Gooding, David: 1 - The Law of the Burnt Offering

Thank you, Leslie, sir, for those kind words of welcome, uh, the warmth and sincerity of them. Truth to tell, when Leslie invited me to come, I was delighted to find that I was free. That hasn't always been the case in times past, to my loss. But I was the more delighted because he assured me that, uh, I needn't do all the talking. That was very attractive. Inform me that you were keen and eager to help in our study of scripture this evening, and that if I were prepared, so to speak, to prime the village pump, not that I'm suggesting you are a village pump, but you, I'm just a metaphorical way of talking, uh, that then you would be prepared to give the benefit of your years of experience, so that it pooling our experience of the ways of God in our lives, we might bring it to bear upon the understanding of scripture, and simultaneously and in return, find that scripture speak to us and lead us further in our personal experience. Now, on these three occasions, I have chosen the general title of Laws for Practicing Priests. Laws for Practicing Priests. And as you have heard, I want to base our studies on three of the laws for the priests, the laws of the offerings given us in the book of Leviticus. So before we start to read, just let me remind you what you already know, that the laws of the offerings that begin in Leviticus chapter six and verse eight are different from the offerings themselves. The offerings themselves are described from chapter one down to chapter six verse seven. They are addressed to all the Israelites in general, as they needed to be. If someone in Israel sinned, then they needed to know what kind of offering they were expected to bring, that they might obtain forgiveness of sins. If somebody was feeling especially thankful to the Lord and wanted to offer an offering to express that gratitude and thanks, then they needed to know, of course, what offerings of thanksgiving would be acceptable to God. And hence, the offerings themselves are directed and addressed to all the children of Israel, and they occupy the early chapters of the book. When we come to chapter six verse eight, we begin what at first sight appears to be a repetition. Here, once more, are mentioned all the offerings, though in a slightly different order: the burnt offering, the s- uh, meal offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and the peace offering. But when we look more closely, we discover that they are not just repeating the details of the offerings themselves, nor are they adding on what the writer forgot to put in the first time round, like bad preachers like me do, you'll see. He's not just filling in the gaps he should have filled earlier. You will notice that this set of instructions is not addressed to all. Verse eight and nine of Leviticus six say as follows: And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Command Aaron and his sons, saying. So these are given to Aaron and his sons. These are regulations given to the priests themselves, to instruct them to about their duties in regard to these offerings. What had they to do? As a man brought his sin offering, for instance, according to scripture, now how was the priest to go about acting as a priest? What were his duties, what was he required to do? You'll see. And it is these laws that I want us to study, eh, uh, and consider together three of them, tonight the burnt offering, next week, God willing, the law of sin offering, and the week after that the law of peace offering, to study what were the duties of those ancient priests. Of course, it's evident to us all, isn't it, at once, that we have a vested interest in the matter, for we too are priests. And presumably, as priests, we too have our duties. So it will be interesting for us at that level to consider what the duties of the ancient priests were, whether they have any lessons for us today in guiding us towards what our duties are, and what shall be expected of us as priests, as practic- practicing priests, what duties we have, what dangers we have, and how shall we safeguard against them, and so that we shall become effective and loyal priests of God in the duty of our priesthood. You'll say, let me explain a little bit further the kind of thing that are said to the priest. The offerings, we all know nowadays, are were merely symbols, weren't they? The blood of bulls and of goats couldn't put away sin. They were only symbols. Yet they were very serious and sacred symbols, weren't they? They, as we now know, pointed to the coming of the Lord Jesus. That's why they become for us types, prototypes, foreshadowings of the great sacrifice of Christ. So that the New Testament uses the very terms. Ephesians chapter five says that we are to love one another as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us as an offering of a sweet smell to God. Ephesians five is using now as a metaphor, as an illustration, the sacrifice of burnt offering, an offering of a sweet smell to God. And he says, you know what that ancient offering did in symbol, that our Lord Jesus Christ has done in reality. When the Israelites sinned and needed forgiveness, he had to bring an animal sacrifice. We now know that that animal sacrifice didn't put away sin. What does an old cow know about sin, I wonder? You know, that's how cows are, aren't they? That's why they go to bed at nighttime in such a peaceable frame of mind. Cows do. They never go to bed plagued with a, with a bad conscience, you know. They're not worried about what they did during the day and whether it was right or wrong. You'll see cows go to bed very contentedly, you'll see. They're not normally worried unless they've got mad cow disease, you'll see. We're not cows, are we? It is the glory and the burden of being human that we do worry about sin. We have a conscience. We are not animals. We are beings whom God has made morally responsible. Oh, granted, there are thousands of folks around who wish they were animals and do desperately try to live like animals and sometimes succeed and try and live without conscience. But it's difficult, isn't it? And in the end, impossible. The blood of bulls and goats, therefore, couldn't put away sin. What did the poor old animals know about sin and what was happening even when they were offered on the altar? No, you say, they were pictures of the Lord Jesus, our great sin offering. When he came to Calvary, he knew exactly the seriousness of sin, more than we have ever realized it, saw it with absolute one hundred percent clarity, sinless himself. For he knew the holiness of God, as we have not yet grasped it. And knowing the seriousness of sin and the holiness of God, he bore our sins in his body on the tree. Conscious to the last, refusing the draught of myrrh that would have dulled his senses. He met the thrice holy God, knowingly and consciously, over the problem of sin. These are marvelous things. But of course, the ancient Israel wouldn't have known, would he, that the sacrifices he brought were prototypes of the Lord Jesus. For him, they were symbols. So long as he brought those symbols, then the Bible says if he brought these symbols in true repentance and faith, Scripture actually says his sins were forgiven. The sacrifices didn't pay for it. They were toy money, so to speak. They were IOUs that one day would be redeemed and paid for by the Lord himself. But here comes the Israelite then, and we think of him tonight with his system of symbols. Burnt offerings and sin offerings and peace offerings, they're only symbols. But to be effective as a system of symbols, they've got to work properly, haven't