How Does God Define Our Living Sacrifice?

1 Corinthians 11. Here we've got some background. The context is some Passover guidelines.

Here in 1 Corinthians 11, we want to go down to verse 28. 1 Corinthians 11.

But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. 2 Corinthians 11. Now, you've heard me discuss with you on a number of occasions since I've been in the area, but this verse is not talking about whether we should decide to go to Passover services or not. We need to be in the Passover service. What this verse is telling us is to examine ourselves and come to fully appreciate our spiritual state. We have need. We've got our failings, we've got our foibles, we've got our faults, and certainly we've got our sins. We need to be deeply aware of that, and not just out in the ozone layer someplace, but we aren't that conscious of it. We need to examine ourselves for the idea, for the background of understanding that we have need, and also that provision has been made. God the Father and Jesus Christ, in their loving care for us, have made provision for us, that our sins can be forgiven upon repentance, that the flight can be wiped clean upon repentance. And so, this is a very powerful statement, but let's dig down into the statement a little more. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 2 Corinthians chapter 13. And verse 5. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 5, where it says, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the flesh faith. Test yourself. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? But indeed, you are disqualified. So here we have an amplification of what we read just a moment ago in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 of examining ourselves. We are to examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith and how deeply we are in the faith.

And again, this is not to examine ourselves and say, well, I'm just not coming to services, but we're going to say to ourselves, the path of our service, but we're going to say to ourselves, okay, where are we in our walk with God? Where are we in the faith? What evidence is there in terms of our good works, our fruits? What evidence is there that God is speaking to us as we pray, that we are responding to God as He answers us as we pray? So there are things for us to keep in mind here as we are preparing for the Passover. We want to be there. We do need to understand where we are in our walk with God, to examine ourselves and to examine ourselves as to where we're at in the faith, how much we're allowing Jesus Christ to live His life in us. You know, in every guard—I'm not going to turn there, but in your notes, you might want to jot down John 3, John 3, and verse 30. John 3, and verse 30, where John the Baptist talks about His spiritual situation and His gives us wise spiritual counsel when He says, He, meaning Christ, Christ must increase, but I must decrease. There must be more of God. There must be more of Jesus Christ in our life than you and I running our life the way we would normally, naturally, carnally want to do it. So let's now turn to Ephesians chapter 4. I'm building up to something here, the whole point of the sermon today. We're kind of hopefully building up to kind of a crescendo. Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 13, one of my favorite scriptures.

Well, we'll start actually in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11. And He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Well, here we've got different kinds of ministers with different kinds of responsibilities, different types of talents that serve God and His people. Notice, here's what these ministers are going to do. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, for the work of the ministry. That doesn't mean just ministry as a ordained minister of Jesus Christ. It's talking about every kind of service in God's Church. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, here we come to the cross, till we all come into the unity of the faith to be at one with God the Father, to be at one with Jesus Christ, our elder brother. We all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. That knowledge is through practical understanding, through practical application of biblical principles. We know because we've lived it. We understand mechanics about Christianity and the work we've seen, the beauty of it. We've seen the benefit of this way of life. To a mature man, to the measure of the stature of fullness of Jesus Christ. Well, that is our yardstick. The measure of the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ, not one another, but of Jesus Christ. This leads me now to where the sermon is really going to kick off in terms of the point I want to get to. Let's look at Romans chapter 12. You know this book, and you know this section of Scripture very, very well. Romans chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. Romans chapter 12 verse 1.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, fully acceptable to 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 that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Well, here we are. We're preparing for the Passover. We look to the sacrifice, the total sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Not just the sacrifice of the last day of his life, but the sacrifice of his entire life, and how he lived that life. How he lived that life never having sinned in the flesh, never having sinned, period. And that is a living sacrifice, and we are to follow his example. But what exactly does that mean? How do you and I live as a living example? How do we follow Christ along those lines? Well, that's where I now want to break into the main crux of the message today, and ask the question, how does God define a living sacrifice? How does God define a living sacrifice?

I want to examine this question by going to the pages of the Old Testament, as well as information that we're gaining from the New Testament. I want to take a look at the five Old Testament sacrifices. I know I've covered some of its material in the past briefly, and today I'm going to be going through this more in some reform kind of an overview. But I think as we go through an overview of the five Old Testament sacrifices, we will come to see how God defines a living sacrifice. What we must be doing, you know, we're going to find out as we go through these five sacrifices that God views things much differently than we do. We'll cover that as we go through the sacrifices. So let's begin with sacrifice number one of the five, and that is the burnt sacrifice, the burnt all three. That is found, and with each of these I'll give you where the sacrifices are found. That is found in Leviticus chapter 1, verses 1 through 17. Leviticus chapter 1, verses 1 through 17. The burnt offering's emphasis is on the first four commandments, the commandments that honor God, commandments that honor God. Let us turn to Leviticus, and we want to maybe put a little marker there on Leviticus. It will obviously be coming back there time and again.

