LEVITICUS 5-1 EXPRESS YOUR FAITH TO GOD2021 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Leviticus 5-1 Express Your Faith To God

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2021. Well, the book of Leviticus is an interesting book. Literally, the name Leviticus means of the Levites or pertaining to the Levites. Really what this book is, it's about all of the instructions and details that the servants of the tabernacle and later the temple would need.

And so we're reading through these things and there's a lot of technical details and that can be challenging for us. It's like reading, you know, the employee manual for somebody else's job that you don't do, right? Like there's a lot of detail there that just perhaps doesn't pertain to you. And yet for us, as we consider these things, there is all of this detail and yet we recognize it is the word of God and there is some principles about God from these things that he wants to teach us through it.

We're learning about the nature of God. We're learning about holiness and what is clean and what is unclean. We're learning about the realities of sin and really what it takes to become right with God. Now, I would encourage you, especially if you're new to the book of Leviticus, that you would read through the book of Hebrews along with the book of Leviticus.

because there the author of Hebrews refers back to many of these things that are in Leviticus and translates them into the new covenant with Jesus and how those things speak to us as believers today. And so there's a lot of parallels there in Hebrews that go right along with our study in Leviticus.

But this morning, as we look at these first five chapters, we're going to be looking at chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, but we're starting in chapter 5 and working our way backwards. We're talking about the sacrifices that God established here in his law. And sacrifices are maybe not what you think that they are about.

Sacrifices are not about what we might typically think about or our concept of sacrifice is not necessarily what it was that God was accomplishing here. First of all, for us, you know, Southern Californians in 2021, animal sacrifice is a very strange concept to us, right? It's so foreign to us.

I mean, first of all, just stepping back for a moment, you know, those who go hunting in Idaho, that's already a very strange concept for me, right? I've never done that. I've never, you know, shot an animal. I've never skinned an animal. Well, I've shot animals with BB guns, but that doesn't count. But you know what I mean? Like I've never gone hunting. I've never done that kind of thing, been up close and personal with

the types of things that are described here in these passages. And perhaps that's you as well. It's just foreign concepts to us. And so that's one part of it. But then the idea of a sacrifice, not just the killing and butchering of an animal, but then the sacrifice of an animal, it's perhaps foreign to us. And so as a result, we sometimes have some misconceptions about sacrifices.

First of all, we need to understand that sacrifices were not for God. God established the sacrificial system here in the Old Testament. He prescribed it as the means for his people to have relationship with him. But the reality was, it wasn't for God's benefit that the sacrifices were offered. Sometimes people have the picture that God is so angry about sin.

that something must be punished. And so, well, if I'm not going to kill you, then you better kill an animal. And, you know, that's the idea sometimes that we have about sacrifice, that it's just God, you know, upset. And so we have to do this because, you know, God needs some kind of bloodshed in order for there to be forgiveness of sin.

But it's really not about God being angry. And it's not about God being pleased with something dying. God is never pleased with death. That's not something that he takes pleasure in. Even of the wicked person, God says in Ezekiel, he takes no pleasure in their death. And so this wasn't a system that God established because he just loves for animals to be slaughtered. That is not at all what this was about.

It's not that God was angry. It's also not that God was hungry, right? And you probably don't think this, but many people have thought that over the years, that it was kind of like a way of feeding God. You know, like if you're thinking like a video game, right? So like, you know, the powers of the hero starts to wane and then you kind of got to feed it more sacrifices or, you know, more goods from the game, more coins, whatever. And then, you know, the powers rise again. And so God gets weak unless you offer animals and

It recharges his power. No, that's not the picture either of what these sacrifices were all about. Here's what we need to understand. Sacrifices were always for man. It was always for the benefit of the people who were doing the sacrifices. And that is why God established these sacrifices. The sacrifices were a way...

for people to experience and express relationship with God. The sacrifices were a means for God's people to experience and express their relationship with God. I've shared with you guys recently, Kim and I, we picked up a little puppy. We named him Maui. He's incredibly cute.

And I can imagine you're probably going to get a lot of puppy illustrations and analogies over the coming months, right? This is all new to us. First time I've ever really had a pet as an adult. And so new concepts, new things.

One of the things, of course, that Maui likes to do as a little puppy is he likes to fetch. And so we go out in the backyard and I throw a ball and he runs and he gets it and he brings it back to me and he's like bounding and just like super happy and his ears are flopping everywhere and it's just incredible as far as how much joy he gets. And he brings the ball back to me. And what's surprising to me is, well, it brings me joy too.

