Leviticus chapter 2. I'm going to read the whole chapter
which is just 16 verses. Leviticus chapter 2 starting
in verse 1. And when any will offer a meat
offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he
shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon. And he
shall bring it to Aaron's son the priest, and he shall take
thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of oil thereof,
and the frankincense thereof. and the priest shall burn the
memorial of it upon the altar to be an offering made with fire
and of a sweet savor unto the Lord. And the remnant of the
meat offering shall be Aaron's and his son's. It is the thing
most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. And if
thou bring an oblation of meat offering baked in an oven, it
shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil,
unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And if any of thy oblation
be a meat offering baked in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened
mingled with oil. Thou shalt part it in pieces
and pour oil thereon. It is a meat offering. And if
thy oblation be a meat offering baked in the frying pan, it shall
be made of fine flour with oil. And thou shalt bring the meat
offering that is made of these things unto the Lord. And when
it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it in unto the
altar. And the priest shall take from
the meat offering a memorial thereof and shall burnt it upon
the altar. It is an offering made by fire,
a sweet savor unto the Lord. and that which is left of the
meat offering shall be Aaron's and his son's. It is a thing
most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. 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, and that word
oblation It's a sacrificial present or something brought near to
the altar. So it's like a meat offering,
but it's a little different. He's talking about an oblation.
It's a present. He 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 Savior. And
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 the meat offering. With all thine offerings thou
shalt offer salt. And if thou offer a meat offering
of thy first fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for a
meat offering of the first green ears of corn, dried by fire,
even corn beaten out of full ears. And thou shalt put oil
upon it, and lay frankincense thereon. It is 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." Now, we know from the Scriptures in the New
Testament that everything that is written is written for the
believer's use and edification. as well as illustrating the Savior
of men and the glorious gospel. In this lesson before us, these
offerings and oblations, they tell the same story in type,
how we as believers are to approach God through the appointed sacrifice. There's one thing crucial, there's
one thing I noticed in these verses that I had noticed before. The priest was to perform it
in the oblation before God and men. Now, we're not left to guess. We're not left to guess how we
are to come into the presence of God. Cain and Abel were not
left to guess. They were specifically instructed
by their father how to come to God. And yet, Abel did what his
father had told him, he brought a sacrifice, but Cain, he didn't. The father instructed. You know,
how irritating we've been to our parents and our children
of us, when they ask us something, and we explain them how to do
it, and then they just do what they want to do. And that's what
happens now, and that's what's happened time and time again.
Some come to God and they're rejected, and they can't figure
out why they're rejected. Well, they came with their own
hands, their own works, the best that they could do. Well, God
must accept me because I'm the golden child of the family, or
you know, whatever. No, it doesn't work that way.
Some are rejected and others are accepted. Let's look at verse
13 as our text. We're going to look at salt. We're going to look at salt and
how a delightful picture this is of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's very interesting. Look with me at verse 13. In
every oblation, that is every present, as you come to God,
ever entering into His presence, ever entering into God's presence,
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
your meat offering. With all your offerings you shall
offer salt." First of all, what can we gather
from this text? Just reading it plainly, what
can we gather? Well, it says every oblation
or sacrifice was to be salted when it was offered. To be accepted,
it had to have salt. Do not offer anything in God's
presence or come into God's presence except it be salted. It's black
and white. Secondly, we have a term which
I find very interesting. It's called, in verse 13, the
salt of the covenant. The salt of the covenant. Another
feature or term we meet with is the salt of the covenant of
Jehovah, which expressly prescribes and gives honor from God. Now, we know what a covenant
is, and this is a covenant of salt. So this is what we see
on the very surface, these two thoughts, these thoughts. Everything
that you bring for God, and God's coming into God's presence, He
will not accept it if it doesn't have salt on it. And then He
refers to this salting as the salt of the covenant. Well, a
covenant, as we know, a covenant of grace is established by God,
and God's the one that's telling how to do these things. He's
telling his servants how to do these things. Now, I want us
to consider some things. Let's first of all consider the properties
or the results of salt. Bluntly, salt is used to save
from corruption. Now, who's that? That's the picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such was the importance of our
Lord's blood, His person, and His righteousness. in order to
come into God's presence, to be saved from our corruptions,
you better come with salt. Like Abel, you better come the
way God prescribed. As in all of our approachings,
our prayers, meditations, and acceptance before Jehovah God,
this then is the only way whereby we can be approved of God. Notice it's not salt plus, it's
just salt. Not salt plus our good works. Not salt plus our good deeds.
