Rabbi Schneider - Sacrificial Living
In addition to studying all the pieces of furniture, which we did in our last study, we're now, Beloved, going further and we're looking at what the priests did in their worship to Yahweh inside the Tabernacle. All the instructions, Beloved, for worship were given directly by God and these instructions for how to worship Him, Beloved, are blueprints for having intimacy with Him. For example, we studied... as we looked at the fence that surrounded the Tabernacle, that there was only one way into the Tabernacle. Well not only is there just one way into the Tabernacle itself as a physical structure but there's also, Beloved, one way to worship God and that's His way, not our own way and I believe that God wants to cleanse our minds and cleanse our hearts through the study on Hebraic worship, the principle of sacrifice in the priesthood.
He wants to deliver us, Beloved, from the culture of Christianity today which basically makes religion - makes our faith in God all about us rather than it being, Beloved, a faith that's rooted in the worship of Him. You see, Beloved, true spirituality begins with recognizing who God is and relating to Him properly, not as a God that exists just to suit our own needs and pamper us and give us everything we want but a God, Beloved, who deserves to be reverenced just because of how beautiful, how awesome, and how good He is. And God, Beloved, tells us that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and I'm not talking about the fear of the Lord in which you feel under condemnation and under judgment all the time, but I'm talking about, Beloved, the clean fear of God which David tells us converts the soul, and when we look at the form of worship that Yahweh outlined for us in the Tabernacle and we look at the sacrificial system, Beloved, that was part of this worship system and what the sacrifices represented, it helps to bring us back, Beloved, to true faith and to walk in the true path of life.
Jesus said, "Broad and wide is the way that leads to destruction and many there be that take it; but straight and narrow is the way that leads to life and few there be that find it". I want you to know, Yadid, Beloved One, that by studying the Tabernacle you can better understand what the true path of life is. We are now on the first offering, we're studying together today, Beloved, the offering that we call the burnt offering. We're going to the Book of Leviticus, chapter number 1.
Now these offerings, Beloved, oftentimes refer to, depending on what translation you're reading, as a sacrifice, let me go to verse number 3: If his offering is a burnt offering, that word once again there is sometimes translated as sacrifice, it comes from the Hebrew word korban, let me say it again, korban, Yeshua referred to it in the New Testament and He talked about - some people said that they couldn't give their korban, their offering, their sacrifice to the Lord because they had pledged it to somebody else and Yeshua said it was just a way for them to keep it for themselves by saying it was already pledged to somebody else; just showing the continuity between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament there, but this word, Beloved, korban - sacrifice offering, it actually means, Beloved, not to give up, listen now, but to come close or draw near, and so, in Yahweh calling us to offer these sacrifices up to Him, it's not, Beloved, that He's wanting to take something from us, it's not that He's wanting us to do something because He's on a big ego trip, it's His way, Beloved, to bring us into intimacy with Him because when we give something up for somebody, Beloved, it brings us close to them.
That's why in a relationship the one that gives more is the one that feels closer. You even think, for example, of a relationship between children and their parents, generally speaking for at least most of the younger years the parents feel closer to their teenage son or daughter than their teenage daughter or son feels closer to them. In other words, if you have a teenage son or daughter or had one, you probably felt closer to them in their teenage years than they did to you and one of the major reasons for that is because you've given a lot more, you've sown a lot more of yourself into their life and so when the Lord is calling on us to present a sacrifice to Him, and not something that's cheap, Beloved, not something that costs us nothing but something that costs us something, what that does, Beloved, is because we give that up for Him, because we give that over to Him, it brings us into intimacy with Him, that's why He said in Exodus 25:8, "I want you to build me this Tabernacle that I might dwell with you". He wants, Beloved, to bring us close and that's what the purpose of all these sacrifices are about.
Now in verse number 3 of Leviticus, chapter 1, I'm going to read once again this sentence, hear the Word of God: If his offering, listen now, is a burnt offering, the Hebrew word there for burnt offering is the word "olah", let me say it again, it's a burnt offering, the Hebrew word for this type of offering is called "olah" and what it actually means is to ascend up because in this particular offering the distinguishing characteristic is that the entire sacrifice was burned up on the altar with all of its smoke ascending up, hallelujah, unto Yahweh, let me read verse number 9 of Leviticus, chapter 1: All the offering, not just part of it but all of it, listen, hear the Word of God, its entrails, however, and its legs he shall wash with water and the priest shall offer it in smoke, and here's the key word, all of it on the altar for a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.