I wasn't expecting that necessarily, but it's fun. And so he brings the ball back and I'm like, all right, good boy, Mallory, good boy. And I take the ball from him and then I throw it again and he comes back and I'm getting excited as he's running back towards me with the ball. And I'm like, yeah, Mallory, yeah, bring it. That's great. Now, the reality is I don't care about the ball.

I actually would prefer not to touch the ball because now it's all slimy and there's slobber all over it. Dog touched it. You know, it's kind of gross and dirty and that's not my thing, right? I don't care about the ball. He's bringing me back the ball. I'm excited. I'm cheering him on. But it's not because, well, I want the ball, right? No, no. It's about the interaction. That's what brings the joy, right? That's what brings those connections and those relationships is really what it's all about. And you can think about sacrifices the same way.

It's not about, again, God being angry and something must be punished. It's not about, you know, feeding God or recharging God or anything like that. It's about a means, a method by which God established for people to come to him with a ball that he doesn't care so much about.

It's not that it's, you know, that part was so important. They became important because of what they foreshadowed in the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. So, you know, they're important in what they picture and foreshadow, but in and of itself, what God really desired was that connection, that fellowship, that relationship with his people. And he wanted to give his people a means and a method for coming to him to experience that relationship.

Understand that the actual forgiving of sins from the very beginning has always been by faith. It didn't change from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It's not like it used to be forgiveness was this way and now forgiveness is a new way under Christ. No, the reality is forgiveness has always been a response of God to the faith of his people. And we can take that back to Genesis chapter 15.

where Abraham was accounted righteous because he believed the Lord. The Lord gave him a promise of many children and spoke to him these promises of the things that were to come. And it tells us in Genesis 15, verses five and six, Abraham believed in the Lord and the Lord accounted it to him for righteousness. Paul will go on to carry out that point in the book of Romans to explain that that's how forgiveness has always been.

The way that we have right standing with God has always been and will always be a matter of our faith, believing God at his word. And so sacrifice is where it means for God's people to express their faith in God. God, you said this is the means by which we can have right relationship with you and have righteous standing before you. And so we will walk in obedience to that. It was a way for God's people to engage in worship and to express their faith in God.

And so this morning I've titled the message, Express Your Faith to God. As we consider these sacrifices and understanding what they are designed for, it encourages us to do the same. Not to offer the physical sacrifice, but to take the heart of it, to take the meaning behind it, and put that into practice in our lives now and to express our faith to God.

The sacrifices, of course, point to Jesus. And Jesus, it tells us in Hebrews chapter 10, by one offering perfected forever those who are being sanctified. So believing in Jesus deals with the issue of sin once and for all. There is no more sacrifice that is necessary for sin. At the same time, the ongoing expression of our faith to God is necessary. The ongoing interaction between us and God is still important.

And so dealing with sin was a once and for all thing, but the expression of our faith to God goes beyond a one-time thing and is an ongoing part of our lives. It's necessary for us to continually be

renewing and refreshing our faith to the Lord and our relationship with God. And so we're going to walk through some of these sacrifices and consider how we can do that today. First of all, here in Leviticus chapter 5, we're going to see point number one, and that is confess your sins to God. Confess your sins to God. The first step in expressing our faith to God is confession.

The confessing of our sins. Check out verse 5 and 6 here of Leviticus chapter 5. It says, And it shall be, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. And he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord for his sin which he has committed. A female from the flock, a lamb, or a kid of the goats is a sin offering. So the priest shall make atonement for him concerning his sin.

Here in Leviticus chapter 5, we have all of the instructions for the trespass offering, this particular kind of sacrifice. Now, the next chapter, chapter 4, we'll see the sacrifice for the sin offering. And these are very similar and, you know, related to one another. But the difference between a trespass and a sin, you can think about it this way. It's like driving a car and you're listening to the music.

