I'm turning now to the first chapter of the book of Leviticus, and I hope, God willing, to conduct a fairly short series. on surprising topics from Leviticus. And the first chapter and into, well, the first seven chapters really are about true repentance for believers. And there are a great many principles of worship and of repentance and of holiness that we can learn from them. The first chapter is a chapter of burnt offerings, general offerings, offerings for atonement of sin. The most common sacrifices which people, well, assuming them to be believers and in earnest, people at any time moved of God, would be able to come and offer sacrifice for the atonement of sin and make repentance. And these activities went on constantly, of course, from the Israelites. Now there are many lessons to us, though the sacrifices themselves, as you know, are long ended. The sense of the sacrifices didn't always remain clear to the Israelites, to the Jews, the typical church of ancient times. We realize this in reading the letter to the Hebrews, because it was written to Hebrew people, people deeply versed and taught in Old Testament worship. people who'd come to the Lord in recent times. Many were a little troubled about leaving their Judaism, leaving it all behind, still feeling to some extent bound by the ceremonial law of the Old Testament. And the inspired author of the letter to the Hebrews spent some time, as you'll know, explaining to them what the ceremonies actually meant. And when you read Hebrews, it shows you that even instructed Hebrew people didn't always understand the meaning of their own worship and their own ceremonies. They should have done. The author of Hebrews spells it out to them as simply as though he was speaking to uninstructed Gentiles, which is very useful to us. But he isn't, he's actually speaking to informed Jews. And yet he goes to great lengths to illuminate them and help them to understand the significance of the ancient law and how it's fulfilled in Christ and how it's come to a close. So these things they taught immensely, but the people often offered only nominal worship and they didn't pay much attention and they lost touch with even their own instructions and we can see how this can happen. I mentioned something in a morning service very recently about hymns and about psalm based hymns and one or two people had questions in connection with that and this is a just an example of how the people of God can forget their own traditions and their own practices and the reason for them and the meaning of them. Now in the independent churches of this country, and most Baptist churches and congregational churches, the old independents, for many, many years there was a great deal of attention paid to psalm-based hymns. And you'll be aware of Isaac Watts and that tradition. He didn't actually begin it, though he's credited with doing so, but he was one of perhaps the most prolific hymn writer of his age, and yet the churches rejoiced to sing psalm-based hymns, free composition hymns also, but almost all the psalms were represented in Christian hymnody. Now there was a background to this. The whole point was that the non-conformists, the independents, the Baptists, they didn't care to use metrical psalms. The very rigid translations of the psalms, such as you find in the Scottish Psalter. They didn't care to use those, although they certainly used some of them that are extremely beautiful and relevant. They didn't care to use them because they believed that the Psalms should be Christianized and adapted for Christian worship. Sounds terrible when you put it like that. Adapt the word of God. Adapt the Psalms. Of course, what is meant by that is that the Psalms are using all the types and the shadows of the Old Testament to express truth and doctrine, and Christ hasn't come, so Christ is not literally in the Psalms, though he's foreshadowed, and the enlightened mind can see him there, and all the references to the coming Redeemer. Nevertheless, the Psalms are couched in obscure language. as far as the Christian church is concerned and so they need to be Christianized and that is the great tradition that came in to the non-conformist churches and there were hymns for every psalm, psalm-based hymns. Now as time went on, I must be quick because this is just an example of how we forget, as time went on The compilers of hymnbooks said to themselves, wouldn't it be a good idea to have the psalms classified under the different subject headings of the hymnbooks, just like all the other hymns? What a pity, we have the psalms, psalm-based hymns as a block, and then we go into the hymns about the Godhead, hymns of worship, the hymns of salvation, the hymns of various doctrines and experiences in Christ, why don't we arrange the Psalms under those same headings? Well, very good idea. People thought, and most of the hymn books produced from the middle of the 19th century on went down that road. Problem. the people no longer related the hymns to the psalms and nobody any longer knew what the psalm based hymns specifically were. The link was broken and so as time, further time went by, many of the psalm based hymns were dropped. so that in hymnbooks there would still be a fair number of them, but nobody realized they were psalm-based hymns anymore, and the churches stopped making sure they sang psalm-based hymns in every service, along with free composition hymns. So the whole tradition became almost lost, and the Spurgeon hymnbook was one of the last to continue, with a whole section of psalm-based hymns