There are three different kinds of offerings: -- 1st, that of the Great Day of Atonement (Lev. 16), which was God's provision for making worshippers; 2nd, Sin and Trespass Offerings -- God's provision for the worshipper when he failed; 3rd, Burnt, Meat, and Peace Offerings -- God's provision for the worshipper in service.
Every one is in one of these states either a stranger to God, or knowing God, or knowing God, but hindered in worship; and there are three different parts of truth in which Jesus meets these three different states.
The way we got peace was not by confession of sin, but by taking God's testimony of the blood. (Lev. 10) The blood was carried and sprinkled upon and before the mercy-seat; the blood of atonement was put there, -- dealing with a sinner as a sinner; the blood is upon the mercy-seat. The blood of atonement is of no value, save as seen on the mercy-seat. My body being washed in the blood of Jesus would not satisfy; it is not a question about my conscience being clean, but what would justify God; and it is when I see where the blood is put, even on the mercy-seat, (which was the cover of the ark, in which was the law,) that the conscience is satisfied; but nothing else could satisfy, - nothing but the blood on the mercy-seat. And what connects a sinner with that is, simply receiving God's testimony. When we have seen the blood there, and have received God's testimony, how should we be found? -- rejoicing! going into the presence as dear children, in confidence; holding communion, because on the throne there is the "Lamb, as it had been slain."
Well; after a while we are overtaken with a fault, and we lose all joy, and hang our harps on the willows; and why? because we have sinned. What, then, do you say to such an one! You do not call him to the blood on the mercy-seat again. When once I have seen the Lamb, my person is for ever accepted. The moment a saint sins, the Spirit is quenched and grieved, and all joy is gone. Confess, then, your sin, and He is faithful and just to forgive, because you are accepted. There is a controversy between you, as a child, and God; and you must get your conscience washed; and until you confess, you will not get peace. The blood is getting connected with the conscience. Here I get the blood in connection with the Trespass and Sin offerings. This question is not about our persons being accepted. Until you confess, and, as it were, dip your conscience in the blood of Jesus, you cannot get peace. That is the way we must purge our consciences; by confession. If I sin, and do not confess, my joy is hindered. As a poor sinner, blood upon my conscience will not do, but I must find that God can be just, and the justifier of the ungodly, -- and the proof is, the blood upon the mercy-seat. But this will not do for the Spirit of God dwelling in me; He will not minister joy and peace if I allow a spot to continue on my conscience; and the place where the blood of Jesus then comes in is, not on the mercy-seat, but in connection with my conscience.
Well, again, if you found one who knew he was forgiven, ever speaking of himself, or of his prayers, instead of Jesus and of God, then comes in this third thing in Jesus, presented to us in John 16, "When the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth," etc. If He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you." The Spirit having led us to know the blood on the mercy-seat, and that confession will keep the conscience clean, does not send us back to feed with swine, but is blessedly engaged in "taking of the things of Jesus, and showing them unto us."
Christians often, when they have failed, find their joy gone, and say, ,How did I get my joy first? was it not by thinking of Jesus?" Then they try this again, but they do not find their joy. When you have not confessed your sin, the Spirit will not let you have joy, although you may try to force it; He says, "No, you are a child; you have done wrong; -- go back and confess your sin, or else I will not go on to show you and teach you; you must be brought to confess." When we have confessed, we do not labour to believe again, nor continue confessing, but we know His word is true, "If we confess, He is faithful and just to forgive."
There are three distinct uses which the Spirit makes of the glories in Jesus: 1st, to the poor sinner, the day of Atonement; 2nd, to the poor sinner who knows the blood, He takes of the things of Jesus, and shows them; 3rd, the failing believer He leads to confess. These are three different portions of truth in the person of Jesus.
That truth which is presented in the day of Atonement, is how God makes worshippers. In the sin and trespass offering we have God's provision for His worshippers in failure; and the burnt, the meat, and the peace offerings show different, glories IN Jesus, the unfolding of which is the blessed, joyful worship of the worshipper before the Lord. In the sin and trespass offering, we have God's provision for His worshippers in failure. Would you not recognize, that one who was fully established in the two, and not knowing the other, did not know worship? If you had seen a Jew only bringing the two, would you not say to him, "Will you never take a burnt offering? Is it enough that you are accepted, and are not under judgment?" Our worship, as Christians, does not consist in the use of the blood on the mercy-seat, nor in the confession of sin, but it is in my happy intercourse with God Himself, in His estimate of what the Lord Jesus Christ is. Just as we converse with Him about Jesus, are we holding our place of worship. This is the sweet savour to God. It is sweet to Him, when we come and repeat to Him His own thoughts about Jesus; that is true communion. Both the burnt offering and the meat offering have this expression: "It is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord." One involved death -- in the other there was no death.
