Leviticus chapter 2. I'd like to deal tonight with
the passage that Brother Darrell read just a few moments ago, and I've entitled this message,
the oblation of firstfruits. Now, we have been looking at
the offerings that have been set forth in the book of Leviticus. The first one we looked at was
the burnt offering. And that is the offering, you
know, that sets forth the willingness, the perfection, and the sweet
savor of our Lord in His death. The meat offering that we considered. Secondly, we beheld the glory
and the perfection and the willingness, the sweet savor of the Lord Jesus
Christ to the Father in His life. Now that offering, the meat offering,
was to be fine flour. You know, that was the picture
of the holiness of His humanity. It was to be mingled with oil,
a picture of the Spirit of God in His incarnation. It was fine
flour, perfect humanity. oil, a picture of His deity,
vitally united with a body that was prepared for Him. There has been no man, save the
Lord Jesus Christ, that has ever walked this earth. He alone,
perfect man, God Almighty, oil on the meat offering was to be
poured upon the mixture of fine flour and oil to picture, to
set forth His anointing by the Holy Ghost. God incarnate, God
Himself, the Word made flesh, but also the Spirit of God anointed
Him without measure, anointing was done in the Old Testament
as a picture of setting apart for service the Spirit of God
at His baptism. The Scripture says, John set
forth, he said, I saw, as it were, the Spirit of God descending
as a dove, lighting upon Him a voice out of heaven. His Father said, This is My beloved
Son. Hear ye Him." Hear what He has
to say. He is my anointed. He is the
One that I have sent. The Lord Jesus Christ stood and
read a passage of Scripture. And read from this passage in
Isaiah, He said, I have been anointed to preach the Gospel
to the poor to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, to the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at
liberty them that are bruised, and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord. He is God's anointed. Along with the meat offering,
the fine flour, the mixture, the mingling of oil, the pouring
of oil on it, it was to have frankincense applied to it. and the sweet aroma of the frankincense
applied to the offering upon the altar pictured the savor
of God's pleasure. It had a smell, a sweet smell
of satisfaction to the father. His beloved son, his willingness
to redeem the father's elect by his obedience. Salt was always
to be in the offering. setting forth the enduring integrity
of His life, His death, and the perpetual everlasting covenant
of grace between God Almighty and His people whom are considered
alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salt will always be there. Salt is a preservative. No leaven
or honey could be mingled or found in the meat offering, that
which was to be burned upon the altar. For the Lord Jesus Christ
knew no sin, void of selfishness, void of guile. There was no insensitivity
to Him, no insincerity, no carnal desire of worldly sweetness,
but only the abiding graces of the Spirit of God." That is the
meat offering. Now, the Scripture picks up in
verse 12, after we had looked at the first part of Leviticus
2, which dealt with the meat offering, and the Scripture says,
As for the oblation of the firstfruits, you shall offer them unto the
Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor. Now tonight, we want to look
at and consider what the Scripture sets forth as the oblation of
the firstfruits. Oblation means to come or to
bring near. It may be translated, that which
brings one near. That is, that which brings one
near to God. One that brings near to His altar. The oblation is a gift. connected with a gift. Now, my
question is this, how can a sinner be brought near to God? Now, this oblation of the firstfruits
speaks of that which is indescribably wonderful, indescribably marvelous. You know, you read it and you
read that and you think, what did that say? I mean, it sounded
scriptural, You know, it sounded biblical. It had biblical words. But what did it say? The oblation offering, the oblation
of the firstfruits is described in Leviticus chapter 23, verse
17. Turn over to Leviticus 23 with me. Leviticus 23. Verse 17, now this gift was given. It's called the oblation of the
firstfruits. Now here's what it was. It says,
Leviticus 23, 17, you shall bring out of your habitations two wave
loaves of two-tenth deals. They shall be a fine flour, They
shall be bacon," now look at this, "...with leaven. They are
the firstfruits unto the Lord." Now this oblation of the firstfruits
was an offering that was given. Now the meat offering could not
