Well, let's go back to Leviticus
the second chapter. I think that the book of Leviticus
is one of the most least studied books in the Bible. I think it's one of the ones
that's least appreciated. It's difficult for many folks
to read some of these Old Testament books, especially like the book
of Leviticus. It deals with the duties and
activities of the sons of Levi. especially Aaron and his sons. And of course, the book of Leviticus
gets its very name from the sons of Levi and all of their activities. In the book of Leviticus, it
talks about the things that they did, the things the priesthood
did, the kinds of offerings that they brought unto the Lord. And
on the surface, The book of Leviticus, it may
appear that it has no relevance for our day. But it is very much relevant
to our day. Because we know that all the
scriptures speak of our Savior. And whenever you go to any passage
of scripture, You want to look and see what is the Scripture
saying to me as I read this passage. What is the Holy Spirit saying
to me about my Savior? So we're always looking for the
Lord Jesus. Today, when we are introducing
our young children to the Scriptures, we will typically give them maybe
a copy of John, or maybe the book of Romans. I want us to understand that
among the Jewish people, the very first book that they gave
their children to read was the book of Leviticus. The book of
Leviticus. It's absolutely necessary that
people understand the message of the book of Leviticus. And
it is this. How can I, a sinner, draw near
to God? That's what the book of Leviticus
is about. It's as relevant today as it
was when Moses wrote it hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Here's
God in His holiness. in His absolute purity. God who is just and righteous
in all His ways. And here I am, a sinful man. There you are, a sinful man,
sinful woman, sinful boy, sinful girl. Here we are in this congregation,
a group of sinners. Those who are watching on the
internet, sinners. All of us alienated from God
because of our transgressions. And the issue that ought to weigh
very heavily upon our minds and upon our hearts is this. How
can God, who is so holy, receive me and accept me when I'm so
sinful? Is this relevant for today? Absolutely. Absolutely. Another way to put
it is, how can God be just and justify the ungodly? Well, we're instructed as to
how we can come to God in the book of Leviticus, which sets
forth our Lord Jesus and His great work of redemption and
reconciliation. Now, with the Israelites, there
were five main offerings that they offered. There were some
lesser offerings, but as far as the main offerings that they
offered to God, there were five. First of all, the burnt offering.
And that's the very basis of their worship. At the brazen
altar, an offering was offered to God of fire. We studied the
burnt offering last week. It could come from the herd,
it could come from the flock, or it could be birds. But it
was always a picture, those animals were pictures of our Lord Jesus
who laid down His life in order that God be a just God and a
Savior. The burnt offering. The burnt
offering pictures the satisfaction of God's law and his justice
against sin through the sacrifice of this offering of this animal.
And of course that pictures our Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God who
took away the sins of his people by the sacrifice of himself.
So the first offering we studied and the first one set forth just
right at the beginning of the book Leviticus in all of chapter
1 is the burnt offering. And it sets before us this, without
shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. And I say that's as relevant
today as it's always been. There has never been any remission
of sin. There has never been any forgiveness
of sin except an innocent victim die in the stead of the guilty. And in Leviticus chapter 1, we
have these animals who died for the Israelites as they brought
them one by one. They died in their stead that
these people might stand accepted before God. Now watch, not on
the basis of the animal that died. but on the basis of the one who
was set forth in the death of the animal. You see, they were
saved and they were justified and they were accepted the same
way that we are accepted today on the basis of the bloody death
of Jesus Christ our Lord. God never saves sinners any other
way except by grace through the doing and the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So in Leviticus chapter 1, we
have the burnt offering. It teaches us that in order for
guilty sinners to be free of condemnation, a suitable victim
must die in their stead. The second offering is the meat
offering. the meat offering which we're
going to study this morning. It was always offered after the
burnt offering and it signified thanksgiving to the Lord for
acceptance and also speaks to us of the consecration of our
blessed Savior as we shall see as we study the meat offering
both this morning and this evening. And then the Lord willing, next
week we'll look at the third one, which is the peace offering.