they? And this is where the priest had special re- responsibilities. He had to see to it that this elaborate system of symbols worked properly. I know they were only symbols. Well, for that matter, we Christians have symbols, don't we? The Lord's Day, we gather, eh, and we have symbols, bread and wine. We know they're only symbols. We sing the fact in one of our hymns, don't we? Only bread and only wine. Yes, they're only symbols. And yet they are important, aren't they? What a desperate thing it would be one, uh, if one Sunday morning, just when the point came to break the bread, and someone went to the table and lifted the napkin, and there wasn't a loaf there. Somebody who, who normally brings a loaf, I don't know who that is in your church. We ought to be grateful to the folks who look after these things, don't we? Suppose they'd forgotten. Be an awkward hiccup in the meeting, wouldn't it? Or suppose when the man went to break the bread, it was so hard it wouldn't break, and the believers couldn't break off a bit because somebody had got a loaf that was so stale it was dried rock hard. Make it difficult, wouldn't it? Yes. And it wouldn't mend matters much if the, if the good brother consented, oh, I forgot, oh, I got the wrong loaf. Ruin that part of the meeting, wouldn't it? And it's only a symbol. Baptism is only a symbol. Yes. If when the baptism was just about ready and the congregation were waiting, and they discovered that somebody forgot to turn the tap on, there was no water in the baptistry. The whole thing would be impossible, wouldn't it? Somebody's got to look after it. So it was in Israel. Only theirs was a very elaborate system of symbols. And it was the priest's duty to see that the symbols were all properly prepared so that they worked. Worked. And tonight we shall study one of them, and uh, what was the particular uh difficulty and how they had to discharge it so that the symbols worked. And then when I've done that, that'll be the easy bit. Then I shall come to what lessons we may learn, and then it will be your turn, yeah. So here we go. And first of all, let's begin by reading the particular law that we have to study this evening. It's Leviticus chapter six, beginning in verse eight. This is, and the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, command Aaron and his sons, saying, this is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be upon the hearth, upon the altar, all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning therein. Now let's pause there a moment to notice something. There are five of these laws. They all start up with some fra- phrase as this, and the Lord spake unto Aaron, so on. This is the law of. They all have that initial phrase. Yes, but when it comes to the first phrase after that, then it's different every time. And I'm going to suggest to you that that phrase that comes next, this is the law of the burnt offering, ah, what comes next is the phrase that will set the theme, the major theme of each law. Let's look at it, shall we, just for a moment. Verse nine, This is the law of the burnt offering, and what comes next? The burnt offering shall be upon the hearth, upon the altar, all night until the morning. The fire of the altar shall be kept burning therein. Look at verse fourteen. This is the law of the meal offering. Now the next thing is going to be different, isn't it? The sons of Aaron shall offer it before the Lord, before the altar. Or look at verse twenty five: Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, this is the law of the sin offering. Ah, and what comes next? Well, in the place where the burnt offering is killed, shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord. It is most holy. Or let's look at verse eleven. This is the law of chapter seven. This is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings. And what comes next? Which one shall offer unto the Lord. And if he offer it, and so forth. Each time the phrase is different, and I'm now going to suggest that phrase that stands second is the key, um, uh, theme to each law. Let's follow it through. Go back then to verse nine of chapter six. This is the law of the burnt offering. The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until the morning, and the fire of the altar shall be kept burning therein- thereon. And the priest shall put on his linen garna- garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and he shall take up the ashes whereto the fire hath consumed the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. And he shall put off his garments and put on other garments and carry forth the ashes without the camp unto a clean place. And the fire upon the altar shall be kept burning thereon. It shall not go out. And the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall lay the burnt offering in order upon it, and shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. Fire shall be kept burning upon the altar continually. It shall not go out. So from start to finish, this law is concerned with the duty of the priests at all costs and at all times to keep the fire of the burnt offering burning. The one thing they must avoid is this: it shall not go out. Why was that important? Well, for a number of reasons, wasn't it? The burnt offering was famous in Israel because it was the offering that was offered on the behalf of the nation every morning and every evening. The continual burnt offering, it was called, the tarmeth. It was offered in the name of Israel by the priests, so that the smoke of that sacrifice went up perpetually throughout the day before the Lord. It was a symbol, of course, of Israel's devotion to God. For the burnt offering, there was the offering that was offered, the whole of it upon the altar. Every bit burned except the skin. The whole of it burned upon the altar. Expressive of Israel's devotion to God. In the book of Leviticus, details of the burnt offering are the first lot given, aren't they? Chapter one. This is the burnt offering. Why was it the first offering? Well, because you'll see in Israel, the first and greatest commandment of the law was this. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. That was the duty God's law laid upon his redeemed. They had to be one hundred percent devoted to God. And of course, when Israel pondered the matter, under God's leading, they found that they were not One hundred percent devoted to God, and therefore had to bring an of- offering, a substitute in their place, to cover not merely their terrible crimes of beating their mother-in-law and and and murdering the butcher or something, but to to to cover this most desperate sin, that they hadn't loved the Lord their God with all their heart, mind, soul, and strength. Do you know our Lord Jesus said that is the biggest commandment to love the Lord our God with mind, heart, soul, strength? And to break it is to commit the biggest sin then. So God ordained that in Israel's name, because of their shortcomings, morning and evening, morning and evening, morning and evening. The sacrifice of burnt offering should ascend in the nation's name to God. The fire should never go out. Reminding Israel of what her devotion should be. Expression of Israel's contrition that they had come short of what God required. Bad job, wouldn't it? If one day, ha, when Israel turned at lunchtime, perhaps to look towards the temple to see the smoke of the sacrifice arising and couldn't see any smoke, and it was found out that what had happened, the thing had gone out. You know, priest on duty for the morning, it was his day off in the afternoon, and he, he had so much to do, and uh, um, and