And, you know, Miley Cyrus comes on and you just like got to turn it up and like you're just enjoying it. And I don't know any songs, so I can't sing it for you. Sorry, but that was the only singer I could think of. There's a butterfly song that she sings that's like, you know, we used to tease one of the youth guys because he loved that song. But anyway, so you're like, you're just all in the moment, right? And suddenly you look down and oh my goodness, you've been

going faster than the speed limit because you're just caught up in the moment you're enjoying the song right you're having a good time and you didn't mean to but you were going too fast that's one kind of breaking the speed limit right there's another kind of breaking the speed limit where you got your hands on the wheels you check in your mirrors okay no cops around all right now gun it right and it's an intentional i'm going to break the speed limit or an accidental breaking of the speed limit they're both breaking the speed limit in the end but

But the motivation and, you know, things leading up to it were different. And similarly, it's the trespass and the sin. It's a little bit different, right? The sin is the accidental thing because we have a sinful nature. Even when we're trying to do good, even when we're doing the best that we can, we still fall short of God's standard and God's glory. But there's also those occasions and those times where we know what's wrong, but we take a look around and we think, I can get away with this, and we do it anyways, right?

That is the trespass. And so here in chapter 5, God makes some opportunities for those who trespass to get right with God. And he gives a few examples in these first opening verses about hearing an oath and not making it known, or unclean things, touching unclean things, ceremonial uncleanness, thoughtless promises,

harming holy things in verse 15 and 16, violating other people's property in chapter 6 verses 1 through 7, all these different examples that he gives, but they're just examples of this concept of a trespass that may be committed. And so the point is, when you commit this trespass, you violate this law of God, you commit this sin. It tells us in verse 5, when he is guilty in any of these matters, he

he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. And so what God prescribes as the solution for this falling out between you and the law of God and your relationship with God is confession. The word confession, it means to say the same thing. It means really to declare a fact, whether it is good or bad. To declare the fact, to agree with God that,

I have broken God's law. I have fallen short of God's standard. I have committed this sin. And so the sacrifice would be offered in this case. But God points out the important element of this sacrifice for us to consider at this moment is confession. It's not just that the animal was sacrificed, but there had to be this confession of sin offered

by the person bringing the offering. Thomas Nelson put it this way regarding confession, the rituals of sacrifice were not automatic in their effect. The worshiper had to recognize, acknowledge, and repent of the sin. The fact that, you know, an animal was sacrificed didn't in and of itself bring about the forgiveness of sin for this person.

But the forgiveness would come as they would bring the offering as God prescribed, but also what they would do is they would lay their hands upon the head of the animal and confess the sin before God. This agreement with God about their failures. Now confession requires faith. Again, the subject, the title is express your faith to God. Confession requires faith.

You have to believe God at his word because our natural tendency is to think, if I come clean, well, then I'm just going to be admitting that I deserve judgment and God's going to judge me. But what God said is, his ways are not our ways, right? He says, come to me and confess. Come clean. Be wide open about your condition, about your acts, about what you have done. And if you do that, you will find forgiveness, right?

If you come to me and confess, you will find forgiveness. If you try to hide it, if you try to not come to me, if you try to come to me but not confess, then your sin is going to remain. But if you come to me and open yourself up and acknowledge your sinfulness to me, God says, I won't judge you, even though you deserve judgment. And even though you're admitting you deserve judgment, if you confess your sin to me, notice the guarantee of forgiveness. Jump down to verse 13 here in Leviticus chapter 5.

It says, the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin that he has committed in any of these matters, and it shall be forgiven him. The rest shall be the priest as a grain offering. And so the idea here is as this worshiper brought forth this animal, it was in obedience. It was a step of faith, trusting God at his word. This is the way to make things right, to make amends. And so he would bring the animal as an expression of his faith.

He would lay his hand on the head of the animal and confess and say, this is the wrong that I have done. This is the trespass that I have committed. And declaring that to the Lord, offering the sacrifice, God promises here in verse 13, so it shall be forgiven him. The means of forgiveness is provided through confession. That's the Levitical system here in Leviticus chapter five. But it's interesting to note that the Lord says the same thing for us as believers today.

It's a similar concept. The sacrifice has been made. Jesus Christ died upon the cross to pay the penalty for our sin. But at the same time, there is the need for us to express our faith to God and confess our sins when we have trespassed against the Lord. In 1 John 1, John says, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And so we are still called as believers today, even though the cross satisfied the issue of sin once and for all, satisfied the payment for sin once and for all, there's no more sacrifice that's required, but still confession is required.

