The Burnt Offering | Leviticus 1 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (8/2/26)

I'm aware that many of us are perhaps excited to look at John's vision of the return of Jesus Christ in Revelation 19, but I desire to give more careful attention to that vision, and we will do so next week. So instead, today, we'll be considering a different passage that I'm sure will help us as we partake of the Lord's Supper this morning. And it's a passage found in the Hebrew Scriptures that I can say with... Without any exaggeration, God used in my life to transform my worship. This specific text that we're we're going to examine has helped me tremendously to see God more clearly and to engage with the Lord with greater comfort and greater confidence.

And my sincere prayer is that the Lord would do the same for us, for all of us, as we look at this very same passage. And I believe that will be accomplished in two ways. Number one, that as we look at these verses, which unfortunately have been treated unfairly by many believers, overlooked, ignored, neglected. But that when we look at it, we would see Christ in it in a place where we might have missed him. And that should always excite us to find the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the pages of Scripture.

But secondly, in the very same passage that we will look at, my prayer is that we would find inspiration, we would find illustration of what God asks of us when it comes to our personal devotion to him. And I believe both of those objectives can be accomplished as we come to a specific text that deals with a particular sacrifice that God ordered ancient Israel to perform faithfully, found in the book of Leviticus. And so I ask you now to please turn with me to the book of Leviticus chapter one. If you want a summary of what Leviticus is all about, you can say that it is God's instruction manual for ancient Israel's personal worship, their ritual worship, and their holiness, not just individually but corporally. This is the underlying purpose behind every elaborate procedure and observance and ceremony.

It's all designed to give the people of God of that time the means and the steps to take in order to maintain fellowship with the Holy God, a God who chose to dwell among his people in what we know to be the tabernacle, a tent like structure that hosted his presence. And what you will see here in the book of Leviticus, at least in the first seven chapters, are five different offerings that Israel was to give to the Lord, each emphasizing a unique aspect of their worship. And we don't have time to look at all of them, but the first one that comes to our attention in the book of Leviticus is the burnt offering. Now some of these offerings were voluntary. They were expressions of delight, consecration, pleasure in the Lord.

And so you would come freely and give something to God upon that altar as an act of worship. Other sacrifices were mandatory. They were non negotiable means for reconciliation when, an individual sinned against the Lord or even when the corporate body violated some kind of law in unison. And so the Lord lays this out for his people and you might be thinking to yourself at this point, that's insightful. That's something maybe I didn't know before but how does this help me as a follower of Jesus Christ?

And I think it's extremely relevant for two reasons. Reasons that I just mentioned earlier. Number one, each of these offerings, these main offerings, point to a facet of the person of Jesus Christ. Something about his life, something about his character, something about his ministry, and clearly something about his death. Jesus Christ himself said that he was a fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

And so when you come to something like Leviticus, you have to come with the lens and the faith of seeing Jesus here. But secondly, we also understand that these offerings have something to teach us about God's heart and what he expects from us as worshipers. If interpreted rightly, if applied correctly because you see as new covenant believers, we are not bound to the ceremonial laws in the Torah. That being said, we serve the same God. And we understand that even passages like what we'll see here in Leviticus have instruction for us.

And I wanna show you by God's help how there are wonderful pictures here and principles that can bring you closer to understanding how to worship God the way he deserves. And so we're looking very briefly, not exhaustively, hopefully enough to move your soul at the burnt offering found in the opening verses of Leviticus and we'll begin reading here from Leviticus one verse one down through verse nine. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when any of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord.

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron's sons, the priest, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron's sons, the priest, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar.

But its entrails and its legs, he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Lord, we we pray when we read your word at this moment because we recognize that especially with a text like this, we can become distracted. We can even become discouraged. But Lord, we believe that this is your word.

We believe this is your holy word. And we ask, God, that you would help us now look at what we need to see in order for us to be the worshipers that you've called us to be. Help us by the Holy Spirit. We are eager now. We are hungry to receive your food this morning.