have any leaven in it, couldn't have any honey in it. That's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the oblation back in Leviticus
chapter 2 And verse 12 says, Now but for the oblation of the
firstfruits ye shall offer them, that is, honey and leaven, could
be put into the oblation of the firstfruits. It could be. Look at verse 11 of Leviticus
2. No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall
be made with leaven, for ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey,
in any offering of the Lord made by fire, as for the oblation
of the firstfruits, you shall offer them unto the Lord." It's
talking about, as we read back in Leviticus 23 just then, this
wave loaf was a wave loaf. And the Scripture says in Leviticus
23, it has leaven in it. Leaven is a picture of sin. Now, this oblation of the firstfruits,
There was a certain order. Now this was an offering. This
was part of an offering. It could be offered, but it had
to be offered a certain way. Turn back with me. Now the reason
I'm doing this is that the book of Leviticus is written in such
a way that a statement will be made in one part of the Scripture. Then you turn over and it will
say, now the law of what I just read was written over here. This
is how it explains how the oblation of the firstfruits was to be
offered. Turn with me to Leviticus 23,
and I'm going to show you that this offering, now the oblation
of the firstfruits, the Scripture said, we just read it, it was
two loaves, and it was loaves made with leaven. Now, the oblation
of the firstfruits could not be burnt. I'm going to deal with
that in just a minute. They couldn't be burnt on the
altar. They were made with leaven and
honey. Okay? They were offered unto the Lord.
I'll show you that in a minute. And God accepted them. But they
could not be burnt on the altar. They were made with leaven, but
how were they to be offered to the Lord? The oblation. The Scripture
says in Leviticus 23 and verse 5, and for the sake of time,
I won't read all the verses, but I'll show you the verses.
that deals with how this offering was to be offered. Verse 5 says
of Leviticus 23, ìIn the fourteenth day of the first month at evening
is the Lordís Passover.î There was an offering that was to be
offered unto the Lord. The first one was going to be
the Passover. Now what did the offering of
the Passover set forth? It set forth the Lordís death. and our deliverance by His blood."
You know what happened concerning the Passover. God told Moses,
take a lamb, set it apart, observe it. It has to be without blemish. On the prescribed evening, kill
the lamb. That lamb's blood was to be taken
and applied to the doorpost, to the lintel of the door. Get
behind the blood. Get inside. And the Lord says,
I will pass through. The Lord will pass through. And
He said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. When I
see the blood, that is the Passover. So the Passover offering had
to be offered first. Secondly, there was another offering
that had to be given. Leviticus chapter 23, same chapter
we're in. Look in verse 9, And the Lord
spake unto Moses, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say
unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you,
and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of
the firstfruits. Now that word sheaf right there
means a handful, an omer. An omer, you remember, was the
amount of manna that could be gathered for one man For one
day when God allowed or sent the manna, one omer per man,
if you tried to take more than that, worms got in it. What was
that a picture of? Faith. We walk by faith. We're going to believe God. If
God Almighty has fed us today, He shall feed us tomorrow. My
grace is sufficient. So He said that after the offering
of the Passover, There was to be a sheaf offering. Leviticus, back reading again,
it says, you shall reap the harvest thereof. Verse 10, you shall
bring a sheaf, a handful, an omer, of the firstfruits of your
harvest unto the priest. And he shall wave the sheaf before
the Lord, now look at this, to be accepted for you. On the morrow, after the Sabbath,
the priest shall wave it, and ye shall offer that day when
ye wave the sheaf of an he-lamb without blemish of the first
year for a burnt offering of the Lord, and the meat offering
thereof shall be two-tenths deals of fine flour mingled with oil,
an offering made by fire unto the Lord for a sweet savour."
Now, the Scripture sets forth that there is an oblation We're
going to find out that oblation of the firstfruits. This is all
just to kind of get you on the ground level on what is he talking
about on this oblation of the firstfruits. It was an offering. It had leaven in it. It had honey
in it. It was to be offered to the Lord.
