An Aroma of Righteousness

Now in Leviticus chapter 1, just leave your Bibles open to it, to it, but I'll just call your attention to the 17th verse, the latter part. Well, I read the whole verse. Then he shall tear it by its wings, but shall not sever it, and the priest shall offer it up in smoke on the altar, on the wood which is on the fire.

It is a burnt offering, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. Tonight I want to talk to you about a soothing aroma of righteousness. And I want to illustrate to you what it means, as Marianne sang, about giving our heart to the Lord.

How he sees that, how he views it. It is a soothing aroma to the Lord, a soothing aroma of righteousness. Now Romans 12-1 is best understood by going back here to the Old Testament.

And I want to take you to the Old Testament Tabernacle for a bit. It is sometimes called Moses' Tabernacle, or the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, or the Tent of the Congregation. In fact, it went by other names.

And I'd like to take you on a very quick guided tour of the Tabernacle because I want you to see something there. If I had the opportunity to find some slides, I would have had them pull the screen down here and would flash some pictures of the Tabernacle for you to see. But I want you to view it, and if you were sitting looking at it, you would be seeing, first of all, an outer structure that would partially be hiding the actual Tabernacle itself.

But you would be looking at outer wall boards about 7 1⁄2 feet high, 150 feet long, and 75 feet wide. And those outer court walls were covered with a very fine twine linen, white linen. And as we would enter in, as you would enter in, the front gate, which was made up of a curtain of about 30 feet wide, not quite as wide as this stage, you would come through a beautiful blue, purple, and scarlet curtain.

And then we would go inside and begin to see what is there. Now, time does not permit me to go into it, but I do want to say that everything that you would see in the Tabernacle, every single thing, every color that you would see, every piece of furniture that you would see, every little brass thing that was used, the wood, absolutely everything about it would have a meaning. And Hebrews 9.9 says that the Tabernacle was a symbol for the present time.

It was a symbol for that time. Now, I also would pause to say this about the Tabernacle as a whole. It was always placed right smack in the middle of wherever Israel was encamped during their wilderness journey.

Of course, they camped according to where the cloud stayed. And it was the center of the encampment, and the tribes were all positioned around it. And the Tabernacle is the most profound and detailed picture in the Old Testament that we have of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is like a parable. And a picture of Him who was the Word, John said in John 1.14, he said, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And the word dwelt is the same word as tabernacle.

The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Jesus also said this, he said, Moses wrote of me. And he was referring to the law, he was referring to the offerings, but he was also referring to the Tabernacle.

Ezekiel 11.16 says, I will be to them a little sanctuary. Now to say that I want to take you on a guided tour of the Tabernacle is also to say I want to show you Jesus. And God used the Tabernacle to teach His children things that otherwise were all but incomprehensible.

It was as if God took His Son, if I can use the expression, or you pardon the expression, it was as if God took His Son apart or to pieces. In order to show us the fullness of the meaning of the cross and the depth of His atoning sacrifice for His people. And so as we go quickly through the Tabernacle, pay attention because you're seeing Jesus.

And as you would come in, the very first thing that you would see is called the burnt altar of sacrifice or the brazen altar. And we're going to come back to that in a minute because it's there that I have a lesson that I want to share with you. But after you would pass that first altar, you would next then go to what is called the laver, which was a brass piece that had reflecting glass to it.

It was a place where the priest would wash his hands before he would move on into his priestly duties. And then you would approach the actual Tabernacle itself. Forty foot, forty-two foot wide, sixty foot long, consisted of wooden frames and overlaid it was beautiful curtains.

It was broken down into two parts. The first was called the Holy Place and the second part was called the Holy of Holies. As you would enter into the first part of the Holy Place, on your left side you would see the candlestick.

You would see the golden candlestick that would illuminate the Holy Place. And of course it was a picture and is a picture of Christ as our light. Then right across from the golden candlestick you would see the table of showbread.