he was so looking forward to being off duty and going home that he didn't do it quite right. And instead of the wood catching fire and the sacrifice burning and all going up, a cloud of, of sweet smell to God, halfway through the morning, the thing collapsed and went out. There would have been some how do you do, wouldn't it? Or suppose it had been an individual Israelite who had come to realize how far short he was of fulfilling God's righteous demand that he be devoted and love him with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength. And God had been dealing with the man, and the man came now feeling it's about time I said sorry to God, and I mended my ways, and and from now on I want to live wholly for the Lord, and I bring my burnt offering now to to confess before the Lord that my life so far hasn't been what my life should have been. I've been wasting my time. I've been worldly in my heart. I've not given my mind one hundred percent to God. And I want to come now and confess it before the Lord, and I want to bring my sacrifice in my place, and I want, in so doing, to express my devotion to the Lord. So here he comes, and the priest takes his offering and says, now, my man, this is what you have to do, and you have to slay the offering before the Lord, and he slays his burnt offering to make atonement for him, as scripture has it. And then the priest takes the blood and so forth, and presently the priest cuts it up and puts it on the altar where the fire is. But once more, the man is getting a bit lazy, you know, huh? And instead of taking the trouble to put it in order, he throws it on any old hoe. And instead of catching a light and going up to God, the thing goes out. What a thing that would be. Can you imagine the scene? It begins with the worshipper coming, and the offering is put on the altar, and the as the flames catch the fat, and it begins to glow, and the man is standing there, and even the physical heat off the altar would warm the man's clothes, wouldn't it? And in his very heart, a glow of of confession and contrition and thanksgiving to God and devotion to God, and the symbolism of the altar with its fire would warm his heart as well as his clothes, wouldn't it? What a modern anticlimax if halfway through it all spluttered, spluttered and went out, and all he was left with was a nasty mess of greasy old black ashes. That would be the priest's fault if that happened, wouldn't it? So these details of the offering, the law for the priest regarding the burnt offering, are all connected with his duties, how he must go about things to keep the fire going, to maintain the glow of the altar. It shall not go out. So I just want to point out myself four major things, four very practical things that the priest had to do to keep the fire going. And then, as I say, I shall be, um, asking you how you think they might apply to us, if they apply at all. The first thing we read the men had to do to keep the fire going. The burnt offering shall be upon the hearth on the altar all night until the morning when nobody was there. Burning on the altar all night, it would gradually burn down, wouldn't it? So the law takes up what is now to happen first thing in the morning when the first priest on duty arrives at the altar. It will say, verse ten: the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and he shall take up the ashes whereto the fire hath consumed the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. First thing in the morning, the man had to take away the ashes. And here, of course, uh, we've got a lot of experts present tonight, I can see that. All the ladies, and particularly the senior ladies, who, like me, were born in times where very few people had central heating, you'll say, and we had to depend on coal fires. Every lady who was born in that generation will know exactly what this means, and so will some of the gentlemen who were admirable husbands and took the responsibility for making the fire so the wife could stay in bed a little while, while the husband got up first and and made the fire. Do you know? What days they were, weren't they? Or perhaps you still have them. I have a fire now and again. You'll see, uh, the night before when you're sitting around the fire, oh, isn't it marvelous, the warmth of it and the flames and the glow, and it warms your toes even if your back is freezing, and uh, uh, you'll say, oh, it's a beautiful, you'll say, you could sit there all night and you're loath to go to bed, and in those old-fashioned days you had to leave the fire and go up to bedroom, and it was minus five degrees, and the linen sheets were as like sheets of ice, weren't they? Dear me, what times they were. Anyway, yes, nighttime, all the glow was marvelous, uh, you all sat round telling your stories, and the crack was good, as they say. And then husband comes down first thing in the morning. It's a different story. Perhaps there's just a tiny glimmer of a glow right in the middle there somewhere, but the rest is ash. Now I tell you what good husbands did. Undaunted by the fact that it was so cold and gloomy and messy, they rolled up their sleeves manfully and took the ashes away, didn't they, Watto? That's what the good husbands did. The bad husbands, you know, tried to cheat a little bit, because in those days there weren't backsy fires anyway, you'll see. Uh, if you didn't take the ashes away, the te- temptation was, you'll see, that you, you, you just brushed them a little bit and put some more stuff on and hoped it would get up without having to go through all this messy palaver of taking the ashes away. Horrible job that used to be. The hope was you could get it to go burn up again without taking the ashes away. Well, sometimes it worked, but it wouldn't work too more than two days running. For if you tried to do it, yesterday's ashes would put today's fire out. Smother it, so the oxygen couldn't get in it, you see. So they say all good husbands took the ashes away and then started the fire going again. Hmm. But the priest had to do. Yesterday's ashes had to be carefully removed, otherwise they would have choked today's fire. Then what next? Okay, when you got the ashes away, gentlemen, what did you do next? You, you, the temptation was you heat the coal on to get it going. Go on fire, get going. But if you try to heat the coal on too quickly, that was you, that was bad again, wasn't it? Put the fire out. If you only got a little glimmer of a coal here and you heat a big whole shuttle full of coal on top, well, it put it out. You couldn't put the coal on first. No, you had to get some kindling wood and carefully put the wood in order. No good putting it on higgledy piggledy either. Every Boy Scout know that, knows that. You put the wood on higgledy piggledy, uh, it wouldn't catch. You had to put it in order, didn't you? Little bits first, and then the bigger bits after that, and put it in order so the heat and the flames could get it and get some heat going by the wood before then you put the coal on. Quite a business, keeping a fire going. That's what it says here to the priest, doesn't it? First takes the ashes away, and the next thing, he shall burn wood. Yes. For presently, it was not coal that the man had to put on, it was a bit of a- bits of animal. You just imagine it. Not to roast it, but to burn it. Great thighs of oxen, dripping wet with blood and oozing, oh dear me, and he had to burn it. You'd need some heat on an altar to do that. So he had to put on oceans of wood to get the flame going, to get the heat going. And then thirdly, he laid the sacrifice in order on the wood. Yes, of course he did. Notice