THROUGH THE BIBLE - Leviticu..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Leviticus chapter three. So as we always do, we're going to be reading the whole chapter together.

And after that, we're going to be given a brief Christological overview just before our brother comes and bring the sermon, the words of God to us. So Leviticus chapter three, we're going to be reading the 17 verses of this chapter. We are going to pay attention to each one of the words. And with reverent hearts, we're going to approach the word of our Savior. Jesus Christ.

This is Leviticus chapter 3 and written from the English Standard Version of the Bible. Leviticus chapter 3. If his offspring is a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offspring and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar. And from the sacrifice of the peace offering as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long love of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys.

Then Aaron's son shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering, which is on the wood on the fire. It is a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord. Lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it in front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron's sons shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar.

Then from the sacrifice of the peace offering he shall offer as a food offering to the Lord its fat. He shall remove the whole fat tail cut off close to the backbone and the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails. and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. And the priest shall burn it on the altar as a food offering to the Lord. Verse 12.

If his offering is a goat, Then he shall offer it before the Lord, and lay his hand on its head, and kill it in front of the tent of Mithrim. And the sons of Aaron shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. Then he shall offer from it as he's offering for a food offering to the Lord, the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long love of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys. And the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering with a pleasing aroma. All fat is the Lord's.

It shall be a statue forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places that you eat neither fat nor blood. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Now, brothers and sisters, we are now continuing through this sacrificial system in the book of Leviticus. And in this chapter, chapter three, we are introduced to another type of sacrifice or another type of offering.

And this is going to be what is called the peace offering. And this peace offering is going to be, again, an animal sacrifice, just as in chapter one. We had the burnt offering of bulls and sheep or birds. Also, in this case, we also have an animal sacrifice. And also, just as in Chapter one, they gave us three different types or options of burnt offerings.

We have three types of animals for the peace offering. For instance, in verse one, we are told that this peace offering can be an animal from the herd. Well, in verse six, we're also told that this peace offering can be an animal from the flock. And in verse 12 we are told that also this peace offering can be a goat. But brothers and sisters, before we get into all the aspects that I want to address and that I want us to meditate upon from this Leviticus chapter three, it's very important, I believe, my beloved brothers and sisters, that we have a clear understanding of the structure of the sacrificial system as it is given to us in the book of Leviticus and is outlined in the first five chapters of this book.

That which we know as the sacrificial system is outlined in this first five chapters. We're covering chapter three today. Now, remember that once the tabernacle was finished in the book of Exodus, it was necessary that God would give his instructions or his commandments to his people about the tabernacle and how the tabernacle was meant to be used. So when we started in the book of Leviticus, the book of Leviticus, as I have mentioned many times, presents the way in which the Lord God of Israel who dwells in that tabernacle that was finished in the book of Exodus will dwell and remain in an ongoing and continuous relationship with the people of Israel. But remember that we've said these people of Israel are a sinful people not only by nature, but these air people that are sinful because they commit scenes on a daily basis.

And also remember that one of the principles that I gave in the beginning of the series in the book of Leviticus is that the sacrificial system of Leviticus, it is the solution that God's provides to his people to cover or to atone for unintentional scenes. That is the high handed scenes or presumption scenes or scenes that are done intentionally. Those scenes do not have a sacrifice under this sacrificial system that is outlining this 1st 5 chapters of the book of Leviticus. But rather those people who commit a scene that is high handed or presumptions or intentional or they when they seem deliberately. they will see the curses of the Lord, the death.

They will be cast off from the midst of the covenant people of God. Now, this is very important, my beloved brothers and sisters, that we understand all of these principles. And I understand the book of Leviticus may have many details that sometimes are difficult to put all of them together in our mind. But it's very important we understand these principles because This is the sacrificial system that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills. All of this sacrificial system that we are studying chapter by chapter in this book of Leviticus is the sacrificial system that the Savior of the world, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, fulfills.