And by confession, I don't mean that you have to go sit down with Rick Dominguez and say, okay, Rick, let me list out for you all the sins that I've committed. Confession here is a reference to your relationship to God. Confession is you coming to God and declaring to God how you have failed, where you have fallen short, the sin that you have committed and the way that you have trespassed against him. We need to express our faith to God, to believe him at his word,

that his sacrifice is sufficient for us, and that we receive forgiveness as we come to him with openness, with honesty, confessing our trespasses to him. Well, continuing on now, we're going to move to Leviticus chapter 4 for point number 2. As we continue to consider the expression of our faith to God, here's the next thing that we do. Accept your substitute from God.

Accept your substitute from God. We're going to go to Leviticus chapter 4 and look at verses 27 through 29. Here's what it says, Leviticus 4, 27. If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing something against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done and is guilty...

Or if his sin which he has committed comes to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he has committed. And he shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. And so here we're dealing with unintentional sin.

Again, this is really speaking about our weakness. As human beings, we are fallen, we are sinful. And so there is all kinds of sin that we commit, not that we woke up and intended to, I'm going to go sin today, but just as a reality of the weakness of our sinful flesh, we fall short. And even when we're trying our hardest to do what's right, we still very often do what's wrong. That is a part of our sinful nature.

And so here in chapter four, God's going through a bunch of different scenarios, different people, different responsibilities, and all the different sacrifices involved. But the sacrifice for the common people is found here in verses 27 through 29. And so that's you and I. We're the common people, right? We're not priests. We're not rulers of Israel. So we can understand that this is something that we can relate to. So doing anything against any of the commandments of the Lord. So breaking any commandment against,

of God puts us in a condition of being guilty. God says you're guilty when you have broken any commandment of God. Guilty whether you know it or not. So it's talking about sin. You didn't even know that was a sin perhaps, or you didn't even realize that you had done what you had done. And so you didn't know it, but later it comes to light. Later you realize what it is that has been done and you recognize, oh no, that's a sin. And so God says in addressing this,

Here's what you are to do. You are to offer this sacrifice. This continues for us today. You and I are guilty when any commandment is broken. Later on in the New Testament, it'll tell us if you're guilty of one law, you're breaking one law. You're guilty of breaking all of it. And we are guilty whether we know it or not. You know, we love to excuse ourselves that, you know, we didn't know it was wrong. And so therefore we shouldn't be, you know, held accountable for it.

But that's not the way that God works. And that's not even the way that our own laws in our nation work. Listen, if you're going to be doing a road trip through the different states, you know, around the United States, you need to, the government expects you, the government says it's your responsibility to learn the laws of the places that you go. You can visit their website, travel.state.gov.

And read through criminal penalties that happen in other locations, you know, in other states that you're going through. Hey, I'm just a visitor. I didn't know. That doesn't leave you off the hook. You're still guilty if you break the law in those other places. And so for you and I, we recognize the need for a sacrifice. We recognize the need for the forgiveness of sin because we are sinful. And even when we don't know it, even when we don't realize it,

We are breaking the commandments of God continually, regularly, consistently, daily, because we have a sinful nature. And so here God provides the sacrifice. Now again, for us, we look to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sacrifice. He's the one who paid the penalty. The blood has been shed. It is once and for all. No more sacrifice is needed. But what's interesting here in verse 29, it tells us that

Here the worshiper shall lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and kill the sin offering at the place of the burnt offering. So understand that when they offered this sacrifice, there was something real and personal that would go on. And again, for us in Southern California, at least for me speaking for myself, like this is such a foreign concept. But the worshiper would lay his hand on the head of the sin offering and he would slice the throat of the sin offering. Not the priest, right?

the worshiper. And so you wake up and you realize, oh no, I've sinned. And now you got to bring this sacrifice to the tabernacle and you have to lay your hand on the head of the animal. You're like looking at eye to eye, face to face, and you slit the throat of the animal. That was the requirement that God established here. A very personal thing to bring forth a very clear picture of

of the reality and the severity of sin. But what this represents here is that the worshiper would put his hand on the head of the offering was an identification. The worshiper is saying, "'Little lamb, you are taking my place. "'Little lamb, you are representing me. "'You are receiving the penalty for sin that I deserve, "'and you're taking my place to pay the price for sin.'"

The sacrificial system here that God established was organized around this idea of representation, that this lamb represented me, and so therefore it took my place and received the penalty that I deserve. This idea of representation goes back to the garden. Adam and Eve there in the Garden of Eden represented every one of us.