The peace offering, it speaks of our Lord Jesus who has made
peace with God, and who is our peace. The scripture says, He
made peace by the blood of His cross. He's the peacemaker. He's the prince of peace. You
can't make peace with God. He made our peace with God by
His substitutionary death. Then we'll talk about the sin
offering. The sin offering was offered
as a sacrifice for various individuals for sins in general. That teaches us, no matter who
we are, No matter what our position may be in life, even if we're
a laborer in spiritual things in the house of God, we're all
sinners and we all need blood redemption. And then finally,
the last one is the trespass offering. The trespass offering,
which was offered for specific sins. You see, every sin is an
affront against God. Every sin is an attack on His
sovereign authority. It's a transgression of His law.
And the only way that transgressions can be forgiven is in a manner
that's honoring to the Lord. These are the five offerings
of Israel. Now today, let's look at the
meat offering. the meat offering. And it might
be less confusing if we said, if we labeled this the meal offering
or the food offering. Because when we usually speak
of meat, when you say to me, we're going
to have meat for lunch, I'm thinking steak, Chicken. That's what we think of when
we think of meat. But that's not what this is.
This is a meal offering or a food offering. A food offering. Now of the five offerings, which
I've already mentioned to you, the burnt offering, the meal
offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass
offering. Of the five offerings, this is
the only one that is bloodless. The other four involve blood. This one involves no blood. The food offering has nothing
to do with the blood. It did not include the death
of an animal in the state of the guilty sinner. Because that
has already been dealt with in the burnt offering. In the burnt
offering. this meal offering or meat offering,
it was always offered on the basis of the burnt offering which
had been presented to the Lord. So when you think of the meat
offering, think of it as being like a thank offering, an offering
of thanksgiving. an offering of grateful praise
to the Lord for having accepted us on the basis of the burnt
offering. You see, God will not accept
even our thanksgiving. He will not accept our worship
except upon the basis of the blood being shed, the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Leviticus chapter 1 is basic
to this worship. And there is no way we can come
to God even with our gifts. With our gift of service. With
our gift of worship. With our gift of singing. With
the gift of our offerings. Of our money. We will not be
accepted for any of those reasons were accepted only in the Beloved
based upon His sacrifice offered to God at the cross, and because
He offered that acceptable sacrifice to God, therefore, since we are
accepted, our worship is accepted, our thanksgiving is accepted,
our offerings are accepted. But it all goes back to the burnt
offering. The burnt offering. One of the things that is certainly
set forth in the meat offering is, we give to the Lord the best. We give to the Lord the best.
It says here in verse 1 of chapter 2, when any will offer a meat
offering unto the Lord, let his offering be a fine flower. And the word fine has two meanings.
Not only ground up fine, In other words, not coarse, but fine. But it means the best flower.
The best flower. When we worship the Lord, our
time, our talent, our money, whatever it is, we give the best. We want to give the best. You
know why? He's deserving of the best. And I'll go a step further,
here's the reason we give to the Lord the best, because He
gave us the best. Who's the best? Christ Jesus
is the best. What would God give to save His
people? Well, the only gift that He could
possibly give that would do the job of saving His people from
their sins was that unspeakable gift of His darling Son. God
gave the choicest of gifts. Oh, what a fine gift Christ was. No coarseness in Him. Everything
smooth. When you think of something that's
fine, it's smooth. There's no roughness in it. There's
no ups and downs in it. That's our Lord Jesus. He's the
fine gift that God has given. the finest, the best gift, the
unspeakable gift. We talk about the blessings that
God gives, and we're thankful for the blessings that He gives,
but listen, they're all in one reservoir, Christ Jesus. And
if God has given us His Son, we've got everything in Christ
Jesus. We shall lack for nothing, for
we have the very best that God can give in the Lord Jesus Christ. The best gift. And so when we
give to the Lord in thanksgiving, we give the best to Him. That's
the reason as you read this passage of Scripture, you get deeper
down in here. The gift, the oblation of first fruits. The first fruits. The Lord said, bring me the first
fruits. Don't bring me the leftovers.
