If you turn in your copy of God's Word now to Leviticus, you should find that on page 96 of your few Bibles. I'll be reading there in chapter one, beginning at verse three, and read to the end of the chapter. Let's give our attention now to God's holy word, Leviticus chapter one. 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 priests, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron's sons, the priests, 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 priests 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." That's far in the reading of God's Word. Amen. Please be seated. Would you pray with me? Our Father and our God, as we continue to study this book, we ask, Lord God, that you would help us There are things here which are difficult to understand. There are things here which are difficult to apply to our lives today. And so we ask, Father, that the Spirit would work powerfully within us. That you'd be with me and, Father, that you'd allow me to open your word truly and accurately and, Father, with compassion and with power. Father, we pray in all of this that the Lord Jesus Christ would be exalted tonight. I pray this in his name, amen. If you're familiar with that passage in Genesis, wherein Moses describes the flood. He describes Noah and his family being in the ark for many, many days as the earth, the entire earth is flooded and all beasts, all men on the earth perish And only Noah and his family are saved as they entered the ark in accordance with the command of God. And ultimately, after many, many days. After the water has receded and the ark has come to a rest. Noah and his family are brought out. And then we read at the end of chapter eight of Genesis that Noah builds an altar to the Lord. It's seemingly the first thing that happens upon Noah's exit from the ark, upon his deliverance from the flood. Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. This may be the first mention of burnt offerings in all of scripture. And next we read that the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of men, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. One commentator expresses that it was the burnt offering, not because the hearts of men had changed, but it was the burnt offering. that became this pleasing aroma in the nostrils of God. As we continue to study this book of Leviticus, as we continue to remember that Leviticus provides in a sense a progression in the Pentateuch, as we continue to remember that the People of God had erected the tabernacle and yet at this point in the history of redemption were unable to enter into it because of sin, because of the holiness of God. We now come to some details of those offerings which were required in order for the people to truly worship God. As we consider now this first of several food offerings, there are three of them. It would be good for us just to remember a bit of the history of burnt offerings. Because it would be a mistake as we just referenced Noah, it would be a mistake to think that this is the first reference in Leviticus to burnt offerings in scripture. Certainly we've already covered the first one. Noah offered up burnt offerings as he comes out of the ark and has been delivered and is. Offering up that which is pleasing. To God. We might then go to chapter 22 of Genesis as Abraham is called to take his son and do what? Offer him as a burnt offering. We know that He was willing to do so. We know that he moved in the direction of doing so and that and the Lord provides a substitute. You know, the reason given for needing to leave Egypt as Moses speaks to Pharaoh is that you must let us have sacrifices and burnt offerings. We may sacrifice to the Lord, our God. And after the Israelites had been delivered And Jethro, Moses's father-in-law, comes to visit to see what God has done. What does Jethro do? He brings a burnt offering and sacrifices to God. In Exodus chapters 29 and 30, we have many references to burnt offerings. And then as the tabernacle is being completed, we have this in Exodus 38. He made the altar of burnt offering of acacia wood, the altar. The altar on which the offerings were made is referred to as the altar of burnt offering. And then even as the Israelites sin against God with the golden calf, what did they do? He rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. This is definitely not the first reference in scripture as we enter into Leviticus with regard to the burnt offerings. The people knew of their requirement, but now the Lord gives them the details that they did not have in order for those burnt offerings to truly be pleasing in his sight. This evening, I want us to see that Jesus Christ was consumed in part to enable his followers to confess their sins without fear. Jesus Christ was consumed in part to enable his followers to confess their sins without fear. We'll see that in three heads tonight. First, the command of the burnt offering. Secondly, the confession of the offerer. And finally, the consumption of Christ. Well, we began with the command of the burnt offering, and what we want to do is just merely walk through this chapter and see what it was that God was calling the people to do, the offerers to do. We also want to see that this is the first of three food offerings set forth in these first three chapters of Leviticus. They go together, but we're going to try to pull out some of the particulars of each offering so we can see how that relates to Christ and how it relates to us. The first one is the burnt offering, the command of the burnt offering. And we see that there are three different types of animals or birds which were permissible to be offered up as burnt offerings. And here Moses divides the instructions under the heads of each of the types of animals. And the first is a burnt offering from the herd. And we see there that it must be male and it also must be without blemish. That's very common in all of the offerings, in all of the sacrificial offerings, that they be without blemish. If it was from the flock, once again, we see that it was to be a male and again, without blemish. Now, if we were to look at that word in the Hebrew, blemish, it has a range of meanings, but here's some things from the Hebrew dictionary or lexicon. Blemish means spotless. It means complete or sincere, impeccable and upright, entire, unscathed. Complete, undamaged, blameless. That's the