And as they chose to sin, they represented us and involved us. And so we inherit a sinful nature because they represented us. We come from them. We inherit that from them. And so thinking about that, we might think, well, I don't like this sacrificial system, you know, this representation stuff. Like, I don't want to be responsible because Adam and Eve sinned, right? But at the same time, would you rather pay for your own sin?

See, it's the whole issue of representation that allows us to receive the payment of Christ on our behalf because he represented us. And so here the worshiper would come and lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice and identify himself with the sacrifice and say, this is me. This animal is receiving what I deserve. What's about to happen is what I deserve.

As he goes to the altar, that's what I deserve. He's taking my place and receiving what I deserve on my behalf. And so it was an offering to God. Lord, here is a substitute in my place to receive the things that I deserve. In the same way, we come to the Lord and we say, here's our offering. It's Jesus. He received the penalty that I deserve. He's taking my place, dealing with the issue of sin myself.

on my behalf. And so here, this idea of representation and identification is an essential part of the sacrificial system. It's an essential part of you and I today in our relationship with God. There needs to be this point where we come and accept our substitute from God.

God says, here's your substitute. You've sinned. You've fallen short. Here's a means for you to have right relationship with God. And he gives the Israelites this sacrificial system. For you and I today, he gives the cross. He gives Jesus. And there needs to be this acceptance on our part, this identification where, obviously not physically, but conceptually, we lay our hands on the head of Jesus and we say, Jesus, you received the penalty that I deserve.

You're taking my place when you go to the cross and I'm accepting you as my substitute. Pastor David Guzik says, it was not enough that the victim merely died. The one receiving atonement had to actively identify himself with the sacrifice. In the same way, it's not enough to know that Jesus died for the sins of the world. The one who would receive his atonement must reach out and identify himself with Jesus.

Just to acknowledge the fact that Jesus died for the sins of the world in and of itself is not sufficient for us. There needs to be this real connection, this real identification, this reaching out to Jesus and saying, Jesus, you're my substitute. You're the substitute that God has provided so that I can be forgiven and have access to God once again. And the guarantee is once again given this time in verse 31 at the end of the verse that

When the worshiper walks through this and fulfills this, it says, the priest shall make atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him. Forgiveness comes by confession. We saw the first point. But it's also through identification or substitution. And there is this necessary part for us to accept our substitute from God. Now again, once and for all, Jesus died upon the cross. That doesn't need to happen again. But there does...

need to be in our lives those refreshing and renewings of our acceptance of the substitute from God. The reminder, not so much because the cross itself lacks, but because we lack and we forget and we lose hold of the reality of the cross and the issue of sin. And so us expressing our faith to God involves us accepting the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf in an ongoing basis.

That's one of the reasons why God established communion, to give us that reminder, to give us that opportunity to refresh our hearts before him and receive what he has done on our behalf, receive his grace and his mercy and his forgiveness. Express your faith to God, confess your sin and accept your sacrifice or your substitute that God has provided. Well, moving on to chapter three now,

Here's the third expression of our faith to God, and that is enjoy your peace with God. Getting the sin issue out of the way, now the next three offerings are not requirements. They're voluntary. They're free will offerings. They're if you want to offerings. They're if you want to sacrifices. And this first sacrifice that is that way here in chapter three is the peace offering.

Let's check out verses 1 through 5 here in Leviticus chapter 3. Here's what it says. When his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering, if he offers it to, I'm sorry, if he offers it of the herd, whether male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. And he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood all around the altar.

Verse 5. Verse 6.

Here in chapter 3, we get the description of the peace offering. And again, there's various examples and various processes, different animals depending on what you could afford and all of that that God describes here throughout the chapter. But just focusing on the concept, in verse 1, he says, when his offering is a sacrifice of a peace offering. Now, the peace offering was an offering that a worshiper would bring not to get peace, right?

To get peace, that's Leviticus chapter 5 and Leviticus chapter 4, right? That's dealing with the sin. That's making peace with God or receiving peace from God. This sacrifice was not to get peace, but to enjoy peace. It was basically a celebration over the reality of relationship with God. It was a celebration of God's work in the life of the worshiper.

