The Burnt Offering: God's Perspective on Proper Worship for Christians Today

Brethren, today we have a social whereby we're going to be giving thanks to the great God for the many blessings He has given to us as a nation. We'll be going to be observing Thanksgiving here in a couple of weeks. We have so much to be thankful for. Think about just the many physical blessings that you and I experienced in this country. We're just thinking about this country for the time being.

The freedom we have to worship as we desire to worship. We think about our history as a people and how this country was founded on the principle of freedom of worship, how much value we place in that. We've got the freedom. There are so many different types of freedoms, but just to highlight a couple. The freedom of movement. You know, if we want to get in our car, if I want to get in my car, drive to Michigan, see my kids, see my grandkids, don't have to worry about the traffic, but don't have to worry in construction, don't have to worry about border crossings and paying tribute to people so I can get from here to there.

Certainly the ability for self-improvement, freedom of education, and so many opportunities. We have freedom of geography. You know, if you don't like living in the frozen tundra of the north, and this week just reinforced that in my mind, why am I living in Illinois? You know, every time I see some travelogue, I say to my wife, have I said yet we should be living in Hawaii? I remember a number of feasts ago we were in Hawaii and we were at an Outback restaurant and the waiter came over and I said, well, where are you from?

He said, I'm from Livonia, Michigan. Ah, Michigan boy! He said, where are you from? I said, well, I'm from Michigan. I said, what are you doing here in Hawaii? He said, well, what are you doing in Michigan? He said, four of us got together. He said, it's expensive living here, but four of us fellas got together. We got an apartment and we're enjoying living here. He says, I can work in an Outback in Michigan or Outback in Hawaii.

And for whatever the reason, I just couldn't gain his logic there. But, you know, if you want that kind of environment, you've got that. If you want, you've got the freedom to live in Alaska. If you want to live in Alaska. Wherever, you know, we just have so many freedoms. The blessings of living in this day and age. You know, recently, I saw my cardiologist and he said something to me back in April that stirred me to action.

I could have viewed it as an insult. He looked at me at my 290 pounds on that day and said, Mr. Del Sanjo, you've got a very wide girth. I thought, okay, you know, I can walk out the door, I can be mad, or I can use it as motivation. So I use it as motivation. From that day to this day, I've lost 53 pounds with about 17 more to go.

Now, those of you folks who are doing the math, you're type A personalities. Figure out where I met with all of that. But even above the various physical blessings, God has given a showered upon us a richness of spiritual blessings. That Jesus Christ came and lived a perfect life as a perfect example for us. At the end of that perfect life, He gave a perfect offering on our behalf. His whole life was an offering, but at the end of the life, He gave another offering, a blood offering, so that we would have our sins forgiven.

So that we would have, as we looked at His, the totality of His life, an example to live by. Those are tremendous spiritual blessings. Many of us in this room have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior. We have been baptized. We've had our sins forgiven us. We've had our name written in God's, the Lamb's Book of Life. We look forward to a beautiful future.

Those are tremendous blessings. God has given us His Holy Spirit, whereby we can understand this book. He's given us that Spirit, so not only can we understand it, we can do something about living by its precepts. Now today, as we're thinking about thanksgiving, we as Christians, our desire is to appreciate the richness and the fullness of God's various blessings, various sacrifices both God and Jesus Christ have made for us. We want, as Christians, to respond to those sacrifices in an appropriate manner.

We want to respond with deep humility, and we want to respond with thanksgiving. Now, there's a number of ways that could have taken this sermon today. As I was thinking about giving a sermon dealing with thanksgiving, I struck upon maybe a little bit of a different approach than maybe what you've heard in the past. I want to take a look at how we can appreciate what God and Christ have done with thankfulness of heart.

To do so today, what I would like to do is take a look at a portion of the Old Testament sacrificial system, the Old Testament sacrificial system, and the relevance and the meaning it has for us today. In looking at the Old Testament sacrificial system, we can get a better understanding of the sacrifices God wants us to make today. You know, when I call my kids, or when I go visit my kids in Michigan, there's any number of things they can do to make me a happy dad.