Not salt plus our good intentions. Salt. Salt. Thou shalt season
with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant
of thy God to be lacking from your meat offering." With all
your offering, you'll offer salt. So if you come to God through
the Pope, if you come to God through a man, if you come to
God through your preacher, if you come to God through your
church attendance, through your church service, if you come to
God through Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha, it will not be accepted. Only with salt. And it better not be lacking.
It's black and white. Christ is the way to God. So, where Christ is not There is
no savor. Savor. Not savior. But no savior
as well. No savor. It's a sweet smell
in the God's nostrils. Every time this is offered. Every
time this is offered. There's salt there. It's a sweet
smelling savor. It is Christ then that gives
the lovely fragrance of our persons before God. It is not us. We're
full of sin and stench and corruptions. It is the salt that the Lord
insisted on, and it is the salt that brings the Savor unto God. Christ also is that salt of the
covenant. Salt of the covenant. He's the
first, He's the last, present to God. He is it. He is the Alpha,
He is the Omega. By and through Him we have life,
righteousness, and union with God. Turn to Ezekiel chapter
20. Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 40,
41, and 42. Ezekiel chapter 20, verse 40,
41, and 42. For in my holy mountain, this
is the Lord, and in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith
the Lord God, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them
in the land, serve Me. there will I accept them and
there will I require your offerings and the first fruits of your
oblations with all your holy things. I will accept you with
your sweet savor when I bring you out from the people and gather
you out of the countries wherein you have been scattered and I
will be sanctified in you before the heathen and you shall know
that I am the Lord, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel,
into a country for which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your
fathers, I will accept them, I will accept
you." How? Salt. The sweet oblation at God's
hands. Why? Who? How? Christ! Christ!
Christ! All of God's chosen, redeemed,
and selected ones are accepted through this salty, savory offering. Now, we know that to be true
in Ephesians 5 and verse 2. He says, "...and walk in love,
as Christ also has loved us, and hath given Himself For us,
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. There's a connection there. He
gave Himself. He's the salt. He's the salt. Now, secondly, first we considered
the properties and results of salt. Now I want us to consider
the purpose of salt. The purpose of salt. What is
it used for? It's essential in uses of food,
for food. Taste, you know when you go out
to eat somewhere and you take a bite of something, now most
of us just grab the salt and pepper without even tasting it,
but that's not kuth. You should taste your food and
then you grab for the salt, you know, and it adds flavor. And now they got seasoned salt,
they got all sorts of salt. It preserves food. And you've
heard of curing, curing meat, that's just simply, I've done
it a little bit, that's just simply salt. Turn with me to Job chapter 6.
This is so, this is us, this is so good. I didn't see this
here either. Job chapter 6. Job chapter 6
and verse 6. Can that which is unsavory be
eaten without salt? Or is there any taste in the
white of an egg? Can that which is unsavory be
eaten without salt? We are unsavory. We're born unsavory. That means we're born in By nature,
we're dead and we're foul and we're polluted. Unsavory is,
I should have looked it up, unsavory, it's not good. Usually you throw
that away. He is curing our nature by this
divine gracing or salting, is what is required. Curing our
nature. We're born in trespasses and
sins. Everybody, in Adam, all die. What's the cure for this? What's required? God requires,
in the back of our text, salt. If you don't bring salt, it's
not going to be accepted. You've got to have salt. How can we
be accepted but in Christ, in Christ alone? How? This is how.
We are preserved from certain eternal death and corruption.
We are preserved by the work of the Holy Spirit. of grace,
the covenant of grace, imputed to us by Christ, suffering on
our behalf, and by the Father's electing us unto Himself in covenantal
agreement, the salt of the covenant, by Himself." So that's the second
thing we consider, the purpose of salt. It adds taste, it preserves
food, and it cures. Why are we preserved? Why are
we unto Him who is able to keep us? Because He's preserving us.
Christ is the salt. Thirdly, I want us to consider
salts, just naturally speaking. Now, I know today there's refining
processes and there's all these different, you know, seasoned
salt, there's McCormick's, there's all these different things. But
it wasn't so back then. They had rock salt and crushed
it and smashed it. It's naturally occurring. Sea
salt. Oh, that's good for you. I've
got a bunch of different kinds. Himalayan. This is sea salt. That's sea
salt. Naturally occurring. I don't know if they do anything
to it. They just go and harvest it.
Dry seed beds. It is of the Lord's own providing.