that in order, the thing had to be cut up. Of course, you couldn't put a whole bullock on all at once. That would have put the fire out. Yes, the bullock had to be cut up into parts, and then the parts had to be put in order. I used to learn that, you know, when I worked on a farm as a farmer's boy years ago. One of the m- more pleasant jobs on the farm was having gigantic bonfires as you cut down the hedges and trees and what have you around the fields, and then you have massive great bonfires. But you learned it soon, very soon, even an a a townie like me, that if you just threw the wood on to start with, the middle would burn and the outside wouldn't. And then you had an almighty job to try and get it together and get it in order again. The only way to get a real good bonfire going was to get the wood and lay the wood in order on the fire till it came a mighty great furnace, and then you could put on what you liked. You see. I don't need to tell people how to burn bonfires here in Ulster, do I? Particularly when it's coming up to July, but there it is. Right, so three things then, take the ashes away, put burn wood on the altar, lay the sacrifice in order in its pieces on the wood, and finally. You know what you used to do, gentlemen, perhaps you didn't, but some did. If the fire wouldn't get up and they put too much coal on it and it was about to splutter out, they were sorely tempted to do what was one never should have done, of course, bad thing to do, is to go to the back and get some paraffin and standing at a safe distance to throw a little bit of paraffin on the fire to get the flame going. Yeah, dangerous thing, but it was done. Also, they didn't have paraffin in the days of Moses. So the final thing that said is that you shall burn the fat on it. Any woman who knows anything about frying chips will know that fat can go on a flame, can't it? And that's how they got the sacrifice to burn fiercely, fiercely enough to consume the flesh of the burnt offering. Righto then, four things. And here I come to the end of my bitrosy. Uh, four things, take the, uh, ashes away, burn wood, put the sacrifice in order, burn the fat. So now I begin my, uh, the questions, you see, and I don't know, uh, I'm not used to your new chair arrangement. I know on here this side, perhaps a conservatives, and here's the Labour, or this is the conservatives, and this is the Labour, and this is the crossbenches of this House of Lords. Jose, never mind. Uh, let's, uh, get to it, uh, you know, without wasting time, if we can. Jose, first of all, I take it we all agree that every believer is a priest, yes? Every believer is a priest. Let me hear from you, my good brethren. Don't be afraid to say the very obvious and the elementary and the simple and the straightforward. Pray, what are our duties as Christian priests, according to the New Testament, that is? What are our chief duties as Christian priests? Any offers? Prayer. Prayer, did you say? Prayer. Prayer is one duty as a Christian priest. Yes, surely. Surely. Yeah? Witness. Witness, that's a very interesting idea. Yeah, you? Obedience. Obedience, yes, I'm sure we ought to. We shall find that, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, an urgent message on us tonight as we proceed. Yes, and I'm interested in that thing about, uh, uh, uh, priests have to witness. You'd like to embroider that, you or somebody else? This is a very interesting idea. It was a representative between the sinner and God. Yes, he was. He came between the sinner and God. Yes, he was. And that's a form of witness, isn't it? Yes? The Old Testament priest had to witness, that is very clear, and you'll see, because he not only went into God for the people and represented the people before God, but he had to come out from God and he had to teach the people. The prophets say that the priest's lips should keep Torah, meaning instruction. It was the duty of the priests to instruct the people. And as you see, when it came to the sacrifices, if a man brought his sacrifice, the priest had to instruct him. If one day a man came along from remote Galilee, you know, farmers edikai, and he says, I want to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. Oh yes, and what do you propose to offer? I've got a nice little pig here under my arm. It's a beautiful plump pig. I thought I would offer that. Of course, the priest had to say, I'm sorry, my son, my son, you, you can't offer pigs here. You see, God doesn't like pigs. Some religions did, of course. So the priest had to witness to the man, instruct the man. Yeah, he did indeed. Mm-hmm. Any other duties anyone wants to advance of priests? Worship. Worship, yes. So prayer and worship, both himself and leading the people of God, yes? And then instructing the people of God and witnessing to the people of God, yes? Yeah. Would you agree with those who say that first Peter chapter two tells us, uh, that we are a holy priesthood to offer up sacrifices to God, yes? And we are a royal priesthood to show forth the excellences of him who has called us. Yes. When we, uh, come before God, we don't have to keep on offering sacrifices for sin, do we? Huh? When we go out to preach the gospel, we don't have to tell the people to keep on offering sacrifices for sin. Of course we don't. But when we go to the people, we have to point them to the true sacrifice, do we not? Isn't that our job? We have to tell the people, no, you cannot get salvation by your works. It is solely through the sacrifice of Christ, and what that means, our job to point it to them, yes? Well, surely it is. So we've got a double job. Righto, if they are our responsibilities. Now then, let me come to the major point. The priest, when it came to the burnt offering, was the one responsible to keep the fire of the altar burning brightly. Symbol of Israel's devotion to God, yes? Yes. Have we a corresponding duty? Like Israel's priests had to keep the fire of the go- of the nation's devotion to God morning and evening, they had to keep it burning. Have we a corresponding duty to keep the flame of devotion burning for God? Eh? No? Yeah, hello. Yeah. We. Jesus wants us to shine for him. He does indeed, yes. He wants us to be his priests and do his work. Yes. And as you were saying about Jesus coming, and these are only emblems. Mm-hmm. He paid the price. He paid. He paid the price, didn't he? And we have to be people to the cross. Which we surely do. We are the priests, and now we have to show them the greater offering. Mm-hmm. Which is in Christ Jesus. Yes. And what is more, that is, that is exceedingly helpful. And what is more, I, I, I'm going to suggest, sir, that to do it will take a lot of devotion on our part, won't it? If we're going to come and point the people to the sacrifice by which they get forgiveness, and don't let us forget the sacrifice of the burnt offering brought forgiveness, you know. Some people say it was a sweet smelling savor and therefore had nothing to do with sin. That's not quite not right. Chapter one and verse, uh, uh, four says quite clearly the burnt offering was accepted to make atonement. That's what the Hebrew says. That's how it ought to be translated. Leviticus one four, to make atonement. Yeah? And if we're going to point sinners to the sacrifice of Christ, by which they can find forgiveness with God, an atonement, and a covering of their lack of zeal. They've not loved the Lord their God with all their hearts, mind, soul, and strength, and they stand under God's judgment before him. And here we come to point them to the true sacrifice. Can it be done, ladies and gentlemen, without ourselves being devoted to the Lord. I