Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? That fact and the thought of
it ought to constantly fill our hearts with joy, gratitude, and
praise if we had no other thing to give us joy and no other thing
for which to be thankful. Let's open our Bibles tonight
to Leviticus chapter 2. Leviticus 2. I often counsel you and others
who come to me in times of trouble, with heavy hearts, with difficulty. I don't know how to be of help,
but I counsel you this way. Bury yourself in the book of
God. Go to Calvary and bury yourself
in the amazing love, mercy, and grace of God in Christ, your
Redeemer, and come away with a thankful heart. In the first
five chapters of Leviticus, the Lord God gave the children of
Israel his requirements for the various offerings they brought
to him under the law. In chapter one, you have the
burnt offerings, portraying, of course, the sacrifice of our
Redeemer. In chapter two, the meat offerings,
offerings of thanksgiving. In chapter three, the peace offerings.
In chapter four, sin offerings. And then in chapter five, the
trespass offerings. As we read about these various
offerings, these sacrifices, we should always look for the
Lord Jesus in them. They were given to Israel to
be types and pictures of our blessed Savior, so that the fruits
of the earth, the fine flour, the oil, the frankincense, the
daily lamb of the Israelite, all pointed to him, the Lamb
of God who loved us and gave himself for us, and they all
find their fulfillment in him. As we read this portion of the
book of God, we should always do so praying that God the Holy
Spirit would open our eyes, the eyes of our hearts and our minds,
and give us understanding to see Jesus Christ and him crucified
in that which we read. Christ is everything. All of
these offerings are offered to God with no leaven of works,
no mingling of honey, sweet things appetizing to the flesh, but
offering things to God that are themselves Jesus Christ our Lord. The corn is to be offered. is
to be given of the first fruit, beaten out of the ear and fully
roasted. And that's picturing, of course,
Him who is our great God and Savior, the best of all. All the fullness of God is in
him. In him, God is manifest and God
is well pleased. And in him, God is fully satisfied. So when we come to worship God,
we bring God what God requires and God alone can give. Christ
for atonement. Christ for righteousness, Christ
for sanctification, Christ for acceptance with God, Christ for
peace, Christ is indeed all in all. Now, let's read together
Leviticus 2, verses 1 through 16. In these 16 verses, God tells
us about the meat offerings, that is, sacrifices of thanksgiving. These sacrifices all speak of
thanks, giving thanks to God by a people who were thankful
to God. Sadly, It is a sad commentary
on our society, this generation, that few people have the good
manners and common decency to just say thank you when someone
does something for them or gives them something or even behaves
courteously for them. That wasn't always the case,
but few people today have just the common courtesy to do that.
We, of all people, God's people, all to express gratitude and
thanks to one another, but above all else, gratitude and thanks
to our God for his unspeakable gift, Christ Jesus the Lord,
and the free grace and salvation that's ours in and by him. This is a matter of great importance
because the very heart of all true worship is thanksgiving. Only thankful hearts worship
God. Only thankful souls serve Him. Others may fear Him. Others may
perform duties toward Him. Others may pay tribute to Him
in one way or the other. But only the thankful worship
and serve Him. Here, the Lord gave Moses specific
rules about these meat offerings. They're called meat offerings,
though they were themselves bread offerings. Modern translations
refer, call it meal offerings. These offerings were specifically
offerings giving thanks to God. They were freewill offerings.
They weren't required by the law. Other meat offerings were. These offerings described here,
we begin in chapter one, in chapter two, verse one, and when any
will offer a meat offering. Over in chapter one he said,
when you shall offer your burnt offering. These meat offerings
were free will offerings. That is, they were offerings
given without commandment, without constraint, freely and willingly
because a people wanted to come and worship God expressing gratitude. Oh, what a picture. You and I,
in all our service to our God, in all acts of faithfulness,
obedience, service, generosity toward one another, toward the
cause of Christ, in the worship of God, ought to do so from voluntary
principle of delight, worshiping him and serving him. The burnt
offering represented the value of Christ's work in the Father's
estimation as our sin-atoning substitute, giving himself for
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
The meat offering sets forth our Savior's perfect human character
and conduct. It is an offering by which we,
looking back at the sacrifice, come to God and offer this offering
of thanksgiving, but the offering itself portrays the Lord Jesus.