So the distinguishing characteristic of this offering, Beloved, is that all of it, the legs, the head, the skin, the insides, the outsides, some of it was washed, as we just read but after it was washed, it was laid upon the altar and the entire animal was burned up in smoke and given over to Yahweh. It implies, Beloved, get this now, here's the principle and here's the application for what Yahweh is looking for from our lives as it's connected to the burnt offering, this olah that ascended up, all of it in smoke, the point is, Beloved, Yahweh is looking to us for, listen now, entire consecration, entire devotion. All of us, again the distinguishing characteristic in this, verse number 9, all of it, inside, outside, all of it, and God is saying if you're going to be mine, you're going to need to be like Abraham that offered all of himself up to Me.
God called Abraham, He said, "I want you to come to Me," he said in Genesis, chapter 22:2, "and I want you to offer up your son, your only son to Me," listen now, not your only son but the son of his true wife, "I want you to offer him up to Me as a burnt offering". That was Abraham's everything; it is what he set his affections on for all those years; it represented Abraham, listen now, giving up his entire life, complete devotion, complete consecration, total commitment, absolute surrender, absolute abandonment as he offered up Isaac on the altar there; and when the Lord is asking the Israelite, "I want you to bring Me your burnt offering and I want you to take all of that offering, the inside, the outside, the heads, the kidneys, all of it, and I want you to offer it on the altar, and I want all of it burned up for Me", and remember the worshiper laid his hands on it, in Leviticus 1:3, he was identifying with it; it became an extension of himself. God is saying there, "I want for My people entire consecration, entire devotion, nothing else will satisfy Me".
Remember Ananias and Sapphira, they acted like they were giving everything up, but they didn't give everything up and it was unacceptable to the Lord. Remember Yeshua said He's going to spit the lukewarm out of His mouth. Yeshua said, "Unless you lose your life for My sake, you'll not be able to find it". Yeshua said, "Unless you pick up your cross daily, deny yourself". It's total abandonment, it's total surrender, it's total devotion, it's total commitment, it's giving unto the Lord our everything, we give up all our rights, Beloved, to follow the Lord, to let Him do with us what He wants and lead us to where He wants to lead us. The distinguishing characteristic, Beloved, of the burnt offering is that all of it was burned off unto the Lord. It was a soothing and a fragrant aroma to Him, it pleased Him, and God is saying, "This offering, my son, my daughter, is a prophetic shadow of what I want from you".
So let me ask you right now, you that are watching, Yadid, around the world right now, does this reflect your life? Is your life totally surrendered to the Lord or are there parts of your life that you haven't surrendered? Are there parts of your life that you're saying to the Lord, this is off limits to you? For some of you it's your eating habits, it's like you're willing to give some parts of your life to the Lord but when it comes to your food, you're not willing to surrender that part of your life to the Lord. No, Beloved, that's why the Lord gave Israel loss of kashrut, or loss of kosher, because He wanted every part of their life to be sanctified. When we read the Torah we find that God had regulations concerning every part of daily living. Why? Because He wants our entire life, Beloved, to be given over to Him and too many of us, Beloved, have our lives compartmentalized.
It's amazing to me that, you know, sometimes we have one personality when we go to services somewhere, one personality at church or at Messianic Synagogue where you go but then, you know, as soon as you leave, you have a different personality. It's amazing to me that some people have the, you know, you would think they're the most spiritual Christian people in the world when you run into them in services. I mean they can quote the Word of God, they praise the Lord, Hallelujah, praise the Lord, but you know what, as soon as they leave the service, and they get in their car, and they close the garage or they close the car door, everything changes. They're screaming at their wife, or they're screaming at their husband, they're screaming at their kids.
I remember one example that really drove this home. We had this individual in our congregation years ago, they're not there anymore, but this person, I mean, they really seemed to be so full of the Holy Spirit, and just praising the Lord whenever you saw them in the Messianic congregation that I shepherded, Adat Adonai World Outreach Center, and they just seemed to be, you know, all full of the Word of God, but then I called this person on the phone one time and they must not have had caller ID because all of a sudden they pick up the phone, and I can't even imitate it, but it was like the rudest voice in the world with an attitude of, "Yeah!", and I'm thinking, "are you the same person that I see in services every week, that has such a sweet disposition"? I mean it was like two different people, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
And that's how some of us are, we have one personality, Beloved, in one environment, we have one personality when we're with people that believe in the Lord when we're in services, but then we go to work and there's a bunch of people around us that don't believe in the Lord, and there some of you are laughing at their jokes, talking about things that you know you shouldn't be talking about. Beloved, God is saying that's not the life that I've called you, that's not why I purchased you with My blood, I've called you for something greater than that, I've called you for something bigger than that, I've got something much more wonderful for you in this world but you need to give your entire life over to Me.
