Friends, listen up! Some of you are unaware that the Lord no longer takes delight in any sacrifices or grain offerings as a payment for our sins, for the ultimate blood sacrifice has already taken place. Let me say it again; He doesn’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings anymore to try to appease His righteous indignation against our past wicked errors.
No, the sacrifice He REALLY desires from us is a broken spirit, having now realised the truth of the what took place at the cross of Christ. He will never reject a broken and repentant heart, that has responded to His gospel with contrite humility. The Lord is pleased when we do what is right and just, rather than when we try to offer Him ‘atoning’ sacrifices of any kind. But even so, we should still offer some type of sacrifices when they’re done in the right spirit, whilst continuing to trust the Lord’s works alone for atonement of sin; fasting is a good example of this, and there really is power in this kind of sacrifice because we are denying our flesh, whilst at the same time seeking God in humility. But still, instead of trying to please God with pious acts that we think will impress Him, we must make continual thankfulness our main sacrifice to God, and at the same time always keeping any vows we’ve made to Him, out of respect. Giving thanks for EVERYTHING, even the seemingly ‘bad’ stuff, is a sacrifice that truly honours Him, for He deserves all our thanks and praise. He promises that if we keep to His paths in this way, He WILL then reveal to us the true salvation of God. So then, in His presence we must continue to offer sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, with shouts of genuine joy, all the while singing and praising Him with music whenever we can.
I plead with you all to literally give your money, time and even your bodies to God, because of all He has done for us. Let it all be a new type of a living, holy sacrifice to Him, for they are the kind of sacrifices that He will always find acceptable and pleasing. Believe me, if you want to honour Him, then this is truly the way to worship Him. Always try to live a life filled with love, doing your best to follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us unto death by offering Himself as the ultimate sacrifice for us, which was a very pleasing aroma to God. We should imitate such an amazing sacrifice through our own denial of self, always putting others before ourselves, and rejecting evil influences from a lost world that doesn’t know the way to holiness. Never forget to always be doing good works that would honour the Father and help the people around you, and to share with those around you who are in need, whenever possible. These are the types of sacrifices that please God; not for our atonement of sin of course, but as a result of the salvation Christ has already bought for us through His own blood. Behaving this way is the best way to express our thankfulness to Him!
In times past, people understood that there was real spiritual power in the shedding of innocent blood. They even sacrificed their own sons and daughters on a flaming altar dedicated to their demon gods, in order to gain from it, and such horrific practices still go on today, but more under the radar than it was in those days. It’s worth mentioning here that our holy God would NEVER accept the blood of innocent human children as atonement for sin, nor would ever grant people spiritual power because of it (like demons do); even when people used to do this monstrous practice, He was so appalled with them that He totally condemned it, whilst saying that such wickedness had never even crossed His mind! This is one of the reasons the Lord wiped out entire people groups through using Israel as an instrument for His wrath against them, in Joshua’s time as they headed for the promised land. Anyway, likewise, food that is offered to idols is significant for the Christian (even though idols are not real gods), because such unholy sacrifices are offered to demons for spiritual gain, and are not made in thankfulness to the real God, He of Abraham, Issac and Jacob. That is why we mustn’t ever knowingly participate in such practices, for it is literally partaking with demons. It is written that we cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons at the same time. No, we cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too. To the Lord, sacrifices of any type that are made by an evil, unrepentant person are totally detestable, but especially when they are offered with wrong kind of motives. You can be sure that the Lord detests any sacrifice that a wicked person does to try to appease His kindled anger (other than turn away from their evil works and repent), but yet He truly delights in the prayers and thanksgiving of people who are made right with Him by the blood of Jesus. Listen up! We could give everything we owned to the poor, and maybe even sacrifice our bodies too somehow; and with that, we might even see fit to be able to boast about such works! But, if we don’t genuinely love and serve others to the best of our abilities, we gain nothing, neither spiritually nor physically. The Lord mainly wants us to show mercy to others and seek Him in humility, rather than offer other types of sacrifices.
