The Continual Burnt Offering

(Dec. 18M, 1878.)

“And thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the Lord; two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, for a continual burnt offering. The one Lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even. And a tenth part of an ephah of flour for a meat offering, mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil. It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained in Mount Sinai for a sweet savor, a sacrifice made by fire unto the Lord.” — Num. xxviii. 3-6.

Each of the offerings had a special teaching.

I. The circumstances of this offering, typifying Christ.

1. God calls it “My offering”; compare “God will provide Himself a lamb” (Gen. xxii. 8).

2. Two lambs, (i) Clean. (2) Valuable, (3) Good for food. (4) Harmless. (5) Meek. (6) Isa. liii. 6, 7; “we like sheep,” therefore Christ the Lamb.

3. Without spot (1 Pet. i. 18, 19; 2 Cor. v. 21; 1 John iii. 5).

4. Offering made by fire. All circumstances of the burnt offering indicated suffering and wrath (Lev. i. 5-9). Killed, blood shed, flayed, cut into pieces, all burnt. So Christ suffered for sins (1 Pet. iii. 18), “died for” (1 Cor. xv.

3), “gave Himself for” (Gal. i. 4). Real (Luke xxii. 44; Isa. lviii. 5; Ps. xxii. 14-17, xxxii. 8). “By Thine agony and bloody sweat, by Thy cross and passion “; took all that.

Why was fire needful in these sin offerings? Shows the wrath descending on the victim instead of the offerer. (Describe lightning conductor; the flash, once descending on that, passes into the earth, spent, never returns, never strikes again).

5. Offered at the door of the tabernacle (Exod. xxix. 42). The Israelite could not go in to worship, could not reach the shewbread and the candlestick, nor even approach the veil, without passing by the altar of burnt offering.

So Christ’s offering of Himself for us, His atonement, is the very beginning. All past and present worship, without it, is mockery and iniquity, prayers and hymns and all.

6. Day by day. This the special point of the type, teaching that continual sin needed always atonement. The sin goes on day by day (if you get a glimpse of that you would not dare to lie down to-night without an interest in the atonement); but now the sin offering is done away. Why? Because the Messiah was cut off but not for Himself. “He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease” (Dan. ix. 27). The shadow passed when the substance came. Christ made it to cease when He died (Heb. x. 1, 11, 12).

One sacrifice for sins for ever. Done, finished. 1 ‘I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do” (John xvii. 4). ‘’It is finished“1 (John xix. 30). “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” (Heb. ix. 28). An Israelite could never come and not find the altar there.

Morning and evening sacrifice, possibly, showed atonement for age and youth.

7. // was a sweet savor. Would God let His Son suffer in vain? Fire goes out when the fuel is burnt; no more flame. Justice satisfied, God satisfied (Eph. v. 2). “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smelling savor,” does not mean that God was pleased to see Jesus suffer, but the result of those sufferings (John x. 17). If God is satisfied, why not you?

II. What will you do about it?

1. Are you unconverted or anxious? See the Israelite laying his hand on the head of the sin offering, showing the transfer — accepting it as substitute. (“This is my act and deed.”) When you own the sin, and own Christ’s death as your substitute, then “it shall be accepted for /21m” — the sacrifice burnt up instead of the offerer. Nothing to do, nothing else will do. Securityis not your feeling satisfied, but God’s being satisfied. (Isa. xlii. 21). Then now “behold,” etc. (John i. 29). He still says, “Behold Me, behold Me” (Isa. lxv. 1).

2. You who have accepted the offering are accepted in the Beloved. What must follow? “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose stripes ye were healed” (1 Pet. ii. 24). “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (1 Pet. iv. 1, 2). “And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again” (2 Cor. v. 15). Titus ii. 14: “That He might redeem us from all iniquity,” not only from wrath. See Hebrews x. 10: “Once for all,” that you might be sanctified.

As the continual burnt offering showed always the present atonement for sins that are past, so it shows the continual cleansing for the present. “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleans*/^ us from all sin” (i John i. 7). Must not, dare not, continue in sin, etc. “What shall we say then?... How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. vi. 1, 2.)

III. Christ, as the Lamb, is an eternal type. See Rev. vi. 16: “the wrath of the Lamb.” Will it fall on us? No wrath of the Lamb, for those washed in the blood of the Lamb. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit” (Rom. viii. 1). We shall for ever have to do with the Lamb of God. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Rev. v. 12, 13; vii. 9, 14, 17).