Leviticus chapter 1.

Brethren, the burnt offering, just a little bit of a definition of what the offering is about, the burnt offering sacrifice symbolized the worshipper's total surrender to God. Their total surrender to God. God's acceptance of the sacrifice had a view to the renewal and sanctification of the worshipper and his consecration to a course of life pleasing to God.

Now, typically, when you and I think of Passover, we think about our sins. We think about our sins need to be forgiven, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's very much a part of the Passover. But when God looks at the sacrificial system, the idea of dealing with sin is not the first thing in his mind. To be a living sacrifice, the first thing in God's mind, is that we are totally surrendering to him, totally dedicated to him, with the thought that we are going to live our lives continually, wholly consumed with wanting to please God and live by his way of life, his laws.

That's what first in God's mind. So that needs to be first in our mind, the burnt offering, the burnt sacrifice. We'll take a look at Leviticus chapter 1 here, verse 1. Now, the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meetings, 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 the livestock of the herdon of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish.

Jesus Christ was a male without blemish. Jesus Christ typified all of these sacrifices, all these offerings. He shall offer it on his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. So this is very important. God is not trying to coerce anybody. God wants us to do this offering as a free will offering of our own desire, our own very passionate desire, to follow God.

Now, the word here for burnt is OLA. O-L-A-H. OLA. O-L-A-H. In the Hebrew, that means ascending as smoke. It was given that name because the whole animal was consumed. Basically, the whole animal, there were a few parts of the skin and some other things that weren't fully consumed, but generally the whole of the animal was consumed totally, just as we are to be totally consumed in our worship of the great God.

You know, in Scripture, smoke is representative of the prayers of the saints. And here we see that smoke going up as an offering before God and the animal being offered before God totally. Let's drop down to verse 8 and 9. Again, this is kind of a overview. There's so much I can give you on each of these.

I can probably spend one. I know I can spend one for the sermon easily on each of these, but this is just an overview today. We drop down to verse 8 and 9 and see some of the things that are offered. Verse 8, then the priests, Aaron's son, shall leave the parts they had, the fat, and order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar, but he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water.

The priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma, a sweet aroma. We're talking about sins. It's not a sweet aroma. This is a sweet aroma to the Lord. Now notice there are four things specifically made mentioned here up here by God. What four things is God saying to us that we need to make sure we are totally surrendering our lives in these matters? Well, first it says here, the head.

Now the head represents for us, they have represented our thoughts, because what's in our head? We've got eyes, we've got ears, we've got a mouth, we've got our mind, and all of those things need to be totally surrendered to the great God. Our eyes, what we look at, what we desire to look at, our ears, what we hear, what we desire to hear, whether it be on TV or radio or song or whatever. Our mouth, how we use our mouth.

Do we use it properly before God? Our mind. What do we allow our minds to feed on? These are all things that are to be totally surrendered to the great God, totally consumed in our worship of Him. Let's take a look now at Mark chapter 12. Put a mark there in Leviticus. Let's go now to Mark chapter 12 and see where the same thinking is brought out in the gospels. Mark chapter 12.

Mark chapter 12 and verse 30. Christ has asked the question, in verse 28, which is the first commandment of all? Verse 29, Mark chapter 12, Jesus asked them, 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. This is verse 30. All of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, with all of your strength. This is the first commandment. But just as the first offering was the burnt offering, the burnt sacrifice, total surrender to God, the first commandment, and that's why we say that this is burnt offering, represents the first four of the ten commandments, talks about how we are to love God. We are to love God with all of our heart, with all of our soul, with all of our mind, with all of our strength. The same sorts of things that were mentioned in Leviticus chapter 1 are mentioned here in Mark chapter 12. This is what we need to do. So how are you and I to be a living sacrifice? Well, God must be number one in our life. What are the fruits of that? Well, the way we use our eyes and ears and mouth and mind, what we allow those items to feed on, to dwell on, to be yield to the great God. Let's take a look at a couple of examples in the scriptures. Or at least one example in the scriptures, talking about how this individual was a burnt offering before God. And that's the Apostle Paul. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verses 23 through 28.

Here, as you're turning to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, we see a totally dedicated man, fully consumed in his deal for God, God's ways, God's will to be done. Nothing was going to stop Paul from being a burnt offering, a burnt sacrifice. So here we are, second, from the 1st chapter 11 verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak of the whole. I am more, and laborers more abundant, and stripes above measure, and prisons more frequently, and deaths soften. From the Jews, five times I received 40 stripes, minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I looked stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. The night and the day I've been in a deep. In journeys often, in perils of water, droppers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brethren. In weariness and toil, in sleepless often, in hunger, in thirst, in fast things often, in cold and nakedness. Besides these other things, what comes upon me daily, my deep concern for all the churches?