and we imitated that naturally in modern times but when we did that it was something of a novelty because the tradition had been forgotten that the people of God for generations consciously sang not only free composition hymns but psalm-based hymns. How you can forget and in the last few years When an evangelical hymn book was brought out by a certain group of pastors, fine pastors, sound pastors, They wanted some Psalms, so what did they do? They put the Scottish Psalter in the front of the hymn book. They'd forgotten they had their own tradition. It was no longer recognized. Now I spent a long time on that, but you see how something can get lost. And so the Jews of ancient times, they forgot the theology behind the offerings. They forgot the reasons, all the intricate details of the ceremonial. There was a lesson in each twist and turn. And they forgot those meanings, rich meanings and lessons. And they apply to us too. Not the ceremonial itself, no longer is it literally carried out, but the significance of it should not be lost on us. It teaches us principles of worship and walking with the Lord. And so it's extremely helpful to go through some of these things. Now in the book of Leviticus, The Lord is shown to speak to Moses exactly 56 times from the Holy of Holies, and this is how the book is introduced. The Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, and later we read that more clearly expressed that it was from the Holy of Holies, saying, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them. Now commands are given. commands for the worship which attended repentance in those ancient times. They were not to devise worship for themselves, it would all be laid down for them. And that's so important today when people, even sound people, devise worship for themselves. And the principles of the word of God are forgotten. If any man of you This is an individual statement. Bring an offering unto the Lord. He shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. And that's further defined as the passage goes on. Now, first of all, there's the offering of the bullock. Verse three. If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. And we're going to look first of all at the atonement offering, the offering which accompanied repentance. And the offering has to be a male without blemish. You'll remember that all this is going to be carried out in the light of the great expectation of the Hebrews. The great expectation is that of a Messiah who is to come. The Messiah is in the background in the book of Leviticus and you See him constantly, but you bear it in mind. What are these sacrifices all about? Are they similar to the cultic practices of the pagans? No, they're not. They're all speaking volumes, and they're performed in the light of a coming savior. Back in the Garden of Eden, at the fall of man, you remember, the seed of the woman is promised. And the coming seed of the woman, this special person, who will be human, and yet it becomes clearer and clearer, will also be divine, promised to the people, will come and deal with the whole problem of sin and of guilt. At serious injury to himself, in the first prophecy of the Savior, in Genesis 3, 15, that's made so clear. So that's in the back of the mind of the people. and then the same great descendant who would be divine and yet man would come promised to Abraham. once, then twice, then a third time, then a fourth time, then a fifth time, the great descendant to whom all families of the earth would be blessed and the Redeemer would come. And then the promises were repeated to the patriarchs and Jacob speaks of something that awaits him when Shiloh comes, a mysterious word which means something like When he who will come will come. So this is in the background of everything you read in the Old Testament. The expectation of a Redeemer, a mysterious Messiah who will deal with the problem of sin and guilt. So now come the sacrifices. And what are they? They are symbols. And we read that quite clearly stated in the New Testament, in the letter to the Hebrews, that they could not actually take away sin. Of course they couldn't. The people would have realized that, or should have realized that, because the same sacrifices were performed over and over again. And the great annual Day of Atonement took place every year, and the same sacrifices were offered. In other words, sin was still there. It was not taken away. Yet, it all awaited that great coming day, the Great Descendant. But in the meantime, by trusting in the mercy of God, and the principle of atonement, they could convey their sin, as it were, symbolically to the sacrificed bullock, or the sheep or goat, and Garnering conformity with the law of God, with the ceremonial given to them by God, they could trust that their sins would be forgiven if they truly repented. They had to rely on symbols in the meantime, which could not actually take away the guilt, but by trusting in the principle of atonement, they were assured that God would forgive them. you see the details of the sacrifice of the bullock here. First of all, in verse 3, if his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. Will Christ, who the sacrifice foretold would be a male without blemish, pure and holy. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will. This was not a compulsory command for all Israelites. It was very important that this was a voluntary matter, that people who felt deeply the need to repent of their sin would do so. And as they came to repent, they would bring their offering. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle. It wasn't to rush in because he was a sinner. This was an offering of atonement. It had to be offered at the door of the special holy tent of God before the Lord. That's two thoughts there. It was offered outside because he was rejected by God. until he repented and was forgiven by God. And also it was before the Lord. You'd better be sincere. You'd better mean this because you come as one who is watched by the Lord. You do it before the Lord. And verse four, he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering to identify with the burnt offering. offering is symbolically going to take his sin. He lays his hands on, he doesn't quite do this, but it is as though by the laying on of hands he transfers his guilt to the offering. And the bullock is going to take the punishment for him. And it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. So The word translated atonement there means, for in the Hebrew, a cover, although some argue that it means even more than that, a taking away. But at the very least, it means a cover. The sin will be out of sight, covered, perhaps even taken away. So as he lays his hand on the creature to be offered, It should be accepted for him. Of course, if he does it in faith, if he does it sincerely. Now you just think of the usefulness of that picture. You could almost wish we had such a ceremony ourselves. I don't wish this, but you could almost wish we had a ceremony to help us think. I don't know what it would be, but to lay our hands upon some representative object and think, my sin has to be transferred to the son of the living God and like the bullock of olden times he will take it away. Well they had a symbol. You think, did they have an advantage over us? We do everything by faith, No, they didn't have an advantage, because while they had a symbol to make them think, you laid your hand on the bullock, or the sheep, or the goat, and you closed your eyes, and you thought, Lord, forgive me, take my sin away. I symbolically lay all my guilt upon this creature. It helps you think what's going on. But at the same time, they didn't have a clear view of Christ. They had to work with a symbol. So they had the tiny advantage of a symbol to work with, but the great disadvantage in that they lived before Christ, whereas we have the clear light of the gospel. But however, you can see the usefulness of the symbol, but it gets more, well, effective than that as it goes on. Look at verse five. And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord. Now that's a quite surprising statement. We are townies, or at least most of us are, in this place. This would have a tremendous effect upon us to kill the bullock. You're going to stand there outside the holy place and you're going to have to pull yourself together. This bullock has got to die for me. And whatever the method employed, you are going to have to slaughter it. That'll make you think. This is a dramatic event. Oh, you can sit there looking cool, calm, and collected if you're a butcher. Or you work in a slaughterhouse. But for most of us, it's a massive thing to do, to kill the creature. But that was the command. They don't hand over to the priests a living creature. They did later on, the rule was changed when the crowds at the temple were so big and the priests did it all. But in these early stages, and there's a lesson to learn here, they killed the sacrificial animal themselves, the individual who was making the offering. That stamps on your mind, I think. It strikes home, this is serious. My sin has got to be laid on another. Another has to die in my place. This is close up now. It comes home to me how serious this is. So when you read these things through, you may think to yourself, what was all that ceremony about? But you think about it, it had a terrific impact at the time and made you think your sin has to be transferred to another. One who is not guilty of those crimes and has to be born by that other on your behalf. and he shall kill the bullock before the Lord. Some people, they recoil from this, some interpreters, and they say, well, no, this is just a manner of expression. It must have been done by the priest, but actually the record is very careful. He, singular, shall kill the bullock before the Lord, and the priests, plural, Aaron's sons shall then do such and such, and this, Balance between the singular and the plural is maintained all the way through the passage. So it's absolutely clear that the offerer kills his own sacrificial animal. And not only does he kill it, he flays it, as our King James version says. He skins it. And the priest takes it and deals with it from that point on. Well, you see, it's all designed to bring home to you There's got to be a death for your guilt. There's got to be a punishment. This is serious. And you think about it, and it helps us today. When I repent of my sin, I've got to be much more serious. I've got to remember every time that my Savior took all this from me. It was a transfer of everything to Him, and He bore it away. and he took the pain and the agony and made the sacrifice and paid the price for me. They had to think about it every time, if there was sincerity in them. I suppose the formal worshipper could just harden himself, herself to everything. But they were made to think because there was the symbolic ritual. We don't have that. We are trusted by the Lord to think for ourselves. So don't repent lightly. Remember the transfer of guilt. And he, verse five, shall kill the bullock before the Lord. And