But one of the greatest things they can do to make me a happy dad is to follow the advice that I give them. The advice that hopefully I'm getting from this book here. Advice that will enrich their lives. That makes me really happy when I see them doing that. The same thing is true with our Heavenly Father and our elder brother, Jesus Christ.

They're very happy. They're very excited when they see us living by the principles they've given to us. Now, over the course of time, I'd like to give a number of serious sermons going through these various sacrifices. There are five major ones. Today, we're going to take a look at the very first one, the burnt offering. But we want to take a look at the burnt offering today, brethren, from God's perspective.

Not our own, because these offerings show us, and these sacrifices show us, how God views how we should worship Him.

I don't know how much you've done in terms of study on that subject, but of the five major sacrifices or offerings, only two of them deal with sin. Now, when you and I think about sacrifice, sin is the predominant thing in our mind. That's our perspective. But today, we're going to take a look at God's perspective. The first three sacrifices, sin is not the primary focus at all. Those sacrifices talk about at-one-ment. Again, we think of at-one-ment as a blood sacrifice, and yet Jesus Christ, for those first thirty-three and a half years of His life, was at-one with the Father. He was at-one with the Father by the way He lived His life. We want at-one-ment in terms of the way we live our lives. We want to be a burnt offering, and what that represents for us as New Covenant, New Testament Christians. So we want to live life and think about life as God our Father does. My point today, my theme today, if you're taking notes, the burnt offering is God's perspective on proper worship. The burnt offering is God's perspective on proper worship.

Now, in a couple of moments, I'm going to turn over to the book of Leviticus.

Before I do so, I want to give you a little bit of understanding about the book of Leviticus. When Israel came out of Egypt, God needed to demonstrate to the Israelites, needed to educate the Israelites how they should live as God's people. The book of Leviticus is a book on holiness. Now, that's something that you and I, as New Covenant, New Testament believers, should really be able to dig into. We want to be holy before our God. Holy does not mean sinless. Holy means we want to separate ourselves from God's use. And so the book of Leviticus is a book on holiness.

No other book in the Bible has the word holy or holiness or some form of the word holy more than the book of Leviticus. In the book of Leviticus, it is brought out 100 times. 100 times the subject of holiness is spoken of in that book. In that book, the phrase the Lord said appears more than 50 times.

That's more than any other book in the Bible. This is from the Wilmington Bible Handbook.

And so we want very much to take a look at God's perspective on what holiness is. And remember, brethren, this was written to people who didn't have use of God's Holy Spirit as we do today. So this makes it even more important for us to understand and to use that tremendous spirit God has given us to live our lives. Let's look at Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19.

In one sense, this is the theme statement of the book, a very real sense. It comes a little later in the book, but let's take a look at this. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 1, Let's drill down a little bit deeper into this book. Leviticus chapter 19 verse 1, Let's turn over to Leviticus chapter 1, the very first chapter in this book of holiness, a book that should be very relevant for today, for today's believer, for today's Christian. How does God begin this subject? How does God start the discussion? He starts the discussion in the first several chapters of this book by going through those five basic sacrifices or offerings. So in God's mind, the way he leads this book off is with a discussion about these sacrifices. It demonstrates God's perspective. It demonstrates in all these sacrifices point to Jesus Christ. They point to what Christ did, but we are to emulate Christ. We are to follow his example. Therefore, we need to take a good look at these sacrifices and see what meaning they have for us today. Now, I thought what I would do to, again, give you a little more broad background here before we actually dig into the chapter, again, paint a little bit of broad brush. I said there are five major sacrifices. Let me just go through those and give you a thumbnail view of what each sacrifice was about. The burn offering, which I'll describe in much more detail as the sermon progresses, but the burn offering was the first one listed here in Chapter 1. The burn offering shows God's perspective on our worship toward him. It shows the entire surrender of the individual. The entire surrender, the total dedication to God of the individual.

