Sermon
#16 Leviticus Sermons
Title: The Sacrifice that Could
not be Eaten
Text: Leviticus 6:24-30
Subject: The Priests and The Burnt Offerings
Date: Sunday Morning – August 12, 2001
Tape # W-56a
Reading: Hebrews 10:1-31
Introduction:
The title of my message is The Sacrifice that Could not
be Eaten. Our text will be Leviticus 6:24-30. Here we are given
specific instructions concerning the sacrifice of the sin-offering and the
priests, Aaron’s sons, who presented the sacrifices before the Lord. The
regulations relating to the sin-offerings, in so far as the worshippers
themselves were concerned, are given in chapter four. Here the regulations
specifically relate to the priests.
Proposition: Both the sacrifice and all
the regulations concerning it, all the regulations of divine worship in that
legal age, were designed and given as types and pictures of redemption and
grace by our Lord Jesus Christ.
In reading
the Old Testament, we must never forget this. The Old Testament Scriptures make
sense and have application to us only as we see how they speak of Christ. But,
when we see Christ in them, these pictures are instructive, comforting, and
delightful.
[Leviticus
6:24-30] And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, [25] Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the
law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall
the sin offering be killed before the LORD: it is most holy. [26] The
priest that offereth it for sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be
eaten, in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation. [27] Whatsoever
shall touch the flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the
blood thereof upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled
in the holy place. [28] But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden
shall be broken: and if it be sodden in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured,
and rinsed in water. [29] All the males among the priests shall eat
thereof: it is most holy. [30] And no sin offering, whereof any
of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to
reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be
burnt in the fire.
Divisions: As we go through these seven
verses of Scripture, I want to call your attention to four things.
1. The Place of the Sacrifice (vv. 24-25)
2. The Eating of the Sacrifice (vv. 26 and 29)
3. The Demands of The Sacrifice (vv. 27-28)
4. The Other Sacrifice (v. 30)
I. First, our attention is directed to the place of the sacrifice (vv.
24-25).
[Leviticus
6:24-25] And the LORD spake unto Moses,
saying, [25] Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the
law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall
the sin offering be killed before the LORD: it is most holy.
A. Everything relating to the worship of God
in the Old Testament was marked with the utmost reverence.
During the Mosaic age, men and women understood that
the holy Lord God was to be had in reverence by all who drew near to him. Those
who did not approach him reverently, but dared to presume upon his goodness,
incurred his hot displeasure.
·
Nadab
and Abihu – Strange Fire (Lev. 10:4; Num. 3:4; 26:61).
·
Uzziah
burned incense in the house of the Lord and was stricken with leprosy by the
hand of God (2 Chron. 26:16-21).
·
The
Lord God killed Hophni and Phinehas and took the priesthood from the house of
Eli, because his sons did not honor him, did not sanctify him, before the
people (1 Sam. 2 and 4).
·
David
declare, after God killed Uzzah, that the Lord brought a breach upon him and
the people, “because we sought him not after the due order.”
If God demanded reverence in
those days of types, pictures, and ceremonies, how much more ought he to be
reverenced by us in this day!
[Psalms
89:7] God is greatly to be feared in
the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about
him.
Reverence
for God or the lack of it, reverence or contempt, is displayed in many ways.
·
Our
Attitude toward His Word and Ordinances
·
Our
Preparation for Divine Worship
·
Punctuality
or Contempt
·
Our
Attire
·
Our
Attitude in the House of God
B. It was required that the sacrifice be
brought to and slain at the place God required.
It was not enough that the right sacrifice be
brought, it had to be brought to the specific place and slain at the specific
place God required. It must be brought before the Lord, to the door of the
tabernacle, at the altar, and slain on north side of the altar (Lev. 1:3, 5,
11).
[Leviticus
1:3] 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.
[Leviticus
1:5] And he shall kill the bullock
before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood, and
sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the
tabernacle of the congregation.
[Leviticus
1:11] And he shall kill it on the side
of the altar northward before the LORD: and the priests, Aaron's sons, shall
sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar.