the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, what the letter to the Hebrews calls, and first Peter calls the blood of sprinkling, shall bring the blood in a bowl of some sort, later the formal furnishings were organized, and sprinkled the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Why was that done? The blood was drained and then sprinkled ostentatiously all round the altar. It wasn't done in a little single place. which would minimize the cost of salvation. This animal's blood, my sin has been, my guilt has been transferred to that bullock. Look at it, sprinkled around the altar to be accepted by God. There's so much of it. It's done in the longest imaginable, most obvious way. And it reminds me how great my sin is. That's my sin being dealt with symbolically. And then verse six, having seen the blood of sprinkling, he shall flay the skin, the burnt offering, cut it into his pieces. Then the sons of Aaron take over. The priests once again, they put the fire upon the altar and lay the wood in order upon the fire. There was an order, there was a prescription. It's described later on. Why was all that? Well, because this had to be done in a formal manner because it could only be done by God's command in a certain place by certain people, namely the priests, the sons of Aaron, You couldn't devise your own way of repentance in that way. You could repent by prayer wherever you lived, which may be far, wherever you, once they settled, which may be far from the place of worship, the central shrine of the country. But nevertheless, you were made to think every time you went to the temple that there was an order in all this. God is holy. Your repentance must follow a sincere and a serious form and order. You couldn't devise your own things. There would only be one place in Israel where there was an altar for sacrifices, only one, because there'll only be one place where Christ comes and suffers and dies. There'll only be one way to meet with him. One place where sins can be forgiven, Calvary's cross. Then you look at verse nine. But his inwards, that's the intestines, and his legs shall he wash in water, that part of the body, because the digestive tract was regarded obviously as unclean. And so were the legs. which could be contaminated by discharge and so on. And so they were not fit to be offered without first being washed, because this offering is not only an atonement, but it's an offering of perfect obedience on behalf of the sinner. And the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt offering, an offering made by fire. And let's look at this phrase, end of verse nine, repeated through the chapter of a sweet savour unto the Lord. I have to be acceptable to God. I have to be clean and pure and I'm not. And I depend not only on an atonement, somebody bearing the punishment for my sin, but I depend upon the pure perfection and the holiness of Christ to be offered up on my behalf because I'm not fit to be received by God. He must be received and accepted for me. And so the offering works both ways. It's an atonement and it's a pleasing offering on our behalf to the Lord. Now from verse 10 you'll find the offering of sheep. If his offering be of the flocks, namely of the sheep. And the passage goes through pretty well, almost, with few variations. which I won't touch on this evening, exactly the same provisions. And that ends there at the end of verse 13, a sweet savour unto the Lord. And then, curiously, in verse 14, something quite different. And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, specifically turtle doves or young pigeons, Well we learn about this a little later on in chapter 5 and verse 7 where it seems to indicate that this is for the poor and that seems to be the reason why Mary and Joseph offered turtle doves and young pigeons because this was a provision for people who didn't have flocks and herds. I couldn't afford to buy those animals. So it was possible for the poor to offer up something much more cheaply available to them. And there are different prescriptions, slightly different prescriptions for that. But the great sense is the offering up of the sacrifice for sin and the shock and yet the due order in which it must all be done. I read verse nine, the innards or inward parts or intestines and the legs, nothing of this world clung to Christ. He was pure and holy and throughout his earthly walk he did not conform in any way to any of the sins and ways of this world. And even that is foreshadowed in these offerings here. I come down to chapter two. And when any will offer a meat offering or a food offering, a meal offering, some even translate it a grain offering, but it actually isn't that because it's a refined white flour and bread or unleavened bread and cakes that might be made from it. So food offering will do well. And when any will offer a meat, meal, food offering unto the Lord, his offering should be of fine flour. What's this? The main atonement covers atonement for sin, substitutionary righteousness, that we need offered on our behalf. What's the meal offering? Well, this also is an offering of obedience and righteousness, but particularly of a refined character. We are to bring forth fruits and we fail to do so. Flour, it's a refined product. The oil that was used may be described, it isn't strictly, but it may be described as a refined product. The frankincense certainly was the ground tree resin that added fragrance to the whole. When any will offer a meat offering, it's going to be not for sin, not for atonement, but it's going