Upon which would be twelve loaves of bread, which were for the twelve tribes of Israel, excuse me, which were for the tribe of Levi to partake of. Again, it is a picture of those loaves or a picture of Christ and the church. First Corinthians 10.7 says, we being many are one loaf.

And the loaf as a whole is a type of the church, but the bread is a type of Christ upon which the church feeds and he also feeds the church. Next you would come to the second altar, which is called an altar of incense, which stood right before the Holy of Holies. And there would be a perpetual burning of incense on that altar.

And again that is a picture of Christ as our high priest in heaven, ever making intercession for us. And is a picture of the fact that as that altar was always burning, it was as if prayers, it was as prayers being ascended to God. And it is a picture of Christ who is always available, always providing an access for us to the Father.

And then the last thing that you would see, can somebody get me a little bit of water? I don't know whether it's messy just so dry or whether I'm so dry. But I need some water. The last thing that you would see would be the Ark of the Covenant.

The most important thing inside the Holy of Holies. The Ark was the very first piece of furniture which Moses instructed them to make. And by the way, when you read about the Ark in the Old Testament and when God, I gave you a guided tour of it starting from the beginning onto the Ark of the Covenant.

When God laid it down, he did it backwards. And he gave them instructions for the Ark first of all. It was the only piece of furniture that inhabited or was in three different tabernacles or sanctuaries.

And the reason that God began with the Ark is because it represented the throne of God and the presence of God in Christ. It also represented the glory of God revealed in divine worship. And it represented the fullness of the Godhead revealed in Jesus Christ.

And without the Ark, without the Ark of his presence, folks, we can't go anywhere. We can't do anything without the Ark of his divine presence in our midst. Now, some people might say, why study the tabernacle or why study or why use the Old Testament so much? Why make a study of the tabernacle and why study the Old Testament so much? Well, for one thing, 2 Timothy 3.16 says, all scripture given by God is profitable.

All scripture given by God is profitable. Romans 15.4 says, whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. You know, you know, I was thinking about this.

We have some Christians and I'm just going to throw this in. This is free tonight. I'm just going to throw this in.

I got the thing, you know, there are some Christians, they only eat one, one thing of the word. They only eat one, one food. For example, they may be faith people and the only thing they eat of, the only thing they see is faith.

And in fact, I, I've often said some of the faith preachers must have a very thin Bible. Because all they preach is one message, faith. Other people, it's only prophecy.

Everything's prophecy. Other, and there's nothing, the word, there is a prophetic word in the scriptures. Other people, it's only missions.

Or other people, it's something else. And I believe that's one of the reasons that the church today is suffering from spiritual malnutrition. Because we don't know the scriptures.

We don't know all the scriptures. So we don't really know Christ. It says of Jesus, that beginning at Moses.

And in all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures concerning himself. Oh my friend, you'll find Jesus in Genesis. You'll find him in Exodus.

And you'll find him in Leviticus. There is more gospel in Leviticus. And the Old, probably than any other place in the Old Testament.

And in fact, God devoted two chapters. What am I, I'm all getting all excited about Leviticus. I never believed I'd, here I am.

I'm up here getting all excited about Leviticus tonight. But God devoted two chapters for the account of his creation. He gave us 50 chapters that dealt with the tabernacle.

And the offerings of the tabernacle. Because every bit and piece of it is Jesus. And is a picture of Jesus, hallelujah.

Now I want to come back to the very first altar that you see when you would enter in. Through the first veil, or the first door. Entering into the courtyard of the tabernacle.

And that is the brazen altar. Or the burnt altar, the altar of burnt offerings. And a priest is there right now.

And I want you to picture this. A priest is there right now. He's offering up a sacrifice.

And I want to talk about that. Now, there were five offerings. Five different types of offerings or sacrifices that were required.

Not all of them were burnt or offered up on the brazen altar. There were several of them there. But there were five different offerings that were offered.

