So the priests were to fuel the fire. And it wasn't to go out. That was their mandate, and that is ours too. Being part of a royal priesthood. You can zoom in on that on Leviticus 6, verse 13.
Fire, that restless energy of God.
Sometimes it warms.
Sometimes it cleanses and sometimes it consumes, depending on the situation. And we should be in tune with that. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Leviticus.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of 1 John chapter 2. As he continues his message called personal devotion, he'll end up in Leviticus chapter 1. 1 John chapter 2. Mm-hmm.
He himself is the propitiation, the atonement. For our sins. This is the Greek language, though. and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And he had already said in his letter, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
Verse 5 now, he shall kill the bull before the Lord. I should pause here. The first nine verses are taking up our time. After we get past verse nine, Everything he's going to say about the lesser offerings we've already covered.
So we can Catch up some time there. Verse 5, he shall kill the bull before Yahweh. And the priest Aaron's sons shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Now catch this. The blood is applied by somebody else. You bring your offering. It's a sin offering, it's a dedication offering. It was just what we do when you come to give your life to Christ.
It's a sin offering, it's a dedication offering. You give your life to Christ, you confess your sin, you repent. But who applies the blood?
Well, Christ does. And here, the priests are a type of the high priest. And God makes this distinction in this verse between Aaron the high priest and his sons. And he's going to bring that distinction out a little bit more as we move through.
So the animal had to be offered. Not in life, but in death.
So it wasn't like, well, here you go, priest, I'm giving you my ox.
Well, we're going to kill that ox because that's what's required. Without blood there's no covering of sin.
So the animal had to be offered, Ephesians 1:7, the New Testament parallel. You know, if you had to parallel some of these books, Leviticus and Hebrews go together. Joshua and Ephesians, they go together. There are a few of them. But anyway, reading Leviticus may be dull to you.
But there's nothing dull about doing it. The person that brought that sacrifice had to slit the throat of that animal. Except when we get to the birds. I know, I'm so tempted to use for the birds But I'm not. You probably did in your head.
Well This Is the again The spotless life that saves us is the life of Christ. and and not the animal. Um I mean not not his Let me get back on course here, still thinking about the birds. It's not the spotless life of Christ. that saves us.
It is his death that saves the sinner. Verse Hebrews 10, 4 for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Well, but it is possible that the blood of Jesus Christ can. But their blood Mentioned that we're pointing to him. We know that.
Okay, so verse 6 now.
Well, you know, before we go to verse 6, again, he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle.
So remember that: the priests are the handle of the blood and not the person that is coming with the offering, because that comes out at the end of this chapter also. Verse 6, and he shall skin. The burnt offering and cut it into pieces.
So the worshippers slew the animal, skinned the animal. Butchered the animal. Remember, I said they're going to work that day. When they bring this divorce, are you devoted?
Well, let's see you do something. And there's a lot of people that are that are would would want to be Advisors, that's how they help. But these guys weren't advisors, they weren't there to tell the priest how to make the offering. They were the one doing all the hard work. The worshipper had to deal with the outside by skinning the animal, but he also had to deal with the inside.
And such a scene today would be anything but worshipful to most of us until we gain some knowledge. When you first come to Christ, you may say, man, this is gory. But these people, they did these things regularly for meat to eat the animals.
So it wasn't way out for them. And now most of us when we want to eat the animals, we go to the supermarket. Um so um and even those of us or those of you Hmm. Shoot the animals or kill the animals and butcher them, you still get other meats from the butcher store. You get your pork chops, bacon, as a rule.
All right, well, anyway, this. This reduced the workload of the priest on the practical side. Because the priests had to perform so much. You know, this is so much, again, the hauling, the water, the wood, the fire, the animals. Who cleaned up all these beasts that were around the temple ground?
They were all tied up. I mean, they weren't just roaming around, but there were a lot of animals there. Do you think they just left the animals be animals that were just watch your step? Especially with sandals on. No, uh there was a lot of work going on and a lot of people showing up, a very active place.
So to say, okay, the priests get a break on this one. They don't have to skin and butcher this and slay this animal. The one who brings it are to do these things. And I'm sure they were grateful for that because. This is one of the reasons why you get to Leviticus 21.
If you were handicapped, you could not serve in this capacity as a priest. You could serve in other capacities, but not concerning the offerings at the tabernacle and just the amount of walking that was involved and lugging things around. Anyway, the ritual, this ritual, kept the clear division between the priest and the worshiper. And uh what the priests were responsible for.