Does that not speak to what you and I want in our lives? About how we want to worship God? Totally, fully, fully surrendered, not partially surrendered? Totally dedicated, not partially dedicated? No, we want to be a burnt offering before God. With this offering, the first four of the Ten Commandments are very much in view. How we are to love God. The next offering is what the King James Bible calls the meat offering. That's a bit of a misnomer. There's no meat in that offering. The offering should better be called a grain or a meal offering. That's the second one. The idea behind this offering is man's duty to love his fellow man.

Man's duty to love his fellow man. There you've got to emphasize Commandments 5 through 10.

The next offering, the third of the five, is the peace offering. Sometimes the peace offering is known as the fellowship offering. Peace offering or fellowship offering. This is a very interesting offering in that it shows God, Christ, and man becoming at one. God, Christ, and man becoming at one. And again, these are all what the Bible calls sweet savor offerings. All three of these offerings are voluntary. That's why they're a sweet savor. And free will, we're giving ourselves to love God. We're giving ourselves to love our fellow man. We're giving ourselves to have atonement between God and man. Sin is not the primary focus in these first three offerings. Let's put a marker here, which I'm going to do, and it's turned over to Mark chapter 12.

Mark chapter 12. We want to make sure, brethren, we see the relevance of these sacrifices. They do point to Jesus Christ, but they're relevant for the way we live our lives today and the information, the principles they impart. In looking at those first three offerings, we see something echoed here in Mark chapter 12 starting in verse 29 and going through verse 31. Mark 12, 29 through 31. And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. This is the first commandment.

Brethren, that's also the burnt offering in terms of what the burnt offering represents. Verse 31, the second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There are no other commandments greater than these. Verse 31 represents that grain offering, love toward man. And of course, both of these are shown in the peace offering. So these are something that we want to take very much into play in our mind, into consideration as we think about what God wants from us. Okay, so we've seen the first three sacrifices in the book of Leviticus. The fourth one and the fifth one do deal with sin. Sin is the primary focus on the next two offerings. The fourth offering we see in Leviticus is the sin offering. The sin offering. The sin offering puts its focus on man as a sinner. It's a more general view. Man as a sinner. Man falling short of the great God. There's not a specific act of sin thought of here. It is a general overview of what man is. Man is a sinner. Then you have the trespass offering. The trespass offering here is not the individual. In the trespass offering, a specific act of sin is in focus. That is in focus. Also included in this view is the injury that comes with specific sin.

If you would turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

Again, we want to see God's view on all of this. 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21.

2 Corinthians 5, 21. For he made him who knew no sin, Jesus Christ, to be sin for us. To be sin for us. So in this way, the sin offering and the trespass offering, in this way, Jesus Christ is viewed. In the first three offerings, we saw the perfect life of Jesus Christ, the perfect example of Jesus Christ. Here, in these last two offerings, these last two sacrifices, we see Christ shedding his blood because of our sins. Now, I'd like to make a little bit of a qualifying statement here in terms of a work that I used as some background materials, some background thinking on the book. And I'm quoting this from our Bible reading program, the United Church of God Bible reading program. If you were to go to our Bible reading program online, go to Leviticus chapter 1, it will discuss the burnt offering. In that section, it will say this, and I quote, It is recommended that those wishing to study them, talking about the five sacrifices, in much greater depth read a 19th century book by Arthur Andrew Jukes titled The Law of the Offerings. It is available to order through the internet, or you can probably find it at your local library or Christian bookstore, as it is considered the standard work on this topic. While we would not agree with Jukes' book on a number of particulars, it is biblically sound in many important respects and offers incredible insights into the subject. Be warned, however, that because of its older and somewhat elevated style, it does not always make for easy reading. I picked up my copy of Andrew Jukes' book years and years ago. I've given this sermon on probably every stop I've made since I've been a pastor. So I got this back in the Worldwide Church of God days after having read a series of articles in the Good News magazine way back in the Worldwide Church of God days that use that as a source. So I just wanted to let you know about that. As you study into the five sacrifices, brethren, you find that there are two major classes of sacrifice. Two major classes. The first class comprises those first three offerings I spoke to you earlier, the burn offering, the grain offering, the peace offering. In the first class of offerings, you see where sin is not the primary focus. It's the faithful back in those days. It was the faithful Israelite giving a sweet offering to the Eternal, giving a voluntary, free-well offering, free moral agency. This is something they wanted to do. Okay? So that's the first class. In that class, we have God getting what he really wants from mankind. What God wants from mankind is to live a life like Jesus Christ lived. Now, we're not going to be perfect. You and I, we all know that. But we want to strive to be like Jesus Christ in every facet of our life. Let's look at Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5.