The first, the burnt offering. There was a meat offering. There was a peace offering.

There was a sin offering. And there was a trespass offering. And one of these nights I'm going to talk about a few of them.

Because I've just been so blessed as I've been studying them. But here in the first chapter of Leviticus. I want you to see the burnt offering.

And I want to read through with you or have you read through with me. The first nine verses of Leviticus chapter 1. It says, If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd. He shall offer it, a male without defect.

He shall offer it at the doorway of the tent of the meeting. Meaning that first altar, the brazen altar. That he may be accepted before the Lord.

And he shall lay hands on the head of the burnt offering. That it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf. And he shall lay the young bull before the Lord.

And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall offer up the blood. And sprinkle the blood around the altar that is at the doorway of the tent of the meeting. He then shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces.

And that's important. We're going to come back and see that. That's what it means about giving the Lord your whole heart.

That's what that means. We're going to talk about that. Verse 7. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire.

Then Aaron's sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces. The head and the fat over the wood which is on the fire that is on the altar. Its intails, however, and its legs shall they wash with water.

And the priests shall offer up in smoke all of it on the altar for a burnt offering. An offering by fire of a smooth, of a soothing aroma to the Lord. Verse 17 also says that it's a soothing aroma to the Lord.

When they would then take it piece by piece and offer it up. That also was a soothing aroma to the Lord. Another translation calls the offering a sweet fragrance.

Sweet fragrance to Jehovah. Now, after we're not going to leave the tabernacle. But after, let's suppose after you left the tabernacle.

And you had witnessed this burnt altar, this burnt offering on the altar. Not only would you have a mental picture of that tabernacle. And what went on in the offering of that sacrifice.

But you would not forget the smell. You would not forget the smell. The smoke rising up.

The burning of the sacrifice. It would linger with you. And perhaps it would even be in your clothes.

A smell of blood. A smell of ashes. A smell of fire.

A smell of charcoal. You would not forget the smell. Now the scripture says that the burnt offering on the brazen altar.

Is not an unpleasant smell. But rather it is a beautiful soothing aroma. A sweet satisfying fragrance.

Ascending up to please and to appease Yahweh. Or our Heavenly Father. And let me tell you what that means.

And all I want to tell you. I have smelled that smell. I have smelled the smell of aroma of righteousness in the church today.

It pleased God that altar, that offering to God. It pleased God back in the tabernacle. And that sweet fragrance still pleases God today.

And what a wonderful odor it is. You will find it in a lot of churches and among a lot of God's people. And you won't find it in a lot of places.

And among a lot of God's people. Now to understand what the aroma of righteousness is. We must know the purpose of the burnt offering.

The burnt offering sacrifice. Was first of all it says that it was the priest shall burn all of it. It was an offering that was burnt entirely.

Totally out. Different from some of the other sacrifices in which the priest would take some of it and eat some of it. But in this case it was totally given.

God, in other words God got it all. And man didn't get any part of it. Now what we're seeing in this offering is a picture of the cross.

A picture of the cross in which our Lord as the son of the father. Gave himself in loving obedience to his father. So that he may reveal his love as son to the father.

It is a complete surrender of himself in unreserved devotion to the father. You see there are two sides to the cross. There are two aspects of it.

And very often most evangelicals and many Pentecostals only preach one side of it. One side of the cross or one aspect of the cross is which the father beholds the son. As a representative of sin and treats him as sin.

It's that aspect in which the son says father, father let this cup pass from me. But not my will, thy will be done. And when the son prays that prayer or when he's on that cross the father is silent.

He cannot come to his son's rescue. He is silent because there is no other way to provide salvation but by the suffering of the cross. Oh but there is another beautiful side of the cross pictured here in the burnt offering.

And it is that of a father whose heart is filled with joy and with divine delight and satisfaction. Because he sees in the self-sacrifice of the cross the complete surrender of his son in love. And he sees the ascending of the offering as a consecration to God on one hand.