We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, how I wish I can keep you here for a few hours. To just look at the burnt offering and see so much of Christ. But hopefully, what we will explore this morning will be enough to excite you about something like the book of Leviticus.

And so we're not going to look at everything possible concerning Christ in these verses that we just read, but just some thoughts. And the first thing that we want to consider here is how this offering and really all the offerings that will follow were instituted and originated and initiated by God. Look at the first two verses again. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting saying, 'Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, when any of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock.' What's the context? Well, the people of Israel in the wilderness, God had told them to build the tabernacle once it was complete.

Now he wants to tell them what they should do in the tabernacle. And what moves me about even these opening verses is that though these sacrifices are means by which the people are to fellowship with God, enjoy God, come near to God, that's the design of them. It was God who initiated it. This was not requested by Moses or any of the other people of Israel. This was not their idea primarily.

This was not their attempt to try to draw closer to God. This was God reaching out to his own. This is God wanting to come near to his people and determining the procedures that were necessary for an unholy group to come to an ultimately holy God. And so right away, what we're supposed to see here is God's heart to commune with us. Our sin as vile and as disgusting and offensive as it may be, did not repulse God.

Though he is so pure, so brilliant, so blameless, He sees an unholy people and he says, now how can I get to them? And so right away, I see God's love in the first two verses of Leviticus. I see a relational God. I see a God who initiates when he seeks relationship with his creation. And in the same way, the ultimate offering in the person of Jesus Christ originated and was initiated by God himself.

As sons and daughters of Adam, we did not come together and think to ourselves, how do we solve our sin problem? Let's all get together and cry out to God. We were running away from him. And the more time passes you see in redemptive history, the more ground we were gaining as we're fleeing from his presence, seeking to be our own gods. And what do you find?

The Lord pursuing us. And that pursuit culminates in the person of Jesus Christ. Where in John one, we read that he dwelt among us. That word dwelt is tabernacled. When this actual tent failed, when the people could not keep up with these ordinances, God did not give up on them.

He didn't give up on us. He doesn't instruct for a tent to be built any longer. He takes on flesh. And he dwells among us. And with actual human feet, he goes to leper camps and he goes to the booths of tax collectors, and he goes to sick people in their homes.

And he reaches out to them with a desire for us to respond to that. Beyond that, after you've come to this realization, you discover that the burnt offering is a substitute. Look again at verse three. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting and that he may be accepted before the Lord.

He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. What was the purpose of the burnt offering? For general atonement to be made for the sins of the people. There are other things that it symbolizes like consecration, but what we see here immediately is that it provided a level of covering for sin. But notice what was instructed.

We encounter here a clear picture of substitution. When a person desired to bring a burnt offering, he would bring a bull from the herd and what would he do? Lay his hand on the head of that beast. That's more than just somebody coming at the entrance of the tabernacle and saying, hey, this is mine. No.

No. No. No. No. It's far more profound than that.

By laying the hand on the head of that beast, what that worshiper was confessing is this animal and me are becoming one in a sense. I'm identifying with this beast. And I know that this animal is about to die and what I'm saying by placing my hand on this animal is that I deserve to die for my sin. So there's an element of confession here. I know that this beast is about to be placed on that fiery altar and I recognize that he's doing it my place.

So there is a sense in which this individual here is actually humbling himself to say, this animal is taking my place. I deserve to die. But more than that, not that there was some magical thing taking place here. This is this is all symbolic. There is an element of transferring of sin that this this beast here is going to die in my place.

But look at the language here verse four carefully. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burn offering and it shall be accepted for him. For him. The beast is dying but it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. That's payment.

That's covering. So listen, early in Israel's history, God is communicating here in the opening verse of verses of Leviticus that in order for you to enter into relationship with me, there needs to be a substitute in your place. Your sin is so costly that something needs to die. That's the wages of sin. And instead of the worshiper dying because God does not delight in our death, He provides a way for his justice to be satisfied but also for his mercy to be experienced and he does through does it through this kind of system.