Verse 1.

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. You know, other places talk about imitate Christ. You know, as people saw, Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. He said that in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 1. But here it says, therefore be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us, and given himself for us, and offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. A sweet-smelling aroma. Here we've got, you know, this first class of offering being spoken of. You know, a sweet savor to the great God. A sweet savor. And here we see Jesus Christ giving his life as an example. Now, what is our takeaway from this? You know, we talked about these offerings, these sacrifices being given to the Israelites of old. Well, brethren, today we are God's family. We are God's children. We are God's Israel. And we want to live the kind of life that Jesus Christ lived 2,000 years ago. We want that burnt offering type of a sacrifice to live in us every day. Let's look at Romans chapter 12. And in Romans chapter 12, I'm going to go through this a number of times in this sermon. We'll refer to it or either turn back to it. Because as we keep on coming back to this, we're going to understand, I think, this phraseology Paul uses with more clarity. Romans chapter 12 verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. And one of the things we're going to see as the sermon progresses, brethren, is there are four major portions to the burnt offering. And one portion is that a life was given. And here we're told that we are to present ourselves a living sacrifice. A life is to be given. Holy, much like we saw in the book of Leviticus, holy and acceptable to God. And as we continue to go through Leviticus chapter 1 and so forth, we're going to see where that offering was given for acceptance. So we see very much a tie-in with the Old Testament, the laws of the offerings of what we have here.

That you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy, acceptable God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So this is where we're coming from. We're going to look at the burnt offering, look at principles, and apply those to our life today so we can be a proper living sacrifice. Let's go over to the book of Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4.

Philippians chapter 4 and verse 18. Paul writes here, So the burn offering was wholly consumed, with the exception of the skins and some of the larger animals. This thing was totally consumed.

Nelson's study Bible says this. He says, Nothing held back. We are in it 100 percent. We are fully dedicated. We're fully surrendered to the will of God. So that's the first class of offering. The second class of offering, which would be the sin and the trespass offerings, those were different.

It's an offering charged with the sin of the offender. There's a penalty that needs to be taken care of. Sin needs to be dealt with.

And that's all I'm going to say about that at this point. Okay, let's now turn back to Leviticus chapter 1. Let's get into the chapter here and see what we have.

Leviticus chapter 1.

So, as I made mention, the burn offering symbolized the entire surrender, the total dedication to God of the individual. And again, brethren, we study this today in an effort for us to give our thanks and appreciation to the great God. We show our appreciation by following His word. We surrender our lives and total dedication and give thanks for what God has done for us.

The burn offering is based on the assumption that the Israelite had been admitted into a covenant of grace with God.

Old Testament. Old covenant. They were admitted into a covenant of grace. God working very specially with them. Not the kind of grace we have today. It's a different facet of the grace, but grace nonetheless. Grace is a multifaceted thing. By virtue of the fact that you and I are breathing, that's the grace of God. By virtue of the fact God gave Israel the Ten Commandments, the statutes and judgments, that was an aspect of God's grace. Today, we've got that plus God's Holy Spirit as an aspect of God's grace. In your notes, I'm not going to turn to these, but it talks about how we today are spiritual Israelites in Romans 2, verses 28 and 29. Not going to turn back there. Romans 2, verses 28 and 29. And also Galatians 6, verses 15 and 16.