idea behind bringing a unblemished offering. And then from the birds. Here we have no indication of whether the birds were to be male or female, and certainly no indication of their blemish, but I think we can import those words, and maybe not the male part, but certainly the unblemished part. into these offering of turtle doves or pigeons. So we have three categories of animals from the herd, from the flock and then of birds, turtle doves or pigeons, which could be offered, which could fit into the category of burnt offerings. And God limits it in that way. And then we see that the offer was to do certain things as he brought his offering. If it was from the herd, he shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting. Now notice that he wasn't to offer this anywhere. He had to come to that place where God was dwelling, where the representation of God was present, to bring it to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. Notice he can't go in. He comes to the entrance of the tent. And then he lays his hand on the head of the burnt offering. There's some transference going on at this point. Now we might want to wait until we get to the sin offerings to understand how the sin offering, how the burnt offerings compare and contrast with one another, but at this point all we can say is that there was some sort of transference going on. That the one who was offering wasn't the one who was going to be offered up. And so he lays his hands on this one, this animal to be offered on the head of the burnt offering. As I read it, he, the one who is offering, shall kill the bull before the Lord, the animals to be slain. And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. At this point, the one offering the animal from the herd was done with what he was to do as he was to bring the animal, kill it, flay it, cut it into pieces. And then the priests, were called to take over. The priests were to take the blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. Now the altar was the structure on which the animal was to be burned. And so it needed to be purified. We'll talk about blood later on, but here I want you to see that the priests were to take the blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. It's in front. of the Tent of Meeting. Remember the altar stands outside of the tent. It's before the tent. It's only the blood that goes into the Tent of Meeting. The sons of Aaron then will take fire, they'll put it on the altar and they'll arrange the wood on the fire so they're getting the fire ready. They're getting the fire hot. And then they shall arrange the pieces, the pieces which were given to them by the one who brought the animal, who cut it into pieces. And they shall arrange the head, the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, and the entrails and the legs washed prior to them also apparently being laid on the altar. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar. The only exception to this appears in chapter 7 of Leviticus where the priest who offers the man's burnt offering shall have the skin for himself. Everything else is burned on the altar. Now there are very similar things going on if one is brought from the flock. The one who brings the one from the flock shall kill it. On the north side of the altar before the Lord, it doesn't appear that that's any different than the one bringing the one from the herd, and he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat, again, preparing it for the priests. The priest's work on the one from the flock is very similar, again, to the work for the one who's coming from the herd. The priest shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar and shall arrange them on the wood that is on the fire on the altar and the entrails and the legs shall be washed 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. The description of the one who brings the birds is very short. He shall remove its crop with all its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side. He shall tear it open by its wings, but shall not sever it. And then the priest. The priest shall wring off its head, burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. The priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire. It's a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma. different animals, most likely in accordance with the offerer's ability. The one from the herd being the most valuable, the birds being the least valuable in terms of monetary economy. But the end result was the same. There was atonement. Look at verse 4. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering. And it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Again, if we were to look up that word in the Hebrew dictionary, we would see that means to appease someone. To cover. To cover sin. As to. Avert punishment. That's the burnt offering. Those are the details that are given by God to the Israelites in order to bring their burnt offerings that would be accepted for them. That it ultimately would be that pleasing aroma to the Lord, a food offering, that it would act to make atonement for the one bringing the offering. That brings us then to the confession of the offer, our second head. As we consider these various offerings. As we look at the command of God to to bring these as the Israelites are commanded. As we consider the various things they were called to bring, we will see different aspects or natures of the offerings themselves. Which will point directly to the attributes of Christ. But in addition, as we consider the different aspects of the method of offering or the type of offering or the frequency of offering, we're going to also see that these offerings and the descriptions and the commands tell us much about the relationship between God and men. So we'll see much about the ultimate sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. But then we will also see much about the holiness of God and the sinfulness of men. So let us, as we're at this point, let us for a moment consider the frequency of the burnt offering. We see in more than one place in the Pentateuch, as we've already reviewed this evening, a reference to burnt offerings. This is what we read in Exodus 29 as as the Lord had been giving, had given a plan for the tabernacle to Moses as the tabernacle was being erected, put together. And now Moses is given instruction