This beast is going to die on my behalf. I'm going to benefit from its death. And in like manner, Jesus Christ himself said it so loud and clear that he is the way, the truth and the life and that no one can enter into a real genuine loving relationship with the father apart from him. In order for you to have the entrance into relationship with God, the key is Christ and his substitutionary death. There needs to be a spotless sacrifice.

There needs to be a payment that pleases God and this is what all this is pointing to. But notice how this is even explained further in verse five. This really moved me. Then he shall kill the bold before the Lord And Aaron's sons, the priest shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Who's killing the animal?

It's not the priest. It's the one who brings the animal. It's the worshiper. That's staggering to me. So he goes and fetches for a spotless bowl.

He brings it to the entrance of the house of worship. But he doesn't just drop it off and say, okay. Thank you. I'm gonna trust by faith that this this animal is gonna die on my place in my place and I'm gonna be covered temporarily. No.

No. No. No. God says, you need to kill it. Why?

To give a sense of personal responsibility. That's why. I want you to recognize that you are contributing to the death of this innocent thing. I want you to feel the weight of it. I want you to understand that it's your sin that's causing this death.

You know, I believe many people struggle trying to rest in the love of Jesus Christ primarily because they have never or they can't seem to make it personal. So they understand they understand that God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. He died for the sins of the world. Wonderful. Praise God.

We think about his promises to the church at large, to the believers collectively. And we seem to think that God loves everybody else in the church but he struggles to have some kind of affection for me. Well, this procedure here would help because you would have to understand by slaying this animal, this is very personal. What did Paul say in Galatians two twenty? I'm crucified with Christ.

Right? Nevertheless, I live. And then he goes on to speak about the faith that he now lives in the son of God in the flesh. And then he goes on to say this, who loved me and gave himself for who? The world?

The church? No, me. He made it personal. He understood that it was my sin that put him on the cross. So I wanna challenge you this morning.

I trust that many of you in here understand and believe that the the sin of the world was placed on the shoulders of Jesus Christ. But when's the last time you reflect on this? My sin put him on the cross. My thoughts, my selfish motives, my murderous spirit, my porn addiction, my love for money, my ugly rage against my wife. When's the last time you and I have just contemplated that it was my offense that put him to death.

And at the same time, when was the last time you meditated on this? That he died to pay for my sin. List all the sins that you want. If you put your faith in his substitutionary atonement, it's all paid for. It's all paid for.

Every last thing, That's how potent his blood is. That's how rich it is. That's how much it is pleasing in the sight of God. So don't generalize the cross. Make it personal.

That's why people struggle reading the Bible also because they don't read it personally. They don't see, okay, what is Leviticus asking of me? How do I view God from pages of scripture? And the Lord understood that. So he provides this rule.

You bring the beast, you need to kill it. This is incredible for us to see, I'm sure. And I want you to notice here at verse nine, the result of the offering. We read here in the last part that it is a pleasing aroma to the lord. In fact, that statement is made two more times in the short chapter with the burnt offering.

It's pleasing. It's a fragrance. It's a perfume. It brings pleasure to God. Did you know that this is something that the New Testament ascribes to Jesus?

Turn with me to Ephesians chapter five. I want you to see it with me. And notice what Paul says about the offering of Christ. Ephesians five, look with me at verse one. Ephesians five verse one reads, therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Where is Paul getting that language from? Leviticus? That's what all of this is pointing to. Christ himself is the aroma that satisfies the heart of God and it never ceases to please God. You see, there was not one single burnt offering that was made in the Old Testament that gave God permanent pleasure.

It needed to be repeated. In fact, not to make things too complicated, if you go to Leviticus chapter six, on that altar, we are told that there should be a burnt offering day and night. Unending smoke, unending fire. But Christ sacrifice, his atonement is so holy and so lovely and so profound that he died once never to die again. That he's...

