Thru the Bible

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Steve Schwetz: How's the book of Leviticus relevant to our lives today? Well, if you've ever wondered that, you're not alone. But before our study is over, we're going to discover a picture of our relationship with God that'll stay with us for the rest of our lives. Welcome to Thru the Bible. When we committed ourselves to traveling through God's entire word in five years, we knew some parts of scripture would seem probably easier to embrace than others, and Leviticus is one of those books that, well, people are tempted to skip over, but don't be too quick to pass it by. We're beginning with instructions about burnt offerings and sacrifices, practices that are far removed from our daily experience.

Yet Dr. McGee opens this chapter in a way that points us straight to Jesus Christ. In Leviticus chapter 1, the burnt offering rises before God as a sweet aroma to the Lord. And then in Ephesians 5 verse 2, we read that Christ has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. What a beautiful connection. The sacrifice that pleased God in Leviticus points to the perfect sacrifice of his son. God accepted Christ's offering completely. Dr. McGee will help us see that remarkable picture as we begin our journey through Leviticus. And there's still time to download Briefing the Bible, our free digital book containing Dr.

McGee's notes and outlines for Leviticus and every other book of the Bible. Get it right in our app or visit TTB.org or call 1-800-65-BIBLE to request an abridged print copy. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the picture of sacrifice that you have given us in Leviticus. Above all, Lord, thank you for your Son, Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us, and help us to see him more clearly now. We ask this in his name, amen. We're off to Leviticus 1 on Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now today, friends, we come back to this first chapter of Leviticus at the third verse, and as we said, this book of Leviticus is one of the key books of the Bible. I think that we could get rid of all the cults and isms and false doctrines today if we understood this book of Leviticus. It is just chock full of spiritual truth. Now, that which opens the book are five offerings. That's the showcase, and you know what the showcase is? These five offerings speak of the person and work of Christ. The first three offerings are called sweet savor offerings. They speak of the person of Christ, who he is.

Then we have the non-sweet savor offerings, and they speak of Christ, what he did, and we are going now to come to this first one, the burnt offering. And we saw last time that this is number one. It's the oldest offering that's known to man. It goes back to right outside the Garden of Eden. It was the offering that Abel brought to God. It's the offering, as we saw, that Noah brought and Abraham brought. It's the offering that's mentioned up to the time of Leviticus. It was the offering that was made by those who wanted an approach to God. Now, we have seen in this chapter so far that they were to bring an offering to the Lord.

It was to be an offering of the cattle of the herd, and it was an offering that was to be made of animals that were domesticated, and the animals were those that were obedient to man, and the Lord Jesus was obedient to the Father when he came to this earth. Now, in verse 3, and I want to pick up that today, and I'm reading now, if his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. Now, friends, this is very important. It contains great spiritual truth for us as it reveals Christ.

Now, burnt sacrifice here is in the Hebrew olah, and it means that which ascends. And I don't want to be irreverent, and I don't mean to be, but the burnt sacrifice went up in smoke. It was just wholly consumed on the altar. Nothing remained but the ashes. Now this reveals that the burnt offering is what God sees in Christ. Paul said, as we saw last time in Ephesians 5:2, he's a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. And we find that's repeated again in verse 9, verse 13, verse 17. And it is to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto God. That's verse 9. And you'd find the same thing in verse 13 and 17.

Now, this is what God sees in Christ. May not be what you see in him or what I see in, it's what God sees in Christ. And that's the thing that's all important. After all, what God is doing is saying he's satisfied with what Jesus did for your sins and my sins. And actually the gospel is just asking man, will you be satisfied with it? God is satisfied that Jesus has paid it all for you and that he can save you to the uttermost if you'll trust him. Question is, are you satisfied with that? Now you'll notice here it says the sacrifice is to be a male, and that speaks of strength. That speaks of the fact that the Lord Jesus is mighty to save, and that he's able to save to the uttermost.