But before it could be offered, there had to be the offering
of the Passover, the offering that sets forth the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Then it had to have the sheaf
offering. That sheaf offering represents
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Himself. The sheaf offering. Look back at verse 11. "...Wave
the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you." You know
that that sheaf offering has to represent Christ. He alone
is accepted For us, okay? The firstfruits, that sheaf offering,
that is the representation of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
The firstfruits. Here we see Christ in His resurrection. The Scripture says, now is Christ
risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that
sleep. That's 1 Corinthians 15, 20. The sheaf offering was burnt
upon the altar. It was offered with a lamb without
blemish. The sheaf offering was a picture
of Christ Himself. So there had to be an offering
of the Passover, a picture of His death. It had to be a sheaf
offering, a picture of His resurrection. And then thirdly, there had to
be an offering of Pentecost. In Leviticus 23, look in verse
15. and ye shall count unto you from
the morrow after the sabbath, from that day that ye brought
the sheaf of the wave offering, seven sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the
seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days, and ye shall offer
a new meat offering unto the Lord." Now, the scripture says
that before this oblation, now remember, we read in the 17th
verse of Leviticus 23, it begins to talk about those two wave
offerings, that the oblation described it. Those two loaves
made, baked with leaven after the offering of the Passover,
the offering of the sheaf, and the Pentecost. What was Pentecost
talking about? Pentecost is the offering that
set forth the fulfillment of that which the Lord Jesus Christ
had done. After the Lord Jesus Christ was
crucified, forty days after He was crucified, He ascended into
heaven. Forty days. Ten days later, the
Spirit of God fell upon those 120 that were preaching on the
day of Pentecost. What happened there? The Lord
was crucified. His blood was applied to us. He passed over. The Lord was
raised with the sheaf offering. Fifty days after the sheaf offering,
fifty days after His resurrection, the Spirit of God fell upon those
that God Almighty had anointed to preach His gospel. The fulfillment
of that which He had done. Fifty days after the sheaf offering. This, the Scripture says, was
to usher in a new offering. Now look at this. Even, verse
16, until the morrow after the seventh Sabbath. It would be
seven Sabbaths in a row. Now, what is seven times seven?
Verse 49, ìOn the morrow, after the seventh Sabbath, shall you
number fifty days, and you shall offer a new meat offering unto
the Lord.î What is that new meat offering? Verse 17 describes
it. Now thereís the one that we read
that describes or set forth what the oblation of the firstfruits
was. Iíll read it again. ìYou shall
bring out of your habitation After that, after the Passover,
after the sheaf, after Pentecost, you shall bring out of your habitation
two wave loaves of two-tenths deals. They shall be of fine
flour, bacon with leaven. They are the first fruits unto
the Lord." Now that 17th verse states exactly what that oblation
Now, turn back with me to Leviticus chapter 2. The Scripture says, and I'll
begin again in verse 12, As for the oblation of the firstfruits,
you shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt
on the altar for a sweet sabre. This oblation of firstfruits
had to be offered. But the Scripture says it couldn't
be burnt on the altar. While the sheep offering was
a picture of our Lord's resurrection, Him alone, He alone being the
first fruits of them that sleep. Forty days after His crucifixion,
the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. Ten days later,
the Holy Spirit fell upon those in Jerusalem. Here we see in
the oblation of the firstfruits the union with the Lord Jesus
Christ in His resurrection. While that meat offering could
have no leaven, no honey, verse 12 says the oblation of the firstfruits
would have it. What does the oblation of the
firstfruits set forth? That sets forth God's elect,
God's people, God's church in association with His resurrection
without a doubt. But while we're in this earth,
the presence of sin is with us. Turn with me to Romans 7. Romans
7. Look at verse 15. Paul says, For that which I do,
I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. What was Paul
saying? that I detest. Those are the things I do. That
which I know to be right and honorable, walking after, serving
after, longing after Him with a pure heart, He says, I don't
do them. I don't do them. Why? Because
of the presence of sin that's with me. Because of sin that
indwells me. The oblation of the first fruit. The Scripture says it was to
be offered, but it was not to be offered unto the altar for
a sweet savor. In Christ alone, the meat offering,
in Him, was no sin. The Scripture says the meat offering
shall not have leaven in it. But the oblation of the firstfruits,
that shall be offered, it shall have leaven in it. But sin being