You need to sacrifice your emotions and it's interesting here, as we consider the concept, Beloved, the prophetic application of the burnt offering, this offering that's called in Hebrew, olah, which means to ascend up, the entire offering is burned up to Yahweh. When we consider the application for our life with this offering and we think it's the inside and the outside, the skin, and the innards, and the organs, it helps us to realize that what the Father is looking for in us, Beloved, is not just an outward form of godliness but the secrets of our heart also need to be given over to Him and sanctified. Whenever we find ourselves thinking a wrong thought, thinking about something we shouldn't be thinking about whether it's lust or whether it's hate, as soon as that happens, we need to have a place inside, a center, or immediately we turn that over to the Father and say, "Father, I realize that this thought is not right, this is not pure, this is not from You, God, cleanse it". "I want all of me to be a living sacrifice to You".
Our inward affections, Beloved, and our emotions need to be sanctified. Remember, it wasn't just the skin that went up to the Lord in the burnt offering, it wasn't just the outer shell, but it was the kidneys and the inner organs. God wants all of us, Beloved, given over to Him, our affections. Do you know that there's such a thing as, listen now, inordinate affections. Some of you, Beloved, and I can understand this because for years I didn't understand this, I thought if I felt something strong, it must be God. If I felt something really strong, I thought surely this must be God because I believed in God, I mean, I knew that the Lord had spoken to me so I figured, you know, if I feel something so strong inside, it must be God. It took me years to recognize, Beloved, that God is bigger than my feelings and just because I feel something no matter how strong it is, it's not God.
How many people have got divorced because you didn't feel in love anymore and you felt in love with somebody else and you said, "This must be God"? But no, Beloved, there's such a thing as, listen now, inordinate affections. That means affections that you might have in the natural but, Beloved, they're not sanctified and they're not from God. Think of all the chaos that happens in divorce, and I'm not here to judge or condemn, I'm not, but think of the chaos that it wreaks in children and people's lives being destroyed. It's not from the Lord. That's why the Lord says I hate divorce and so, again, I'm not, I'm not trying to make you feel guilty but I'm just trying to preach the Word of God, Beloved, that we're not led by feelings.
We can have inordinate feelings, it doesn't matter if it feels good to us, that, "Man's heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things," Jeremiah told us, "who can know it"? No, we need to be led, Beloved, by the truth. Our feelings, Beloved, can't rule us; we need to give them over, we need to dedicate them to God. You may not feel like loving your husband, you may not feel like loving your wife, but you need to give your feelings over to the Lord, Beloved, and conquer them, Beloved, by the Holy Spirit, by the Ruach Kadosh. The Lord is looking for complete dedication, not just the outer shell, not just that we can sing the right songs, Beloved, not that we can quote the right Scriptures, not just so that we can have the right haircut and look Christian, no, God is looking at the inner man, the entire burnt offering, the entire olah offering, Beloved, ascended up to Yahweh in smoke. We need to deal, Beloved, with the inner issues of our heart, how we feel about things.
Yeshua even said to the man, they said, "Listen, I want to, I want to follow you but," he said, "first let me go bury my father". I mean that was natural, that was human but what did Jesus say? "Let the dead bury the dead; you follow Me, for anybody that starts to follow Me and then looks back is not worthy of Me". This is what I'm talking about when I'm saying we can't be ruled by our feelings. There's such a thing as inordinate; that means improper affections, human emotions and human affections, Beloved, that are not tempered and not tamed and not under the authority and dominion of the Ruach Kadosh, of the Holy Spirit. God, Beloved, wants all of us to be devoted to Him, we can't be led by what we want, we can't be led by our own desires, we have to be led by truth, Beloved, and Yeshua said, "My Word is truth". "The Word that I speak unto you is spirit and life," Beloved, and we have His Word revealed to us in the written, hallelujah, Word of God.