Why
all this fuss? Surely it would be acceptable, so long as the person was
sincere. Ask Uzzah about that! If we are sincere in worshipping God, we will
reverently worship him as he has prescribed.
Why
all this fuss, and bother, and close attention to detail? Read the last
line of verse 25. “It is most holy!”
C. The sin-offering, like the burnt-offering,
pointed to the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom God has
redeemed and saved his people.
It had to be brought to the same place, killed on
the same spot, on the north side of the altar, because it was most holy. It was
most holy because it pointed to Christ, our great sin-atoning Sacrifice and his
death at Calvary, which is not merely ceremonially most holy but, indeed, most
holy!
1. The sacrifice was killed on the very spot
of ground where the Lord Jesus Christ was sacrificed for us, Mount Calvary,
which was on the north side of Jerusalem.
[Psalms
48:2] Beautiful for situation, the joy of
the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the
city of the great King.
·
It
was as if the priest and the worshipper were standing at the foot of the cross,
where those holy women stood, watching the Savior die in their stead. How holy
that place was to them, for there God’s holy Son died to satisfy God’s holy
justice to make them perfectly holy!
·
It
was as if they stood at the door of heaven with the heavenly host, when they
saw the Lord of Glory return to heaven as a man with his own blood, having
obtained eternal redemption for his people by the sacrifice of himself!
·
It
was as if they stood in the presence of God himself, all his holy angels, and
all the ransomed in heaven, and heard the Son of God cry, as the blood of the
sacrifice was caught in the basin, “It is finished!”
·
It
was as if they saw here the holy Lord God himself revealed!
Never was there such and
hour, such an event, such a place as that which is here portrayed! God’s own
dear Son was made to be sin for us, so that God might be just and justify us by
his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. – “It is most holy!”
Christ is most holy as the
Sacrifice that is required of God, -- the Sacrifice offered to God, -- and the
Sacrifice accepted by God.
·
This
is what Isaiah saw.
·
This
is what every believer sees when he receives by faith the blessedness of
redemption accomplished.
·
This
is the thing that makes us and our sacrifices (v. 17) “most holy” before
the Lord (2 Cor.5:21; Col. 1:12; 2:9-10). – It is the worthiness of our
Sacrifice that makes us worthy to come to God and worship him.
II. Second, verses 26 and 29 describe the eating of the sacrifice.
[Leviticus
6:26] The priest that offereth it for
sin shall eat it: in the holy place shall it be eaten, in the court of the
tabernacle of the congregation.
[Leviticus
6:29] All the males among the priests
shall eat thereof: it is most holy.
There are three things
presented to us in these two verses.
A. Substitution is portrayed in the offering made by the
priest.
The opening words of verse 26, “The priest that offereth it for
sin,” might be better translated, “The priest that makes it sin.” – By
receiving the sacrifice from the sinner who had come to worship God, the
sacrifice upon which the sinner had laid his hands, the priest ceremonially
took the sacrifice as a mass of sin to be slain.
So our Lord Jesus Christ
died “the Just for the unjust that he might bring us to God;” but when
he died under the wrath of God, he was reckoned to be unjust, a horrid mass of
sin, because of our sins which were imputed to him.
B. The eating of the sacrifice by God’s priest is a picture
of faith feeding upon Christ, and thereby drawing life from him.
[John
6:53-58] Then Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
drink his blood, ye have no life in you. [54] Whoso eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
[55] For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. [56] He
that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
[57] As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he
that eateth me, even he shall live by me. [58] This is that bread which
came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that
eateth of this bread shall live for ever.
C. This is also a picture of that communion believers have
with Christ by faith.
The Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Savior, who by himself
purged away our sins, holds intimate, sweet communion with those whose sins he
purged away, as they feed upon his sacrifice.
1.
The sacrifice was not eaten by one man alone, but by all the
priests (v. 29) ministering in the court of the tabernacle. – All God’s priests
feed upon the same sacrifice and have the same provision of grace. That
provision is Christ.
2.