to be for acceptance, a sweet savor. So now comes the offering of refined products of character, we say. His offering should be a fine flour, white flour, we would say. And he should pour oil upon it. and put frankincense there on. That was costly. Some people may say, this is going to be burned up. I don't want to go to the expense of putting that on it in the offering. It's going to go in just a moment. But no, the aroma is very important and it has to be put in. It's the ultimate of the refined products. And he shall bring it, verse two, to Aaron's sons, the priests. And he shall take there out his handful, which seems to be, though some disagree, the same as the memorial, which is referred to later. He shall take there out his handful of the flower thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof, and the priest shall burn the memorial of it, the portion of it, which is going to be here for an offering on behalf of the one who comes upon the altar to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. Much of this offering is going to be taken by the priests and it is for their help and for their support. Remember the priests didn't have fields of their own to till, and flocks and herds, and provisions of their own, and so they took their support from what was brought. But there is a handful which is offered on the altar. And verse 3, the remnants of the meat offering should be Aaron's and his sons. It is a thing, this doesn't refer to just Aaron's bit, it refers to the whole offering, it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. So the worshipper thought, this is my holiness offered up for me. I have none of my own sufficient for the Lord. To be acceptable to him, this food offering, meat offering, meal offering, represents the holiness that I should, and the refined character that I should have made. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, fruit of the Spirit in the letters of the Galatians. Faith, meekness, temperance or self-control, unselfishness, helpfulness to others, pure words, edifying words, good words, profound words, all the refined products of character and life. the offering represents. And as it burns, as it's made, I pledge myself to make such an offering myself by the help of God for all I'm worth, to be a better person and to be one who produces refined acts of love and refined words myself. It's a pledge as well as an offering. Here it is, verse four, and if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering, the word here, oblation, is exactly the same in the Hebrew as the word translated offering, something given, and if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baked in the oven, it could be baked, It shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. On the other hand, it could be baked in a pan, verse five, and it'll be the same. Or it could be baked in the frying pan, this is our version, on a kind of, this probably is a kind of griddle. Again, fine flour with oil. And verse 8, and thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the Lord, and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar. and the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar. It is an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. Oh, that you and I could be ourselves much more of a sweet savour. We say this, a sweet savour wherever the Lord places us, not a testy person, a difficult person, a cold person, an unhelpful person, an unfriendly person, but a sweet savour of the presence of Christ wherever the Lord has placed us. And that which is left, verse 10, of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons. It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. And then some interesting restrictions. Look carefully at verse 11. No meat offering, that is meal, flour, food offering, which he shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven. No leaven. For ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, we think of honey as something good, but there's a reason for this, in any offering of the Lord made by fire. Well, we're told, But honey, if it's burned in the mix of these things, will soon take on fermenting activity and properties. So in a sense, apart from being not a particularly pleasant aroma, it'll be like leaven. There must be no fermentation. That stands for corruption in the thinking of the Hebrews. And so it mustn't be there. It stands for a novelty, an influence that will come and interfere with the original mixture in some way. There are to be refined products here, flour, and in the earlier offering, frankincense, and pure olive oil, and nothing else. Nothing that will dramatically change the structure of those products or alter it. and corrupt it as the corruption of the world. It was obvious to them in those days, the symbolism. And so though they baked bread with leaven and ate it, in holy things, in the offerings, you couldn't have it because it represented an influence upon the substances that were offered. that must be intact and pure, and so it is with us. Interesting, you can see how we've abandoned these things these days. You can see the complete liberty of freedom with which people jump in and bring in the bands and the drama into Christian worship, things that are nowhere in the New Testament, we're looking at the old. Innovation and to make an impression, to create an effect, Make things more interesting? They shouldn't want to make things more interesting. If we were interested in the word and the worship, we wouldn't be searching for something else to ginger