He didn't give us His leftovers. Although the leftovers of God
would be glorious, wouldn't they? But He gave us the best. The
very best. Fine flour. And you'll notice,
as our brother read down through here, this could be brought uncooked. or baked in an oven, or baked
in a rectangular pan, or fried in a pan. But it was to always
be the best. Fine flour. And when this offering
was brought to the priest, some of it was burnt on the altar,
and then there was some of it that was reserved for the priest.
They were provided for. You notice the second verse.
Well, let me go back to the first verse. It says, After the fine
flour, he shall also pour oil upon it. Oil upon it. And you know, oil was to the
Israelites like butter is to us. They used to season and of
course it's good for you. It's obvious even today it's
still good for you. Pour oil upon it, then put frankincense
upon it. The frankincense, though it tasted
bitter, when it was burnt up on the altar, it gave off a delightful
smell. And it pictures the fragrance
of the life and the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
in the second verse, he shall bring it to Aaron's son, the
priest. He shall take there out his handful of the flour thereof,
and the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof, and
the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar to be an
offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. A sweet
savor unto the Lord. Now, concerning this offering,
We read down in verse 11, couldn't be any leaven in it. Leaven in
the Bible, it always symbolizes that which is evil. That which
is sinful. Hypocrisy. Our Lord said to His
disciples, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Self-righteousness. So the Lord says, you can't put
any leaven in it. It's just a simple cake, fine
flour, with oil, and then frankincense. He says, don't put any leaven
on it, and don't even introduce any honey in it. Oh, but honey
is good for you. Honey is an outside sweetness. You see, in God's great salvation,
that's provided for us in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. In that
sacrifice, there's no leaven, no sin, because our Savior was
the sinless Savior. The sinless Savior. So there's
no leaven. And also no honey. In this salvation,
we don't contribute anything sweet to this salvation. It's
all of the Lord. So the Lord says, don't even
bring your honey. Don't bring those things that appeal to the
flesh, that are tasty to the flesh. The Lord says, leave it
alone. Don't bring those. Don't bring anything that will
cause the mixture to swell. That's the leaven, like we swell
with pride. And don't bring any honey. Just
a simple cake, fine flour, oil, and frankincense. And then he
says that all of these were to be seasoned with salt. In verse
13. Every oblation of thy meat offering
shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the
salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. With all thine offerings thou
shalt offer salt. What does salt do? Well, salt
prevents corruption. And salt preserves. And this
speaks to us of our Savior who preserves us with the salt of
His grace. The covenant of grace is a covenant
of salt. We're preserved. God's people
are preserved by His grace. We're kept by the power of God.
Now, I want you to remember this about the meat offering. It could
not be offered without the burnt offering. As you read through the scriptures,
and I've read a multitude of scriptures about the burnt offering,
as I researched it, it's never offered by itself. It was always
offered after or in connection with the burnt offering. The
burnt offering. Look at Leviticus chapter 9.
Let me just give you a couple of illustrations. Leviticus chapter
9. Look at verse 1. And it came to pass on the eighth
day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. Leviticus chapter 9, the second
verse now. And he said unto Aaron, take
thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering
without blemish. You notice how many times that's
mentioned? Without blemish, without blemish. Over and over again
you read that of these offerings. And offer them before the Lord.
And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak. Take ye a kid
of the goats for a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both of
the first year without blemish for a burnt offering. Also a
bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord,
and a meat offering mingled with oil, for today the Lord will
appear unto you." That is, you can offer a meat offering, but
the meat offering must always follow the burnt offering. Look down at verses 15 through
17. And Aaron brought the people's
offering. He took the goat, which was the sin offering for the
people. He slew it. He offered it for sin as the
first. He brought the burnt offering
and offered it according to the manner. And he brought the meal
offering, or the meat offering, took a handful thereof, burnt
it upon the altar beside the burnt offering of the morning. In other words, the morning sacrifice.