have to be in the spirit. Pardon? I have to be in the spirit. We do, don't we? Yeah, if we come along and say, oh, oh, I suppose I got to go to the gospel meeting, you know, here's another sinner, and I got to tell him the gospel, oh dear, oh dear. You ought to be devoted to God, my dear woman, but you're not. I wish this meeting were over. I've got some important things to do. Any use? Ain't, is it? If we're going to do our job as priests and point men and women to the great sacrifice that atones for man's disobedience and rebellion and lack of zeal, and we're going to do our job properly, it will demand on our part a glowing devotion, will it not? And if we were to let the fire of devotion burn low and go out? Would that not be a bad failure on the part of us priests? Here, tell me. Second big question. Is it possible, if I may use the language of the, of the, of the Old Testament, possible for the fire to burn down? Go out? I'm going to ask you to be very courageous. Anybody here prepared to admit that they've known a time when the fire of devotion in their lives has burned low and seemed in danger of going out? Yes, there's one. Yeah, you, yeah. Yeah. I like to do those things which are most important to survive as a Christian, to keep in touch with the Lord. Yeah, that is true, isn't it? On a regular basis. That is true. Devotion can burn very low, can't it? We lose the glow, we lose the enthusiasm we once had. Sometimes it happens, you see, because people have been very energetic in the Lord's word, uh, and work, and they've given themselves and their energies and their time and their physical strength, and then perhaps disappointments have come, and then, and then they're tired and they lose heart, difficulties occur in life, and presently the zeal, the devotion, the enthusiasm burns low. Mm. Can happen. Do you agree it can happen? Are you telling us that, um, when you use the illustration that someone might come to the altar wishing to reach God through their sacrifice? Mm-hmm. And the fire was out and they were hindered? Yeah. They were prevented? Oh, well, sir. Well, sir, could be, couldn't it? So you're telling us that our devotion, or lack of it. Well, that could be, couldn't it? If we're not, uh, if we're not warm and vigorous in our devotion to the Lord, in our love for God, in our love for souls, and vigorous and devoted in our work for the Lord, the hard practicalities of it, then we're not going to fulfill our task of bringing the gospel to people, are we? And you'll see if unbelievers come by our side and sense in us a coldness, formalism, cold, no warmth, they're not going to be helped very much, are they? Mm-hmm. You were going to say something, I'll check. You were saying earlier on about, um, the ashes. Yes. The way if you left them Yeah. Two days just because you wanted to come early. Yeah. And we as Christians can neglect and just say, well, I'll come back to tomorrow, but yet the Lord may want our altar to be perfect and holy to him. Yeah. As mainly the uses. Oh, quite so. Uses to reach. Yeah. Because the, the offerings were to help the people. God cared for the people, and he cared for the, the sinner. He cared for the person with the broken heart, the broken home, the person that was aff- afflicted with sin. God cared for That brings us on then. Now let's come to the four things that had to be done. Ashes, as our brothers reminded, ashes taken away, else they'll clog tomorrow's fire, today's fire. Yesterday's ashes clogged today's fire. Then you had to burn wood, then you had to lay the pieces in order, and then you had to burn fat. What then shall we say about this lesson? They had to take the ashes away, and we can see the practical reason for that. They had to take the ashes away. When we look at the ashes of a fire, they're not bad, are they? Not sinful things. They are the end product of having a wonderful good fire, yes? But tomorrow, today's ashes can get in the way, can't they, of a fire? Is there anything in our life, would you say, corresponding to ashes, and do we have to take the ashes away to keep the fire, get the fire going again? Not quite a question of taking the sinful things away, is it? Oh, that's necessary, of course. We are to perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, and if we're allowing sin in our lives, then certainly it's going to choke our devotion to God. But keeping within the terms of this type and parable, the ashes. Not to rest on our laurels. Not to rest on our laurels. Thank you very much, sir. Embroider that a little bit. Well, perhaps to feel rather good about what we did yesterday. Yes. And go forward with a certain amount of self-confidence into the new day. Mm-hmm. Yes, not dependent on the Lord. Exactly. And, and, and be boasting about what we did yesterday and forgetting to do any more today, so to speak. Yes, yes. This from the crossbenchers, can I get any agreement or any further suggestion from whoever they are, Conservative or labor, taking the ashes away. While you're thinking, uh, anybody here recognize, uh, in their own lives what the hymn writer said? Where is the blessedness I knew when first I knew the Lord? I, the blessedness I felt when first I knew the Lord. When, how's it go on? I felt my heart with deep contrition melt or something, yes? Do you remember him? Vaguely. Vaguely, you see. Ah. It is an experience many people have had, isn't it? They look back to the time when I first came to know the Lord. Oh, the wonder of it. I first realized the Lord had received me, and I were forgiven. And some people have been known to cry for sheer joy. The emotion of it was tremendous, and the warmth of heart, all the blessedness they felt like singing every day as they got up in the morning, all the blessedness of the man whose sins are forgiven, the one to whom God will not impute iniquity. Marvelous. All that experience and confession, the glow, and it transfigured your face, didn't it? And you wanted to tell everybody. And anybody that came near you could sense there's something that happened to you, yes? Yes, uh, and the hymn writer is saying, where is that joy? I can listen to the gospel now, and it scarce moves me and doesn't get my eyes running over with tears or anything like that. Where is the blessedness I felt when first I knew the Lord. Anybody here confess to that kind of an experience? No, perhaps you wouldn't. No? Yes? Huh? People stand in doubt, okay. They're not quite sure whether they have or haven't. Can't get any voices anyway. Yes, yes, yes, a good man over here says yes, that is, that is so, yes. Yes. And tonight I'm going to suggest, my good brothers and sisters, that there's not necessarily anything wrong with that. Yesterday's fire, when we first got saved, marvelous, wasn't it? How it burned, it kept us going for a long time. And then it disappears. Why? Well, it's not necessarily wrong, is it? You are hungry, physically hungry. You come in and your wife has, has, um, produced a marvelous meal. You smell the bisto from a mile off, and you sit down at the table, and all the joy of it, the sheer aesthetic joy and that, you know, the physical satisfaction of eating marvelous occupation is it, and you eat it, uh, and presently all that nice feeling of hunger goes away, doesn't it? And suppose your wife comes in two hours later and finds you still sitting at the table. Says, hello, my dear, haven't you had enough? Well, yes, I've had enough. Well, what are you sitting here for? Well, when I first ate this, I had a marvelous feeling inside, and I'm trying to recapture that feeling. You say, well, don't be so silly, don't. You can't. Yeah, I know, you