So, beloved brothers and sisters, as we progress through this book, it's important that we do not take each one of these chapters as a separate piece, but rather that we should do all of our best to see how each one of those chapters connect to one another and how each one of these sacrifices connect to one another. What I'm just trying to say is that if we are going to understand the peace offering that we have in front of us in Leviticus chapter 3, it is very important for us just to have a clear picture of the things that we have covered so far. So if you want to have a structure in your mind, you could create the structure in this way. There's going to be five different types of sacrifices in the sacrificial system, and those five types of sacrifices are going to be covered in the first five chapters of the book of Leviticus. sacrifice number one in chapter one, sacrifice number two in chapter two, and so on.

So we are going to be dealing today peace offering with the third type of sacrifice. As we have already covered, we have covered already the burnt offering, which was in chapter one, and the grain offering, which was in chapter two. As I said, we are going to be doing the peace offering in chapter three. But as I said, Each one of the chapters should not be seen as a separate piece of instructions that is not related to the other chapter. But rather, we should we should make the effort in order to see how this progress and what is the will of the Lord for the people of Israel.

And of course, what is the shadow of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? So if we were going to summarize the burnt offering of Chapter one, for instance, we have to remember that that offering or that sacrifice, it was an atonement that was made because of the condition of the person. This is very important to remember. We have not spoken about sin that is committed or sin that is forgiven. This is going to be introduced in Chapter 4.

Chapter 4 will speak about sin that is committed, unintentional sin, and sin that is forgiven only from Chapter 4. The word sin and the word forgiven is going to be mentioned only from Chapter 4. What we have dealt from from chapter one until this point, are sacrifices that if you want to put in a big category will be sacrifices from the will of the person, voluntary, that are sacrifices of worship. But in chapter one, this burnt offering, the person will bring a sacrifice to the Lord because who he is, that is namely a sinner. And then he was looking to be redeemed from his sinful condition.

as a redeemed person and to preserve the relationship that he had with the Savior of Israel, with the Redeemer of Israel, with the covenantal giver of Israel, the Lord God of Israel. So this burnt sacrifice, this burnt offering was an ongoing, continuous, daily sacrifice that atoned for the sinful condition, not so much for the sins that were committed. This is going to be addressed in chapter four. Now, when we move on to the grain offering, this was more of a tribute or a dedication, something that came from the gratitude, thankfulness of the worshiper. Why?

Because he had been accepted through the burnt offering that had been offered. So he's a sinful person by condition. He offers day and night burnt offerings because of who he is. But also he brings the mincha or the tribute of dedication or the gratitude, the thankfulness to the Lord. And those two those two sacrifices will be offered together.

So when we come to this chapter three, we have now a peace offering. But I do want you to see how this evolves and how this builds upon. The first one was a sacrifice of acceptance. And once the person is accepted, then he has a sacrifice of thankfulness. And now we move into this peace offering in chapter three.

As I said, in chapter four, we are going to be studying the sin offering. Now, a sin is going to be committed and therefore a sacrifice will be needed. And then in chapter five, we will be addressing parts of guilt offering. Now, brothers and sisters, this peace offering, as I said, is again an animal sacrifice with three different options of this animal sacrifice. But this is again important for you to remember that it's not to atone for a sin that has been committed.

Now, the importance of this peace offering, it is found in the elements of the sacrifice and in the purpose of the sacrifice. And those two are going to be the two points or the two aspects that I want us to meditate upon from this peace offering. Very briefly, the only two things that I want us to see is the elements of this peace offering of Chapter 3 and the purpose of this sacrifice, this peace offering. Now, let me say that all of these sacrifices that we have studied from Chapter 1, 2, 3, and also we're going to study in 4 and 5, they are going to be given more detail from chapter six and chapter seven. Once we start to study the duties of the priest, we will have more details and more light about these offerings.

But I'm just going to be addressing that which is found here in chapter number three. Chapter number seven will give us a little bit more light about this peace offering. But the two things that I said that I want us to analyze is the elements of the sacrifice and the purpose of the sacrifice. And I hope that that may be a blessing to our hearts. Now, brothers and sisters, remember that this peace offering does not atone for sins that had been committed, but rather this is a sacrifice or an offering of worship.