The sacrifice was to be eaten “in the holy place, in the court
of the tabernacle of the congregation.”
Aaron and his sons feeding upon the sacrifice of the sin-offering
are representatives of God’s “royal priesthood,” believers in Christ,
feeding and finding nourishment for their souls in the house of God, the church
of the living God. Believers feed upon the bountiful provisions of God’s house
at his banqueting table, by the gospel.
·
This
is the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16)[1].
·
This
is the place where God meets with his people (Matt. 18:20).
·
This
is the place where the holy Lord God spreads his table and feeds his people
(Jer. 3:15).[2]
III. Third, in verses 27 and 28 we read about
the demands of the sacrifice.
[Leviticus
6:27-28] Whatsoever shall touch the
flesh thereof shall be holy: and when there is sprinkled of the blood thereof
upon any garment, thou shalt wash that whereon it was sprinkled in the holy
place. [28] But the earthen vessel wherein it is sodden shall be broken:
and if it be sodden in a brazen pot, it shall be both scoured, and rinsed in
water.
What an
awesome sight the blood of the sacrifice must have been! What an awesome sight
the blood of God’s true Sacrifice for sin is! As it was represented in the
sin-offering even those lifeless, inanimate things which came in contact with
the blood of the sacrifice were revered as holy, sacred things because of the
blood of the sacrifice. Once they had come into contact with the sacrifice,
they were never to be used for any common, ordinary thing again.
A. All who touched the sacrifice were, by the
sacrifice, made holy (v. 18).[3]
1.
We
were made holy by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, not by our touching
him in faith but by him touching us in covenant grace.
This chapter does not declare that men would be made
holy by touching the sacrifice, but that they must be holy to touch the
sacrifice (vv. 18, 27). Only those who had been sanctified could touch the
sacrifice. So it is today. Only those who have been made holy by God’s work of
grace can and will lay hold of Christ.
·
Those
Sanctified in Election – By the Purpose of God the Father
·
Those
Sanctified in Redemption – By the Blood of God the Son
·
Those
Sanctified in Regeneration – By the Grace of God the Holy Spirit
2.
We
are manifestly made holy, we experience the blessedness of our holiness in
Christ when we lay hold of him, and thereby enjoy the peace of divine approval
(Rom. 4:25-5:2)[4].
3.
Being
united to Christ, being consecrated to God, having touched and having been
touched by God’s Sacrifice, we now must henceforth and forever serve God alone
in the holy place.[5]
B. The priests garments, when splattered with
blood, had to be washed in the holy place.
Two things here:
1.
The
blood of Christ is precious beyond our highest thought. It must be reverenced
above all things. It must never be treated as a common, ordinary thing.
2.
The
blood must be sprinkled upon God’s altar, sprinkled toward the veil, and
sprinkled upon our consciences, not upon our garments.
C. The vessels that carried the sacrifice and
the blood, the pot in which it sat, had to either be smashed to pieces or
scoured.
There is much instruction here. I can only scratch
the surface. Even if my time were not limited, my ability is.
1.
First, this tells us that there was a deficiency in those sacrifices. – They
could never take away sin (Heb. 10:1-4). The sacrifices themselves left a
defilement that had to be cleansed. There was an iniquity about the holy things
themselves that had to be cleansed. – But there is no deficiency in Christ’s
Sacrifice (Heb. 1:1-3).
2.
Second, the breaking of the earthen vessel which carried the sacrifice
certainly showed that our Lord’s holy humanity, his earthen vessel, had to be
crushed in death for us.
3.
Third, it seems obvious to me that there is a reference here to Gospel
preachers (2 Cor. 4:7).[6]
God’s servants are but earthen vessels, frail, broken pieces of clay.
4.
Fourth, the treatment of these vessels also portrayed and intimated the
complete restoration of all things to the glory of our God by the sacrifice of
Christ, the restitution to be made unto God by the merit of Christ’s blood.
That earthen vessel in which the sacrifice was
offered had to be broken and never used for anything else. Why is this
specified? – This earth, which soaked up the blood of God’s darling Son shall
be utterly destroyed and made completely new so that it shall be used for him,
exclusively for him, whose blood was shed upon it.