And the sacrifice is to be without blemish, and that means the animal is ideally perfect. This speaks of the perfections of Christ. In him was no sin, and he did no sin. He was separate from sinners. He was the beloved Son in whom the Father could say of him and only of him, I'm well pleased. He never said that of me, and I have my doubts whether he ever said that of you, but he said it of Christ. Now we are told here that he's to offer it of his own voluntary will, and may I say to you that the man had to bring this of his own will. You don't have to come to Christ, but if you're going to be saved, friends, you will have to come.

God has no other way. The Lord Jesus said, no man cometh to the Father but by me. You may think that's dogmatic and narrow, and it is. But the interesting thing is it'll bring you there. And the other part of it is you don't have to come. That's where your free will comes in. You don't have to come. But if you're going to come to God, you will have to come this way because God is elected. This is the only way. In fact, he can't take your righteousness. He won't have it. It's not by works of righteousness which we've done. It's according to his mercy that he saved us. This is his way. Now it's a voluntary will, but that's better translated that he may be accepted before Jehovah.

Now that's in the ASV, the American Standard Version of 19:1. You see, because of the atoning death of the little animal, the sinner is received by God. The animal must be offered not in life, but in death. Did you notice that? That the little animal must be offered. He must offer a male. It must be offered. And this is absolutely imperative. The spotless life of Christ and our approval of him does not save us. We saw that when he died on the cross in the Gospel of Mark, it says the veil in the temple was rent in twain. Only his death can save the sinner. Only his death opens the way to God. His perfect life shuts us out because if what God demands is the life of Christ, I can't reproduce it.

I know that, friend, and anyone that's honest knows they can't. Now, if that's the minimum standard and he can only say of him, he's my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, then I must have another basis on which to come to God. And the life of Christ, therefore, can't save me. It shuts me out from God, just as that veil shut man out from God. But the minute that you and I come through the death of Christ, for that opened the way to God, and only the death can save a sinner. Notice everything that's mentioned here is important. It says at the door of the tabernacle. You don't offer this anywhere else, and that's another imperative.

It was to keep Israel from idolatry, and that just happened to be the thing that they lapsed in again and again until finally he sent them into Babylonian captivity. And this, by the way, has a message for us. It's to keep us from presuming that we can come to God on our own terms. You don't make the terms to come to God. God makes the terms, my friend. God says that your righteousness and mine is filthy rags, and he won't have it. He won't accept it. He won't take it. And a great many people think that the righteousness of God is just a projection or a little higher level of the righteousness of man, nothing of the kind.

It's altogether different. And the only way you can get the righteousness of God is through faith in Christ. You can't work for it, you can't buy it, and you haven't anything to offer for it, and your righteousness will go down the drain. God has already told us he won't accept ours at all. Friends, the way of the cross leads home. There's no other way, but the way of the cross leads home. No man cometh to the Father but by me. Now, I'm reading verse 4. He shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make an atonement for him. Now he's to put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering.

Dr. Kellogg calls this an act of designation. Well, over in Leviticus 24:14, where the witnesses are to lay their hands on the blasphemer before he's stoned to death, and then you'll remember Moses put his hands on Joshua, designating him as his successor. And then I want to quote from Kellogg because he has a very fine book on Leviticus, and it's out of print, I think. I think you could only get it at a secondhand bookstore, but if you ever see one and they want you to mortgage your house and lot to buy it, I would suggest you do it. It's a wonderful book. Listen to this now, I'm quoting. It's, that is the putting on of the hands, the laying on of the hands, it symbolized a transfer accordingly to God's merciful provision of an obligation to suffer for sin from the offerer to the innocent victim.

Henceforth, the victim stood in the offerer's place and was dealt with accordingly. In other words, when that man went in and put his hand on that little sacrifice before it was slain, what he's saying is just this: I designate this little animal to take my place, and I confess that I deserve to die. And friends, when you take Christ as your Savior, you're saying you're a sinner and you can't save yourself, and that you want to turn from your sins, and that you want to turn to the Savior, and you want to live for Him. That's what it means to come to Christ, and that's what it means. Here, it shows that a little animal is dying a substitutionary death in place of the offerer.