Brethren, that's a mouthful. There's an awful lot of folks who would have turned tail and run away from this kind of lifestyle. But here we've got the other than Jesus Christ, who was the ultimate example. Here we've got a tremendous example of somebody totally consumed, totally dedicated, totally zealous. Now, was he a perfect man? No. Did he have sin? Absolutely. Were there things—he's the same fellow who talked about the things I don't want to do, those are the things I do. Things I want to do, those things I don't do. They're in Romans. So he was a man with his own passion. We're saying here are the good ones, but he had to fight the bad ones, but he fought them very, very well. And we need to take note of the fact that here was a man who helped define what it means to be a living sacrifice, to be a burnt offering before God. Let's turn our attention now to the second offering. The second offering, many times in the scriptures, is referred to a meat offering. That's a misnomer in the reasons of no meat in the offering. It's basically a grain offering. So the second of the five sacrifices was the grain offering. Now the grain offering had an emphasis on our love for our fellow man, so therefore the emphasis was on commandments number five through ten. Five through ten. Let me tell you where in Leviticus we find this grain sacrifice, grain offering talked about. Leviticus chapter 2 verses 1 through 16. Leviticus chapter 6 verses 14 through 18.

Leviticus chapter 7 verses 9 and 10. And Leviticus chapter 10 verses 12 and 13.

Now just in case you're not maybe getting all these, you can always write me, I can send you my notes, or you can relift into this online, but we do need to keep moving. The grain offering symbolized man's duty to his fellow man, like I said, fulfills the commandments number five through ten, together with the burnt offering. And many times these two offerings were offered together. The burnt offering and the grain offering. In your notes, you might want to jot this down. Numbers chapter 28 verses 12 and 13. Numbers 28 verses 12 and 13. And Numbers 29 verses 2 and 3, where those two offerings were put together. And rightfully so. Both of those offerings put together represent all ten of the commandments of God. How we love God, number one. How we love our fellow man, number two. And it's shown in this particular offering. Now we're not going to go through all the passages I just made mention of. We're just going to actually go through just a few here, but let's take a look at Leviticus chapter two. Go back to Leviticus.

Leviticus chapter two in verse one. When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be with fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. Now we're going to take a look at those. There's the reason those three things are discussed when it comes to the grain offering. A reason. And that reason is that God is wanting us to look at our relationship with our fellow man. How are we going to be a living sacrifice in relation to our fellow man? Let's take a look at verses two and three as well. He shall bring to Aaron's sons the priests, one whom shall take from the handful of fine flour, and oil with the frankincense, burdened as a memorial on the altar, null, and an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord, notes the end, it's a sweet aroma. Then it's not thought up here. The first three of the five sacrifices. Then is not the object. And again, that's a lesson for us to learn. When God is thinking about our relationship to Him and our being a living sacrifice, three of the five sacrifices don't really deal with sin. Now the sin offering, obviously, well the trespass offering is the sale, but these three have a different heart and core meaning to them. Verse 3, Leviticus 2.3, The rest of the grain offering shall be Aaron's and his sons that is most holy to the offerings of the Lord made by fire. Though we see the fire is burned for God, but also we see where Aaron and his sons take part. Okay, so man is also a part of this. We see in verse 2 and 3. Let's take a look at verse 9 and 10. Then a priest shall take from the grain offering a moral portion and burn it on the altar. That part's for God. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord, and what is left of the grain offering shall be Aaron and his sons. It's most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire. So here we see that this offering denotes not only a dedication to God and to Jesus Christ, it dedicates itself. We're dedicated to our fellow man, dedicated to our fellow man and service to him as we live by God's way of life. Now, what about those three emblems you talked about, the flower of the oil and the frankincense? The flower was emblematic as the flower was ground into powder, one of deep suffering. Working with our fellow man is not easy, and as you and I work with our fellow man, there'll be plenty of times we're going to suffer as a result of that.

But notice what we, you know, when we went through the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, the longest of the Beatitudes, that eighth beatitude, dealt with persecution, loving our fellow man despite what they do to us. And as I made mention as we went through that sermon, that eighth beatitude shows a dedication to love our fellow man and to love this way of life no matter what, no matter what the cost. So this flower, this flower that's grounded in fine powder, also shows that there's no hypocrisy. It's very fine. It's not lumpy. There's no inconsistency in it. The consistency is very fine. It's very beautiful along those lines, and it shows that we as Christians are to bear with one another. You know, we see that in Galatians 6 and verse 2. Bear the burdens of one another. Love our fellow man. You know, love our fellow man is we love ourselves. There's nothing wrong with loving ourselves as long as we love our fellow man to the same degree. The second thing we see with this offering, the grain offering, is the oil. The way you and I are going to fulfill our being a living sacrifice before our fellow man is to be fully imbued with the Holy Spirit of God. We can't do the thing that God asks of us on our own. We must have the help of God's Holy Spirit to do these things.