He laid his life down once never to see death again. Without getting ahead of myself here, what moves me about this passage in Ephesians is that although Christ is being described as a fragrant offering, Paul tells us how we can walk as fragrant offerings. Look at verse two. And walk in love and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Earlier, he's saying imitate God.

Do you wanna know how you can be absolutely certain that your life carries an aroma before the throne of a holy God? Do one simple thing. Walk in love. That is what God asks of us. To minister to people's needs.

To think of them. To help them. To encourage them. To serve them. And as you and I do that by God's help, it is ascending an aroma before God himself.

I'm pleased with this. Doesn't that move you? It moves me. What is God looking for me? What is he asking from me?

Love. Love for him and love for others. So we see here that the burnt offering was a substitute. But more than that, as we come back to Leviticus one, I want you to see here how the burnt offering was supposed to be clean from the inside out. Look here at verse six of Leviticus one.

Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. And Aaron's sons the priest shall arrange the pieces of the head and the fat on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. I get it. You read something like this in your morning devotions and you say, Lord, what do I do with this? Entrails, legs, head, fat.

What? Read closely. Look for Christ. Here is my first question. What is unique about the burnt offering is that unlike the other offerings, the entire animal was consumed in flames.

You see, in other offerings, there would be some portions left for the offer to consume and eat and some for the priest. Not so with the burnt offering. When you came with this kind of sacrifice, you put everything on the altar. So here's my question based on verse six. If you're putting everything on the altar, why take the time to cut it into pieces?

Legitimate question? Save some time. You're burning the whole thing anyway. Place it there. And then you read verse nine where you recognize that different pieces had to be washed.

Now it makes sense. Cutting the beast in pieces was a way for the priest to inspect to see if everything was perfect. To evaluate and inspect and see that there's no defect, there's no diseased part. And so it was a practical instruction surely. But then you look at the details of verse nine and you see that there are two things, main things that need to be washed, the entrails, that's the organs of the animal, and the legs.

Where do you find the entrails for an animal or for a human being? Inside. Right? And the legs? Outside.

So what's this inspection all about? Make sure that the inside is perfect and that the outside is perfect. Here you see Jesus Christ. Christ's perfect holiness was not external only. It was not just in his actions and in his words and in his behavior.

No. Christ was perfect internally. He never sinned in his imagination. He never broke God's law with his feelings or his ambitions or his passions. Everything about Christ from the inside out was holy.

And there's an element to this too when we recognize Christ being crucified that his agony was also more than just physical. He quotes the Psalms expressing the pain of sensing God forsaking him. The depth of that punishment was beyond nails and beyond a pure sign and beyond thorns piercing his brow. There was something on the inside taking place. Wash the entrails, wash the legs, Ensure that it is perfect in the sight of God.

Christ is perfect totally, completely. And praise God for that because then he is an acceptable sacrifice. Now here's what's so amazing about the burnt offering. Here's what's so amazing about the word of God. It demands that you read all of it.

That's how the Bible is put together. And so you think that, okay, I know a little bit more about the burnt offering here and what you see here based on these instructions is that the whole beast is consumed. Sure. And then you go on to Leviticus and recognize, wait a minute. Is it?

Turn with me to Leviticus seven. Except for one thing. I want you to see one verse with me in Leviticus seven. And the priest who offers any man's burnt offering shall have for himself the skin of the burnt offering that he has offered. Remember back in Leviticus one that they flayed the beast?

So you're skinning the animal but you didn't discard it. According to this instruction, the priest who helped you offer the beast was to keep the skin. And you're thinking why? I'm thinking why? Well, we're not explicitly told.

But how much can you do with skin? So some believe that, oh, it's it's a compensation for the priest to be able to sell it if they need to make some money. I know it's difficult to come to a conclusion when you have so much silence, but I look across the Bible and and I'm thinking to myself to pass instances of scripture where sacrifices were made and I'm looking for skin. And I recognize something, that a very significant place where sacrifice was made and the skin is explicitly mentioned, it was used for what? Covering.