It is natural within this earth. It's unaided by human hands. natural production and naturally
occurring. That is what I mean to say is
there's no stench of our hands upon it. There's no stench of
our hands upon it. It is of our Lord's forming. Christ was God's own provision,
and therefore His own satisfaction fulfilled, all through the person
and working of His dear sons. We only offer what God has placed
in our hands. He is everything. He is everything
to us. He is everything needful. He
is everything required. We don't have to go out and mix
works and grace. That salt will not work. It's like we saw a couple of
weeks ago, the altar was of an earth or a stone and they were
not to put any hammer or chisel upon it. Just bring it. That altar of earth that we saw
a couple of weeks ago. It's of God's own making. It's
of God's own making. The last thing I want us to notice
is turn to Leviticus chapter 9. Leviticus chapter 9 and verse 24. Verse 23, 9, 23 and 24, And Moses
and Aaron went into the tabernacle, the congregation, and came out
and blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared
unto all the people. And there came a fire out from
before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering
and the fat, which was when all the people saw, they shouted
and fell on their faces. And this fire was from God, but
it was fire with salt. This meant that God accepted
the offering. When this fire fell from heaven,
of God's own choosing, God's own making, it showed that He
accepted the offering. It confirmed, it was a confirmation.
And thus, He was honored. Where is Christ right now? He
is seated at the right hand of God. Seated at the right hand
of the majesty on high. God has eternally confirmed and
declared that He has accepted the sacrifice. God is honored. And what do we do? We rejoice
in all that Christ has accomplished for the total and complete satisfaction
of a thrice holy God. They did reverence. and they
shouted. There was reverence, adoration,
shouting, and worship. That's what we try to do here
every time we gather. We come in the presence of God.
It's not in this building. It's in each and every one. This is where the Lord has chosen
for us to gather together. Actually, He's graced us to open
it here, to open this place here in Jackson. And we gather together
We assemble together, and we have salt. We have salt. Because it's God's own choosing,
it's going to preserve us, and it's the only thing He'll accept.
Christ is the only thing He accepts. And because that's so, we can
walk out here in thankful heart, attitude, adoration, and worship. Because He's accepted. God has
accepted what He's required. We are humbled. We are His servants and we are
ready to obey. Christ lifted up for us in our
room instead. Closing, turn to Luke chapter
2 first. As I said before, it's black
and white in this book. And in the New Testament, Old
Testament, we see time and time again, the only way God will
accept is by His command, by His ordination, by His decree. How come people just don't do
it? Luke 2. Luke chapter 2, let's see if
I've got it right here. I do not. Let's skip that one. Turn to
2 Corinthians chapter 2. I thought I went over all these
before the message, but apparently I skipped that one. Anyway, it's
in the Gospel of Luke where He says if the salt is lost, what's
it good for? What's it good for? Just throw
it out. If you're going to mingle your works with this thing of
salvation, it's lost its savor. It's lost its potency. It hasn't
lost it. We've misabused it and it's good
for nothing. It's good to be cast out. But
2 Corinthians, this is a little bit more frightening. It ought
to frighten everybody who can hear my voice. And those who
can't hear my voice are accountable because the Gospel is being preached
at this place, at this location. 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Verses 14, 15, and 16, Now thanks
be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ, and
makes manifest the savor of His knowledge by us in every place.
For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved
and in them that perish, to the one We are the saver of death unto
death, and to the other the saver of life unto life. And who is
sufficient for these things?" What Paul is saying is that every
time he preaches the gospel, he's preaching the covenant of
salt. And it's going to have its way,
it's going to have its work. But some people, every time it's
preached, they're held accountable and they don't believe it. They
say, I don't think that's the truth. That's not the only way.
That's not the only gospel. There's one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one gospel. There's not many. One. They just go ahead and do what
they want to do. Well, this message to them is death unto death.
In other words, it's going to compound their unbelief. Others, to some, who own their
transgressions, who we own our corruptions, We are allowed or
caused to come before God in this manner, this way prescribed,
the salt of the covenant, that's life. To others, religious perhaps,
moral perhaps, nice I'm sure, good citizens I suspect, but
they're not coming to God His way. They are not bringing salt. They're coming boldly to the
throne of grace, but they're not coming in His name. They're
coming in their name, their religion's name, their some doctrine's name,
they're not coming to Him with salt, which we see is Christ. According to this passage, It's death. One, we are the saver
of death unto death. So the Gospel is always effectual. It redeems His people from their
sins, or it further condemns those who will not believe. So
I implore you, come to God with salt. Come to God with the saver. Come
to God with the Savior. Come to God with the Redeemer.
Come to God through Christ. And He'll send that fire down,
and it's accepted. And believe it or not, as vile
as we are, corrupt as we are from birth, we're a sweet-smelling
Savior. That is what Bruce was trying
to talk about this morning. We still sin, but in God's sight,
all He sees is the salt. That's all he accepts, that's
all he sees. Blessed be the name of our God. Matt, would you close
us please?