It was a feast, essentially, that would be celebrating the goodness of God, the mercy of God, and the grace of God. In verse 3, it tells us, he shall offer the sacrifice of the peace offering, an offering made by fire to the Lord. And so this was like the previous ones that we've looked at, an animal that was sacrificed, similar process, laying the hand on the head, slicing the throat, you know, all of that would be very similar to

But it would be different in that the worshiper would get to partake of the animal that was sacrificed. In the sin offerings, the worshiper got nothing of the animal. You brought your lamb as a sin offering to the Lord. It was given to the Lord and the priest got a portion of it, but you got nothing of it. There was, you know, no physical product that you received from offering that. But with the peace offering, it was different.

There was a portion that was burned on the altar. Verse four talks about that. Two kidneys and the fat that goes with it, the liver and the fat, that's what was actually burned on the altar. So if you think about an animal, you think about a calf or a lamb, and it's just these couple components of the lamb that are actually offered on the altar for a peace offering. There was a portion that went to the priest of the peace offering that's given specifically in Leviticus 7.34.

the breasts of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering. So again, you picture a calf or a lamb being offered to the Lord. There's a couple portions of the internals, the kidneys, the liver, the fat that goes along with it. Those are on the altar. There's a portion that's given to the priest, the thigh, the breasts. What happens to the rest of the animal?

There's still a lot left, right? I mean, you picture an animal, you take out the kidneys, you take out the liver, you take out a breast, you take out a thigh. What's left? Well, three more thighs, right? Another breast. There's a bunch left after that. What happens to all of that? Well, for the peace offering, that was all given back to the worshiper. And there was...

Within the compound of the tabernacle, and it becomes more clear in the temple later on, there was the ability for the worshiper then to go and cook a meal with the meat that was left from the peace offering. And so you could picture it as really a gigantic barbecue.

It was all-you-can-eat barbecue, if you want to think about it that way, because here you have this animal being offered, right? If you've ever been to a pig roast, right? How many people does that feed? It feeds a lot, right? There's this massive quantity of meat that's provided for the worshiper to come and enjoy with his family and have a great meal together, have a big celebration about the fact that they have peace with God. That's the whole idea here.

And it kind of ties into, and I don't have time to really get into the details, but they understood that the eating together to be a uniting together, right? If you and I eat, we eat from the same portion together. And so in a sense, we have a oneness as a result. Well, in a similar way, they've offered a portion on the altar together.

And they're consuming a portion themselves. And so they're celebrating the fact that they have this union and fellowship with God. It was a peace offering, really a celebration of that. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way. After the sacrifice, the worshiper and his family would eat what remained once the priest had taken his rightful share. It was to be a joyful feast of fellowship. Okay.

a celebration of the fact that we have peace with God. Walking through these things reminded me of an occasion where we, a couple of us guys, we went out to an all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue place. And man, it's one of my favorite dining experiences, right? To just, you just get to cook it yourself, you get to eat it, and it just keeps coming, keeps coming, keeps coming. And one of the guys really started to feel guilty. He was like, man, I just feel like

We just like, you know, sinned against the Lord, you know, to such a degree that just like, it's just sinful how much we've eaten at this barbecue. And in that conversation, it kind of turned towards, we started talking about these feasts and the peace offering as an example of like,

You know, there are those times where, listen, if you live your life that way, you know what I mean? Like your whole life is about consuming as much food as you can and gluttoning yourself in that way. Okay, that's a problem. But God provided for in the law here, the opportunity to come together and enjoy a good meal and stuff yourself. Enjoy a good meal and celebrate the goodness of God. Celebrate the fact that we have peace with God.

Now, a good meal is, you know, a way to do that. Again, these sacrifices were given as a way for them to express their faith to God. For us today, a good meal is not the only way to express our faith to God and enjoy our peace with God. Another way for us to do that is communion, which we'll partake of in a few moments.

But there is opportunity for us to have a feast. You know, hey, you throw birthday parties, right? You throw, you know, anniversary parties or different holidays throughout the year, right? In a similar way, there is the opportunity for us to just have a feast and celebrate and enjoy the peace that we have with God. Or maybe if you want to think about it another way, go on vacation. And that doesn't mean like go indulge your flesh, but

Go purposefully celebrate what God has done for you and his goodness in your life. The fellowship that you have with him, the forgiveness of sins, God releases you to go enjoy yourself with him, to have fellowship together, him included. But, you know, I'm not saying, you know, just go party. I'm saying to go enjoy something with the Lord. It's an expression of our faith in God, to enjoy our peace with God.

to really live out this reality. I have right relationship with God because the sin offerings have been accomplished. Christ has paid the price. I've confessed my sin. I've identified with Christ. He is my substitute for sin. And so I have peace with God. Well, the next thing we go to is now Leviticus chapter two. Here's the fourth expression of our faith to God. Serve your God with gratitude.