by the Lord. Now, this is what you shall offer on the altar. Two lambs, a year old, day by day, regularly. One lamb you shall offer in the morning. and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. With the first lamb, a tenth of a measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hint of beaten oil." And it goes on, "...it shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord." Moses records in Exodus very clearly that the burnt offering was to be a continual offering morning and evening, morning and evening throughout your generations. In Numbers, we read something very similar. As the people are about to enter The promised land, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, command the people of Israel and say to them, my offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time. And you shall say to them, meaning to the Israelites, this is the food offering that you shall offer to the Lord. Two male lambs, a year old, without blemish, day by day as a regular offering. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. You shall offer it as a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. So we see so very clearly that the burnt offering was a continual offering. I don't believe any of the others were as continual as the burnt offering. And so what do we see? We see the pervasiveness of sin, don't we? We see the inclination of men to sin again and again and again and thus the need for the burnt offering. We see the corrupt nature inherited from Adam and showing its ugly face. As Paul said, I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate. These burnt offerings, as they were brought and offered up daily, were a declaration, a confession of sorts of reoccurring sin and transgression. Think of that. Every morning, every evening, someone was bringing these animals, these lambs. Every morning, every evening, These lambs had to be brought, had to be chosen, had to be picked out. A task was given, not only to the one bringing the burnt offering, but the priests who were offering it up. And remember the tent of meeting, the altar, which was in front of the tent of meeting, was in the very center of the camp of the Israelites. Everyone was around it. So every morning, every evening, there was smoke going up. The smell of the burnt offering, if they could not even see it, they could certainly smell it going up, reminding the Israelites morning and evening, morning and evening of their sin. That's what the writer to the Hebrews records. Now, he's writing of the atonement, the day of atonement, but the same is applicable to the daily offerings. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. For it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And so you see the continual nature of them bringing the offerings, continuing the slaying of these animals, the blood being poured out on the altar, the altar being purified, and the animal being offered up, not once a day, twice a day. They're being reminded of the holiness of God. that they were in the midst of God, that his presence was in the tent of meeting. It was represented there in the Ark of the Covenant. And they were being reminded that that he is dwelling with us and in order for us not to be extinguished. We have to offer these. Unblemished bulls and goats. They were being reminded that they served this one who was and is holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And he was full of just wrath as a result of their transgressions and omissions. And so twice daily, the burnt offerings were reminders. But they were separated from God, and yet he was present with them. And but for his grace on display, even being smelled and seen in these burnt offerings, they would remain separated, even annihilated. And so they needed to come. According to God's will. See, he doesn't tell them to remain away, he tells them to come. But come with an offering. So if we note anything here in these first three chapters of Leviticus, we should note how detailed the instructions are. We'll see it in chapters two and three as well. God provides a detailed set of instructions, much like the instructions he gave for the materials and the construction of the tabernacle so that his children would be enabled to approach him, to come close, to enter into fellowship with him. And if these instructions were not met, then the end result would not be achieved. If the burnt offerings were not offered up morning and evening, if the animal was not unblemished, if it was not wholly and completely consumed in the fire, then God would not be pleased by the aroma, if any. Similarly, as we consider God's call today, what is it that the Christian is to bring? How is the Christian to come before the living and true God such that he or she would be able to approach? Given the picture that we have in the burnt offering, being constant, being consistent, being offered morning and evening, being a reminder of our sins and the holiness of the Lord, we can see the direct application to ourselves. Now we're not engaged in offering up burnt offerings morning and evening. Christ is the satisfaction. He's the fulfillment. But we should be engaged in offering up prayers and seeking the forgiveness of God as we recognize daily our need to be cleansed. As we remember that the old man is still within, along with Paul, we recognize that we're doing the things that we don't want to do. And so this burnt offering, this truth, this reality of God's call to offer this sacrifice morning and evening displays to us that we need to confess our sins constantly. We need to plead along with David for forgiveness. Isn't that what was going on ultimately as the burnt offerings were wafting up to the Lord? You must remember that God has called us to confess our sins daily. David wrote Psalm 51, with that in mind against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. The Apostle John takes that up in his first epistle. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, recognizing that we are sinners and that our sins are committed daily and hourly by us. And that there's a need for constant confession. Wasn't that on the minds of the psalmist in Psalm 32 when he wrote, for when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand is heavy upon me. My strength was dried up by the heat of summer. And I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity. And I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Brothers and sisters, there's a requirement for us for continual mourning and sorrowing over our sins, knowing how we've offended a holy God. And knowing that to appease God, the first step is to humble yourself before him. Just as the one bringing the burnt offering, he shall bring it to the entrance of the tent that he may be accepted before the Lord. See, how humbling was that? To bring a valuable animal, giving him up, because you're recognizing that you have broken God's law, that you've offended a holy God, confessing the need for forgiveness and mercy. That first step is our humbling our hearts before God. Confession of sin in the name of Christ. There's a warning tonight. And that as we can, like the Israelites, we can get caught up in a process and a procedure and and just without sincerity. By rote, confess our sins going through the Lord's prayer. I'm sure the Israelites could have gotten caught up in the process and the procedure of the burnt offering. Oh, I've got to do it again. Go out and get another sheep, another lamb. Bring it in. Check it off. I've done it. That's the warning. Yes, God has given them a process, a procedure. He's given us a procedure to come before him in confession. Brothers and sisters, we have to do it with a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart in that he will not despise. And that God will delight in our sincere confessions before him. That finally brings us to our third point. the consumption of Christ. A burnt offering, the consistency, the constancy, the morning and evening nature of it caused us to think of our need for confession of sin, but there's another aspect to the burnt offering that seems to be unique amongst all the offerings. And that is that it was completely consumed in the fire. Look at verse nine. 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. Completely consumed. Again, with that one exception, with the skin being given to the priest. A complete consumption of the offering by fire is one of the elements that sets the burnt offering apart from the others. Whether it was from the herd, from the flock, or these two kinds of birds completely consumed, the only thing remaining would have been the smoke or the odor as it rose heavenward. Nothing but ashes would have remained after the fire had consumed the entire animal or bird. Now think about Christ. The fire of God coming down upon him on the cross at Calvary. in the form of his burning wrath. The judgment of God for sin is committed by the children of God and engulfing the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. So terrifying, so complete, so consuming that Jesus would cry out, the son of God, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In a sense, there was nothing left of Christ. Yes, his body was removed from the cross and laid in the tomb. But brothers and sisters, he was consumed. And we can consider that in two ways. Not that his body was physically consumed, for we know that it was not. But first, he was consumed by the justice, by the wrath of his father for sins committed by all of the children of God. Jesus received the entire the internal wrath of the father for his children. He was consumed. As he was the recipient of his eternal justice in truth. Eternal death. Consider the past, the present and the future sins of all of the children of God. Eternal wrath was earned and merited by each of those sins flowing down upon the innocent one, the Lord Jesus. And so in a sense, he was consumed. It took the entire Trinity the power of the entire Trinity to raise him from the dead. To raise him from what we would think of as eternal death. Jesus Christ was in that sense consumed. There's a second sense in which Jesus was consumed. If you consider the reason why Jesus was on the cross to begin with. He was consumed by his zeal for the house of God. A psalmist in Psalm 69 records for zeal for your house has consumed me. Jesus uses that as he teaches his disciples. And so in a sense, Jesus was consumed, even as he went to the cross, he was consumed by his zeal for the house of God. He was consumed for his bride, the church. Like then the burnt offerings. It was the obedient submission of Jesus that was being smelled by his father as he looked down upon his son hanging on the cross. It was the zeal for his father's house that was that sweet aroma in the father's nostrils as Jesus gave up his spirit and died the cursed death on the tree for his bride. He was consumed for her. He was consumed by the love for his father and his consuming love for his bride. That led him to the cross where Jesus allowed himself to be completely consumed, at least from a human perspective. As we consider that, brothers and sisters, I want you to think about this, that Jesus never asked his disciples to do more than what he has already done. Indeed, we saw that this morning. Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Do you see Jesus is saying that we we need to follow him? He's gone. He's gone to the cross. He was consumed for you. He was consumed in his own zeal for the church. And he gave himself up. He completely lost his own life. And so now Jesus asks you as a follower to do the same. Brothers and sisters, I don't want you to leave here tonight without seeing the blessing, the blessing of Christ being consumed by the wrath of his father so that you, you are able to confess your sins before Him without fear. Yes, Noah offered up that burnt offering as he recognized and acknowledged and praised God for his deliverance. That's what he calls us to do. As we come before Him, recognizing that our Savior has allowed Himself to be consumed for us, He calls us then. He calls us to confess our sins without fear, but with sorrow and with joy, knowing that as we confess our sins that the Lord Jesus has saved us and granted us eternal life. Praise be to God. Amen. Father and our God, we thank you and praise you for this picture of burnt offering. And we ask that you'd give us even deeper understanding of it. And then, Father, that you'd apply it to our hearts. as we see the need, the desperate need for us to confess our sins before you on a constant, on a consistent basis and to seek forgiveness by and through the blood of the one who is consumed wholly and completely for us. Help us now. We ask all this in Jesus's name, amen.