And we can see some interesting details. For instance, here in verse one of chapter three, we can see that in different to the burnt offering, which require that the offering the animal will be a male without blemish. this peace offering allows the worshipper to offer a male or a female animal. And that would be also without blemish. That means that it is the best that the worshipper had available for this offering.

Another thing that I want you to see just right after in verse two, is that just as in the burnt offering, the worshipper was going to lay his hands upon the animal in order to transfer something, Here, for this peace offering, there's also a laying of hands in the three different types of peace offering. This speaks of a transferring of guilt or authority to the animal. Now, remember that this guilt is not because of a sin that has been committed and that has come clear to the conscience of the worshiper, but rather this is a condition of sin. But in this case, This is going to be transferring the authority. That is that the animal that is going to be sacrificed represents the worshiper represents the worshiper.

Here we can see that these elements are very similar to the burnt offering of chapter one. But now we move on to something that is very interesting, and I want you to see the important role of blood. fat when it comes to the peace offering both of those things the blood is to be put against the altar were told three times during this chapter that the blood by or through the priest is to be put against the altar and then the fat it is to be offered upon the altar so it is a very important role of the blood and the fat now brothers and sisters We know from the teachings of Scripture that blood represents life, and this life that is contained in the blood of the animal is sanctified once the blood touches the altar that the Lord has instituted as the means of offering the sacrifice. So the animal that is being offered as a peace offering, it's only becoming holy and acceptable before the Lord because the blood that is being shed is touching always put always throat against the altar that is holy because he was made according to the commandments of the Lord. So I want you to see the connection here of the word of the Lord being fulfilled and being obeyed in the altar.

then the procedure is being fulfilled and be done according to the word of the Lord and therefore holiness is transferred onto the blood and this blood is accepted as part of this sacrifice and the other sacrifices. But now also let's move on to the fat because the fat is actually a very interesting part also of this sacrifice. The fat represents in this case the best part of the animal. This is what the Jews call the Chalef. The Chalef is the best part part of the fat of the animal.

And because this was the best part of the fat of the animal, this was supposed not to be eaten, but rather to be offered as a sacrifice. So that's why you find in verse 17 a clear prohibition that the Lord is given to the people of Israel not to eat the blood and not to eat the fat. Why? Because the blood represented the sanctified life that was accepted by the Lord through the sacrifice and the fat represented the best portion that the worshiper could bring to the Lord. So the Lord deserves the best part of the sacrifice and therefore the person was not supposed to eat this fat.

Now, there was some other portions of fat of the animal that should not be offered as a sacrifice, but they could be eaten by the people of Israel, but not this type of fat. This is what the Jews called the Helef. The Helef was not supposed to be eaten. This is the importance of the life that is contained in the blood and the importance of the value that the worshipper was bringing as he was offering the fat. But now, brothers and sisters, I want us to meditate about not only the elements of the sacrifice, but rather the purpose of this peace offering.

Now remember that with the burnt offering of chapter one, the worshipper was seeking acceptance before the Lord and making an atonement because of his sinful condition. And then with the grain offering, the Lord or the person better was bringing an offering to the Lord because he was thankful and he was dedicating himself because he had been accepted. So you can see how the relationship of the worshiper with the Lord God of Israel is now increasing from just atoning for a sinful condition to gratitude or thankfulness because the acceptance that the person has And now we move to this peace offering. This peace offering, brothers and sisters, is going to speak of something much greater than the acceptance of the burnt offerings of chapter one or the dedication of thankfulness of the grain offering in chapter two. And for that reason, because of this glorious truth that is going to be found here in the peace offering, this peace offering would not be performed as often as the burnt offering and the grain offering that I mentioned that those were done on a daily basis.

This one will be done not on a daily basis, just on a special occasion. But the greater aspect of this peace offering can be seen at least in two things. The first thing is in the name, a peace offering. And this peace word is going to come from the word Shalom, Shalem. And that means, of course, peace.