And on the other hand is God's gracious acceptance and approval and appropriation of that offering. This is Christ representing his people in perfect consecration. An entire self-surrender to God or in other words as a perfect example of obedience.

When Jesus said on one occasion he said the zeal of my house or the zeal of thy house shall eat me up. The phraseology brings us back to that burnt altar offering. Jesus' constant testimony concerning himself into which his whole life bore witness was in words like this.

I come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me. This is what's pictured in the burnt offering that we read to you here in Leviticus 1. Now in order to make this clear I want to repeat something. The burnt offering which was the first offering on the first altar as you come into the sanctuary is a type of our Savior wholly surrendering to the will of the Father.

And whenever such an offering is made it is described as ascending to God as an aroma of righteousness, a sweet savor, a fragrant odor unto him. And by this offering Christ became our perfect example of what consecration to God really is. And as Christ gave his all and here's what it means to you and I as Christ gave his all and as he consecrated himself to God in full surrender.

We also are to offer up ourselves on that burnt altar a sacrifice as a loving and willing obedience in full surrender to him giving all of our heart. Giving all of our heart and letting all burn up. Let it all burn up that which we once were.

We let it all burn up and when it burns up it ascends up to the Father as a sweet odor in his nostrils and he says that's the aroma of righteousness. I love that smell hallelujah. Whenever we walk in holiness, whenever we walk in sanctification and righteousness we become a living bodily sacrifice acceptable to God.

He receives our service as an aroma of righteousness. It is a sweet smelling fragrance in his nostrils. Can I put it this way? Let me put it this way.

Whenever you and I do right, whenever we're holy before God and man we smell good. Whenever we offer to God our lips of praise from a pure heart, whenever we walk in righteousness it is an offering of a living acceptable sacrifice to God. And when God witnesses you and me living in self-surrender it's an aroma, it's a fragrance that reaches the throne of God hallelujah.

And when Paul said in Romans 12.1 he said I urge you therefore brethren by the mercies of God I urge you because of his sacrifice to present your sacrifice. To present your bodies and you know that word present is the same word that's used in presenting the offering on the altar in the tabernacle. And every time we do the will of the Father we're presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice and God says that smells good to him.

Our acts of service are an aroma to God. You know last, what was it, it was last Tuesday night we'd gotten a note here that a sister in the church her daughter's, her granddaughter, her daughter's daughter died a crib death. And we'd gotten a report that they had no funds for the funeral and needed other expense.

And so Brother Day just left a couple offering plates down here. And you know I watched as people came and as they gave and as they laid their offering. It wasn't a big thing we didn't make any big thing of it.

And yet as I saw people coming I thought that's an aroma, that smells good. That's an aroma of righteousness unto God. It reminds me of what Paul said in Philippians 4 18.

Now I must interject here is that there will be some preachers that will tell you that the best sacrifice you could ever make is that kind of sacrifice. In fact that's the only one they talk about. That's the only one they talk about.

And you know what they do is they let Christians get by cheaply. It's a lot easier to shove out a pledge out of your pocket than a pledge out of your heart for holiness. But nevertheless, again I can't find any of my notes here.

But again it is a part though when you give financially out of a pure heart. God said that smells good. That's an aroma to Him.

You know I have witnessed many examples that qualify as a sweet smelling savor or order to God. I want you to turn to Psalms 45. And I got one of those watches like Bob had.

I don't know where in the world. It goes fast. Go to Psalms 45 because I want to tell you as you do that I want to give you a testimony of a brother.

No one here will know who it is. But a brother who had a real problem of lust. Battling a lust problem.

He got saved. But the lust in his past was fed by pornography and pornographic movies. On several occasions he came confessing.

Weeping over the fact that he had slipped back. But he kept battling. He kept seeking.