Do you remember what happened with Adam and Eve after they violated God's one single command and he banished them from his presence? He banished them from the garden? Well, in Genesis three twenty one, it says, and the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments as skins and clothed them. What purpose did the priest in Leviticus use the skins as garments? We're not told.

But it makes total sense and it is amazing when you think about the implications of it. Because you've been hearing over and over again how this sacrifice is a pleasing aroma, how everything about it inside and out is perfect and must be perfect pointing to Jesus Christ and then you have this one little occurrence where you discover that the skin of that beast that pleases God, that must be completely holy is now worn by the priest. There's a level of identification even there. You see, when you believe on the sacrifice of Jesus Christ by faith, you now from that moment on where his righteousness and the pleasing aroma that was on him now is transferred over to you. And so that when God looks at you, he sees the covering of his son.

This is what makes us absolutely unique as Christians that we don't present our own righteousness before the Lord but we come clothed in his. That is where you find confidence in your eternity. That is where you find confidence in prayer. That is where you find confidence when Satan tells you over and over you're a dead man. You have a surprise waiting for you at judgment day.

You think you're saved but you're not saved. And Leviticus reminds me here, you're right if I'm basing on my own performance but I'm clothed in his. So the burnt offering in all its glory and its complete surrender at the same time, clothes the priest. How much more can we say about Jesus in Leviticus one so much more? But let me give you one last thing, and that is how the burnt offering was available for all walks of life.

We stopped at verse nine. If somebody wanted to offer a burnt offering, they should go to their herd and find a bull. But it didn't stop there. Read with me in verse 10. If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male without blemish.

Scroll down here to verse 14. If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or pigeons. When you compare these animals, it's clear that a bull was the most expensive, the most costly. It had more to offer as a type of vehicle for an individual for a family. But God understood that not everybody could afford a bull.

So what if somebody needed atonement? What would they do? Well, he provides a way. If you can't get a bull, go get a goat. Go get a sheep.

Oh, what if I don't have a goat? What if I don't have a sheep? Then go get a bird. What's this teaching? God makes atonement available for everybody.

That's the picture. And none of us have an excuse of not receiving his forgiveness. You see, God here considers every class in society, every economic circumstance, every background, he does not leave one individual out from receiving his forgiveness. And we're very good at excluding ourselves from God's love and even from his salvation. When we look back at our own history, in our own past, in our own behaviors, in our own whatever, and we think to ourselves, I can see how God can forgive that person.

I can see how God forgives that lady. I can see how God forgives that individual. But me, I'm not sure. Leviticus one says it's available for everybody. So if you're in here in this place today and you're thinking, what service did I walk into?

Blood and entrails and fat and fire. Let me say this with the utmost reverence. What I'm trying to convey to you if this is very new to you is that everything in the Bible points to Jesus Christ. And even in this, this real historical document for real people, ultimately foreshadows a person. And if you don't hear anything else, hear this this morning that what we see in these pages of scripture is that there is nothing that you have done that cancels out the possibility of you being forgiven by God.

You can come exactly how you are, but God loves you too much to keep you as you are. He will transform you, but you have to understand he has made it all possible for you to approach him and if you don't, the fault is yours, not his. He's pursued you. He's provided the atonement but you have to apply your faith to it. So these are just some of the ways we see Christ.

I hope I hope that your heart is stirred. Who would have thought that I can see Jesus in the burnt offering? And there's even more. Discuss it over lunch. But now I wanna take the last few moments before we we continue in the service to see what we can learn about God's commands and demands and desire for our worship.

First of all, the burnt offering looked different for each person. You heard it already. One would bring a bull. If you couldn't afford the bull, you bring a goat. If you couldn't afford the goat, you bring a bird.

And it's at this point I want to stop and say that exact thought is what God the Holy Spirit used in my life to change the way I view my personal devotion to him. Do you remember what it was like to first be saved? For many of us, it was at different stages of life. For me, it was in college. Full time student, try to be a good one, but I wasn't as busy as I am now then.