But the concept of peace for the Jew was beyond the absence of war, let's say, or the absence of a difficult situation, but rather Peace spoke of an active disposition of both parties to enter into a relationship that was a blessed relationship. There was a communion. There was a peaceful relationship between the two parties. It's not only that the two parties were at peace and they decided not to attack each other, but rather there was an active disposition of the parties to enter into this communion and into this glorious relationship. And the important aspect of this peace offering is seen in Leviticus chapter 7.

When we do Leviticus chapter 7, we will see some of the other details that will speak more about this aspect of communion or active fellowship between God and the worshiper. But in Leviticus 7, we are told, brothers and sisters, that just as With the grain offering, the priest was able to take the most holy part of the grain offering. I hope that you remember that after a handful was taken and burned upon the burnt offering, the most part, the majority of the grain offering was taken by the priest and they could eat it in the tabernacle as a covenantal meal. When it comes to the peace offering, This is going to be the only offering that will allow the worshipper to eat and to partake of the covenantal meal of the sacrifice. This speaks of this glorious reality that with this peace offering, the worshipper was coming before the Lord God of Israel, not only acknowledging that he had been accepted and that he was thankful, but also recognizing that through obedience to what the Lord had said in the Messiah covenant, he could have a shalom relationship, a peace relationship with God through this peace offering.

And this will involve the blessing of the Lord God of Israel upon the worshiper to the point that this type of offering could be offered once a vow has been fulfilled or once a blessing has been received. But we will study those things in Leviticus chapter seven. But this This offering, brothers and sisters, speaks of this glorious peace and this glorious reconciliation and this glorious relationship that the worshipper can have with the Lord God of Israel. But just as with the other sacrifices, brothers and sisters, The benefits that these the benefits that these sacrifice will offer to the worshiper will be temporal, just as the acceptance and the gratitude and this peace with God could be broken under the mosaic covenant under this covenant with Moses. These peace offering could come.

to an end. So the God who was in peace with the worshipper when the worshipper was presented this peace offering, this God could also be in enmity with this worshipper if that worshipper was going to commit a type of sin. like, for instance, a high-handed sin. And this is the glorious shadow of the new covenant in the person of Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, because the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter five says that we have been justified by faith and that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ under the new covenant, the means by which we have shalom, with God is not an animal. It is not a temporal peace that we have with God.

But because the sacrifice under the New Covenant is the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's through his working that we can have faith. So we have with God a peace that the Apostle Paul calls an eternal reconciliation. It is through the Lord Jesus Christ that the worshipper under the New Testament can come to terms of peace. never to be removed. So the wrath of God that we deserve, not only because of our sinful condition, but because of our continuous sin, will not be on us anymore for judgment.

The wrath of God was absorbed entirely by the Lord Jesus Christ. He received the judgment upon the cross. So those who by grace through faith are united to him or with him, can say with all confidence that they have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. As the apostle says in 2nd Corinthians, it is that we have this ministry of reconciliation. That is that the judge of the world, the one that is going to come to judge the living and the dead, He's not in enmity anymore, but he's in an eternal shalom.

He's in an eternal communion. He's in an eternal fellowship. He's in an eternal relationship with the worshiper. And that worshiper has not provided a sacrifice in order to enter in that relationship, but rather God himself is the one who provided the lamb that opened the carton so that we will enter to the Holy of Holies and that we will be able to say with confidence and humility, with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that we now have terms of peace with the Lord God Almighty. And Paul says that in that we rejoice in the glory of God, because when he comes, he is going to judge the living and the death.

And those who do not have peace with God, they will run and they will try to hide between the mountains so that the wrath of God will not come upon them because they do not have peace with God. But thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ that when the day of the Lord comes for the saint by faith and through his spirit, we can say when certainty that we rejoice in the coming of the Lord, because on that day, the glory of God is going to be revealed and we're going to be found to be in terms of peace with the judge of the universe. Amen.