found in us, Sin mixed with all that we do. We could not, when
the Scripture says, you shall not burn the oblation of the
firstfruits on the altar. Why? We could not stand the test
of God's judgment. You take the oblation of the
firstfruits and put that on the altar? The Scripture says that
that, look at this, verse 12, Back in Leviticus 2, as for the
oblation of the firstfruits, you shall offer them unto the
Lord. But they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor." I can't please God. I can't be a sweet savor to Him. I cannot in myself walk before
Almighty God perfectly. I can't do it. Sin, leaven, is
mixed with all that I do. The oblation of the firstfruits. Those two loaves, they're to
be presented to the Lord. That's what it says, verse 12,
that's for the oblation of the firstfruits. You shall offer
them, verse 12, unto the Lord. You shall offer them unto the
Lord. But they can't be on the altar, burned on the altar, and
they're not going to be a sweet savor to God. The oblation of
the firstfruits sets forth the association and the thankfulness
of the believer who has been delivered from the power of darkness
and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. I'll show you that. Turn with
me to Deuteronomy, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 26. Here's the law. This is the way. These first
fruits. It says, Deuteronomy 26, it says, It shall be when
thou art come into the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee
for an inheritance, and possesseth it, and dwellest therein, that
thou shalt take of the first of all the fruit of the earth,
which thou shalt bring of thy land, that the Lord thy God giveth
thee, and shalt put it in a basket, and shalt go unto the place where
the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name there. And
thou shalt go unto the priest, and shalt be in those days, and
say unto him, I profess this day unto the Lord thy God, that
I am come unto the country which the Lord sware unto our fathers
to give us. shall take the basket out of
thine hand, and set it down before the altar of the Lord thy God.
And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God." Now
this is what it's to say. It says, see, this is all part
of the law of the firstfruits, the offering of the firstfruits.
This is what you're to say. A Syrian, ready to perish, was
my father. And he went down into Egypt and
sojourned there with a few. and became their nation great,
mighty, and populous. And the Egyptians evil entreated
us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage. And when
we cried unto the Lord our God, our Fathers, the Lord heard our
voice and looked on our affliction, our labor, and our oppressions,
and the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand,
and with an outstretched arm, and with great terribleness,
and with signs and wonders. He hath brought us into this
place, and hath given us this land, even the land that floweth
with milk and honey. And now, behold, I have brought
the firstfruits of the land which thou, O Lord, hast given me.
And thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God, and worship
before the Lord thy God, and thou shalt rejoice in every good
thing which the Lord hath given unto thee, and unto thine house,
thou and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you."
You see the spirit of thankfulness. What is he saying? He says, this
is what you should do in the law of the giving of your firstfruits. Take them and bring them. And
this is what you're going to say. Almighty God has delivered
me. Egypt is a picture of bondage,
sin. You will say, the Lord, my God,
has brought me out of Egypt. He delivered me. He brought me
to this place. He called me out of darkness.
Brought me into His marvelous light. And you shall rejoice
before the Lord." The giving, the oblation, the gift of the
firstfruits is the setting forth the thankfulness and the association
of God's people with the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. But the
Scripture says that that oblation of firstfruits, that loaf mixed
with leaven, it was offered and accepted by the Lord. It was
offered and accepted. How? Sin was mixed with a picture. Leaven was in that loaf, wasn't
it? Yes. Was it to be burned on the altar?
No. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. How could that oblation of the
firstfruits be offered and accepted by God? Well, turn back with
me to Leviticus 23. With this, I will begin to wrap
up this message. How the Scripture sets forth
what I am about to read is that oblation of the firstfruits,
those loaves, that offering, was accepted totally on the merit
of the Lord Jesus Christ's offering. Now, you hold your finger right
there in Leviticus 23. Just look back at Leviticus 2
for just a second. In verse 13 of Leviticus 2, we've
been reading in verse 12, but look, it says in verse 13 of
Leviticus 2, every oblation of thy meat offerings shalt thou
season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant
of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. Now look at
this, with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. Now let
me show you the offerings that I was talking about right there.