For an old man on his own, they can do some good work. We've seen and heard of various missionaries and their dedication and their zeal, and they're to be applauded for that. I appreciate what I see in that, but you know, you and I, there's another level of service, a spiritual level that human beings, of and by themselves, really can't attain to unless they've got God's Holy Spirit upon them. And so God wants us to have that Holy Spirit, use that Holy Spirit in our service as a living sacrifice for our fellow man. Frankincense kind of comes full circle to the flower aspect. Frankincense is a perfume, but frankincense as a perfume has its most delightful fragrance when it's being crushed, when it's being crushed, when it's being submitted to fire, when it's being persecuted, when things aren't going well. And of course, I'm not going to turn here, but in your notes, you got 1 Peter chapter 2 verses 21 through 24. Again, we're going to read that on Passover evening, where Christ set us the example. And that specifically, that example specifically, explicitly dealt with Christ's suffering. Although when he suffered, he didn't rail against people, he didn't want to get back at people, but he committed himself to live righteously. And as a living sacrifice, we are to be this reign offering, this reign sacrifice, where no matter what, we are going to be people who will follow Christ's death. And Christ always was a loving individual. Now, he expressed that in different ways. There was one time where he made the whip and got the money changers out. But even that was a loving gesture toward his fellow man, because they were doing something they shouldn't have been doing at the temple. And Christ wanted to correct them. Now, for their benefit, much like he would spank a child for his benefit. Christ was getting after them for their benefit. But he was still doing it as an aspect of love. He was doing it as an aspect of showing us an example of being a living sacrifice. Let's take a look at an example here. A couple of examples. Let's look at Philippians chapter 2.

Two examples of a reign offering or a reign sacrifice, where these two individuals are showing total dedication. You know, we got the idea of the, and these sacrifices build on one another, of total dedication, of the same total dedication we saw with the burn offering. We're seeing it's now in the grain offering. The grain offering, the total dedication, is service toward our fellow man. You know, how do we start the Passover service? You know, there are some introductory comments and remarks. Those take a few minutes. Then the very first thing we do of any consequence is the washing of feet. Why do we do that? Well, we wash feet because it shows us an attitude of the mountain. It shows us what we've been called to do. We've been called to serve, not only God, but we've been called to serve our fellow man. All of their faults, failings, foibles, sins. We don't agree with those sins or take part in those sins, but we want to be a light to those people. We want to be the fault of the earth to those people. We want to have a foot washing attitude to serve as any way we possibly can for those people. Look at Philippians chapter 2.

This is one of the prison epistles. Paul is in prison. Paul really enjoys the company that Timothy gives to him. Yet Paul, in his sacrifice and the love of the church, is going to send Timothy to the church there and serve them. Paul was thinking about what's best for the other guy. Unfortunately, I'm not going to turn here, but we saw that in the early part of chapter 2 of Philippians. It looks like Philippians chapter 2 is starting here in verse 19. But, I trust in the Lord Jesus and Timothy to you shortly. They may also be encouraged when I know of your state. Paul is going to benefit as well, and that's great. For I have no one like-minded who will sincerely care for your state. Timothy is not doing this to show off. He's not doing this to earn brownie points with Paul. He's doing this because this is who he was. He was a living sacrifice. He was there to serve his fellow man. He was like-minded with Paul, and Paul was like-minded with Christ. We see that in the early part of this same chapter in verse 5. Let this mind be in you, because in Christ Jesus. Verse 21, where they all seek their own, not the things which are of Jesus Christ.