And so, I wonder as you're watching this today, what part of your life, Beloved, do you need to give over to God as a burnt offering? Is it your eating? Is it your sexual habits? Is it inordinate affections? Is it that you're not controlling your anger? Is it that you're not controlling your spending? Some of you, Beloved, need to give your spending habits over to God. You're buying things that you can't afford. Some of you, Beloved, are not tamed in your affection because you're not sacrificing your income to the Lord. I wonder how many of you are not tithing. Let me tell, you Beloved, tithing, it's a form of sacrifice. The first thing we see in Scripture, Abraham runs into Melchizedek, there was no law yet but he naturally gave an offering of ten percent of all he had; it was the natural thing to do.
Some of us, Beloved, need to turn our finances over to God. He wants our whole lives, Beloved, to be about Him. He wants our whole lives, Beloved, to be consumed by Him. He wants our whole life, Beloved, to be a burnt offering and the Lord tells us here in the 9th verse that when the burnt offering went up to Him, when "all of it" it says in verse number 9, and it says: And the smoke of all of it went upon the altar, it says, that the Lord, listen now, received it and it became a soothing aroma to Him. You know, the Scripture tells us here that this fire on the altar was to never go out. The fire on the altar here, the Scripture says, was to never go out and what this means is that God will always receive a life, Beloved, the fire of the Holy Spirit will always receive that. That fire never went out, that the Lord will always receive a person that comes to Him on His terms and says, "Lord, I make you Lord of my life".
I want you to hear me, friend, Beloved one, listen to me when I tell you this, the Gospel message that we oftentimes hear preached today is either heretical or inadequate and what I'm speaking of now is this: oftentimes what we hear being proclaimed to people is, listen, if you want to go to heaven, then what you need to do is say the Sinner's Prayer. If you want to go to heaven, we tell people, all you have to do is say the Sinner's Prayer, Lord Jesus, forgive me, I'm a sinner, and come into my life, and take me to heaven. But I want you to know, Beloved, that's not the Gospel that Jesus preached. Jesus never called people to say a sinner's prayer. The Gospel that he preached, Beloved, was the Gospel of the Kingdom and He said, "If you want to follow Me, if you want to be My disciple, you must pick up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Me".
The Gospel, Beloved, that He preached was not the Gospel of a sinner's prayer, it was the Gospel, Beloved, of giving up our lives for Him and following Him. That's why Jesus said, "He that tries to save his life," Jesus said, "will lose it". "He that loses his life for My sake shall find it". Jesus said through James, "Even the demons believe and tremble". "Even the demons believe," the Lord said. They believe all right and they're trembling because their faith has not made them obedient. I want you to know, Beloved, there is no other way but radical, radical giving of ourselves over to Him. That's what this burnt offering is all about and nothing less will satisfy God. If we think God is going to be pleased with fifty percent, sixty percent, or seventy-five percent of our life, I want you to know, Beloved, He will not. He's looking for all of us; you know why? Because He deserves, hallelujah, and I know that many of you agree with me, He deserves nothing less.
Think about what He did for us. He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death for us and you know what, He's calling us, Beloved, to that same radical type of love to be given back to Him. So as we're closing today, I wonder if we would open our hearts and let the Holy Spirit speak to us. We're looking at the five offerings that Yahweh called His people to participate in if they wanted to draw close to Him through the worship of the Tabernacle which is a blueprint for intimacy with God today. The first of those offerings, revealed as the burnt offering, it speaks of radical separation from the world and a total giving over of ourselves to Yahweh.
I want to ask you, do you need to come out of the world? The Lord said, "Come out from the world, come out from that polluted work environment". So what if you... I'm not telling you to quit your job, I'm telling you to stop being close to people, Beloved, that don't love God. It doesn't matter if you don't have a lot of friends. Jesus said, "If you love the world, the world would love you but because you're not of the world but I chose you out of the world," Yeshua said, "therefore the world hates you". "A servant's not greater than his Master". Yeshua said, "If they hated Me, they're going to hate you". Beloved, we can't mix in with the world. We're to be given over, Yadid, Beloved One, to Yahweh.
Father, we ask you to circumcise our hearts. We want to be radical lovers of Jesus, Father. We want to love you, Father, with our whole heart, spirit, soul and mind. Father, we ask you to sanctify us with the fire of the Holy Spirit. Father, we want to totally give ourselves over to You. We ask You to sanctify us, Father, with the fire of the Ruach Kadosh. We want to be an olah offering to You, Father. Lord Jesus, we want to be a burnt offering to You, totally burned up, the inside and the outside by the fire of the Holy Spirit, totally alive and presenting our self to You as a pleasing and a fragrant aroma to You. Lord Jesus, we love You. Have Your way in our life, consume us on the altar, Father, by the Holy Spirit we pray.