That oblation of the first fruits was to be offered to God. The
Scripture says that it would be accepted of God. Now I'm going
to show you what those offerings were that had to be offered with
the oblation of the firstfruits. Turn back to Leviticus 23. Look
at verse 18. Now verse 18 picks up right after
that verse 17 that spoke of those two wave loaves, fine flour baked
with leaven, the firstfruits of the Lord. Now look at verse
18. and ye shall offer with the bread, what bread is it talking
about? The two loaves. In verse 17,
the oblation of the first fruits, you shall offer with the bread
seven lambs without blemish of the first year and one bullock,
and two rams they shall be for a burnt offering unto the Lord. with their meat offering, with
their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire of a sweet
savor unto the Lord. Verse 19, You shall sacrifice
one kid of the goats for a sin offering, and two lambs of the
first year for a sacrifice of a peace offering. Now, when the
oblation of the firstfruits, which was what? Those loaves
had leaven in them. That's a picture, Pat, of us.
That's what we are. That's us. We are to be set forth
as an offering unto the Lord. But how is God Almighty going
to accept me as I am? The Scripture says you shall
offer an oblation of the firstfruits unto the Lord. You don't burn
that on the altar. You put leaven in it. It is not
accepted in itself for a sweet savor. How is it accepted before
God? The Scripture says, with the
oblation of the firstfruits, you will offer, first of all,
a burn offering. What does the burn offering set
forth? The picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and His satisfaction
before Almighty God and His death. The Scripture says you sacrifice,
secondly, in verse 19, a sacrifice of the kid of the goats for a
sin offering. What is the sin offering? We have dealt with
the sin offering, but I can tell you this, that is the imputation
of our guilt to the Lord Jesus Christ. And God Almighty's wrath
and justice was satisfied in Him. Thirdly, there was to be
a peace offering. So with that oblation of the
firstfruits, those two loaves mixed with leaven offered to
the Lord, there was going to have to be a burnt offering The
satisfaction of God in His death. A meat offering. The satisfaction
of God in His life. That peace offering. The offering
of reconciliation. And the sin offering. The offering
for absolute justice with the sinner's guilt charged to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And look at this, verse 20. It
says, "...and the priest shall take..." He's taken those offerings. He's taken that oblation, and
the priests shall waive them." What? The offerings. "...with
the bread of the firstfruits, for a waive offering before the
Lord, with the two lambs, and they shall be holy to the Lord
for the priests." That oblation of the firstfruits, those loaves,
were presented before the Lord. But they were presented with
the other offerings. The oblation of firstfruits That
gift of thanksgiving, that gift of association with Christ's
resurrection would never in itself put away sin and please God Almighty. The Lord Jesus Christ alone did
that. The church comes before God on
the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do we offer sacrifices
of praise? The Scripture says we do. We
do. But our sacrifices, the sacrifice
of our praise, the sacrifice of our thanksgiving, the sacrifice
of our love. Let me ask you this. Do you think
that that on the merit of itself would be accepted before Almighty
God? That sacrifice of my love to
Him, does a believer love Him? Yes, he does. Yes, they do. But
do you think that that love would merit acceptance with Almighty
God? This oblation of the firstfruits
right here, this gift, that's what oblation means. It's a gift. But this gift of firstfruits,
and James says we are firstfruits, but we are firstfruits only in
Him who is our sheaf, our wave sheaf. He is the firstfruit of
many brethren. Do you understand? We are accepted
before Almighty God totally upon His merit in ourselves. We are
unable to stand the fire of God's holiness, yet with Christ's virtue,
with His righteousness charged to us, you take that oblation
of the firstfruits and you'll offer the burnt offering, the
peace offering. You will offer the sin offering.
And you will take those offerings and you will put the oblation
of the firstfruits. You put those loaves with it.