But you know his proven character. What Timothy seeks? Timothy seeks to be a living, daily sacrifice and the service of a man as a grain-lawn. For you know his proven character is the son of his father. He served with me in the Gospels. Timothy went in Acts chapter 16. We've been going through the book of Acts and our Bible studies on Thursday. We thought Acts chapter 16, while Timothy was circumcised, just so the work would be furthered. Now, he didn't need to do that, but he wanted to do it because it would help the work. People who were of the Jewish persuasion would not feel that as a Gentile, there was something wrong with him. So he was doing everything he could to establish common ground. Let's take a look at another example. The example of Epiphyditis, a grain sacrifice, a living sacrifice, and living to serve his fellow man. Look at chapter 2, verse 25. I considered it necessary to send to Epiphyditis, and now notice how Paul refers to him. Notice the descriptive terminology. My brother, fellow worker, fellow soldier, but your messenger, and the one who ministered to my need. Paul reels off five different descriptors as to how this man was a servant. He served Paul as a brother. He served the people as a fellow co-worker, a fellow soldier. He served the people as a messenger. He served Paul by ministering to his need there in prison. Now notice that he was longing for you all. So here is a living sacrifice, a grain offering, a grain sacrifice, who was longing for the brethren, who had love for the brethren, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. He didn't want the brethren to be distressed, but he was distressed when he heard that the people were afraid for his life. For indeed, he was sick almost unto death of God who had mercy on him, and not only on him, but also on him. Paul is here vouching for this man, the nature and character of this man. Thus, I should have sorrow upon sorrow. His one sorrow was being in prison. Another sorrow was that he could not be with the brethren. And yet, a third sorrow would have been if Epiphyditis would have died. So here we see the servants of God really sacrificing their all for one another. Verse 28, Therefore I send them more eagerly, that when you seek him again, you may rejoice, and I may be less sorrowful. Paul would be less sorrowful because he knows the brethren had been cared for. The brethren had been served by a man who was a living sacrifice. He was a grain offering. Verse 29, For seek him therefore in the Lord of all gladness, and hold such men in a scene, because for the work of Christ he came close to death.

Again, here he is a burnt offering. He was willing to sacrifice at all. Total dedication, total zeal. For the work of Christ he came close to death, not regarding his life, to supply what was lacking in your service toward me.

So a tremendous sacrifice you see here in the grain offering. Let's now move on to the third offering. This is known as the peace offering. Peace offering is found in Leviticus chapter 3, verses 1 through 17.

Psalm Leviticus chapter 7, verses 11 through 34.

It's found in Leviticus chapter 19, verses 5 through 8. And Leviticus chapter 22, verses 19 through 20. Leviticus chapter 22, verses 29 and 30.

Now the peace offering was sometimes referred to as the fellowship offering. It refers to in a picture of God the Father, Jesus Christ, our elder brother, and man becoming one. Becoming one. Becoming one.

So what we have here is kind of a combination of the first two offerings combined. This peace offering, this peace sacrifice, really emphasizes all 10 of the commandments. Loving God, loving our fellow man. Becoming at one. Now we talk about at one moment. Talking about being at one here. Let's take a look here in Leviticus chapter 3. Verse 1. Leviticus chapter 3 verse 1.

Again, these offerings represent Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was without bluish. But that doesn't mean we don't follow Jesus Christ. You know, we've got plenty of blunish. But we are still to be called to live this way of life, to the best of our ability. Grap down to verse 5.

So this offering was offered upon the burnt offering. And again, remember that the burnt offering, the great offerings, were often done together. So here you've got, in essence, all three of these offerings being done together.

All three of these being done together.

Now, I'd like to read you something from the Nelson Study Bible. Nelson Study Bible says this. So this peace offering really embodies all things that we've talked about to this point. It's a beautiful offering. But let's turn to Leviticus, you know, chapter 7, where this offering is also made mentioned.

We saw in Leviticus chapter 3 verse 1 that God is satisfied. Let me back to the rud that we read that for you. Leviticus chapter 3 verse 1. When His offering is of His sacrifice of a peace offering, if He offers it of the herd, whether male or female, He shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. So here we see where God the Father, Jesus Christ, they are satisfied with His offering. It satisfies the great God.

We look at Leviticus now chapter, I said 16, but let's look at chapter 31 verse 31. Leviticus chapter 7 verse 31. And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron and his sons.

So not only is God satisfied, we see here where the priest and the priest's family are, symbolic of the family of God, symbolic of the Church of God, where they are satisfied. So God satisfied, the ministry and the members are satisfied. But let's take this one step further and look at verse 16. Go back to verse 16.

But if the sacrifice of His offering is a vow or voluntary offering, it shall be even the same day that He offers His sacrifice. But on the next day, the remainder of it may also be eaten. So in the peace offering, unlike the other offerings, the offeror, the one doing the offering, is able to participate. So you've got God being satisfied, you've got the priest or the priest's family representative of Christ in the Church, Christ's family, the Church, and the offeror Himself. Everybody is satisfied. Everybody is properly dealt with in a very beautiful way.

Now, vow offerings were a type of peace offering with a vow attached. Some of you might be wanting to know what that was. A voluntary offering was a devout, heartfelt rejoicing in the peace offering. Now, the greatest example of a peace offering was Jesus Christ Himself. Let's turn to John 14, verse 27.

John 14, verse 27.

It says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. No, Jesus Christ says, my peace I give to you, the peace of Jesus Christ.