He kept coming to God. He kept seeking the victory. And one time he came.

Then he came and he told me he said I believe that God's beginning to give me the victory. I'm beginning to get a track record of living right. And then he came and he shared one time how just the day before he had a terrible terrible strong urge.

He was right on the verge of giving in. Of going in some place or I don't know exactly whether it was going into a pornographic movie or buying some magazines. Tremendous temptation.

But this time instead of giving in. He called on the Lord. And he walked away.

He didn't go in. He didn't indulge. And when he walked away and he told me this story.

I thought oh that's the aroma of righteousness. That is called being a holy sacrifice at chapel to God. It's a sweet fragrance to God.

You see folks I like to take these wonderful tremendous glorious truths. And bring them down where we live. And when you bring it down to where you live.

And when you bring it down instead of giving in or indulging. You turn away and you walk away from it. God is pleased and that's the aroma of righteousness.

Psalms 45 is a prophetic picture of Christ. In verse 7 it says. Look at verse 7 it says.

Thou hast loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God has anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy fellows. You see whenever we act in righteousness and hate evil.

We stand in Christ's place on this earth. We stand in his place. We stand prophetically in this verse.

This verse says that Christ hated wickedness. Therefore God has anointed thee with the oil of joy above thy fellows. And the next verse, verse 8 says.

All thy garments are fragrant. That's the fragrance of righteousness. Thy garments are fragrant with myrrh and alloys and cassia.

And you see when you walk into a temptation. Do you love righteousness and hate wickedness? If so, if you love righteousness and lay down wickedness. Then you stand as Christ and God's anointing is upon you.

And your garments come out of that temptation. Smelling the fragrance of myrrh. And myrrh is a type of death.

It's a type of death to that thing. And you come away smelling as myrrh. Smelling as Christ, hallelujah.

I think of two sisters in the Lord. Two sisters in the church who did not talk to each other. Now of course that never would happen in a church like this.

They went to the same church but never spoke to one another. Obviously they were not, obviously they didn't smell very good. Obviously they weren't walking in righteousness.

No man can walk in righteousness and have an unforgiving spirit. Leviticus 26.31, the Lord said of Israel's disobedience. He said, I will not smell your smoothing aroma.

In other words, you're offering up praise to me in the house of God. I don't even receive it. Because it's not a smooth aroma to me because I know what's in your heart.

You see God says that there are some actions and some behavior that stinks in his nostrils. He does not condone it. He turns away from it.

It does not soothe or please him. It has the smell of a dead rat if you please. In fact, Isaiah 3.24 says, Now it will come about that instead of sweet perfume there will be putrefaction.

Stench. But you see in the case of these two sisters, they started to sit under the preaching of righteousness and holiness. And God began to get a hold of one of the sister's hearts.

And so she went to the other sister and asked forgiveness. Humbled herself, asked forgiveness. The other sister received it.

And in doing so they embraced each other. The relationship was healed. And in the moment of that embrace, an aroma of righteousness went up to the father.

Not only did he smell it but the people around both of the sisters smelled it as well. And they said, man it smells good now. I got one more and I'm going to close with this.

You know the aroma of righteousness ought to permeate our homes and our marriages. Whenever I counsel couples in premarital counseling, I ask each of them, they're together in the counseling session, but I ask each of them to define this verse. Wives be subject to your own husbands.

And I get some interesting responses to this. Now most of the females agree to this, at least they tell me they agree. And as they're talking and agreeing, I always notice that the husband has usually a smile on his face.

And he's happy that she agrees. And you know whenever, as soon as I see the smile on the husband's face, I get serious. And I explained to the man that in Ephesians 5.22 it says, Wives be subject to your husband.

But verse 25 said, Husbands love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up, gave himself up, altar, sacrifice, burnt offering, gave himself up for her. And the picture of this again is seen in the burnt altar offering, in which the entire sacrifice was to be burnt in its entirety. Christ so loved the church that he submitted to the will of the Father, and he submitted to the need of the people who were in need of salvation.