And we know that the Israelites, the burnt offerings, were offered
every morning and every evening at nine o'clock. There was a
lamb that died, the burnt offering, and at three o'clock, there's
a burnt offering, another lamb died. And at both times, they
brought a meat offering on the basis of the burnt offering having
been offered to the Lord. The meat offering was never offered
instead of the burnt offering, but beside of it, or on the basis
of it. You see, the burnt offering,
it tells us of how God in His holiness accepts sinful man. It's through the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The meat offering or the meal
offering, the food offering was offered on the basis of that.
Listen, we ought to be a thankful people. God has showed abundant
mercy to all of us. Like Jeremiah would say, every
morning is new with His mercies. They are filled with new mercies.
Every day. Why, everything we have we owe
to God. What do you have that you haven't
received? In Him we live and move and have
our being. All of the physical mercies that
everybody enjoys every day, they all come from the Lord. He sends
His reign upon the just and the unjust. He feeds those who blaspheme
Him and He feeds those who bless Him. He gives water to those
who despise Him. He gives water to those who love
Him. All men are the recipients of
His daily mercies. And there are some men who are
the recipients of His sovereign grace. Therefore, we have all
blessings in spirit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We owe
God thanksgiving. That's a debt we owe. Every breath that we breathe
is a gift from God. Thank you, Lord, for life. Everything
we eat is a gift from God. Thank you, Lord, for what I eat.
Every time we travel on the highway to get to our destination, thank
you Lord for the safety that you gave me. I mean, our prayers
ought to be overflowing with thanksgiving of all people. God's people ought to be always
a grateful people, a thankful people. The mercies of God constrain
us to praise Him and to thank Him. But let it be understood, there
is no drawing near to God to even thank Him, except on the
basis of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Our Lord said in John chapter
14, Jesus answered and said, He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. No man cometh unto the Father
for anything except by Christ Jesus. You can't even come to
God to thank Him except upon the basis of justice
satisfied through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look with
me in Hebrews chapter 13. Look in Hebrews 13. Look at verse 15. Hebrews chapter 13 verse 15. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to His name. By Him. Yes, we thank
God, but we thank God through Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Oh, if we could get this across to you, if I could speak to you
and God would make this understandable to you and make it real to you,
you cannot come to God for anything except through Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. You can't even say thank you
and expect God to receive it except on the basis of the blood
and the righteousness of Jesus Christ the Lord. And I know we tell our children,
we tell our friends, we tell our neighbors, you need to be
thankful to the Lord. And there are lots of people
who say, hey, I'm thankful, but if they don't come to God through
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, God doesn't hear the thanksgiving.
He's not going to receive the thanksgiving. You see, unless
you're accepted, your worship won't be accepted. Unless you're
accepted, your prayer won't be accepted. Unless you accept it,
your thanksgiving won't be accepted. And the only way you can be accepted
is in the Beloved. Christ Jesus the Lord. Look at
1 Peter 2 and verse 5. So by Him, by Him we offer this
sacrifice of praise to God. 1 Peter 2 and verse 5. Ye also, as living stones, lively
stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God." Is that the
end of the sentence? No. No. Ye also, as living stones,
lively stones, are built up a spiritual house and a holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God on this basis
in, through, and by Jesus Christ." Boy, it's clear, isn't it? Look at Romans chapter 12. Romans
chapter 12. Look at verse 1, Romans chapter
12 and verse 1. I beseech you therefore brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. He says, I beseech you therefore.
That is upon the basis of the mercies of God. And he set forth
several mercies of God which should lead us to thanksgiving
and lead us to present our bodies a living sacrifice unto God.
He's talked about God's sovereign mercy back in chapter 9. He's
talked about God's justifying mercy in chapter 10. He's talked
about God's calling mercy also in chapter 10. He's talked about
God's sovereign rule in chapter 11. Whatever we offer to God is on
the basis of the Lord Jesus Christ and on account of the mercies
that He's given to us. While God has given to you abundantly,
again and again and again and again, every day is filled with
His mercies. And we as God's people, we commit
ourselves to the Lord. Yes, we do. Oh yes, we do. We commit ourselves to the Lord.