Now, the peace of Jesus Christ would not guarantee the absence of trouble. Jesus Christ Himself faced excruciating spiritual and physical and emotional struggles all through His life. And yet, He was a man of tremendous peace, even though He had tremendous struggle. So, we have to wrap our minds around. Sometimes we think peace is the absence of all these negative things. No, peace is a state of mind. You can be going through all these awful things. Christ talked about His peace of mind just hours before He was crucified. If you knew you were about to be crucified in a couple of hours, our tendency would not have peace of mind. Our tendency would be to have, in our turmoil, to the place of panic. What could we do? Where do we run? And yet, Jesus Christ had the strength and the comfort of knowing His relationship with God. That's what gave Him the great peace He enjoyed. He had that relationship with the great God, His Father, our Father.

Now, the world can give you a type of peace. And again, the type of peace they normally think of as an absence, a temporary absence from bad news. But Christ gives us a different kind of peace. And as you look at the life of Jesus Christ, the more He went through trial and temptation in terms of what Satan is throwing at Him, the more He went to the great God, the more He went to the Father, and was granted peace, was given peace, and had peace.

Okay, so now we've gone through these first three of the offerings. None of them specifically dealt with sin. They dealt with our love for God, our total dedication to God, the burn offering, the brain offering, our love for our fellow man, and the peace offering, showing where God and man are all together as one, representing the fulfillment of all of the Ten Commandments. And this is how God wants us to define ourselves as a living sacrifice, loving God, loving man, doing the things that are pleasing in God's sake. That's not the end of the story.

That's how God looks at it. Now, we look at it quite differently. We were talking about sacrificial system. We would start with the one I'm about to get to, or these next two, the sin offering, the trespass offering. But that again, I remind us because it's good for us to understand God's thinking, and it's good for us to make sure that we're thinking along the same lines He thinks. But let's now take a look at the fourth offering. And the fourth offering is the sin offering. The sin offering is found in Leviticus chapter 4, going through Leviticus chapter 5 verse 13. Leviticus chapter 4, verse 1 through Leviticus chapter 5 verse 13. And also Leviticus chapter 6 verses 24 through 30. Now, what's the difference between a sin offering and a trespass offering? There is a difference, an important difference. The sin offering, the focus of the sin offering, is on man as a sinner, who we honor, not the specific sin itself in this case, in this particular offer. We need to understand who we are, what we are. We need to have our spiritual bearings. The sin offering focuses on us as a sinner. Okay, very important for us to appreciate that. Let's look at Leviticus chapter 4, starting here in verse 3. Leviticus chapter 4 and verse 3. If the united priests' sins bring guilt on the people, let him offer to the Lord for a sin which he has sinned, a young bull without blemish, as a sin offering. Now, we're going to see as we look at some of these examples, a specific sin is not mentioned. It's basically, you know, sin in general is talked about here. The reason for that is that the specific sin here is not the idea in mind. We'll get to that later with the trespass offer. But here, it's just the idea that the individual is a sinner. We dropped on to verse 22. Here, we're looking at verse, and getting back to verse 3. If the priests' sins, we're looking at categories of people. The priests' sins, now we go to verse 22. When the ruler has sinned, here's another classification of people. When the ruler has sinned and done something unintentional against any of the commandments of the Lord his God, and anything which he should not be done, and is guilty, or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, he shall bring his offering a kid of the goats, and may live without blemish. So again, nothing specific is mentioned there, for the fact that the individual has sinned. We drop down to verse 27. If any one of the common people sinned unintentionally. Notice the thought about unintentional sin. Just because you don't know what a sin is doesn't mean you don't break it or commit it. But here, we see the common people. So in verse 3, we saw the priests. Verse 22, we saw the rulers. Here in verse 27, we see the common people being named Benjamin. If any one of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord, and anything which ought not to be done and is guilty, or if a sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering, kid of the goats, and female without blemish, for his sin offering which he has committed.

So it's important for us to note no specific acts of sin here are discussed. We need brethren to appreciate the fact that we, who we are, our flesh, our red plague, we are sinners.

This is one of the last sacrifices to be instituted. Here's how we look at it. Sacrifice 4 and 5 are two of the last sacrifices to be instituted by God. They're the first ones in our minds, but they're not the first ones in God's mind. So I keep on hitting that point because it's important for us to remember that. But even as we view the things of God, sometimes we do it just from our perspective. And it's important that we come to a place where we see things always from God's perspective. That we always see things from God's perspective.

Andrew Drew, Jews, J-U-K-E-S, wrote a very fine book. Not the easiest read in the world. He almost uses Old King James English. But it's a very fine work in terms of going through and explaining these five offerings. And I did use that book extensively in preparing for the message. Well, I could pull from him his book, The Law of the Offerings.