Okay, so let's get into the chapter of Leviticus chapter 1, a book of holiness. And this book is started with a burnt offering. Shows God's perspective. Leviticus 1, 1. Now the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of your livestock, of the herd, and of the flock. Verse 3. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish.

This represents Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was without spiritual blemish.

He shall offer it of his own free will, as Jesus Christ offered himself of his own free will, as you and I offer ourselves of our own free will, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Now I want to spotlight some words here in verse 3. The word offering.

The word offering. I'm going to read you a definition from the theological workbook of the Old Testament. And that definition says this about the word offering. This is basically our root denotes being or coming into the most near and intimate proximity of the subject. This is how we are approaching God. We want to be most near. We want to be intimate. Have that kind of close relationship. And so we're going to offer as an offering ourselves. You know, we're not going to offer an animal. We offer ourselves in a very near, very intimate way. The phrase burnt sacrifice. This is where the burnt offering gets its name. The word here burnt in Hebrew is ola. Ola. Ola means ascending. As smoke, this offering was to be totally burnt. The smoke would rise to heaven in typology, showing that the animal had been totally consumed, and its smoke was going up to God. Now, when you think of that, and this is my, as I was thinking about this, this is not from Jukes, this is from Randy de la Sandra, but as I was thinking about this, my mind, where else do we see in Scripture where it talks about smoke going to God? In your notes, you might want to put down Revelation chapter 8 in verse 4. Revelation chapter 8 in verse 4, where it says, Remember, the name of the offering, ola, meant ascending. In Revelation chapter 8, talking about the saints in our prayers, it's talked about how that smoke was ascended to the great God. So we're seeing here a picture of our worship of the great God, and the kind of worship we see is total surrender, total dedication. I might add a historical note. You may think that the burnt offering is first discussed here in Leviticus chapter 1. If you were to think that, you or I would be an heir if we thought that. Keeping your marker there, let's go to Genesis chapter 8, early on in the Bible. Genesis chapter 8. You've got the story of Noah, the ark, the cataclysm, the flood. You've got the story about how after the flood water is receded, Noah leaves the ark. What is one of the very first things Noah does when Noah leaves the ark? Genesis chapter 8, verse 20. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took every clean animal, every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma, a sweet savor. The Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, So as God sees Noah's sacrifice, as he sees this man stepping out of the ark, one of the three most righteous men who ever lives, what does he do in worship of the great God? He has a burnt offering. He has a burnt offering, showing that he is always in his life, wanting to be totally surrendered, totally dedicated to the great God.

It's also interesting to know, brethren, in terms of his history, the burnt offering was probably the most often used sacrifice of the major sacrifices. It was offered both in the morning and evening sacrifices, and it was also offered two times. There was a double sacrifice offered on the weekly Sabbath. Interesting when you think about that. On a daily basis, God wants us to be burnt offerings. On a Sabbath, a double portion, it's his special day. Also, the Holy Days, burnt offerings. God's way of telling us where he wants us to be coming from.

Not in part, but total surrender, total dedication. I made mention earlier that there are four major aspects of the burnt offering. We're going to cover these broad brush. If you want to go into this in more detail, get Jukes' book, I do recommend it. It is not easy reading. If those of you who have it know, it is not easy reading. This guy wrote this back in the 1800s. It's almost like reading King James English. It is not easy reading. You've got to kind of labor with it, but it's a very interesting book, and recommended by the United Church of God Bible reading program. Four major aspects of the burnt offering. Letter A, it was a sweet saver offering. We've seen that already in a number of places, Old and New Testament. Letter B, second aspect of the burnt offering, it was offered for acceptance. It was offered for atonement, for us being at one with God, by the way in which we live our lives. Letter C, a life was offered. And letter D, the offering was wholly, totally burnt. And brethren, as we go through these particulars, we're going to see, we should see how God's, what God's perspective is, how we should worship Him. How we should give thanks to the great God. How we should be appreciative for all that God has done for us. So let's go back now to Leviticus chapter 1.

We want to look at first the offering as being a sweet saver offering, a sweet saver offering.