Jesus' perfection, as offered to God consisted in two things -- one, complete self-renunciation; the other, active service. In the burnt offering we have the proof of the perfection of Jesus; for the way in which God manifested the perfections of His Son, was not only by the active energies of service (the Holy One going about doing good), but the one great thing that proved the inseparableness of His will from God's, was not that He loved to bless, but that He was willing to give up all and everything for God. The question was, was He willing to say, "Even so, Father!" It was this which stamped the completeness of the renunciation of the Lord; was He ready to take the place the adopted Son ought to have taken? We make a great deal of running here and there, and but little of suffering the will of God; He was willing to suffer it, and in the burnt offering we have Christ in His selfrenunciation.
In the meat offering we have Christ in active energy of life, doing the will of God.
In the burnt offering we have Him suffering the will of God.
A poor Jew might not be able to offer a bullock: was he to be cut off? No; but while this may be, I do not think that this only is meant by the bullock, lamb, and bird; but rather that they show three distinct features in the Lord's humiliation. This self-renunciation of the Son came out in three different ways, it came out as the Son of God from the bosom of the Father, as in Phil. 2, who "made himself of no reputation." He looked round on all the glory, and it was His, and He said, I will leave it, for it is my Father's will, and these poor sons cannot come here unless I do so. It is only said of the burnt offering, "It shall make atonement;" and this shows that if you take any view of Jesus which leaves out His Godhead, your sins are not pardoned. If you don't see the Lord Jesus as the second person in the Godhead dying upon the cross, your sins are not forgiven you, and cannot be; for you have not got that in the Blood which meets the holiness of God: nothing will do for my soul but the blood of the Son of God, who was in His bosom.
His second act of humiliation was taking the form of a servant; and what was Jehovah's servant to be? was all the treatment He received that which He was to receive? He who "was to be exalted, and extolled, and to be very high?" When I look at the cross, and see Him there in agony, I get the same servant of Jehovah humbling Himself. He was not only the eternal Son of God, but the servant of Jehovah; and as we see in Psalm 22, the Prophet, Priest, and King; in verse 22, we see Him as the Priest; in verses 25 and 28, as King. He who cried in verse 1, "My God," was the Prophet, Priest, and King. The face of God as the Father was hidden from His own Son. So as the master, God was hiding His face from His servant. In Isaiah 52 and 53, we see him as the servant especially, and He renounces all: "My servant shall deal prudently, He shall be extolled," etc. As God's servant He was to he "extolled," but He was to be obedient unto death.
Though He was the King of Israel, and was to get the kingdom, He went through the depth of every thing. He was to have the kingdom, but the only way He could take the sceptre was through humiliation, and He cared for nothing saying the will of His Father.
Man did not care to obey; but Jesus did not thus. God had one perfect servant. Come and look at Him -- a sacrifice of a sweet-smelling savour. He who was to be extolled, etc., would go down; He would carry all His glory as a servant, and be put to shame!
The same Spirit by which He was led is that by which we understand His service as intrinsically beautiful. No man can sympathise with the service of Christ. The seeing Him take the path of humiliation -- God's path -- to all the glory, is beautiful; and in all my course as a servant, I shall be led through suffering. The greatest servant is the greatest sufferer.
There is no power of sustaining our souls, save simply the power of worship; searching into Christ in this character we see Him as Prophet, Priest, and King, only entering into His glory through humiliation, and while we learn this, we earn the power of bearing.
If you want to know the power of self-renunciation, you must learn it in the Burnt Offering. What we have not learnt in power in the presence of God we cannot practise outside. You cannot endure suffering as a mother, or as a nurse, save as you have learnt the preciousness of the Servant in stripping Himself. If you do not keep up your communion with the burnt offering, you lose your power. The Lord Jesus knew nothing as a Son, save to be a servant; and so must we, for the life given to us is a life of service. In the little things around you, do you realize that as sons you are to serve God in them? and don't you find it is constant self-renunciation all day long? a thorn under every step? we must be giving up; giving up; giving up. Now do we not fail in this point? and is it not because we try to strengthen our hearts for suffering without learning this in the presence of God! If we were abiding all day long, admiring Jesus, in His self-renunciation, with our hearts lifted up to God, we should not so fail. It is because we do not use the burnt offering, that we so fail. (Heb. 12.)
Oh! know more of the value of that Burnt Offering! What I would wish for you, is to know more about the Burnt Offering -- to have your minds filled with God's thoughts about the humiliation of His Son; because there is the power to do likewise.