At most, two classes a day. Usually in the morning, I would have the rest of the day off. And here I am, eyes wide open by God's grace, sealed with the Holy Spirit, enjoying my walk with my savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything looked different. Everything.

Not just my sin. My textbooks looked different. Everything. And so I did my best to pay attention in class and do what the teacher told me to do, but I couldn't wait for that session to end because I would make my way to my apartment skipping. Why?

Because I get to read my Bible. And I get to close my bedroom door in that two bedroom apartment and turn that little bedroom into the Holy of Holies. And at the time, I also lived by the lake. So I would put headphones in and blast praise music and make my way to a designated spot that nobody else knew about, at least I believe nobody else knew about. And I would sit on those big rocks, and I would just lean back on one of them and talk to God, love him, worship him.

But as it is for most of us as time went on, responsibilities pile up. You wanna graduate? You need an internship. You gotta work. Okay.

So I gotta work. So here I am from having all this free time to not having virtually no time. I went from skipping to my apartment to running from my apartment to get to the bus so that the bus could take me to the train, so that the train could take me to the street car. Why? So I can get to my workplace in Downtown Toronto.

What did my schedule look like then? 6AM wake up and get back by 6PM. And here I am wondering to myself, how long is this going to last for? And so I remember so clearly in the middle of winter during that season, getting off of one of those buses, making my way to my apartment, shivering and thinking to myself, oh, I missed those days where I had so little to do and I could spend as much as time as what I wanted to be in your presence, Lord. Can you change my schedule, please?

Can you make some kind of adjustment? Because here I am. I only have a few hours left before I have to go and sleep so I can wake up and do the whole thing again. And there's only so many pizzas that you can get across from the campus. You gotta change your diet up a little bit.

So I gotta make dinner. That wasn't easy as a college student. And there are other things I gotta run around and do errands. Do I go to the gym? Do I not go to the gym?

If I go to the gym, I have less less time to do this and that. When am I going to... When am I gonna spend deep genuine time in prayer? When am I going to study the Bible? And this is a genuine struggle.

And since those initial months of coming to Christ in college, it's never really been the same in terms of availability and freedom. And one day, one day, God opened my eyes to Leviticus one. And I'm reading these verses and it dawned on me. If you can't give a bull, give a goat. If you can't afford a goat, give a bird.

And here's what's amazing with each of these offerings. Look at verse 13 after the goat is prescribed, the last part of verse 13, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Look at the last part here of verse 17, after the bird is prescribed with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Though each offering was different in size and value and cost, they were all a pleasing aroma to the Lord. So here's what I learned.

When circumstances are outside of your control, when you really really wanna give more, you wanna give a bowl. But because of other things that are demanding your time as a mom, with children that you have to feed and nurse and teach or as a father. You're working two jobs and your soul is aching because you can remember a day when there is less demand on your time and on your energy. Give God what you can give him. If you can't give a bull, give a goat.

If you can't give a goat, give a bird. And if you're doing it from a place of sincerity and honesty, God sees it all as a pleasing aroma to him. This changed my life because as seasons come and go and some months are busier than others, regularly, I come before the Lord and say, Lord, you... I can't change this. I I can't but I come to you by faith now and I give you a goat.

Receive it as a pleasing aroma, please. And Lord, it's getting even crazier. So for the next few weeks here, I'm gonna give you a bird. And by faith, I trust that he sees me and he goes, son, it's a pleasing aroma to me. Do you sense the freedom in that?

Do you sense the liberty in this? Do you see God's grace in the book of Leviticus? I do. I hope you see it too. And don't for a moment feel guilty if you can only give so little.

Do you remember what Mary and Joseph gave when they went to the temple to dedicate Jesus? Maybe you don't. So go to Luke chapter two with me. Luke chapter two. And look here at verse 22.

And when the time came for the... Their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up, that being Jesus, to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord. This is a different kind of ritual. It was a purification ritual for those who bore a son or a daughter.