I can't go through all the different details here and now, but you have three different classifications of animals that could be used for this offering. Three classifications. It could be from the herd, which would indicate a bull. It could be of a flock, which would indicate either a sheep or a goat. Or it could be of the birds. And there they would use turtledoves or young pigeons. So three different classifications. Some of this is seen in terms of the financial ability of the local Israelite. Obviously a bull being much more expensive than a dove. God wanted everybody to have an opportunity to give a burnt sacrifice, a burnt offering. But let's take a look at Leviticus chapter 1 here, verse 9, talking about the bull. But he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. A sweet aroma. Sweet savor. Sweet savor. Voluntary. Giving. We drop down to verse 13. Verse 13, same chapter. This is talking about the flocks, whether it be a goat or a sheep. He shall wash the entrails and the legs with water. Then the priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar. It shall be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. So no matter what the animal we're seeing here, God is loving this. This is something sweet in His presence. We drop now down to verse 17, talking about the birds, the poor people of Israel, and what they can offer. And He shall split it in its wings. It shall not divide its wing, not divide its 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. A sweet aroma to the Lord. Now, with that in mind, let's go back to Ephesians. Keep me a marker there in Leviticus 1.

You know, we understand Paul being a Benjamite, an Israelite. We can understand some of the things he wrote better when we understand some of these things from the Old Testament. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 2, and walk in love. Talking about walking, talking about the way we live our lives. Walk in love as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering, and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So we see how the three major types were all sweet-smelling aromas, just as Jesus Christ was a sweet-smelling aroma.

Because of the voluntary giving. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. And verse 7.

So let each one give as he purposes in his heart. And you know, brethren, so many times we refer to this verse, and properly so in terms of giving an offering or what have you. But this is also true principle-wise in terms of how we give ourselves to God. How you and I are a burnt offering to God. How we give ourselves totally, fully as a sweet aroma to the great God. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity for God loves a cheerful giver. That's why those three offerings were referred to as sweet-saver offerings. Here's ago, I heard a sermon and the fella gave an example. I have no idea whether this example is true. It might be one of these urban legends. It happened back in the days of the Pilgrim, so he certainly wasn't an eyewitness of it. But the story goes that it may have been one of those first thanksgivings that an American Indian went to church service. And as the service progressed, there was an offering that was given. And the offering basket or offering plates going through the congregation. And the Indians are meditating on what he just heard in the message. When the offering plate or basket came to him, the eyes that could see him, looking at him, what's he going to do with this? The Indian put the basket on the ground, stood up, and put one foot in the basket. That was his way of saying, I'm giving my life to God. I thought that was an interesting example. We need to make sure we've got, you know, probably the basket wasn't large enough for me to get both feet in. And I'm not recommending we do that here on a holy day.

But the idea is a valid one, that we want both feet firmly in dedication and surrender to God and his way of life. So letter A, the offering was a sweet savor, voluntary giving, our own free will. Letter B, it was offered for acceptance. Let's go back to Leviticus chapter 1.

Leviticus chapter 1, verses 3 and 4.

We've already read verse 3. Let's read verse 4. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, showing the worshipper is relating to the offering. He's touching it. He is recognizing that as being of him, just like we want to be of Christ. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make an atonement. So, brethren, this is looking at our sacrifice from God's point of view. God's point of view. God receives satisfaction. He receives atonement because we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, because our sins have been forgiven us, and because we are walking at one with God and Jesus Christ. That is the sense atonement is being used in this portion of the sacrifice. Sacrifices. That we are at one in our lifestyle. We are at one in our frame of mind, in our thinking. We are perfected through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the total sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And remember, he lived 33 and a half years before his crucifixion. So we want to look at his entire sacrifice. His entire life was a sacrifice. The way he lived his life was a sacrifice. That is what we're referring to here with the burnt offering. Let's look at Matthew, chapter 3. Matthew, chapter 3. Starting here in verse 13, then Jesus came from Galilee to John to Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? And Jesus answered and said to them, Permit it, so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And he allowed him. We're baptized for the remission of our sins. Christ had no sins, but Christ was setting an example in his life. He wants to make sure we follow his example, that we follow his lead as a burnt offering, that we follow the lead he gave in being appreciative and thankful to our great God. Verse 16, And when he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water.

