Our first scripture reading is taken from Hebrews chapter 10. We'll read from verse 1 through verse 10. You can find it on page 1282 of your hardcover Pew Bibles or page 865 of the softcover Pew Bibles. But it's Hebrews chapter 10 beginning in verse 1. Here is now the word of the Lord. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he had said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. And these are offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. You may be seated. This is taken from Leviticus, chapter 5. Actually, that is incorrect in the Bolton. Leviticus, chapter 1. Now, we're not going backwards, we are doing an overview of that whole section, Leviticus 1.1 through chapter 6, verse 7, and I just didn't properly correct the bulletin from last week. But we're, for this morning, going to read Leviticus 1, verses 1 through 9. We're not going to read all those chapters, but just these first nine verses in Leviticus 1. Hear now the word of the Lord. 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 Now may Jesus, who is the living word, speak to us this morning from this passage, which is his written word. You may be seated. Now, it has been my pattern to have my kids come up and have a children's sermon. I see I have a couple of kids up there. My kids are sick, so sadly they are not here. You are welcome to come up or you can just sit there with your parents because you're the only kids here and might be kind of like, no way, we're new and we're going to just come up here, but you may if you'd like. But this introduction is for you kids, that kid. It heard you on your I.O. on the computer. Really? It's already been on your computer. Oh, well. Well, I mean, if we're old friends, you can come on up. But this is for you guys, okay? And I wish my kids were here, too. They would enjoy meeting you, I'm sure. In Colossians, which I don't have printed in my notes, but in Colossians we're told that everything in the whole world was created by Jesus. And everything is for Jesus. Just think of that for a minute. Everything is for Jesus. I'm for Jesus, I was created for Jesus, you were created for Jesus, we were all created for Jesus. So what I'd like to do is put just a little bit of, like, so what do we do about that? What do we do about being created from Jesus? Well, in Ephesians chapter 5, we're told that we're to imitate God in everything that we do, because we are His dear children. We imitate God. But, let me ask you this, kids. Can you see God? You're right. He's here, you know. But I can't see Him, and you can't see Him. So how are we going to imitate? Wait a minute, what does it even mean to imitate? Well, it means to copy. If you were imitating me and I go like this, you'd go like this. If I went like this, you'd go like this. So that's what it is to imitate. It's to do what somebody else does. It's to follow their example. It's to do what they do. Now, we're told to imitate God or to do what God does, but how do we see what God does? Well, he goes on to help give us a little hint in the next verse. He says, live a life filled with love, following the example of Jesus. Hmm. Well, that helps, because Jesus was a person that came and lived, and he showed us what God was like. But we still have a problem, too, because Jesus went to heaven, didn't he? He died, and he came back from the dead, and a lot of people got to see him with their eyes, but then he went to heaven, so we don't see him face to face, do we? I don't, do you see him? I don't see him either. Not with my eyes. So how do we see Jesus? He is in our heart, that's an excellent answer. And where do we learn about the things that Jesus did? What? We're to love just like Jesus loved, and where do we find out about the way Jesus loved us? That's exactly right! You kids are wonderful! Yes, we learn about it in the Bible. So we follow the example of Jesus by learning about him in the Bible and loving like he loved us. And right in this verse it tells us he loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Hmm. I just read a verse in the Old Testament that had that same word in it, aroma. What's an aroma? It's a smell. That's right. And in the Old Testament it said when you offered this sacrifice and burned it up on this altar and cooked it, it would smell nice for God. But Jesus is now saying, you know, that really wasn't what God was smelling. He was smelling me. He was smelling my sacrifice, my living for Him, my obeying Him, even when it meant to go die on that cross. My obedience, Jesus says, is what smells good to God. My love for you, giving my life in exchange for yours. Taking your penalty on myself. Taking what we were supposed to pay for our sins, He paid for our sins. That kind of love, that smelled good to God. And now we're told in this passage in Ephesians that we're to imitate that. We're to love each other like that. In other words, here you go kids. You should live the rest of today not for yourselves. You should give yourselves away. You serve mom and dad. You serve your brother. Serve your sister. Serve the other people here. Serve whoever you bump into today. Because Jesus was like that. And it smelled good to God. And we're told to copy Jesus. We're to take time and trouble for everybody around us. Instead of taking time and trouble for ourselves. Alright? That's what it means to follow Jesus. That's what it means to imitate Jesus and to love like He loved. And so I pray, not just for you kids, but for all of us in this