People also need to understand that if we deliberately continue in wilful sin after we have received knowledge of the truth in Christ, that there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover those sins. You have been warned! Christ cannot be crucified twice for you, and by wilfully sinning after such a knowledge, you are holding Him up to public shame again, which God the Father would never allow. Be careful not to get mixed up in sin again once you have genuinely repented. When they still had a temple in Jerusalem, the Jews used to sacrifice the ‘Passover lamb’ at the feast of unleavened bread, which takes place during Spring according to when the new moon falls. Once you have done a little study into it, one of the parables you will find that we should take from this Jewish ritual as Christians is that we must get rid of the corrupting old ‘yeast’ in our lives. Likewise, we must remove the ‘yeast’ of wicked people fellowshipping among us in our meetings (there is very little discernment in this way these days, but it is a necessary disciplinary action for the church to be as strong as possible). If we do these things, we will be like a fresh batch of dough made without yeast, which is what we really are if we are truly in Christ. Jesus Christ, who is our Passover Lamb, has been sacrificed for US at the ‘feast of unleavened bread’! And obviously, there was no ‘leaven’ of sin in Him at all, which is why His sacrifice is so perfect and everlasting.
It was necessary for Him to be made in every respect like us, His brothers and sisters, so that He could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then He could offer such a sacrifice that would take away the sins of all His people. The Holy Spirit tells us in the Psalms and Hebrews that when He was finally in the world, Jesus once said to the Father, “You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings, but instead You have given Me a body to offer. You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, ‘Look, I have come to do Your will, O God, as is written about Me in the Scriptures'”. We can see by this statement that God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once and for all time. Under the old covenant given to Moses, the priest stood and ministered before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which could never fully remove sins but instead prevented the Lord from smiting in His righteous anger against the people’s trespasses. But our High Priest, Jesus, offered Himself to God as a single sacrifice for the full atonement of sins, which was good for all time. Then He sat down in the place of honour at God’s right hand of power and authority, as the glorified victorious soldier who had tasted death on our behalf. When our sins were forgiven in this way, through this method, there was no more need to offer any more blood sacrifices to cover our guilt; we need only receive the truth and live by it!
He is the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd has sacrificed His life for us, the sheep. He knows His own sheep, and they know Him, just as His Father knows Him and He knows the Father. This is why He sacrificed His life for us, the sheep, both because He knows us and also to honour His Father. The Father loves Him because He sacrificed His life so that because of His holiness, He could take it back again. Even though the leaders of Israel and the Romans thought they had power over Him, in fact no one could take His life from Him, no! He sacrificed and laid it down it voluntarily. He had the authority to lay it down when He wanted to, and also to take it back up again, as proved by the resurrection. He didn’t come to call those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners, those who NEED mercy. It is His blood that confirms the new covenant between God and His people, the sheep. His blood was poured out as a holy sacrifice to forgive the sins of MANY. He gave Himself as a holy sacrifice for us so that we can be made holy by the truth of the Father. Yes, it’s true! God presented Jesus as the only acceptable sacrifice for our sins. People are only made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life on their behalf, shedding His blood for them. This sacrifice of all sacrifices shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, for they hadn’t heard the gospel; but people now have no excuse for sin, and will be punished accordingly, should they choose to remain outside of the faith.
As we know, the law of Moses is unable to save anyone, but not because it isn’t beautiful, holy and good (it is!), but it’s because of the weakness of our sinful natures, the flesh. The law is impossible for any of us to keep wholly, except Jesus! So this is why God did what the law could not do; His marvellous plan was that He sent His own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have, and through that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us, by giving His Son as a blood sacrifice for our sins. This is because His blood is so pure (because He kept the law of Moses perfectly, it wasn’t corrupted by sin), that it works like a very strong bleach, cleansing US from all OUR unrighteousness, giving us new spiritual life in HIS Spirit that makes us totally blameless! So then, just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our consciences from all sinful deeds, so that we can truly worship the living God without our guilt inhibiting us! For it’s by the power of His eternal Spirit that Christ offered Himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. Yes, it’s worth repeating that the Lord Jesus Christ offered His body once for all time as a sacrifice to take away the sins of many people, including us, if we remain in the faith, and produce the works of our salvation.
You should be 100% aware that He IS coming back to earth again… not to deal with our sins this time, but to bring His final salvation to all those who are eagerly awaiting Him, those who are ready for Him. We who have received the truth of God’s word into our spirits are like ‘living stones’ that God is building into His ‘spiritual temple’. What’s more, we are like His holy ‘priests’; through the mediation of the High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, we should continually be offering Him faithful spiritual sacrifices of thanksgiving, pure praises and willing obedience, all of which please and honour God. He Himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins, and not only our sins but the sins of all the world, should they too turn to receive Him like we have.
This is REAL love: it’s not that WE loved God, but that HE loved US, and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Real love is manifested at the cross, and it is there that we can see it with our own eyes, should we desire the Lord to open them to be able to see it.