it all up. But the way in which these days, even many sound Christians innovate and elaborate and borrow things from the world, all this is even in the earliest books of the Bible. Don't corrupt. Don't innovate. Don't bring in something which is foreign to the process. You mustn't do it. And here it is written repeatedly throughout this book in the instructions, banned substances. And we should think of that today. We need to be taught almost again, all over again. It seems that many Christians need to be brought into a great big class and made to learn like you may teach little children by going through the ancient ceremonies to teach them some basic principles. It's so extraordinary. Here it is, unfolded. No leaven, no tampering, no innovation, nothing that doesn't belong. And then one or two more before I move to conclusion. You see down here in verse 12, as for the oblation of the first fruits, Well, that's a different rule, we'll come to that another time. But verse 13, and every oblation or offering of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. You see, the symbolism is explained there immediately, somewhat unusually. Why with salt? because it reminds you of the covenant that God has. In other words, all this, as far from God's side, as far as God is concerned, he will be absolutely faithful. If you confess your sins and he forgives you, those sins will stay forgiven. Thought is a preservative. It keeps things. Well, everybody knows that. And so here it is. This is the salt of the covenant. God has made an absolute promise. So forgiveness is lasting forgiveness. Repentance, too, should be lasting repentance. You're serious. You're not going to likely sin the same sins tomorrow. So there should be salt. It's cheap today. They tell us we shouldn't have it. That's another thing. our message tonight, but in those days it was precious. And again you could think of many a worshipper put salt on something that doesn't need to be preserved. This is immediately going to be burned up and offered up. We don't want to do that. No, but you must do that, because it's important that the symbol has in it something representing permanence and duration. And if you come before God, sincerely repenting your sin, and you bring the offering, and you trust in Christ, whose righteousness is imputed to you, that is lasting eternally. And so the people who repented and who approached God trusting in a given righteousness They knew that this was something that God would not renounce. They had security in their union with him. And so it is for us, so the salt is mentioned there. I won't cover anything else in the passage except to make some observations. You look at all this, And we're just thinking about atonement and offerings of a sweet savour. Another time, perhaps next time, we'll look at the five different kinds of offering, all of which find a place in the atoning death of Christ. However, for the moment, you think of these things, what a lot of preparation. How much preparation do we do for worship? For some on Sunday mornings, I suspect it's a sprint from the bed into the back gallery because that's all that's left. Or even further back in the CCTV rooms, spaces. Where's the preparation? If we can't make it in time for the beginning of worship, it strongly suggests there's been no preparation either. for worship. Would you like to be back in the days of the Old Testament, where you had to most carefully select your animal, and then get it to the place of worship, and then execute it yourself, and skin it, and hand it to the priests as part of your repentance? No, we have the light of the gospel, but that doesn't mean we should take advantage of it by not preparing our hearts. not being ready for worship. We learn from this that God requires prepared worship, an orderly approach, a thoughtful approach. I'm sure that's all part of it. They went through the place of worship and sacrifice, we go through Calvary, through the eternal Son of God. I remind you what we looked at earlier this evening, see him slain. The old Christians used to say, when you repent of your sin, in your mind's eye, see him slain for you, just as you would have seen the bullock, the sheep, the goat, the turtle dove, the pigeon slain for you. And it was serious. He brought it home to you. Feel as though you've done it to him. It is your sin that is transferred to him. Take in the cost to Christ, the magnitude of his agonies and the necessity of his atoning death. Make a pledge. Take a meal offering too. Take Christ for your perfect righteousness. and longed to be worthy of it, then I could say, take up your priesthood, because we are a kingdom of priests, we're all priests. And where the priest took the portions of the animal and actually put it on the altar, and made the sacrifice, and did all the necessary things, we make known Christ. We present him to people and pray for them. We explain things to them. We do the work of the priest to bring them to Calvary. Summon all sincerity. These are free will voluntary acts, even in ancient times. The offering is your own, from your own herd, purchased with your own money. Christ has done everything for us. But there's a sense in which worship must be costly. It must cost us our concentration and our hearts and our focus. So this is why I called this first chapter, True Repentance for Believers. And I'd like so much if I helped you to see, as we just spend a few studies in this, the book of Leviticus in a new way. Let's close this evening singing Isaac Watts' great words, hymn number 400.