He says, with our shortsightedness, our inability to see beyond the surface, we naturally look at what man does rather than what man is. And while we are willing to allow that he does evil, we perhaps scarcely think that he is evil. But God judges what we are as well as what we do. Our sin, the sin in us as much as our trespasses. In his sight, thin is us, our evil nature, as it's clearly seen in our trespasses, which we are but the fruit of our nature. He needs not wait to see the fruit but forth. He knows the root is evil, and so will be the buddies. Thus the sin offering, no particular act is mentioned, but a certain person is seen standing confessibly as a sinner in the trespasser. Certain acts are enumerated, and the person never appears. So there is that difference. The sin offering deals with the human being, the individual. The trespass offering is the sin itself, the specific sin. Now, in our path over examination, let's take a look at some things we don't ever want to forget. Let's look at Romans chapter 8. Who we are. Again, we're going to be a living sacrifice, but you have to realize who we are and where we're coming from. Acts chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, Romans chapter 8, and verse 7, because the carnal mind is enmity against God, but is not subject to the law, nor indeed can be. No, the carnal mind, our normal natural mind, what we are, is hatred for God and the things of God. Unless we freely confess that and understand that, we can never overcome it. We have to appreciate, not just on paths overseas, but every day of our Christian walk of God, where we're wanting to come from carnally. I don't know about you, but my carnal nature still exists. That exists, you know, Paul wrote this book of Romans. It still existed in him, you know, decades after he was converted. He was a great man of God. Jeremiah chapter 17. To talk about our mind, let's take a look at our heart. Jeremiah chapter 17, you know where I'm going. We need to take a look at that anyway. Jeremiah chapter 17 and verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and deathfully wicked, who could know it? For our mind is hatred towards God. Our heart is deceitful above all things. If we are going to be a true living sacrifice, we have to know what we're up against, what we're fighting, and this is what we're fighting. Now, from a positive perspective, let's take a look at where God wants us to go. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 66. Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 2.

For all those things my hand is made, Isaiah 66 verse 2, and all those things exist of the Lord, but on this one will I look. On him who is of a poor and contrite spirit, who trembles at my word. Yes, so we go from having a carnal mind that's hatred toward God and things of God, a carnal mind where a carnal heart is desperately wicked and deceitful, to a heart and mind where we are of a poor and contrite spirit who tremble after Lord of God. This is what we need to be if we're going to be a living sacrifice before the great God, and that takes a tremendous amount of work. That's why we need that oil that we saw in the previous one of the previous offerings. We need God's Holy Spirit. We can't do this on our own.

It's kind of been doing all these things.

Okay, that brings us to the very last offering, which we've got kind of touched on already. This is the trespass offering, offering number five. This is found in Leviticus chapter 5 verses 14 through 19. Leviticus 5 verses 14 through 19. Leviticus chapter 6 verses 1 through 7.

And Leviticus chapter 7 verses 1 through 6.

Breath past come from the Hebrew, asham, meaning fault. The view here is not the individual. You saw that in a sin offering, but a specific act of sin. A specific act of sin that causes injury. All sin causes injury. Let's take a look at Leviticus chapter 6 back there.

Leviticus chapter 6.

And let's start here in verse 1. Leviticus chapter 6 verse 1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, if a person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord, okay, so now we're talking about the trespass offering. But notice, by lying, but here we've got a specific. A person sins and commits a trespass against the Lord by lying to his neighbor, but what we've delivered to him for safekeeping, or about a pledge, or about a robbery, if he is extorted from his neighbor. So a number of ways of sinning are talked about here. Or if he has found what was lost and lies concerning him.

And where is falsely? In any one of these things that a man may do and what he sins. Then it shall be because he has sinned and is guilty, he shall restore what he has stolen, or the thing which he has extorted, or what has delivered him for safekeeping, or lost in what he has found. So here we've got a specific act of sin that's being talked about. So God wants to appreciate, yes, we are sinners. And he also wants us to appreciate and understand that as sinners, A, B, we also sin. We do sinful things. We are sinful beings and we do sinful things. There are two things there that God wants us to appreciate. Let's go back to chapter 5 of Leviticus.

As we may have mentioned a little bit earlier, we can be ignorant of our sins. That doesn't mean that we've not sinned. Leviticus chapter 5 verse 15.

If a person commits a trespass and sins unintentionally in regard to the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring to the Lord his trespass offering a ram without blemish in the blocks with your evaluation and shekels of silver according to the shekels of the sanctuary as a trespass offering. Well, here we see something a little different, a little something added here. We see that he's to bring an animal for a sacrifice, but then there's also the shekels of the sanctuary to be added in addition to that. Verse 17. If a person sins and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and shall bear his iniquity. In verse 19, it is a trespass offering he had certainly just trespassed against the Lord. So we're looking at specifics here, but we're also seeing that something else is added. Damage has occurred because of sin. An offering must be made to the great gun, more forgiveness of that sin. But there's also the offense toward our fellow man, and things have got to be made right there, too. So damage has occurred. Payment must be made.

