering goes up and God was pleased. God would provide the lamb later. On that same mountain, Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah is an important mountain. It appears in the third historical story of the burnt offerings. This one made by David, 2 Samuel 24. David had sinned in numbering the people. That sinful census that he took displeased God and God said because David was faithless and put his trust in men, that he would send a judgment. He gave David three options. He took the third. that was God would send a plague for three days and would kill many, many people. On the first day it killed 70,000 people. David cried out, oh God have mercy, stop. And he went to Mount Moriah and he lit a burnt offering and he put a sacrifice on it and the smoke rose up and God smelled the smoke of the burnt offering and he said, I'll let this cease. And he ended the plague with a burnt offering. because he was pleased with what was offered. And by the way, Mount Moriah is the same as Mount Zion. It's the place where the temple was built. These sacrifices on this mountain became the foundation for the house of God. The place where all these sacrifices were made year after year after year and eventually the same mountain upon which our own Lord Jesus Christ would die on the cross. The people of Israel would have thought about these stories and thought about their significance and thought about What those stories tell us? That God has given us a gift, a way in which He would be pleased with a sacrifice to put off judgment and forgive. Forgive sinners and accept them. The typology is quite simple. It pictures the work of Jesus Christ, whose death was the ultimate Korban. His death was the ultimate offering by which we might draw near by faith in Him. God has made a way to enter into the holy place. So what do we do with this? Two very simple applications. One, we need to praise God for Christ. Christ alone. The one who is without sin, inwardly and outwardly perfect. His death. became Corban to God. In his resurrection and in his ascension, he entered to the holy places through the veil where he, having once entered into that place, not by means of the blood of bulls and goats, he now enters in forever as a high priest, forever for his people. So whenever we need Him, we come to Him. Whenever we pray, He hears us. And He tells us to come, to boldly enter into His throne of grace, where He offers mercy and help in time of need. Brothers and sisters, this is what the whole burnt offering teaches us. And in light of all this, it's helpful to read the book of Ephesians, chapter 5, verse 2. In light of what we've seen about this offering, listen to what Paul says. He tells us, that the death of Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of love to his people. And that teaches us something about how we should respond. He said, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. Paul is directly using the imagery. of the Ascension offering, the whole burn offering, to describe the work of Jesus Christ. It is the ultimate expression of His love for us. And what does He say for us to do in response? Love your neighbor. To love your neighbor. To give yourself up for them. To lay down your own interests and walk in love. This is the idea of walking with God. We walk with God and we walk in love. So brothers and sisters, I'll stop here. There is much here for us to consider. We have a glorious picture of the grace of God in our Savior's death and resurrection and ascension for us. Let's pray. Our gracious God, what an awesome thing to consider tonight. As we think about these ancient ceremonies, how they are considered to be many, difficult to read about and think about. But Lord, we pray that you would grant us insights and love for these texts, for they take us places that we frequently avoid, but we must go and we must think about. And so Lord, we pray that you would help us to think about our Savior and his wonderful love for us, this wonderful way in which has been made for us to enter into the holy places with him. And we pray that we would not only believe in him, but walk with him. and walk in love with each other as well. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.