You don't do that unless you are dunked in the water. You're completely immersed. He came up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting on him. Interesting, a dove being used here. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Jesus Christ's life was accepted by the great God.

Moving on, let her see. A life was offered. A life was offered. Go back to Leviticus chapter 1 again.

Leviticus chapter 1 and verse 5.

He shall kill the bull before the Lord. So a life was offered. From creation, God claims all life as His. Your life is His. My life is His. And so again, the thought in particular here is how we worship the great God. Proper worship from God's perspective. From God's perspective. I'm not going to turn there. Time is fleeting and the workers are coming in in 25 minutes. So in your notes, you might want to put down John chapter 4 and verse 34.

John 4.34. Christ talks about how His meat, His will is to do the will of God. Do the work of God in John chapter 4, beginning of His ministry. John 17 verse 4. I'm not going to turn there. But John 17 verse 4. Christ said He had finished the work God gave Him to do. He offered His life. He offered His life. And you and I remember the stories that we've been reading in the Scriptures. How busy they were. How they went from place to place. At one time in the book of Mark it talks about how they were so busy they didn't even have to eat. There were several times Christ wanted to take the men off by themselves for a little bit of hour and hour. Their life was totally given. A life was being offered. I do want to turn to Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9.

Verses 23 and 24. Luke 9, 23 and 24. See, brethren, the principles we're seeing in the Old Testament come alive as well in the New. Luke 9, 23. Then He said to them all, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take of his cross daily and follow me. As I've said to you on a repeated basis, a cross was symbolic of death. Our lives need to die to our way of thinking and live to God's way of thinking. Verse 24. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake, loses his life for my sake, will save it. So a life was offered. Letter D. The animal was wholly burnt on the altar. 100% was given. The priests were able to keep the skins of the larger animals. They used those for whatever purposes they would want to use those.

But this was not one of the offerings where the priest would be able to participate and eat part of it. This was something that was wholly given. Totally burnt. I mean totally burnt. We're not talking about when I go to a restaurant I want my meat. Rare. We're not talking about what my wife wants, what she wants her meat. Well done. This is char and ash. Leviticus chapter 1.

Leviticus chapter 1 verses 8 and 9. Then the priests, Aaron's son, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat. I want you to take note of certain portions that are highlighted here. The head is highlighted. The fat is highlighted. The head and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But he shall wash the entrails, that's another portion, and its legs, another portion, with water. There's a whole discussion we could have there, but we don't have time for that. And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. So what you have here, brethren, you've got the head, the legs, the internal organs, and the fat that are specifically made mention of here. Specifically made mention of here. I'd like to read to you Mark 12 and verse 30. Mark 12 and verse 30.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. Notice four things are mentioned there. Heart, soul, mind, strength. Those four things spoken of in Mark 12, verse 30, are very similar to the things we see in Leviticus chapter 1, verses 8 and 9. The head, your eyes, your ears, your mouth, your mind, the legs, speaking to the way we walk, our walk in life, how we follow the great God. The entrails, talking about the emotions, the affections, the feelings, and the fat. Isn't it nice to know fat's an offering? Fat, as you go through Scripture, one of the things you see about fat is it represents many times health, it represents vigor. And so what God is saying to us in our proper worship, proper thanksgiving, proper appreciation, is we need to worship God with our thoughts, the way we walk, the way our emotions are, with all of our being. All of that put together. All of that put together.

And lastly, brethren, I may mention earlier, let's go to Leviticus chapter 1. There were three varieties of the burnt offering, three varieties of the herd, of the flocks, and of the birds. God is telling us something with all of this. Leviticus 1.3, if his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, of the herd. When the Bible talks about a bull or an ox, something of the herd, what is the Bible referring to? I want to quote, not turn to, but quote Psalm 144 verse 14. Psalm 144 verse 14. Let me read this, at least a portion of this, in two different translations. First is the New King James verse 14, that our oxen may be well-laden.