Serve your God with gratitude. Now, I'm not actually going to go into details here in Leviticus chapter 2 because this was our portion on Wednesday. And so I spent Wednesday service walking through chapter 2 and talking about the many different ways that this manifests itself. But just to hit a couple highlights, Leviticus chapter 2 verses 1 through 3 says this.

When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be a fine flour. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, one of whom shall take from it his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense. And the priest shall burn it as a memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. The rest of the grain offering shall be Aaron's and his sons. It is most holy of the offerings made by fire."

Here God gives a sacrifice that is not an animal sacrifice. This is a grain offering and it can take different forms. The first one described here in verses one through three is fine flour. That's just the wheat ground up into a fine flour and that could be presented. Just bring your bag of flour to the Lord as a grain offering. A portion would be offered on the altar. The rest would be given to the priest. And God says that is a most holy sacrifice to me.

But the fine flour could be prepared in advance and baked in the oven or baked in a pan or baked in a covered pan or roasted grain if it was a first fruits offering. Again, all details we went into on Wednesday, so I'm not going to get into those details this morning. But essentially it was this work that was prepared. Either you ground the wheat into fine powder or you ground the wheat and then cooked it and prepared it in some way and then you brought it before the Lord.

And as I shared on Wednesday, it speaks to us of gratitude, but also acts of service unto the Lord. Things that we do for the Lord just because of what he has done for us. We are grateful for him and what he has done. And so we serve the Lord. We do acts of service unto the Lord as a result. And the range can be simple acts of service, like a bag of flour. It doesn't have to be, you know, this huge involved thing that takes hours and hours and days to prepare.

Or it can be. And there's different types of service unto the Lord. There's different types of things that we can do. Either way, God says, that's a most holy sacrifice. That is something that I honor. That is something that I treasure. And so we, expressing our faith to God, have the opportunity to serve God with gratitude. Say, God, I want to do something for you. I want to do things for you. I want to serve you in various ways because I'm so thankful.

for what you've done in my life. The sacrifice of Christ was once and for all, but the expression of our faith to God, those things that we can do to serve the Lord, they continue on and on. Paul tells us in Colossians 3, 17, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Paul essentially says, everything that you do can be a great offering.

Do it in the name of the Lord. Do it on behalf of the Lord with gratitude and you honor the Lord by doing that. Well, finally, Leviticus chapter one gives us the fifth sacrifice for us to consider today. Here's the fifth expression of our faith to God and that is devote yourself fully to God. Devote yourself fully to God. Verse three says, Leviticus chapter one, verse three, if his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd,

Let him offer a meal without blemish. He shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. He shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord and the priest Aaron's son shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And the skin of the burnt offering shall be cut in pieces and

Verse 9. Here the burnt offering is.

is probably what we typically consider when we think about sacrifices. This is a particular type of offering where the entire animal, the whole animal, would be burned upon the altar. The sin offering, the trespass offering, the peace offering, that was not the case. But in this case, the burnt offering, the whole animal was upon the altar. Now, it's similar to the others in that the animal represented the worshiper. He put his hand on the head,

He identified with it. He said, look, this animal represents me. In this case, the animal represents me. And what I'm saying here is I want to put my whole life on the altar.

I belong on the altar. I belong as a sacrifice and an offering to God. And so the worshiper killed the animal and identified with the animal in that way so that he could express to God, God, I am devoting myself to you fully and completely. And you and I have this same opportunity today. Again, Christ died upon the cross. It was once and for all. Sins paid for, covered.

The burnt offering was a free will offering. It wasn't automatic. It wasn't required in a similar way. It's not required of you, but you have the opportunity. We are instructed to respond to God's work in our lives and what he has done by willingly offering ourselves completely and entirely to the Lord. Of course, we're familiar with Romans chapter 12, verse 1. Paul says, I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God.

that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. It's the only reasonable response to the understanding of what God has done for us, for us to give ourselves over to the Lord completely. Paul puts it another way in Romans chapter 6, verse 13. Here's a good way to think about this idea of a burnt offering. He says, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin,

but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. Don't present your body to acts of sin, but instead present your body to God. Present the members of your body as instruments of righteousness. God, I am yours to command. Lord, whatever you want, however you want me to behave, whoever you want me to talk to, you know, whatever you want to take place, the direction that you want me to go, I'm yours.