But we don't present ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice,
so He will show us mercy. Now watch it. Be careful. We
don't present ourselves as living sacrifices to God so that He
will show us mercy, but because He has showed us mercy. He has
showed us mercy. Go back to the Israelite and
his meal offering or his meat offering. He didn't bring it
to be accepted. He didn't bring the fine flour
and the oil and the frankincense upon it. He didn't bring it to
be accepted. He brought it because it was
accepted. He was accepted. And our sacrifice of thanksgiving
and praise to the Lord, our gratitude to Him, our worship this morning
together is not to be accepted by Him, but because we are accepted
through Jesus Christ the Lord. We are accepted. Now the meal offering, the meat
offering was a bloodless offering, but it was always connected with
blood. because it's always connected with the burnt offering. Our
sins were dealt with in the burnt offering, therefore we're grateful. Now I want you to look with me
in Genesis chapter 4. Let's see if you can follow my
train of thought. As we think of these first two
offerings, the burnt offering, that's the death of an animal,
And the food offering, the presentation of the fine flour, the oil, the
frankincense, or the first fruits of the corn crop, as it says
later on in the chapter. As we think about the burnt offering
and the meat offering, one was a bloody offering, one was a
bloodless offering. In Leviticus, the second chapter,
the bloodless offering was accepted. It was accepted. but not until
the bloody offering had been presented. You with me so far?
That's right, isn't it? So the bloodless offering would
be presented to the Lord, but only because the blood offering,
the bloody offering, the burnt offering had been offered to
God. With that in mind, here in Genesis chapter 4, we have
a very familiar passage of Scripture. Here we have two kinds of offerings
offered to God. One is a burnt offering. The
other one really is a food offering. It's a food offering. And you
know the story. Look at verse 3. And in process
of time, it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground an offering unto the Lord. And I think we could say,
that's a meat offering. That's a meal offering. It's
a food offering. which God ordained and God gave
details about in Leviticus chapter 2. At verse 4, And Abel, he also
brought of the firstlings of the flock, and of the fat thereof. In other words, he brought a
burnt offering. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and to his offering. The fire came out undoubtedly
from the flaming sword of chapter 3 verse 24, which is literally
Shekinah tongue of fire. The fire came out and devoured
Abel's offering. It was a burnt offering unto
the Lord. He shed the blood of the animal. The innocent dying for the guilty.
God had respect upon it. Verse 5, "...but unto Cain, and
to his food offering he had not respect." God didn't
regard it. God didn't look to it. God didn't
devour it with fire. He brought no blood. Now meat
offerings, that's fine. To thank the Lord for all that
He's done for you, But you just can't come to the Lord any old
way that you want to come. You can't come a bloodless way.
You've got to come on the basis of substitution. And Cain did
not do that. So look at verse 6. And the Lord
said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance
fallen? If thou doest well, if you bring
the right offering, Shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou
dost not, well, if you don't bring the right offering, sin
lies at the door. In other words, your food offering,
that's not going to put any sin away. Oh, but I'm bringing the
best. I'm bringing the best. It's the
finest flour. It's the oil, the olive oil.
It's the oil of the olive. It's the frankincense. I'm bringing
you the best. And God says, I don't have any
respect to your offering. Where's the blood? Where's the
blood? When you dare to approach a holy
God, you better do so on the basis
of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And don't you think that your
thanksgiving to God, that will be good enough. Nothing is good
enough but the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But if you come to God upon the
basis of the blood shed, the blood of the Lord Jesus, If you
come to God like Abel did, you'll be accepted. So that's the idea
of the meat offering. It's always given in connection
with the burnt offering. Now tonight we'll go further
in this, but surely you've got the gist of it already. Our thanksgiving,
our worship, our praise to God. And these are good things. These
are good things. But they're never offered to
God except in, through, and by the substitutionary justice satisfying,
sin removing, righteousness bringing in, death and resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You got it? You got it, don't
you? Alright. Let's sing a hymn.