And then I explained to husbands, and husbands to be, that the only right, the only right that they have to require their wife to be in submission to them is first, are they in submission to the Father, and are they in submission to the wife's needs. About this time the counseling session gets very, very quiet. I share this with you because I want to tell you about a husband I know who shared this with me.

For years as a Christian, he neglected his wife, and he abused, he didn't abuse her, but he abused the teaching, Wives be subject to your husbands. He never, as I said, he never physically abused her. He just never submitted to her needs.

He went where he wanted, when he wanted, and always had money for what he wanted, but never enough for what his wife needed. He lived by his wants while she suffered in her needs. All of it under the cloak of a combination of Wives be in submission to your husbands, as well as a machoism, combination of the two.

In fact, the machoism found that verse and loved it. But then God began to deal with this man. Now I know some of you are thinking right now, are you sharing about yourself? Well, no, I'm not.

Only in this respect. I thought about this today. I remember, it's not a problem in our marriage anymore, but it used to be, I'd talk to my wife about money that she had spent.

And I'd say, honey, you didn't check with me, and I'd get upset. And she said, well, she said, you know, you take care of all the funds. You've got all the credit cards.

You can go spend money whenever you want. And I thought, you know, she was right. I discovered she was right.

We resolved it now. Now my wife goes and spends money whenever she wants. No, it's not a conflict anymore.

And so I'm not talking about myself tonight. Only there are shades of it. I've seen shades of myself in this brother.

But then God got a hold of his heart. And he realized that he did not know Christ's love in his marriage. And he changed.

And his marriage changed. And now there is an aroma of righteousness. And he's earning the right to be the head of his house.

He's in submission to his father. But he's also in submission to his wife's needs and hurts or whatever. And thereby gaining the respect, showing the love as Christ had for his church and laid down his life for his church.

And I asked tonight, I asked some husbands in marriages, How does your marriage smell? Does it have the aroma of righteousness? Well, I've got to close. But there's one other thing. I've just got to, I'm going to quit.

I'm going to close. I started late so I guess I can finish a little bit late. I want you to look at verse 6. He shall then skin the burnt offering and cut it in pieces.

Have you ever felt like you came here, heard one of Bob's messages or one of Brother Dave's messages and man said, I just been skinned. I'm getting skinned alive. Well, if you are, then thank God.

You ought to be glad that he's skinning you. And he's going to do that. He's going to skin you down and tear you apart.

And each piece by piece, he's going to say, put it on the altar. Put it on the altar. You know what the priest did after he skinned it? It says that he took every piece, the head, the inward parts of the heart, the legs, and the fat or the muscles.

And I should have just waited and preached the whole message on this, but I'm just going to go through this very quickly. God wants all of us. Sister Marian sang about it tonight in that song.

He wants a sacrifice to include everything. It says that they were to take the head and lay the head down and wash it and offer it up as an altar of sacrifice. And you see the head represents our mind and our intellect.

And you see, if you're still practicing sin in your mind, then that needs to come down on the burnt altar. You need to offer that up to God. And very often it's in our mind that's the last thing we surrender, but God puts it first as it were and says, lay that down.

Speaking of the sacrifice of the bird, it says, and the priest shall bring it to the altar and wring off its head and offer it up in smoke on the altar. Have you given God your mind and surrendered it to him? Do the thoughts that go through your mind, are they an aroma of righteousness? I was thinking about a simple little illustration. It's very simple, but it'll bear in mind what I want to say, because sometimes it's not only the thoughts that are in our mind regarding evil and sin, but sometimes it's other kinds of thoughts that we have regarding people around us.

And I remember one time my mother lived in a place. She had an apartment house. And right behind her apartment there were parking places, and it just so happened that mother's parking place was not by her apartment.