So Leviticus puts both to work. The clergy and the parishioner. is a picture for us.
Now they would remain there to assist people. Because certainly there would be those who couldn't skin a bull or goat or a lamb. There's nothing in the scriptures that says the women couldn't bring an offering. There's nothing that says the handicapped cannot bring an offering. Only in the capacity of priests.
That is clearly stated, but not as just worshipers. Man, if the law is so tricky. If you know of a spot that says otherwise, you could feel free to tell me. I won't like you as much. Just to be fair.
I've read it all, but I don't remember it all, and I didn't see it all. Who can? But as far as I know, there's no indication, no prohibition. When someone who is frail from bringing an offering.
Well, that frail person is not going to be able to do all this alone. And so the priest, of course, would be there to assist them. Verse 7, and the sons of Aaron and the priest shall put fire on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. You did you catch that? The sons of Aaron, not Aaron?
The high priest is not to do this because he's got other duties. That is still the way it should be. I so much benefit from that. When we first started this church, we had to do everything. We had to load up the kids' toys and totes and put them in the car and drive to church and then walk them to the various rooms and set them up.
And then at the end, we'd collect them all up. And in those days, no one offered to help. No one. I didn't care. We were so just grateful to be serving.
And we'd take them all back home. And just, it was nice though. In time now, you have servants, you have Levites all over this church who just love to serve the Lord. And this is consistent with verse 7. It frees up the pastor to do pastor things.
And hopefully, He, you know, the pastor, it's a good profession to hide if you're a lazy person. But it is also. uh a good profession to notch up You know, when someone says, Boy, I really enjoyed that sermon, which I'm told all the time, people pull me over on the road, you know, hey.
Well, when I do hear that, it just makes me man, I gotta double down next time and just try to get more out of it.
Well, there were initially five priests, Aaron, the brother of Moses, and his four sons. Two of these sons are going to be killed in action for their sin. But I think the grandsons of Aaron were you know, they'd been out you know, when they came out of Egypt The ages aren't stated, but we can presume because of all the work that he had some grandsons that were. Either able to or close to able to fill in the ranks because to put all this work on three men. Is just a lot to ask, and so I know God would have had that covered.
So the priests were to fuel the fire. And it wasn't to go out. That was their mandate, and that is ours too, in being part of a royal priesthood. You can zoom in on that on Leviticus 6, verse 13. Fire, that restless energy of God, sometimes it warms.
Sometimes it cleanses and sometimes it consumes, depending on the situation. And we should be in tune with that. Verse 8, then the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts the head and the fat in order on the wood, That is on the fire upon the altar.
So now, this is their role. The man is the, the, the, or the, sacrificer They're going to kill the animal, skin the animal, and they're also going to clean the entrails. But we'll we we'll come to that. Uh but Who's the last one to touch the offering? The priest That's that's what it says here in verse 8.
They are involved with the faith of the people. and God's solutions. And that should stand out. The fat is more carefully defined in verse in chapter 3, and that's what I mean. The Bible, you know, is as you go through these sacrifices, you have to learn, okay, that goes here.
So when he talks about, you know, atonement, just drops that word on another sacrifice, well, that brings it back into the picture, the burnt offerings, even if the word burnt offerings doesn't show up.
So you understand that the details are scattered and not necessarily where we want them to be. It's a puzzle, but it's not impossible.
So, anyway, the fat. Um chapter 3 verses 3 and 4. I'll just take some of it. The fat that covers the entrails and all the fat. In and on the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat bice.
So you see the flanks, it's the intrus, a lot of stuff here. And the priests are to put it in order.
Well, they ought to maintain order, too. And so the organs in relation To the animal before it was slain.
So if you were putting on the altar, the. The liver. But you wouldn't put the liver on and then you put the lungs on because the lungs are above the, you know, so it's order as the as they are in the animal.
So there's a detail. 1 Corinthians 14 verse 40. Let all things be done decently and in order. And if you said to Paul, where did you get that? He could take you right here.
This is what we're following. There's nothing in the New Testament that says, okay, Christ died for our sins, now we can have chaos. Quite the opposite.
Now, I'll be very quick about this.
Some churchgoers don't seem to make this understand this from Scripture. That if you have good Bible teaching, that the organization of the church is going to flow from that. It's not random, they are connected. For conscience's sake, you get a pastor and say, I can't allow that. It goes against what I understand the scripture to teach.