And when I accept Christ, I put my hand on him. I designate him as my Savior. And that's all the laying on of hands does anyway. We've got so much of that today that you think that there's some merit in it. There's no merit in laying on hands. As I've said before, the only thing you can transfer by laying on of hands are disease germs. That's all we're capable of transferring. It hasn't anything to do with power or that sort of thing at all. It merely designates an individual as being the one to take your place, and that's what it means to put your hands on a missionary. The church in Antioch put their hands on Paul and Barnabas, designating them as their representatives.

Now, it means that he hath made him to be sin for us, and he was delivered for our offenses. And the Hebrew here means to lay the hand so as to lean heavily upon another, as the psalmist says in Psalm 88:7, thy wrath lieth hard upon me. Now this part of the ceremony speaks of atonement and acceptance through the death of the victim, accepting for him to make an atonement for him. And we see this, as I've indicated, when Paul and Barnabas were sent out. We're told in Acts 13:3, and when they had fasted and prayed, they laid the hand on them. They sent them away. Atonement, by the way, as I've said before, it means to cover, not to remove.

It's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. And it was a public act. This was done publicly. He went down to the tabernacle, he went there by the side of the altar, and he slew the little animal. It's a public act, and I think a sinner needs to confess Christ publicly, and by faith we place our hand on Christ, but the public needs to know that we do it, and I think that primarily is the meaning of baptism today. It is a public confession of your faith in Christ, and it was the reason it was done in the early church, identification. Now, you have here the ritual for the burnt sacrifice.

Let's notice this. Verse 5, and he shall kill the bullock before the Lord, and the priest Aaron's son shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that's by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now, this is the ritual. Now, proper offering having been chosen, that is the right kind of animal, the sinner brings the victim to the entrance of the tabernacle where he's met by the priest, and the sinner himself slays the victim, and the wages of sin's death, and here the innocent's dying for the guilty, and Christ suffered the just for the unjust. Our sins put him to death.

You want it made very personal, my sin is responsible for the death of Christ. I get a little weary today of hearing people try to argue who's responsible for the death of Christ, and they'll pick out, they say the religious rulers, the nation Israel, the Roman nation. My friend, you can argue that all you want to, but if I hadn't been a sinner and if you hadn't been a sinner, nobody would put him to death. It's our sin that put him to death. Now, verses 6 through 9, and I'll just read this. This is so important. And he shall slay the burnt offering, cut it into pieces, and the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire upon the altar, lay the wooden order upon the fire and the priests.

And you see they cut it in pieces so that the fire would get to every part of it and consume it. And also everything was put in order, if you'll notice here. Everything has to be done decently in order. God is not the author of confusion. Now Aaron's son shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order upon the wood that's on the fire which is upon the altar, but his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. And you see, by it being cut in pieces and everything exposed, it's the inner life of the Lord Jesus has been open for inspection for over 1900 years.

I do not suppose any person has ever been examined more than he has, and there's still a lot of disagreement concerning him. He still asks the question, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? There's all kinds of opinions today, and some of them are blasphemic, but it's still true he's holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. Now notice here we're told that he shall put fire upon the altar, and then when you read down in this section here, verse 10, and if his offering be of the flocks, namely the sheep or the goats for a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring it a male without blemish.

He shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord, and the priest Aaron's son shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar. He shall cut it in pieces with his head in fat. The priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire which is upon the altar, but he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water, and the priest shall bring it all and burn it upon the altar. It's a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. Now I've read all of this in order that we might see these details here, that he has, the one who's been examined all these years, and he's still the one that's altogether lovely.