room, that the Holy Spirit would come into our hearts and help teach all of us that. Because is it hard to live for everybody else except ourselves? Is that hard? It is hard. I get it wrong a lot. I'm sure you do too. But I'm learning. I hope you do too. So, you're welcome to go down with Wendy or stay in the service. We do have some bullpens there for kids if you'd like to stay up in the service. But Mrs. Valley would be happy to go downstairs with you if you wanted to do that too. So, I'll let you guys work that out. Well, here's where we see the love of Jesus most clearly. in this way, this self-giving, self-sacrificing love. I'll bring it right to the Garden of Gethsemane. If there was ever a time when Jesus clearly did what was obedient to His Father, and loving towards His Father, and loving towards us, it was when He headed to the cross. And we hear it in His prayer, Father, if you are willing Please take this cup of suffering away from me. And I've got the New Living Translation. Please take, and that's what the cup is about, take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine. That puts a real fine point on it. His whole life was this, but here's where it really kind of is tested with suffering. It's easy to do God's will when it's, well, inheriting a great reward. Okay, I'm all for that. But when it's take up your cross and follow me, well, that's where we're really tested, isn't it? That's where we need, really, divine assistance. We need God's power. And Jesus led the way. Jesus did it perfectly, where we stumble and fall, we stumble and fall, and stumble and fall. By God's grace, we keep getting back up, and getting back up, and getting back up. He, while He asked for it to be removed, set His face, and went to the cross, and did what His Father's will was for our good. for our salvation. And that is his life of love. He's the king, and so he is servant of all. That's how leadership works, isn't it? If you want to be a leader in God's kingdom, you work at serving more and more and more people. The more people you're able to serve, the higher you are up in the ranks. And the one who's leader over all is servant of all, and Jesus is that servant. He served all. He was obedient even unto death on a cross, a cross that absorbed our penalty. So that is the picture of love. It is also the picture of the sacrifices. Now that may seem like a jarring segue to you, like, look, you're talking about heart of the gospel, but do you know that all of creation is about Jesus? All of the Bible is about Jesus, and we've been studying through the different sacrifices and we're finding how they all get us to the cross. They all get us to Christ. They all get us to the fact that Jesus is that perfect substitute these things were pointing at. And there's rich material here, so much so that I'm going to have to take two weeks in this overview. One, I'm going to focus on what Israel was supposed to learn, and they were supposed to learn about Jesus. So we're going to get to Jesus this morning. And then having gotten to Jesus, we're going to turn around next week and talk about how to be imitators of Jesus. There's lots of rich language, sacrificial language, used in the New Testament to describe our lives in being Christ followers, being disciples of Jesus. Even the one here, I've just read in Ephesians 5. Following the example of Christ, he offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God, that drives us right back to the sacrifices. These sacrifices were pointing ahead of Jesus, now Jesus has come, and so we're to be like Jesus. But what was Jesus like? Well, he was like the sacrifices. In fact, he's what the sacrifices were always about. He's the fulfillment of the sacrifices. And not just his death. Not just his death. I think we've been making that point again and again as we've worked our way through it. But I don't know whether we've really adequately emphasized the other imageries. We've talked about them, but I want to take a big picture, drawback, bird's eye view, and look at the sacrificial system here, and see how this points at the life of Jesus and the death of Jesus. The life of Jesus and the culminating in the death of Jesus. But before I do that, since we're doing big picture overview, let's remember where we are in the story. Remember, there was a Passover leading them out of Egypt, out of slavery, and Jesus was the Passover Lamb. The one that took the place of the Israelites, so they didn't have their firstborns killed like the Egyptians. And so there was a Passover Lamb saving them, if you will, from slavery. That's a picture of the cross. And then, you remember, as they work their way through the wilderness, they get to Mount Sinai. I'm skipping much material, but they get to Mount Sinai, and they couldn't draw near, they put boundaries all around it. And then, once they offered the sacrifices, they cut a covenant, as they call it. That was the phrase in Hebrew, they cut a covenant. When they cut a covenant with the Lord, Yahweh, then all the leaders, 70 leaders, could go up on the mountain. Before, nobody could come near, but now they've cut the covenant, now the leaders representing the people can draw near, and they ate with God, or before God. And so, you have that picture, that sacrificial picture, pointing at establishing a covenant, now they're God's covenant people. The rest of Exodus, they talk about making a tabernacle, a place for God to live in, a special tent for God to live in, to