It was someplace else. And I would go by to visit her, and I'd park in somebody else's parking place and run in to say hello to my mother. And invariably when I would do that, the guy would show up.

I think he waited somewhere until I got there. And so it happened two or three times. Finally another time I'm in, and this time the man's wife comes and says, Sir, my husband is very upset about this.

Would you please... And she was very pleasant, but she says, he's very, very upset. She says, please don't say anything to him. And when I came out, he was giving it to me.

He was ripping me up one side, and he said, you know, et cetera, et cetera. You know what I mean. And I opened the door, and I leaned out over my car.

The hood, not the hood, but the roof of my car. I had the door open, and I leaned out over it, and I put my head, and I just kept looking at him, contemplating whether I was going to give him a piece of my mind. And I want to tell you, that was not the aroma of righteousness.

And God rebuked me immediately as I began to do it. God gave me a picture of how stupid and silly I was. And as soon as he did so, I said, Sir, I'm sorry, I will never do it again.

And I got in my car, and I never did it again. And you see, that's what I'm talking about. It says that God wants us to lay down our minds, our thoughts, to him.

What is in your mind relative to the thoughts of your brothers or sisters? If you were to give them a piece of your mind, would it be fragrance, would it be righteousness, or would it be unrighteousness? And then there is also the inward parts, representing the heart, the will, and our affections. They too are to be offered up as a bodily sacrifice. And this is talking about our motives, our aims, our ambitions.

And again, our sister, she sang about it. Psalm 51, 6 says, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. Jeremiah 31, 33 says, I shall put my law in their inward parts.

You see, the law and the truth keeps revealing and exposing our inward parts. And in my case, showing me things that still are hidden away in the heart that need to be brought to him and laid down on the altar of sacrifice. In the last three weeks, three messages that I prepared, I started with enthusiasm to prepare the messages.

And right in the middle of it, God began to reveal and test me in the very area that I was to challenge God's people. And God showed me my own heart in it. And I said, Oh God, let there be nothing of that in my own heart.

I lay it down before you. I want a clean heart and a pure heart before you. Paul said it this way.

He said, Why are we also in danger every hour? He said, We're in danger every hour. In danger of what? In danger of letting the impurities of our heart grab a hold of us. And he says in the next verse, he said, I die daily.

And when I was rebuked, when I had my head on the roof of my car, looking defiantly at that man, the thing that the Holy Spirit said to my heart, brought this verse back and said, I die daily. Die to that, even that thing in your life. Die to it.

And then the legs were to be offered as well to the Lord, which is a sign, represents our walk before the Lord. And then finally it says that they should lay the head, the legs, the inward parts, and the fat. The fat, meaning the muscle.

And that represents our health, our vitality, our energy. And what it means is that give God the first portion of your energy. Give God the first portion of your health and your vitality.

Honor Him with it. And oh, Friday night I saw it here. I saw it here as I came in.

Pouring down rain, wind blowing. And I thought, surely of all the times that our crowd would be down, it would be that night. But oh, I saw, bless your heart, I saw people come in with their fat.

I saw people come in with their energy. I saw them come in with their best that they were going to give to God and said, I'm not even going to let weather hold me back. I want to come to the house of the Lord.

That same afternoon I was with a brother in this church. And he told me about his daughter. He said she took my pocket calendar and she wrote every Friday, prayer meeting, prayer meeting, prayer meeting, prayer meeting.

He said, I got to come now. I got to come now. God wants you to give your energy to Him.

He wants you to give the best part of what you are to Him. But most of all, He wants us to lay it all down. And when we do, it's an aroma of righteousness unto Him.

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present yourself in every part to Him. Let's stand together. Let's stand together in a word of prayer.

Hallelujah. And God Himself, oh hallelujah, has declared a jihad. He has declared war against everything that stands in opposition to His holiness and His righteousness and His justice and His love.

And if we line up with His purposes, then the wind will always be at our back and not at our head.