And the fire here does not necessarily represent hell. I disagree with these who magnify that so much. It doesn't represent vengeance or wrath either. It did not at the burning bush. There, fire represented, I think, oftentimes the purifying energy and resistless power of God. The scripture says he's a refiner and a purifier of silver. Takes fire to do that. Fire is that resistless energy of God that sometimes destroys, but sometimes cleanses and sometimes consumes. And the nature of the object determines the process. In the burnt offering, it speaks of the total commitment of Christ to God. It's absolute consecration.

In our experience, this is essential also if we're to worship God in spirit and in truth. In Deuteronomy, we're told, Deuteronomy 4:24, for the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. My friend, you're not going to play around and get very far with God. That's the reason that there's so much that's phony today in our churches, and there's so much that's phony today in Christian service. My friend, I want to say it kindly, but I want to say it, you're not serving God unless you're letting him cleanse and purify your life. We've forgotten this matter of holiness today, and we need a little bit more of it in our churches.

Now, in verses 14 to 16, and if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves, young pigeons. You know, poverty was no excuse for not bringing an offering to God. The poor could come, a bird could be substitute. Anybody could go out and get a bird and offer it. And then did you notice when our Lord was born, they brought those little turtle doves at his dedication? His parents were poor. He was born in poverty. Now the reason for the burnt offering in verse 17, he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder, and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that's on the fire.

It's a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet savor unto the Lord. And this is the third time we've been told it's a sweet savor to the Lord, which I think makes it adequately clear that this is the reason for the burnt offering. It's what God sees in Christ. Now you have the law of the burnt offering, and that's found over in chapter 6, verses 8 through 13. And there is something here that is so very wonderful, and I think it can be expressed in a statement that Anselm made years ago. Let me read this quotation here. I hope I have time to do it. And the quotation is this: The minister shall say to the sick man, now this is for visitation, Dost thou believe that thou canst not be saved but by the death of Christ?

The sick man answereth, Yes. Then let it be said unto him, Go to then, and whilst thy soul abideth in thee, put all thy confidence in his death alone. Place thy trust in no other thing. Commit thyself wholly to his death. Cover thyself wholly with this alone. And if God would judge thee, say, Lord, I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and thy judgment. Otherwise, I'll not contend or enter into judgment with thee. And if he shall say unto thee that thou art a sinner, say, I place the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between me and my sins. If he shall say unto thee that thou hast deserved damnation, say, Lord, I put the death of our Lord Jesus Christ between thee and all my sins, and I offer his merits for my own, which I should have and have not.

What a wonderful thing that is. This Christ, the Lamb of God, the true burnt offering, shall be accepted for thee to make an atonement for thee. This is the law of the burnt offering. My friend, between you and your sins, do you have the sacrifice of Christ? Has his blood been shed that you might live? Have you trusted him today? I say to you, that's all important. God sees Christ as the one that can alone satisfy him for your sin. Have you seen him like that? Are you still trying to bring your little puny self and your little goodness and offer that to God? God won't take that. He only accepts what Christ has done for you, and he makes over to you his righteousness.

Trust him today and live. Until next time, may God richly bless you.

Steve Schwetz: That's the most important decision you'll ever make, and one that you'll never regret. To listen to this study again, visit TTB.org or download our app, where you'll also find Dr. McGee's notes and outlines, or give us a call at 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find what you're looking for. And I sure hope that you'll join me this weekend for Dr. McGee's Sunday sermon from Leviticus chapter 1, An Old Portrait of Christ. Long before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God was already painting his portrait throughout the pages of the Old Testament, and we're going to discover how the sacrifices in Leviticus reveal his beauty and the work that he came to accomplish for us.

Listen on our app at TTB.org or just call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find a station that carries the Sunday sermon. I'm Steve Schwetz, and as always, I'm going to meet you back here next time as our journey through the Bible continues. Thru the Bible is a 5-year study of God's entire word, and together we discover God's purposes in history and our lives, found only when we believe in Jesus Christ. Do you know him yet?