be in the middle of his people. It gets brutally interrupted in the middle with the golden calf incident. God's covenant people, and they already break that covenant. God says, I better not go with you even a second. It says right there in Exodus 33, I will not go up among you lest I consume you on the way, for you are stiff-necked people. And it says in another verse following, I won't go with you even for a minute, because lest I destroy you. So here you've got a holy God, covenanted with an unholy people, and it's a bad mix. Here they're just getting instructions for God's special tent, this dwelling place to live in their midst, and they already blow the covenant, but in God's mercy, He forgives them. Kind of stunningly, they think, well it's going to be all over for Israel now. But he does forgive them, and by Moses interceding for them, he does relent, and then he says, well, I won't destroy them, okay, I'll send my angel with them so they'll get the land, but I'm not going with them, and then he continues to pray, and it's like, alright, I'll go. In fact, he'll go based on his character of being a holy God, forgiving and steadfast in love. and not letting the guilty off. But all these things must have been confusing to Israel. We know clearly we deserve to be judged, that'd be just. And God is just. But what we're finding out, God is patient, and God is kind. And God's faithfulness is enduring. Steadfast love. So then the rest of Exodus is talking about the actual building of the tabernacle. And they built it exactly as God told them. So, so far, they're making a good step here. He told them to build it exactly this way, and they built it exactly that way. And at the end of Exodus, God's holy presence, symbolized by that glory cloud that was on Mount Sinai, that was so terrifying, that made the earth shake, came down and settled on the tabernacle. God's glory was living in the midst of his people. Now enter Leviticus. This is where Leviticus is set. And now that he's living among them, the pressing question is, how can a holy God live in the midst of a simple people? And how can that simple people possibly draw near? In fact, as one author put it, the most important question that anyone can ask is how can an impure, sinful, and mortal creature find access into the presence of God, both now and in the world to come? I mean, that's the most pressing question. The God who made us is holy. Without Him, there's no life. Separation from Him is pretty much the definition of death. Life is found only in Him, so we must have Him, but how can we draw near to Him without being destroyed along the way? And that's the dilemma that now enters in Leviticus. How do you draw near? You pick it up there in verse 1, and Moses is given instructions, now if anyone wants to draw near with an offering, they want to come near to serve me. I'm their God, they're my people, they're going to come near with offerings, gifts. This is how you have to do it. So it's answering the question, how can an unholy people draw near to this holy God? that has saved them out of slavery, brought them through the wilderness, and made a covenant with them. Now, how can the covenant people of God draw near to God and serve Him? How can they do it? That's what Leviticus is answering. Now, we, in shorthand, refer to the first six and a half chapters that we've covered so far as the sacrificial system. We use the word sacrifice, and it's appropriate. Throughout the Bible, often times, sacrifice is a summary word for all the offering system here. But the word is only used of one of the offerings mentioned in these chapters. The word offering, korban, you might know that from the New Testament. I remember that Jesus was getting on the Pharisees for their avoiding, obeying God's law by saying, this that I could do and help you, my father, I can't give to you because it's korban, specially dedicated to God. It's an offering to the Lord, so it belongs to the Lord, it's not mine anymore, I can't then help you out in your old age. So the word was used there, korban. Same word used here, The correlating Hebrew word used here is offering. Offering is used throughout the system. If you come giving a special gift, an offering dedicated to the Lord, you're giving something that's the Lord's. When you bring an offering, this is what you're to bring, this is how you're to bring it. This is what you're to do, this is the procedure. This is the kind of offerings you can bring. And that sort of thing. But the word offering is used throughout. But the word sacrifice is only used with the peace offering. only used with peace offering. Now the word sacrifice itself is zeba. I have it there in my notes. The Dictionary of Vivable Languages has one definite, actually it has two right there, but the first one, offer a sacrifice by killing a living thing as an act of worship, expiation or propitiation to a deity. And of course those are loaded words. Expiation means to take our sins and remove them. To cast them as far as the east is from the west. And propitiation means the wrath of God, the right wrath against our sin, is poured out on a substitute so that God can be propitiated. To be propitiated is to be appeased, to be satisfied. He's satisfied. If I dented your car and I paid for the repairs, you'd be satisfied with that. So it's this idea of ransom paid to satisfy the damage that was done. So this idea of propitiation is the idea that payment's been paid, but a substitute payment has