can't recapture that feeling. The only way you'll do that is to go out and work again and starve for the next twenty four hours, and then you'll get the feeling again, yes. I'm no expert in the matter, but they tell me that sometimes when husbands and wives, they have occasionally, one or two of them, been known to quarrel and fall out for half a day, they haven't been talking to each other, you see. And then I'm told that sometimes when they make it up, it is a marvelous experience, almost worth falling out for, because when it comes to the making of it up, you wouldn't know about that, but I have been told that, so you'll see. Aha, he would be a stupid man that says, well, let's fall out again tomorrow so we can make it up again. What? Where is that blessed feeling I knew when we made it up? What a stupid man. Uh, no, once is enough, surely. And so it is when we were reconciled to the Lord, and our hearts were filled with joy. Now, it doesn't always happen to people, but they're filled with joy. That was marvelous and appropriate. You don't want to get converted all over again, do you, or something? And I want to say this, our conversion to God, our salvation, our being born again lasts, the fact lasts. You mustn't expect the glow of it to last, the feelings to last. Some people do, don't they? That's a mistake young converts made, uh, make. They come first come to the Lord, they're full of joy. Six months down the road and they're down in the mouth. What's happened now? Well, they don't feel so good as they did, so they think they've lost their salvation or something. Why? Because they've come to put their trust in their feelings instead of putting their trust in the Lord. If we put our trust in the feelings, then when the feelings die down, we shall start doubting, can't we? So forgiveness lasts, eternal life, yes, but the new birth lasts. The feelings that went with it, glorious. You mustn't necessarily expect them to last. Perhaps that's burnt to ashes as far as the feelings go. And the lesson I would draw from it is you cannot live on past feelings. The wonderful glow you had ten years ago when you first came to the Lord, you say, I want to recapture it. Well, you'll have a job, because you can't be saved again, can you? What the eh fa- what the priest had to do when he came was to scrape the ashes away. What's the way to revive the fire? Well, take yesterday's ashes away and burn new material. Yes. And you'll find when they put the new material on, the basic glow of the embers against eventually caught light again, and now they burned up the new material. My brothers and my sisters, isn't it true? You came to Christ years and years ago, some of you, eighty years ago, and a- a- a- and what a wonderful glow it was. You can't live on that glow forever. What will you need? Why, new material. And oh, thank God there's new material available, isn't there? We found Christ as Savior who forgave our sins. Marvelous. Well, find him as the shepherd, yes. You say I did that, and you know, I always knew he was a shepherd, but I came across a period in life when I was in deep distress, and what an experience of the Lord I had as a shepherd. And now this is what you're talking about, isn't it? And the glow of your heart. Yes. And here's some good lady, she's discovered the Lord's second coming. Well, now that is like absolute dynamite. Wow, it's, it's making her heart aglow, and she's getting this across to everybody, yes. And here's somebody that has found the joy of leading a sinner to Christ. And that's a new joy. And has found in Christ, here's the hospital visitor, found in Christ something that gave new hope to some invalid and proved the turning point in the illness and, and brought them back to health and physical strength again and to spiritual renewal. How what a marvelous Christ he is. The way to keep the fire going is not to try and recapture yesterday's fire, but to burn new material, yes? And you know, when it comes to the church, it's good, isn't it, to repeat the fundamentals of the faith. They need to be repeated once in every generation at any rate. But there's something in getting some new material, isn't there? If you've done Romans five times in the last fifty years, what about starting Ezekiel page? You know, some new material. Instead of just going over the same, same, same, same, same things. Righto. So I'm suggesting, therefore, is our duties of priest, if we want to maintain the glow, so to speak, in our own hearts, the glow of worship in this, in the assembly, the glow of evangelical fervor as we take Christ to the people. We've got to be prepared to say, thank God for all past experiences, but now, today, I start again with the Lord, new material. Mm. Second thing, however, was with the priest, as with our ancient fires in the home. You, when you take the ashes away, you didn't put, um, the sacrifice on it at once, did you? That would have put it out. You first had to burn wood. Why? So that it would catch light easily and start the heat. Tell me, anybody here knowledgeable on sacrifices, was there any any atoning value in the wood? In Israel's symbolism, was there any atoning value? You see, when it came to the blood of the sacrifices, God says you mustn't eat, drink the blood of any sacrifice or any animal at all, because the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given you the blood upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. Yes? It's the blood that made atonement, is- isn't it? What would you say to me if I tried to suggest to you it was the wood that made atonement? No, you wouldn't have it, would you? Huh? Yeah, but you try offering a, a burning a bullet without any wood. That'll find you a problem. I'm going to suggest to you that the wood was absolutely valueless as far as atoning went. The symbol that, uh, of of atonement for sin was the blood of the sacrifice. The wood was irrelevant, except this, from a practical point of view, if you were going to burn a bullock, pray think what it was, bullock, wet, raw flesh, blood, ooze, you've got to burn it, or you'd need cartloads of wood. And yet the wood was, uh, valueless. As far as making atonement went. It was merely a practical thing. Yes. Now tell me, when you get up to preach the gospel, sir, when, my dear sister, you go to the Sunday school class and you're teaching the children, and you're taking them, so to speak, the sacrifice that can save them. That sacrifice is... Christ, yes? And you say to yourself, what can wash away my sin? You teach the children, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus, yes? Good. So because it's nothing but the blood of Jesus that can save them, you don't have to prepare the lesson, do you? I mean, it's not your preparation that saves the child, is it? So you don't have to prepare the lesson. Oh, yeah, yeah, you sir, you get up there and preach, yeah? And you preach, uh, that it's the blood of Christ, nothing but the blood can cleanse your sin, my s- uh, sinner, uh, dear sinner. Yes. So you don't have to bother to prepare your sermon, do you? Yes. You, you do? Yes, I do. You have to prepare your sermon. Yes. But what use is that? I mean, that it's not your, that's not your sermon that could save anybody, huh? Yes. Yes. You have to present it, don't you? Yes. So in keeping the Lord's work going, um, yes, it's only Christ that makes atonement for sin, but you seem to be telling me that while that's so, we have got to put our... Hmm? The wood. You have got to put the wood on, yes. Else it's not going to burn, so to speak. Yeah, how much wood do you need? Could be, couldn't it? Could be. Ha. That sometimes the