And you wave that before the Lord. And God accepts the oblation
of the firstfruits, the gift of thankfulness, praise, and
thanksgiving. He accepts it totally on the
merit of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. All the merits of the
propitiation Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, the sacrifice,
of satisfaction are needed. They are absolutely essential
to secure the acceptance of the leavened oblation, to accept
me. Turn with me in closing to Revelation
chapter 14. Revelation chapter 14 verse 1, And lo, a Lamb stood on the Mount
Sion, and with Him a hundred forty and four thousand, having
His Father's name written in their foreheads. And I heard
a voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, and as the voice
of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps. And they sung as it were a new
song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders
No man could learn that song but the 144,000 which were redeemed
from the earth. These are they which were not
defiled with women, for they are virgins. They are they which
follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found
no guile, for they are without fault. before the throne of Almighty
God. These are the firstfruits. The oblation of the firstfruits,
that's a picture, that's a type of God's church, His people. They are to offer, the children
of Israel was to offer an oblation of firstfruits. It was mixed
with leaven because it's a picture of what we are. It was to be
not burnt upon the altar. We couldn't stand the fire of
His justice and judgment. It was not going to be a sweet
savor unto God. We were not going to satisfy
Him. But when that oblation of the
firstfruits was to be offered, it was to be offered with the
other offerings that God did accept. And on the merit of those
offerings, on the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are accepted. Then in closing, I'm going to
just read those last four verses back in Leviticus 2. It says,
If thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the Lord,
or when you do, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy
firstfruits green ears of corn, dried by the fire, even corn
beaten out of full ears. Thou shalt put oil upon it, lay
frankincense thereon. It's a meat offering. And the
priest shall burn the memorial of it part of the beaten corn
thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense
thereof, it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord." In the
offering of these first fruits, God Almighty gave direct instructions. He said, when you do, bring green
corn dried by the fire, roasted, beaten out. Green corn, full
ears of corn. So picture of the bride herself. John 12, 24 says this, the Lord
says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. So that green corn, again, is
that picture of those redeemed, those brought forth by the merit
of the corn that fell into the ground and died, much fruit was
produced. Parched, beaten out, a picture
of His suffering and our association with His sufferings. And these
could be offered, no doubt about it. But back, I'll tell you this,
in Leviticus 23, verse 14, it says, Eat bread, no parched corn, green
ears, until the selfsame day that you brought an offering
unto your God." These ears of green corn, parched, they could
not be partaken of until an offering was made. You remember when Cain
came and made his offering unto the Lord of the first fruit. He brought of the firstfruits. Abel, the Scripture says, brought
of his offering. It was a lamb. Remember that?
God accepted Abel's offering. Why didn't He accept Cain's? Cain brought of the firstfruits.
Probably brought of the best. I don't doubt that a bit. I dare
say that he did not partake of the firstfruits. You could not
partake of the fruits, the first fruits, the best of it, could
not partake of it until an offering was made before Almighty God. We do not enter in to the association
of the resurrection and the blessing of it until the Lord Jesus Christ
is set forth as having pleased Almighty God in His death. Sin must be put away. God Almighty is just. He said,
I'm a just God and a Savior. Sin must be dealt with before
we enter into the fullness of His resurrection, the association
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin has got to be dealt with.
Cain came with the best that he had, but there was no offering
given concerning the Lamb, and God didn't accept it. The association
with the Lord Jesus Christ is secured in that He has put away
our guilt, shed His blood, satisfied Almighty God on the altar as
a sweet savor. Now, when the oblation of the
firstfruits was given, we say we are associated with Him. But
that oblation of the firstfruits was waived before God only with
the other offerings that set forth Christ Himself. And God
accepted it on His merit. Our Father, this evening we thank
You that we could approach You. And we approach You, Lord, realizing
that our approaching You is only on the merit of Christ Himself.
We ask You to forgive us where we failed You, for we know we
have. We have nothing, no one to glory
in, especially ourselves. We glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask You this evening, would
You cause us by Your Holy Spirit to understand something of our
acceptance to You, before You, totally on the merit of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We ask You now to bless this
Word even now. Hide it within our heart. For
Christ's sake, Amen.