been paid. This sacrifice is absorbing this wrath instead of you. Okay? Payment is paid by a substitute sacrifice. That much we get. That's the word sacrifice, but a second and related word is to butcher. In other words, slaughter an animal and dress it out for consumption. So, if somebody came over for dinner and I'm a herdsman, you know, and we want some fresh meat to eat, I'd say, go sacrifice the lamb out back so we have dinner. Because it means butcher. Go slaughter it so we can get it ready for dinner. And it makes sense because the peace offering was the only offering that the worshipper who came and brought it got to eat some of. It's the only one where they got to eat the meal too. So they get to eat some, and in fact it was a meal that was shared communally with anybody who was at the temple courtyard at the time. So everybody had to share in this meal, so it was a more explicit meal offering. And it's appropriate that it's used for the peace offering for that reason. But here's the point of all this. It may be interesting to you if you like studying interesting trivia about the sacrificial system. But there's a point to all that. Sacrifices, the sharing a meal with God, kind of has the whole overarching purpose of the offering system in view. The best parts were to go on the altar on top of the burnt offering. The burnt offering was completely burned up. We read that just a minute ago. That was all God's. And then the best part of the peace offering was God's to eat, if you will. And then you get to eat the other parts with God, in God's presence. So, God is satisfied with the substitute so that you, the worshipper, are accepted and can have fellowship, reconciliation, peace with the living God. And that's the point. That's the point overall, that's the point of the offering system, that you are going to approach a holy God and be received into fellowship with God. It's often called the fellowship offering, this peace offering. So this fellowship offering has every aspect of the offering system or the way to fellowship with God in view. It has a whole system in view. But let's just review real quickly, and I'll try to do my best to give a concise and clear overview of the system. First, they go over the burnt offering. This is the most common offering. This offering was, as I said, totally burned up on the altar. That's a portion of scripture I had for a scripture reading just a few minutes ago. They came and placed their hands on the sacrificial animal, they slaughtered it, the blood was sprinkled on the altar, and then they prepared it, cut up the pieces, washed the appropriate pieces that needed to be washed with water, and then all of it burned up on the altar for an attempted meeting. This not only spoke of atonement, which it definitely did, it talked of total commitment. And we mentioned this at the time, but I want to re-emphasize it here. When you place your hand as a worshipper on that sacrifice, it's not just like that sacrifice now becomes you, you're identifying with that sacrifice. You are meant as a worshipper to identify with that sacrifice, so that when that sacrifice is cut up and prepared properly and consumed in God's fire, to be a pleasing aroma to God, it was saying to you, the worshipper, this is what God's pleased with. God is pleased with somebody that he's all in. All about being his people. Nothing left out. Holding nothing back. Total commitment. That was what the burnt offering was about. That's what makes sense of what Jesus was talking about in Hebrews, and we'll come back around there in a minute, when he says, I've come to do your will. That's what these offerings were about, was to really be all in. And there wasn't anybody more all in than Jesus. Always obeying the Father, even unto death, even death on a cross. For us. That's what this particular offering meant. It was to communicate this total commitment to the Israelite worshipper. They were to be all in. Then there was the grain offering. Now the grain offering is interesting because it's a lot like the burnt offering. Spoke of commitment, the commitment of your life. You're offering up the labor, the work of your hands. You're offering up bread. What you worked out in the field, you brought here prepared, you brought to God. You're offering your life to God. A memorial portion was brought out of that and burned up in the altar, and then the priest ate it. So it was also food. which connects it with the peace offering. So the grain offering is kind of like part of the meal. You get the burnt offering, all in total commitment to God. You get the grain offering and the peace offering. They get to eat part of that, and God eats part of that, and we're having a meal, fellowship now. Albeit eating by the priest, the grain offering, which has its own symbolism. Here's my dilemma here. I want to give you enough information to give you a picture of it and be helpful, but it's like I'm describing a detailed tapestry up here. And I'm trying to single in on one particular large theme of that tapestry, but it connects to what the priests do. But that's the whole next section of Leviticus. It connects you back to the tabernacle and the temple. Let me explain it to you this way. The tabernacle and the temple are pointing at Jesus, because Jesus is the real tabernacle. He's the place where God really dwells. And now it's His people. We're the tabernacle. We're the temple. Right? And then when you get to the sacrifices, Jesus is the real