As the brazen vessel had to be scoured and scrubbed
completely clean, freed from all that dimmed its beauty, so God’s creation
shall, by the fire of God be scoured and made completely clean of all that dims
its beauty. This place, sanctified by the blood of God’s own Son which dropped
upon it 2000 years ago, shall yet be made God’s holy mountain, covered with
righteousness (Isa. 11:9).
These are
the demands of the sacrifice. All who touch it must be holy. The vessels
carrying it must be God’s alone. The earth itself, touched by the blood, must
be restored to God.
IV. Fourth, in verse 30 the Holy Spirit
speaks of the other sacrifice,
the sacrifice that could not be eaten.
[Leviticus
6:30] And no sin offering, whereof any
of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to
reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be
burnt in the fire.
Again,
everything is spoken of and treated with the highest reverence. The blood of
the sacrifice of the sin-offering has expiated the transgression. The flesh of
the animal sacrificed is, by virtue of its sacrifice, holy, as our risen
Redeemer was “justified in the Spirit.”. As such it has been eaten in
the holy place. But there was another offering, a sin-offering and a
burnt-offering, by which reconciliation was made between the holy Lord God and
his sinful people. The blood of this offering, on that great holy day in
Israel, the day of atonement (Lev. 16), was sprinkled on the mercy-seat. The
carcass of that sacrifice was not to be eaten by any man, under any
circumstances, but was burned without the camp, totally consumed by the fire.
[Psalms
99:1-3] The LORD reigneth; let the
people tremble: he sitteth between the cherubims; let the earth be
moved. [2] The LORD is great in Zion; and he is high above
all the people. [3] Let them praise thy great and terrible name; for it
is holy.
This other
sacrifice, of course, typified our great Savior, as did the others. The fact
that it was burned without the camp spoke of the completeness of Christ’s great
sacrifice. He was the sacrifice of God in the totality of his holy Being
offered up to God, utterly consumed by the fire of God’s holy wrath. But
why was this sacrifice not to be eaten by any man? What is the
significance of that prohibition? Turn to Hebrews 13:10-12, and you will see
the answer.
[Hebrews
13:10-12] We have an altar, whereof
they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. [11] For the
bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin, are burned without the camp. [12] Wherefore Jesus also,
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the
gate.
Christ is
that one Sacrifice by whom justice has been fully and perfectly satisfied, by
whom the veil has been ripped open, by whom sinners now have the right, yes,
the right, to enter into the holiest of all and eat of that Sacrifice within
the veil, in perfect fellowship with the holy Lord God.
[Hebrews
10:14-22] For by one offering he hath
perfected for ever them that are sanctified. [15] Whereof the Holy Ghost
also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, [16] This is
the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I
will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;
[17] And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. [18] Now
where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. [19] Having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
[20] By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the
veil, that is to say, his flesh; [21] And having an high priest
over the house of God; [22] Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed with pure water.
[Hebrews
13:13-15] Let us go forth therefore
unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. [14] For here have we
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. [15] By him therefore let
us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our
lips giving thanks to his name.
AMEN.
[1] [1 Corinthians 3:16] Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
[2] [Jeremiah 3:15] And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
[3] [Leviticus 6:18] All the males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute for ever in your generations concerning the offerings of the LORD made by fire: every one that toucheth them shall be holy.
[4] [Romans 4:25] Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our
justification.
[Romans
5:1-2] Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: [2] By whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in
hope of the glory of God.
[5] [1 Corinthians 6:9-11] Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not
inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, [10] Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And such were
some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in
the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
[1 Corinthians
6:19-20] What? know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of
God, and ye are not your own? [20] For ye are bought with a price:
therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
[6] [2 Corinthians 4:1-7] Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as
we have received mercy, we faint not; [2] But have renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God
deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. [3] But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost: [4] In whom the god of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. [5] For
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake. [6] For God, who commanded the light to shine out of
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. [7] But we have this
treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God,
and not of us.