Put my hands to work for righteousness. Put my feet to work for righteousness. Previously, my hands, my feet, they've been used for wickedness. But Lord, I'm presenting myself to you now. My whole life, my whole body, my whole mind, my whole heart, it's yours for you to lead, for you to direct, to do righteousness. Now again, I would point out that the worshiper killed the animal. The priest didn't do it for him.

You want to present your life as a living sacrifice? You want to, you know, offer yourself and devote yourself to God this way? Nobody else can do it for you. The worshiper himself did it. In Hebrews chapter 12, the author of Hebrews says, look, we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. So let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us. Not let us sit there and wait for the weights and sin to be removed from us, but let us kill the animal.

Kill the weight. Kill the sin. Let us put those things aside. Let us lay those things aside. Let us lay down the things that keep us from being wholly devoted to God. The problem with the living sacrifice, as is often said, is the sacrifice keeps getting off the altar.

And for you and I, we have the once and for all sacrifice of Christ, but the expression of our faith to God and fully devoting ourselves to God is we keep getting off the sacrifice and we need to come back to, Lord, I devote myself fully to you once again. This was a free will offering that could be offered over and over and over and over and over again because you and I

We'll find ourselves needing to offer ourselves to the Lord over and over and over and over again, a freewill offering saying, Lord, I'm yours, devoted to you completely and fully. And so here looking at the sacrifices, we learn about expressing our faith to God. The sacrifices were not for God, they were for humanity, for his people. And for you and I today, they teach us to come to God by faith, believing him at his word, confessing our sins to God,

accepting the substitute that he has provided in Christ who received the penalty and the payment for our sins, enjoying the peace that we have with God, the fellowship that we have with God, the freedom that comes from a life that is in connection to God and released from bondage to sin.

Serving God with gratitude, doing acts of service, simple acts of service, acts of service that are involved and require hours and hours and days of preparation, but just doing things because we're so thankful to God for what he has done in our lives and devoting ourselves fully to God. This morning, we get to consider these things further by partaking of communion together. And in communion, the Lord gave us again this reminder that

He introduced it to his disciples ahead of the cross there on the night that he was betrayed. But he says, hey guys, do this often. Do this repeatedly. And in doing so, remember me. Remember what I've done for you. The cross, it was once and for all. It was the once and for all payment for sin. But he says, guys, refresh yourselves and renew yourselves in the sacrifice regularly, continually. And so we get this opportunity to do that this morning, to express our faith regularly.

And so I'm going to invite the worship team to come up. And what we're going to do for communion, guys, is we're going to spend the next few minutes here in worship together. They're going to lead us in a few songs. And the communion elements, for those of you who are here in person, they're on the table in the back, right there by the light post. And so I want to encourage you to express your faith to God, the sacrifice,

For sin was mandatory. You have to be a believer in Jesus. You have to receive Christ in order to have forgiveness. But the voluntary offerings, the peace offering, the grain offering, or the grain offering and the burnt offering, they're voluntary. And so you, of your own free will, you get to do those things. We get to accomplish these things and express our faith to God right now in this time of worship.

And so I would encourage you to walk through these things. Confess your sin to God. Accept the substitute that God has provided in Christ. Enjoy peace with God and maybe invite the Lord to show you how you can enjoy what it is that he's provided in the relationship that he has for you. Serve the Lord with gratitude. And maybe during this time, pray about how you can serve the Lord and opportunities that he wants to set before you that you can give back in response to all that he's given to you.

And I would encourage you to take this time to devote yourself fully to God. And so the elements are back there. It's free will. It's up to you. Anytime you want during this time of worship, go and partake. Remember the cross. Walk through these expressions of faith to God. For those of you who are live streaming, obviously you have your own elements and you can do the same at any time. But let's take this time to express our faith to God, to trust in God.

and bring about the right relationship that he has provided. And so they're going to lead us in a few songs. And again, during this time, let's walk out and live out the faith that God has established and provided for us, the opportunity for us to know him, to be right with him, to enjoy fellowship with him and receive communion together. Communion elements represent the blood of Jesus, the body of Jesus being broken. Accept those, receive those.

And allow God to do the work in your life that he desires to do. Let's worship the Lord together.