sacrifices. Jesus is the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, and we'll get to the sin offering and the guilt offering. He's all those offerings. And now we're told to be living sacrifices, imitators of Christ. So we're to be sacrifices, we're to take up our cross and follow Him. So who's the sacrifice? Well, Jesus is the real thing. The Old Testament is a picture of Jesus. And now that Jesus has come, who's the picture of Jesus? We are. We are. And I'm trying to just zero in on the sacrifice part of it, but it's connected to the temple. And it's connected to the priesthood and the service of the priest. And my mind just keeps going there, so I apologize if it gets confusing. We'll try to stay focused on the sacrifices. For now, Jesus is the true sacrifice that all these pictures were pointing at. And now that Jesus has come, we've been connected to Jesus, and now we're the pictures of Jesus. Because as we said in the beginning, everything is actually about Jesus. Heaven and Earth were created by Jesus and for Jesus. Us too. And particularly the church. dissembled believers belong to Jesus and are about Jesus. So, that's kind of the big picture of what I'm trying to draw together. We get the burnt offering, total commitment, the grain offering, it's both a meal and also part of it's burned up. In fact, in some places it talks about the grain offering as total commitment, giving your life to God and for God. Then you get the peace offering that incorporates both aspects. You have some of it burned up on the altar and some of it eaten by the worshipper and anybody that's in the temple courtyard can share in this meal because you have fellowship with God because of the substitute sacrifice. And then you have the sin offering which focuses on sin as the aspect of sin that makes you dirty and the need for cleansing. So the sin offering cleanses you from your filth. connected with sin. The remaining is all unintentional sins that we stumble into. Why? Because we are dirty. And we're still dirty. We're still corrupt. And we need to get clean from that corruption. And the sin offering purifies us from all unrighteousness. Just like we prayed with the psalmist this morning, that you wash us, O Lord, and we will be clean. You will make us whiter than snow. This is the purifying offering, the sin offering focused on that aspect of sin. The guilt offering speaks of our debt to God in a need of payment that we owe God. And Jesus is that payment. And then some. And Jesus is certainly the fulfillment of all these things, but even before Jesus came, The Israelite worshipper was meant to learn from these sacrifices, these realities. They were meant to change because of year after year, coming during the feast times, coming offering their sacrifices. When special events happened in their lives and they wanted to give a thank offering, they could come and do that. They could do peace offerings. Or they could come during the feast times and offerings. But year after year, they came and made these sacrifices and they were meant to make the connection into the changed lives that were supposed to happen as a result. So in worshipping God year in and year out with these sacrifices, they were meant to learn something about God. They were supposed to know God better because of these sacrifices. These were not mechanical. Not like you plug your quarter into the religious machine and out pops your blessing. It was to change the way you understood God and your relationship to God. Now, this is not me wildly speculating. This is all throughout the Old Testament. I'm just going to give you a smattering of it. The prophets often indicted Israel for not making this connection. Now here, for instance, Jeremiah 6, 19-20. Hereover, behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people, talking about Israel, the fruit of their devices, because they have not paid attention to my words. And as for my law, they have rejected it. What used to be is frankincense, which you were supposed to put on your grain offering. the memorial portion, that smelled nice, a pleasing aroma to God, that part that was burned up, you put frankincense on it, and it smelled nice to God. Well, what good is that to me, he says, that comes from Sheba? Of course, we came from a distant land. Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me. You're going through the ritual, but you're not learning the lesson. You're doing the outside of the thing, while missing the points. You're rejecting my words, even while technically you're keeping my word about the sacrifices. But you're not learning the way of sacrifice, or Hosea 6.6, as we read for preparation, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice. The knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. That puts a really fine point on it, doesn't it? The point was for you to learn to love. The point was for you to learn about me, God. And you've missed it. I don't need food to eat. These animals aren't really food for me. You didn't really think these were food for me, did you? No, it's the worshipper that comes and learns something from these sacrifices. And you're missing it. Or how about Anus 5, 22-24? Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. And the peace offerings of your fattened animals, I will not look upon them. Take away from me the noise of your songs, to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. You were supposed to imbibe the lesson of the burnt offering. You were supposed to be mine. You were supposed to be transformed by this, but you haven't been. And that's why the author of Hebrews picks up this in quoting Psalm 40, which we could have easily quoted, but he quotes it right here in the midst of Hebrews 10, so we'll get it there, but he says, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book." See what he's saying there? He's quoting Psalm 40 right there. I've come to do your will, which was the point of the sacrifices. The worshipper was not just to identify the fact that, well, somebody else absorbs my debt. atonement, that's surely part of it. They're receiving the punishment due me, but that's supposed to change me to be more like the sacrifice. I'm supposed to be more like the sacrifice, having worshipped in this way. And he's saying, you've missed it, but now I've come. I've come to do you well. Verse 8, when he said above, he gives a little commentary here now, When he said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings. And these are offered according to the law. Then he added, behold, I have come to do your will, your desire, what you desire, what you will. Right. I've come to do it. He does away with the first. Sacrificial animals. In order to establish the second. And by that will, same word used as above, by that desire that I've come to do, I've come to do your will, by that doing of your will, then, by that will, we have been sanctified, set apart as holy to God, right? We, God's people, now have been set apart as holy because Jesus came to do the will of the Father. He fulfilled, then, what the sacrifices were always about. being completely clean and purified, get completely paid, all in committed to God. Jesus did the will of the Father. And by doing that will, we now are set apart for God's special use. We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He is the fulfillment of the sacrifices. In other words, he's what the sacrifices were always about. Let me quote Jeff Myers, he puts it pretty well here in his book, The Lord's Service. God did not ultimately take pleasure in animals slaughtered, chopped up, and turned into smoke on the altar, did he? No. God really delights in the sacrifice of his people. This is why we say that the foundational sacrifice of Christ has not simply put an end to all sacrifice and offering, but instead has manifested or revealed its true meaning. Jesus shows us the way of sacrifice, bold mind, the way of sacrifice, true human sacrifice, in His life and self-giving death on the cross. See, that's where I started this morning. We are to be imitators of Christ. And what did Christ do? He gave himself up. And not just at the end of his life. He gave himself up from start to finish. When he was in the temple, and his parents came back to find him, he was like, didn't you realize it would be about my father's business? But then he deliberately submitted himself to his parents. and went home with him, and was obedient. Every bit of his life was done for the Father, and correctly. Every bit of his life, he came down, he had glory. He didn't grasp at that glory, he gave it up, set it aside, became a human being, and being found as a servant, he lived his entire life to come die for us. He gave up his life! Now, as good as it is, in the moment of truth, to take a bullet for somebody, say, a son or a daughter or a wife or a husband, and you jump in the way, how about, while you're still alive, giving your life away to your wife, to your son, to your daughter, to your neighbor, your fellow church member because that's what we're talking about here. This is what Jesus did. He gave every bit of his life away. He didn't do any of it for his own pleasure. He didn't serve himself. He served his father and he served us. He was a servant all the time. No time off for good behavior. Do you see what I'm driving at? It is the cross. Surely it's the cross. But it's so much more than the cross, isn't it? A life prepared to do the will of the Father. Including the cross. Culminating in the cross. But it's his whole life. This is what Jesus understood. The Old Testament worshipers didn't understand. And what we are so slow to understand. That he came to do the will, the wishes of God, the father. And by this offering, we have been set apart as holy. So, so what are we to do with this? Well, first of all, I want you to understand that Jesus teaches us what true sacrifice is, namely what I've just stated, that it is his life and his death. He gave up his life while he lived it and he gave it up on the cross. A life of self-sacrifice is what the sacrifices were about. Sacrifices were not just the moment that those animals died. It was that they repaired and put on the altar, God's altar, burned up in God's holy fire as a pleasing aroma to God because their lives belonged to God. They were God's lives. All in, total commitment. And Jesus was that. He was the one who did completely, in every way, every step of the way, did the will of the Father. And he is therefore the fulfillment of the sacrifice. Again, to quote Jeff Myers, he says, Jesus' sacrifice not only did away with the old animal offerings, it also illumined for the Church the true meaning of the sacrificial rituals for life and liturgy. That's maybe a little teaser for next week. Because liturgy has to do with worship. The order of worship, that's really all liturgy means. It's what you do when you approach God. And so he illumined both what true sacrifice was and what it meant to