Well-laden. And the King James, and the authorizes, that our oxen may be strong to labor.

So what God may be saying to us here, in these varieties, is that our offering, our sacrifice, if it is of the herd, in any part of our life, represents our patient and untiring labor, our patient and untiring labor and service for God. Just like that, ox was well-laden, strong to labor. This is what God wants for us in our life.

And we've got the example of Jesus Christ serving in that capacity. Leviticus chapter 1 in verse 10.

Leviticus chapter 1 in verse 10. If his offering is of the flocks, again, this could be a lamb, a sheep, a goat.

I'll read to you Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 7. The New King James, Isaiah 53 verse 7. Talking about Christ, he was oppressed, he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth, he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearer as a scion. So he opened not his mouth. You can write in your notes 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 19 through 23 about Christ's example, how when he was reviled, did not revile in return. The idea of the flocks or a lamb is uncomplaining submission before God.

Uncomplaining submission before God. Is that the way you and I give ourselves as a burnt offering to God? Do we give ourselves the herd, patient, untiring labor? Or do we say, well, I'm burned out? Now, sometimes we can be burned out. Maybe the pastor's asking you to do too much. That could possibly be my fault. Or maybe you just sign on for too many things. Or maybe we're not getting charged by God's word and God's spirit and fellowship of God's people. Fellowship, obviously, the God, the Father, and Jesus Christ. We don't want to burn ourselves up. We want to be laboring and submitting. And then lastly, we see the offerings of the birds here in Leviticus 1, verse 14.

And if the burnt sacrifice of his offering of the Lord is of birds, whether it be dogs, turtle doves, turtle doves, or young pigeons, I should say, Matthew 10, verse 16. Matthew 10, 16. Behold, I send you out of sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as servants and harmless as doves. Harmless as doves. And the idea here in this burnt sacrifice for doves is that we need to have a certain way we conduct ourselves. The word harmless in Matthew chapter 10, verse 16. In Thayer's Greek lexicon, a definition for harmless. A mixture free from evil, free from guile. And so that's a mental attitude. You know, untiring labor, uncomplaining submission.

Harmless in terms of free from guile.

Brethren, what is the overall takeaway from the sermon today? I can call this a conclusion, but what is the overall takeaway from the sermon today? The overall takeaway from the sermon today is we have so much to be thankful for. So much to be thankful for physically. So much to be thankful for spiritually. We've got God as our Father, Jesus Christ as our elder brother. We've got the scripture that outlines how we are to live our lives. We've got God's Spirit to give us the power to live as we see as recorded in Scripture. Our takeaway is that we want to be a burnt offering, just as Christ was. We want to be, as it says in Romans chapter 12. We want to be a living sacrifice. We want to be, as it says in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 18, that our offering is a sweet-smelling aroma in God's nostrils because it is voluntary. We have chosen to go this way. It's not been forced on us. No one's put a gun to our head. We have chosen to live this way. We've seen the four major aspects of the burnt offering. Sweet savor, voluntary giving, offering for acceptance, atonement in terms of the way we live our lives, that a life was offered we give God. We put our feet in the offering basket. It was holy, burnt, totally dedicated, nothing done half-hearted. Then we saw the three various varieties of the offering of the herd of vlogs of the owl, fowls. Final Scripture. Going back one last time, Romans chapter 12. I think after going through this, Romans 12 means a lot more to us. Romans chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. A life was offered. Holy. Words of instructions from the book of Leviticus, the book of holiness. Acceptable to God. We saw that in the burnt offering, which is your reasonable service. God's not asking something we can't do. Just as God gave the Israelites three different types of animals for offering, depending upon their economic standing, he wanted everybody to have an opportunity to give a burnt offering, even the poorest among them, to offer a little bird, which is our reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Brethren, we've got so much to be thankful for. Let's be thankful that God has given us His Spirit, His Word, His love, and Christ's life.

Something for us to truly give thanks about.