The amount of the damage is according to the priest's evaluation about how much damage was there, and that's paid in the shekels of the sanctuary. The shekels of the sanctuary were the appointed standard by which God's rights were measured. There were two different types of shekels. The shekels were the main types of money used in Israel at the time. There were shekels in the town, so those were the two main shekels, more so. But there were two different types of shekels, and one was a certain weight that was used in the temple, before the temple. And as you're well aware, there was a temple tax where people had to pay—I forget what it was—a half a shekeler. For the upkeep of the temple, the temple complex.

The class we're attending on Tuesday evening from 6 to 8 that Scott Ashley is going through the Gospels, and some of the backgrounds of the Gospels. And the other day, he was showing a slide showing the temple complex in relation to the city of Jerusalem. And the temple complex was one little corner somewhere. It was a big part, a very big part, of the city of Jerusalem, and it needed upkeep. So there were the shekels of the sanctuary, and everyone had to pay a certain amount for that upkeep. But also, whenever sin was involved, whenever there was a trespass in them, not only was there a sacrifice of an animal, but in some of these cases, restoration money was also to be made. In some cases, restoration of animals, but also restoration of money to show that something else in addition was needed. And God is what he has to appreciate that the sin needs, there's a payment needs to be made, not only an animal, but something else, something else altogether. Let's take a look at Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, I can give you a here.

Romans chapter 6 and verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, for the gift of eternal life is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then, brings injury, death, permanent injury. Christ's death atones for that. Christ's death atones for that. And damage has to be paid. Christ paid for that with his life. And the people of the Old Testament who were doing these sacrifices need to realize that there was a price to be paid for their sin. Over and above an animal, there was a price to be paid according to what the priest would evaluate, it would be the proper price to be paid. Debt is to be paid, is the thought, with the whole shekels of the sanctuary. Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5 verses 6 through 11. That's about that. Debt being paid by Christ. From we were still without sin, or strength, in due time Christ died for beyond God. For scarcely for a righteous man one will die. If reps were a good man, some would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we would reconcile the God through the death of a son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Our Savior is not a dead Savior in a tomb someplace. Our Savior is a Savior who was crucified for us, paid the penalty in full. Our sins, but was resurrected to eternal life. Verse 11, not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have now received the reconciliation. So let's go back to Leviticus chapter 5 again. There's another point I want to make. Leviticus chapter 5, verse 16, is talking about those same shekels, Leviticus chapter 5 verse 16, and he shall make restitution for the harm that he has done in regard to the holy thing, and shall add one fifth to it and give it to the priest. So the priest shall make atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering, and shall be forgiven him. So the idea here is more is due now than was originally lost. You've got to go over and above. More is due now than was originally lost. The debt needed to be fully paid, and then more was required.

Well, thought here is that what was given is indeed a debt being paid for, not a free gift, but it is symbolic of going over and above. Jesus Christ went over and above to pay our debts. He gave his life, not just in blood and torture at the end of his life, but he gave his life, all of his life, in the way he lived that life.

Let's start here in the first Corinthians chapter 6 and explain that maybe a little more clearly, a little more fully. First Corinthians chapter 6.

First Corinthians chapter 6 verses 19 and 20.

Or do you not know, 1 Corinthians 6, 19, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. There's a greater claim on us now. God claimed his part, our life.

Now he claims our life lost holiness.

So that is why we see that those shekels of the sanctuary added. There is this idea of adding something. Yes, God claimed his part, us, that now us with something over and above, us living his way of life, us being a living sacrifice. And that's what was intended for the Israelites to learn, and it was what we should learn as well. Final scripture today. We'll have a little early. Let's go to John chapter 15.

John chapter 15. So God has a greater claim on us, not just our lives, but our lives and holiness. It is also a claim by our fellow man, a great claim. John chapter 15 verses 12 and 13. This is my command that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love is no one than this, not to lay down one's life for his friends.

So not only are we to love our friends, we are to lay our lives down over and above. It's a sacrifice. So rather than this Passover season, we are to examine ourselves, we are to appreciate who and what we are. And today, as we've gone through these sacrifices, I think it helps us to more fully appreciate what God has in mind for us in terms of our being a living sacrifice, defining what a living sacrifice is. Burn offering, total dedication and love of God. Summarize in commandments 1 through 4. The grain offering, total dedication and love for our fellow as seen in commandments 5 through 10. The peace offering, which is the atonement of man with God, which summarizes basically all 10 of the commandments. The sin offering, which shows what man is, man is sinful, but Christ pays for that. And the Christ's best offering, what man does, not just what man is, but what man does is sinful. Again, Christ pays for that.