reason why the fire doesn't burn too well, there's nothing wrong with the sacrifice of Christ, nothing wrong with the wonders of the gospel. But perhaps it's because I haven't prepared well. I haven't given myself my energy, my time. I like the lazy man who comes down in the morning, you know, and he puts the wants to put the coal scuttle on without putting the wood on first. So he rushes into the meeting five minutes before it starts without thinking, and uh, just heaps the Bible on him, and he's not prepared. Instead of making the fire burn up, puts fire out. Could happen, couldn't it? I might say, in spite of all your delightful singing, it isn't your singing that saves anybody, is it? So it doesn't matter how we sing, does it? You know, when tape recorders came first around, there were some dear Christians that I knew had a very big shock. For the first time ever, they heard themselves singing in a gospel meeting on a tape recorder, and they decided it sounded like a party of drunks on a Saturday night. Do any all how. No wonder the world wasn't impressed. We've got to burn wood, haven't we? And, uh, God has given that us that immense privilege. All that we have and are. To burn the wood. And if we're not prepared to, wonderful as the gospel is, glorious as our risen Lord is, there mightn't be much of a glow. The same is true of our worship, isn't it? Bring the wood. We're not liable to get to many great heights of a Lord's Day morning, for instance, if we come utterly unprepared to spend no time, nor energy, nor thought throughout the whole week on the Lord, and we just get up and recite phrases out of the hymn book or out of the Bible, same old phrases that we've used ten thousand times so the congregation can know exactly what you're going to say, could say it for you. But it doesn't glow because we haven't burnt the wood. Ah, the next bit, late. Oh, Mr. Chairman, sir, this has gone quarter past nine. This is too late, isn't it? Right. Well, all right, half nine, he says, yes. Right, uh, we can do the next bits fairly easily, can't we? Lay the sacrifice in order on the wood. Now, of course, if we were studying the sacrifice itself in chapter one, then the learned commentators and preachers would tell us that as the priest cut the animal to pieces, he had to examine it, and what he was doing was examining the excellency of the sacrifice, and this is a picture of us as we come to appreciate the blessed Lord Jesus in all the various aspects of his character, his life and work and death, and that's perfectly true. But now we've come down to practicalities, haven't we? This is the priest who's got to see that this symbol works, and this mountain of flesh on the altar is going to burn and not go out. That's a practical problem. And as I said earlier, what he must do is not put on the bullock hole, never would burn. Has to cut it into pieces, and then doesn't just fling them on anyhow. With the wood stacked up beautifully, then the pieces had to be put round it in order. And the Jewish priests, if you read the Talmud, you'll find that they became expert in it. They could take, so the, so the rabbis say, they could take a whole limb and fling it on the high altar and could fling it exactly so it came down in this place. You say, I doubt that. Oh well, I've watched men on the farm load a ten-ton lorry with hundred-weight sacks of potatoes. And of course, they had to be laid exactly to get the right amount on the lorry. And I've seen them fling a, a sack from one end of a lorry to another, a hundred-weight, weight, and land it exactly where it had to go so that the rows were very neat. Anybody like to volunteer? Does that have any lesson for us? Now we've come to the parts of the atoning sacrifice itself. Any lesson for us? Lay it in order. Well, let me, let me try to do my duty as a priest. Uh, let me hear, uh, your comment, how will I do it? Now see, uh, here's a lady, which she isn't, but we suppose she's unconverted, and she's wanting to know what the gospel is. And I say, well, dear madam, you see, it's, it's, it's, it's not, uh, by works, you see. That's what, uh, uh, uh, Christendom teaches. It's by works, you know, and Christendom is Babylon. And you know about Babylon the Great? It's in the, in, in, in the book of Isaiah, you see, and she's going to be burned up because she's going to be on the beast, and you want to get ready for the coming of the beast. I mean, for the coming of the Lord Jesus, you see, because he is coming, you know, and some people think he's going to come before the millennium and after, but now you need to be saved, and uh, and uh, you see, because being saved isn't the same as uh, uh, as uh jus- as justification. They're two different terms, you know. So you get saved. How will that do? For leading somebody to Christ. Okay, sir? No, naught out of ten. Naught out of ten, I say. Well, what's wrong with it then? It wasn't in order. Do you see my critics on the left here saying it wasn't in order? What I said could have been true, but it wasn't in order and got everybody confused. All right, gentlemen, you put it in order. Go on, there's a woman, she needs to be saved. You put it in order? Yeah, hello. If it was me. Yes, if it were you. Yes. And the convert this woman. Paul says to preach Christ. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So I would tell her about Christ and how Jesus can move and can heal her broken heart and can take away her sin. Yes. And really just make her perfect. Marvelous. And you wouldn't mention about Babylon the Great? No. Don't know. Some will comment. Oh, I see. Yeah. I see. Yeah. I- I- is it right, my brethren? Yes. You know what, let's ask the Sunday school teachers. Where do you start teaching the children, so to speak? Any Sunday school teachers like the volunteer? Do you do it in order? I hope you do. We have to start with simple things first, don't we, very often? Of course, we have to be guided by the Lord, but we need to be put the gospel in order. Yes, as best we can. None of us perfect, are we? I'm not suggesting we have to be absolutely perfect, absolute, uh, policies and and preach like archangels before we have a go. No, we must do the best on any occasion we can, but the scripture says now, now put the pieces in order. There's a vast treasure in Christ, isn't there? Do you see? But there are things that need to be said to the unconverted person first, yes? And build on that. To be told of their sin. Yes, they do, don't they? They do. What's the sense of offering a savior from sin for people who don't realize they are sinners? Sometimes it's necessary to start with God's law, isn't it? So that the law might do its work of bringing them to Christ, alerting their consciences, making them realize they are sinners and that they need to be saved. Yes, our generation perhaps needs that, our modern generation. My father's day, children in school were taught the law anyway, so the time they grew up, they knew they were sinners, and therefore to go in straight and preach the gospel and the work of Christ was marvelous. There's a lot of them today don't realize they're sinners anyway. They've never been taught God's law, they don't know his holiness. All things they do which are grossly sinful, they don't realize are sinful. So perhaps we ought to start a bit earlier than we do these days. Yes? Yes, but here comes the rub, you see. You just imagine a bullet. It'd be okay if you've got a hydraulic winch or something, or, uh, uh, and you could put the whole thing on, and that's done with. But cutting it up and putting it in pieces and putting it in, that's a lot of work, isn't it? And you