follow Jesus. What it meant to draw near to God now, through Jesus our Savior. And that's where we'll land next week. And so much of the New Testament language about being disciples of Christ are couched in this sacrificial language. And I think now having a little bit of a handle, not total, but a little bit of a handle on what the sacrifices are about, and how they point to Jesus, and how Jesus is a fulfillment of that, now set us up to understand properly how to worship God. Not just when we gather, but throughout the week. lives all in. Because that's where I started. Again, quoting Ephesians 5, 1-2, So that's where we're headed next week. But it is food for meditation this week. That now that we see the true meaning of sacrifice is Jesus, and now our lives are spent trying to become all in like he was. That's the chief end of this life, is to become more and more like our Savior, who gave up His life in its entirety in obedience to the Father and love for the brothers. We are called to be imitators of that, to be lovers of others instead of lovers of selves. Is that not our perennial struggle? I mean, isn't that what we battle day in, day out in ordinary life? I battled it this morning, I'm sure you did too. I keep falling back into, I've got to take care of myself, I've just got to have a little me time, I've just got to have a... I just want, I just want, I just want, I just want. I just want this, I just want that. And all of us struggle with that. But we're being called out of that into a life of abandonment to service. All of us, all of us here, don't be embarrassed, all of us here stumble up on this. There's not a person here that hasn't stumbled up on this. I know that from the Word of God, not because I know your life so well. But all of us get this wrong, all of us get selfish, every single one of us. But we are putting off the old and putting on the new. And the new is a life of love. Not just sentimental warm fuzzies towards one another, but really roll up your sleeves and take time and trouble for each other. And we blew it some last week, we'll blow it some more this week, but we keep getting back up by the grace of God. And forgetting what's behind, straining on toward what's ahead. The goal for which we've been called heavenward. Do you know what that goal is? To be just like Jesus. That's one of the great things. I mean, after seeing Christ, right? Which is the best part. Just seeing God himself. Our fellowship with one another will no longer be tainted with sin in eternity. I won't have to be taking care of myself. It won't even occur to me to want to. Nor you either. We can just give ourselves away. No fear. No walls. That'll be a good day, won't it? In the meantime, let's strain with everything we've got in us to be like the sacrifice we bring. We bring Jesus up here, the perfect substitute. He got it exactly right. And now that we've brought Him, let's keep looking at Him so that we become like Him. Let's give it everything we've got to be like our Savior. Not to earn our way to heaven. He's already done the earning. Just out of love? Out of gratitude? Out of the joy of being like that? I don't know why I keep sliding back into sin. I have no idea why. It makes no sense. I'm miserable when I get selfish. And I do, I get selfish, I get miserable. I struggle, and everything's tarred, and everything's bland. Why do I ever do that? Why do I ever go there? When I am serving and I'm not concerned about preserving or protecting myself, or say, looking better than I am, Because, I mean, that's typical for me. I want to be lazy, but I don't want you to know I'm lazy, so I want to look better than I am. So, you know, then I keep battling. When I'm done with all that, and I'm just like, you know what? Yeah, that was laziness. No doubt about it. I don't have to hide it. That's what it was. But thank you, Lord, there is a Savior. A Savior for me and a Savior for you. And thank you that I'm learning to put that away. I'm learning to work hard. Work much harder than I did. when I was a young man. You know, it's just a grace of God. Grace of God working its way out in me. Glory be to God. I don't have to hide anything. I don't have to play any games with anybody. And now I'm freed up. I don't have to... since I'm not spending all that energy trying to defend myself, I'm all freed up to love you. That's wonderful living that way. I wish I would keep remembering that. So, let's work at this. Again, we're not trying to prove anything to God. Jesus did all the proving. Jesus did all the earning. Jesus did all the heavy lifting. Ours is just to now begin to enjoy the transformation from the life we used to live to the one that we're going to live. We get to taste it now. Don't wait. Don't wait for heaven. Get it now. Take that burden off. Be free! That's what we're being called to. Let's pray. Father, I do thank you that you have given us a perfect substitute. The sacrifice of Jesus our Lord that is our burnt offering, our grain offering, our peace offering, our sin offering, our guilt offering, He's what those things were all about. I do thank you for revealing Him to us, not just in history 2,000 years ago, but even revealing Him to us now, that we have been given eyes to see that. And if there's anyone here that does not yet see the truth of that, would you indeed open their eyes to this glorious truth? And Lord, would you continue that good work you've begun on us? Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.