This is what Mary is observing. But look here at the request of God. And to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. We don't have time to do it because we we have to look at a couple more things. But if you go back to Leviticus chapter 12, that is where the purification laws are described in a greater detail.

And the the first instruction that is given in order to honor this was that you were supposed to come with a lamb. A lamb for a burnt offering and a bird for a different kind of offering. But if you could not afford a lamb, in Leviticus 12, you read that you come with two turtle doves. And then you read Luke two and you realize the guardians of the Son of God could not afford a lamb. They came with birds.

Was God any less pleased with them? Don't you dare say yes. This tells me that Mary and Joseph were not very wealthy. And Jesus chose to be under this household. And they came in the best way that they could to honor God's law with two dogs.

Give God what you can. Do it by faith and it will please him. We come here now to look at a final thing. There's more to say, but I'm not going to say it. The burnt offering had to be completely consumed.

You and I saw that so clearly. And you have to understand what that means for for the Israelites of this time. They were in the wilderness. They were traveling station by station. Imagine how much a bull meant to a family of that time.

Remember, the burnt offering demanded every part of it. You didn't directly benefit from it. You couldn't eat from it like other offerings. So you can imagine of those who are less faithful, less devoted to God, looking at something like a burnt offering and thinking, that's kinda like a waste. You know how much you can do with a bull?

You know how much work you can get done? You know how much burden you can put on that thing? And you're just gonna throw it all on the altar and give it to God? Why? Well for a true worshiper because he's worthy and it's pleasing to him.

But is God ultimately looking for us to give stuff? A scribe came to Jesus one day and asked him what was the greatest commandment. And Jesus quotes the Shema, and he tells him, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one, and you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. And the second is like it, you must love your neighbor as yourself. Do you remember how that scribe answered Jesus?

Let's come to our final text in Mark chapter 12 in verse 32. And the scribes said to him, you are right, teacher. You have truly said that he is one, that there is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices. And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. Were burnt offerings very meaningful to God in the Old Testament? Absolutely. Here's Christ who enters into our world to give more clarity and understanding to the heart of God. Here's this man who asked a very important question.

Jesus answers it perfectly as he always does, and the man's response shows exactly what God is looking for. A heart that's completely and totally devoted to him is what God has been looking for all along and Jesus does not correct him. He doesn't say, you know what? Burnt offerings actually are a little bit more important than that because you're not far from the kingdom. And so that burnt offering ultimately pointed to what?

Our lives being completely consumed for him. And I think it's very easy for us to say that, but consider the illustration of that sacrifice. Cut it in pieces. Look at it individually and ask, is this part really dedicated to God completely? Is this part really dedicated to God completely?

Is that part really dedicated to God completely? And it's good for us to do that time to... From time to time, especially as we come to reflect on our own walk with the Lord. Is there any part of this offering that I am reserving from the altar, Or is everything in my life from head to toe really his? Let me end it here.

I know I said that a few times, but I mean it this time. Jesus looks at the scribe and he says, you are not far from the kingdom of God. Here's what's so fascinating about that. The man answered Jesus rightly. The man agreed with Christ theologically, and Jesus tells him, you're not far.

He didn't say you're in. There are some people who think that they are part of the kingdom of God, that they are genuinely saved because they know how to answer biblical questions. They know doctrine. They know things like Leviticus in and out. You can know all you want like the scribe shows.

And you might be close, but your knowledge of the things of God does not determine your salvation. It's what you do with that knowledge. What Christ is saying here is you're not far because what you said is true. But is it a reality for you? Are you completely and totally devoted to the Lord by faith?

Have you responded to his grace where you have unreservedly surrendered to him? If not, you are at the door of the kingdom but you are not in yet. And perhaps for some of us here, we know a lot. But can you say this with the same confidence as some of your answers with scriptural knowledge, I know that I've put my life on the altar totally and completely. I'm his.

But we ask that you help us reflect now as we come to your table. Speak to our hearts, Lord, and help us understand your great love for us and how you pursued us so that we can be with you forever. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.