see, that's where the lazy men making the fire in the morning in the grate, uh, they were all anxious to to get off other things, you see. So as soon as there's a little frame, they came with a great bucket and whoops, a great water colander, I put it out. Yes, so we must be prepared to work and to spend time, and by God's grace, to get things in order. In our hearts so that we could tell others in order, yes. And in the church to see that, uh, the young convert is taught in order and built up in the most holy faith. You don't start a house, do you, with a roof. You start with the foundations, you build it in order. Jude says that we are to build up ourselves on our most holy faith. That seems to me to mean systematic, ordered, planned building, starting from foundation upwards. Yes. But I mix my metaphors, and I come to the last thing then we've had. Take away yesterday's ashes. Don't try to recapture past experience. Thank God for it. You'll see, if I may add, as we summarize, when they took away the ashes, they didn't throw them out in the dustbin. They were sacred, you know. The experiences of yesterday were sacred. The experiences at that altar that they had had of God, they were sacred. So when they took the ashes up, they had to go and put them in a clean place. Yes, outside the camp. They weren't, uh, uh, they weren't, uh, uh, devaluing it. They weren't despising. But now, today, it would mean new material. So it is with us believers. It is by going on into the new material that, in fact, we shall preserve the joy of the old. Whereas if we try to live on yesterday's, last year's ashes, that'll go out, and we shall have nothing new. So, new material. But then before the new material goes on, there must be the burning of the wood. You see, it is true in our daily life, if you work not, you won't eat. That's a principle that our Lord repeated when it comes to spiritual food. Remember John six? When the people came the next day to have a repeat miracle of the loaves and fishes, our Lord said, sorry, gentlemen, labor not for the meat that perishes, but labor for, work hard for the meat that endures. We forget that sometimes, don't we? If it is a question of the meat that endures, our Lord says we have to work hard for it. We ought to ask ourselves, do I work as hard for the spiritual food as I do for my ordinary daily food. Yeah. And, uh, just to go on from what you're saying there, it's come along the same lines as the scripture. I think it's, uh, the second book of Peter, uh, but grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Mm-hmm. And I don't think it really matters what age you are, whether you're up in your over sixty five or you're young, that you're exhorted To grow. Grace. Yes. Grow in knowledge. Yes. So even if you're coming on, you think you're not bearing much fruit in your old Christian life. Mm-hmm. I think you still can. Of course you can. Still grow in the grace. Yes. And still grow in the knowledge of the Lord. Mm-hmm. I can, I can, I can testify that, sir, because I am over sixty five, and uh, that is perfectly true. That is perfectly true. We don't ever get to the place where we s- we think we know it all, do we? Finally, burn fat. Burn the fat. In Israel, the fat of the beast was regarded as the best bit. So with Israelites, fat becomes a metaphor of the best, so you can talk about the fat of your wheat. There's no literal fat on a ear of corn, is there? But they would talk about the fat of their wheat, meaning the best part of their, uh, wheat. And ancient farmers liked nice fat oxen, you know. They didn't approve of the lean old things, shall say. They liked nice fat oxen. They felt they were healthy. They liked the sheep that had the big fat tails, you know, at the back, who have a store of fat in their tails, so if the food runs dry, the, the sheep can live off its tail, do you see, like the old camel lives off its hump. They like fat, it was the best, but they weren't allowed to eat it, they had to offer it to God. And there are scriptures that describe the fat as the food of my offering here in Leviticus, the food of my offering. Why was it the food of God's offering? Well, from a practical point of view, it was the fat taken from every offering, whether it was a peace offering or trespass offering or sin offering or even burnt offering, it was the fat that helped it to burn. Josie made the blaze. So they took the very best of all their offerings and gave it to, as the food of God's offering on the altar, to help it to burn. It was the best. Uh, any lesson for us? See, uh. Got any spare fat, my brother? See, see the offering there? It reminds me of the sacrifice of the believer in prayer and, uh, through his lips. Yeah. And it reminds me of, uh, you pray morning and at night and anytime during the day, and you let the spirit go out at all. That's right. Uh, for interceding for other believers Yes. to the church and everything else. Uh, the fat of the peace offering is, uh, Christ. Mm-hmm. Which is the most, the b- the best part Mm-hmm. that God wants to hear. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That that's part that burns the Yes, yes. Well, yes, yes, yes. And that's the the whole part of the burnt offering Mm-hmm. is that, uh, sacrifice of the believer. Yeah. Yes, I like that. I I take your points on. Mm-hmm. They're very vivid illustrations, aren't they? Mm-hmm. Well, sir, thank you. Thank you all for your great patience. Yes. I'll not take, uh, send you through the division lobbies tonight to see, see whether you've agreed or not. This is the first occasion together, you'll see. But, uh, when you've had time to think that over, uh, next week, perhaps you could come a little bit prepared. Next week, we're going to consider, God willing, the law of the sin offering. We want to take it the same way round as a lesson to as to us priests, the duties of the priests in regard to the sin offering. What were their practical duties? We'll see. So that law won't repeat the lessons that we've had tonight. There'll be duties specifically geared to the sin offering, and if you could find time to think in advance about what they, uh, might mean and what they were at the practical level and what lesson they got to us, then our study next week should be all the more profitable. Thank you very much for your cooperation tonight. Just let's commit it to the Lord. Our Father, we thank thee for these words from thy book. We bless thee at the memory of these sacrifices as prefigurements of our Lord, and what wonderful thought models they have been, how they have enriched our conception of his superlative worth. And we thank thee that through him and his sacrifice we have forgiveness of sins and are at peace with thee. We thank thee again for thy down-to-earth practicality, these lessons and duties for the priests themselves, to make this system of symbols work for ancient Israel. Lord, help us tonight, we beseech thee, to understand and take to our hearts the lessons that these things have for us in everyday practical living, that by thy grace we may maintain in our hearts the fire of zeal and devotion to thee, and love for one another in the church, and love for men and women outside, that the task, the gracious and glorious task thou has given to us of worshiping thee and presenting Christ to our fellow men and women may be done efficiently with all the zeal we can muster, that we may be prepared to burn the wood and give the best. So we ask thy blessing, Lord, on thy word. May thy spirit go with us to revive it constantly in our hearts and give us ever deeper understanding, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.