And you see this, you know, you'll see businessmen. Um come into a church oftentimes. Who wants to make changes that they would never allow in their business, but they think the church is supposed to do it because they know fundamentally it's destructive. Yeah. But they want what they want.
So, when Timothy says, rightly dividing the word of truth, that goes along with maintaining the order.
So, yeah, we've heard over the years, well, we like the teaching, but we don't care for the policies.
Well, the policies are born out of the teachings, they are connected, they're not random. And many times, a person wants to change the new church they're attending into the old church that they left, and I don't think they even know they're doing it. And so, why don't you go back to the old church then? Yeah. I think it's a good question.
So, and not everybody does this, not even a majority. But it only takes one or two, it just takes a little pebble to get in your shoe to make everything go the sour way.
So, you know, maybe you have a friend, and I like doing this with people who don't attend this church when I engage them about Christianity in church, is to encourage them in their church. Not to say, well, you need to leave that lousy place and come with this real safe band. That would be. evil. What I like to do is say, listen, you're in that church.
Make sure you walk like a Christian. Uphold that ministry. Do your part. I just want to encourage them. And so you can too.
If you have friends that go to other churches, I don't know why you'd be friendly with anybody who went to another church. But if you happen to, just get the opportunity. If it rises up, encourage them. Unless there's heresy going on, there's no reason to say to them, you need to get out of there.
Well, uh verse. And heresy shows up in many forms. Verse 9: But we shall wash, but he shall. Wash the entrails and its legs with water and And the priest shall burn all all on the altar As a burnt sacrifice and up in smoke. an offering made by fire a sweet aroma to the Lord.
And so there he is washing the body parts that he has butchered. Even removing the excrement from that which would defile the animal.
Well, there are some people. that like chitlins. I don't know why. If you don't know what they are, you're good. You're ahead of the game.
But some of them love it. But you gotta clean them. I know that much. I've never had them. I've seen people eat them.
I ran from the house screaming when I saw them eat them. But you gotta clean them. And so this is again, it's not far removed from where they lived. Yeah. When You offered your dedication, you were signing up for work.
And what makes the church strong is that it has people Who do this, even if they don't know what's in the Bible? They just want to serve the Lord, and it's hard work. and you get your hands dirty. Then you get em cleaned. And that's this picture of the person cleaning the animal.
The priest shall burn. All on the altar, totally devoted to the Lord, as I mentioned several times up in smoke, and the offering made by fire. That's a single word. Five words in the English is a single word in the Hebrew. And it's sort of an idiom, I guess, for us, you know, they just fireize it.
Just make up a word to define the idiom. Um anyway The sweet aroma to the Lord.
Well, if if you carry a god around an idol, And it has to be fed, of course, it's not divine. But the God of Israel was careful to declare that the food sacrifice were noticed by him. As a sweet aroma, but never a source of nourishment.
So that's interesting, the language that is on purpose. God says, I see the offering, I smell it, I'm into this, but I'm not eating any of this, I don't have to eat. I'm God. And this would be a slap in the face of all of the other religions.
So somebody would say, Oh, what are you saying? What are you saying? Our gods need to have food? Yeah, well, no, you're saying it. And you can see it to this day.
Many Asian restaurants, like the Thai restaurants, you see the little offering there of Food that's been left out all day, that would probably give you botulism if you ate. They're offering that to their gods. And um That's just a distinction. Blood, death, fire all point to the wrath of God. The sweet aroma pointed to his delight in the solution and participation.
Verse 10, if his offering is of the flocks, of the sheep or the goats, as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish.
So this is a smaller animal now. It will be through verse 13. And he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord. And the priest, Aaron's son, shall sprinkle its blood all around the altar.
Now, it doesn't say on the north side for the oxen, but that's probably where they all go. And this is what I meant by in Leviticus. I've been seeing more and more of this. that uh you have to put the puzzle together. The north side, what's the significance?
Well, it's a designated area. And if you've got all that traffic of animals and people and priests moving, doing things, you need to organize it. And so that's where they're that's the staging area. Also, Christ. You know, you go to Israel and Jerusalem, there's traditional Calvary, which is not.
It's disqualified from being the actual place of the crucifixion. Uh Calv Calvary. But Gordon, General Gordon, his cavalry is likely the spot. It is to the north of the city. And it is outside the city.
And there are other little features that make that. Plus, it looks like a skull from where they've quarried stone out.
Now it's a bus station. The Garden of Gethsemane is right next to it, and it is intact, and it accounts for Joseph of Arimathea's wealth and all the puzzle just fits wonderfully there. But God doesn't want us worshiping these places, making shrines out of them. We just say, boy, this is. Yeah.
where it happened, but there's more happening. Anyway. Verse twelve, and he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat. and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood That is on the fire of the altar. Repetition, repeating the same process.
Verse 13, but he shall wash the entrails and the legs with water. Then the priest shall bring it all. and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. And so this matches the herd offering.
The servants are hard at work. When you see the men put out the slowdown signs, you know, they're doing the work, the temple work. When you see the price tags on the Items that are sold in the chapel store.
Somebody did that. You know, it's just such a blessing. Uh to have and didn't ask for anybody. God says here you'll need this and I'm giving this to you. Verse 14.
And if the burnt sacrifice is the offering of the Lord to the Lord, is of the birds. then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or young pigeons. Verse 15, the priest shall bring It to the altar ring off its head. and burn it on the altar, its blood shall be drained out at the side of the altar.
Well, I think, you know, the young pigeons, I would say Christ was young. 33 and a half, just a kid.
Now I can say that. I couldn't say that when I was 33, but I can say it now.
So, anyhow. We we did verse We're at verse 15. It's handled by the priests this entire sacrifice because the individual is not to handle the blood. And so that's why it remains with the priest. For the larger animal, the blood was to be sprinkled all around the altar.
But with the birds, there's not enough there's not much blood. The there there's less blood, and the pleas priests merely drained the blood against the side of the altar.
Now we all know this is the type of sacrifice that Joseph and Mary brought Eight days after the birth of Christ, for Mary's purification, there in Acts chapter, I mean, Luke's Gospel, chapter 2. And this is an indication of poverty. She couldn't afford the sheep or the goat or the bull, but she could bring this. But she wasn't so poor where she had to bring a grain offering, because there's another provision for that. She could afford this.
Well, anyway, verse 16: And he shall remove its crop with its feathers and cast it beside the altar. On the east side into the place for ashes.
Well, there's a trash heap. It's on the east side. That's where the entrance is. And that would make it easier for the priests because they had to haul all this stuff out of the out of the off the temple grounds. And so ashes.
are not insignificant. They speak of sacrifices. Past. And it's you know, you could just okay, well that's obviously the the end result of the offering.
Well, it's not the end result, but it's symbolic of the end result. And the end result, of course, is fellowship with God, peace with God. for anything that we do with him.
So we we probably will see Make more comment about these things as we move through Leviticus, but the ashes again signify past sacrifices. And uh it's sort of like almost a box checked. You know, if you do work, you like to make a list of to do the plan of the day. And it sure is nice to check off those bigger ones. And uh the ashes would be uh one of the check marks.
Verse 17.
Well, let me pause one more time.
So if you offered a bull And you did all that work. When those ashes were scooped out, you were like, woof. Yeah. I did that. Thank you, Lord.
I'm healthy. I can do this. And I'm or I can afford it. And of course, it was. That is kind of remarkable to me.
Verse 17.
Then he shall split its wings. But shall not divide it completely, and the priest shall burn it on the altar. On the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. So the size of the offering was left up to the individual's conscience and means if you could afford it.
Now, could you imagine if you were. independently wealthy, filthy rich as Daffy Duck would say. Could you um Could you imagine if you were that rich and you brought two turtle doves. Who would do that? I don't I hope nobody would be so presumptuous.
What did the worshiper receive out of this? The joy of coming to the Lord. Nothing else. God didn't bless him.
Well, that was a seed offering, and I'm going to give you a Cadillac now. You'll be paying for premium, I think. But anyway, we're gonna close with. Psalm 40, verse 8, I delight to do your will, said David, having this. scripture in his head.
O my God, and your law is within my heart. And so there's the first chapter of Leviticus with much more to come. Yeah. And the cute. Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Cross Reference Radio.
Pastor Rick Gaston is currently going through the book of Leviticus. We're glad you joined us. We trust that you're gaining some valuable insights into God's Word as we go through this Old Testament book. Cross-Reference Radio comes to you from Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so by going to your favorite app store and downloading from there.
For any additional information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreference radio.com. Make sure to come back again for the upcoming edition in the book of Leviticus, as Pastor Rick has much more to share. We thank you for being with us right here on Cross Reference Radio.