It's clearly linked to his obedience to God as our representative,
that finished work he came here to perform, bringing in everlasting
righteousness for us. He said, my meat is to do the
will of him that sent me. And our Lord Jesus, when he had
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, gives to us his perfect
righteousness, that which God looks upon, receives, and takes
with delight and satisfaction. We come here and bring to God
our Savior, and we bring God our Savior's atonement, our Savior's
righteousness, our Savior's perfection, and we bow before Him and say,
God, thank you. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. What reason we have to do so. Oh, give thanks unto the Lord,
call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people. His
mercy endures forever. Now, obviously, there is a clear
connection here between the meat offering that's presented, or
the burnt offering presented in chapter one, and the meat
offering here in chapter two, because there is a clear connection
between the pardon of sin and consecration to our God. You
can't have one without the other. Those who know, by the sweet
experience of grace, the pardon of sin, freely, gladly devote
themselves to God. Our Lord Jesus, when he bought
us, when he ransomed us, he didn't buy just our souls, but all of
us. Just as Boaz, when he bought
Ruth, bought all her inheritance. So when Christ, our kinsman redeemer,
bought us, he bought all that we are and all that we have,
so that you are not your own. You who are redeemed by the blood
of Christ, you are not your own. You're bought with a price. You're bought with a price. Brother
Todd Nyberg and I talked three or four times today. One of our
conversations, we were talking about this very thing with regard
to, particularly with regard to the work of the ministry.
Somehow, this needs to be communicated. What we do for God, I'm talking
to myself now as a preacher, and I'm talking to you, and I'm
talking to every ear that God will give me. What we do for
God must not be done with calculation. What will this cost me? How will
this affect me? What's the consequence of this? But rather we ought to serve
our God in all things freely, recognizing that all I am and
all I have belongs to him who loved me and gave himself for
me. That's reasonable, isn't it? That's just reasonable. And yet the meat offering, like
the burnt offering, speaks of our Savior. It's not just talking
about our thanksgiving, but it's talking about Him, by whom alone
our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving are accepted of
God and honor God. You remember Cain brought a meat
offering to the Lord. But it wasn't accepted because
Cain didn't bring that meat offering in connection with any kind of
blood sacrifice. His brother Abel came to God
with blood atonement and God accepted Abel, not just Abel,
Abel and his sacrifice, not just the sacrifice he gave on the
altar, but the totality of his life. And he rejected Cain in
the totality of his life. Now let's look at these 16 verses.
I'll just pull out the highlights. I would encourage you to read
the chapter at your leisure, but hold your Bibles on your
lap and let's look at a few things here. Number one, we're told
in verse one that this meat offering was a bloodless offering. It
was always connected with blood. That's what we had in chapter
one. But there's no blood brought with the meat offering. And when
any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall
be a fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense
thereof. There's nothing in the meat offering
that even hints of sin. Our sins were dealt with in the
burnt offering, in the sin-atoning sacrifice of Christ, by whom
they were forever completely put away. The meat offering portrays
sinners perfect in the sight of God, accepted by the merits
of Christ's blood and righteousness. The meat offering wasn't a bloody
sacrifice, but it consisted of fine flour, bolted, thoroughly
sifted, so that it had no bran at all in it. There was nothing
in the flour that was in the least bit rough. This speaks
both of the perfect holiness and righteousness of our Savior,
and of our perfect holiness and righteousness in Him. For as
He is, We truly are. We have been made the righteousness
of God in Christ. He is our holiness as well, our
sanctification. There's nothing coarse, rough,
or uneven in the human nature of our Lord Jesus. Look him over
head to toe. Throughout the course of his
earthly life, there's nothing but fine flour. Nothing moved
him from his purpose. Nothing caused him even to hesitate
in his course. Nothing prevented him in his
obedience. Nothing kept him from doing good.
Nothing hindered him from doing his father's will. What an example
he gives us as Jehovah's servant. We who serve God ought to serve
him just that way. In all his character, our blessed
God-man mediator is perfect. Completely even, complete. He is altogether gracious and
perfectly just. He is perfectly holy and perfectly
kind. Perfect in love and yet without
compromise. Circumstances had no effect upon
him. Company didn't alter him. Sorrow
didn't bring him into subjection. Praise didn't puff him up. Our
Lord was always elevated by his very character above the world
in which he lived, above the world that surrounded him and
above others. These things can't be said of
any of his disciples, none in his day and none of us. In all
other men, however great the church or the world may judge
them to be, there are serious defects and infirmities. Even their strongest points are
counterbalanced by great humiliating weaknesses, failures, and sin. Christ alone could declare, which
of you convinces me of sin? I do always those things that
please my Father. God the Father twice burst heaven
open and said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
But with us, things are different. Even our very best attempts to
live for God's glory, our very best attempts to honor Him, our
very best attempts to serve Him, display most glaringly that there
is much brand and little evenness in us. John. Oh, how John loved the Savior.
He's called the disciple whom Jesus loved. He is that one who
perhaps was the most humble of the Lord's servants. And yet
John, that humble disciple, that disciple who's always bending
to the master's will, that disciple who always loved his presence,
desired for himself the highest place in his kingdom, Peter. I know Peter gets a lot of rough
treatment. I'd like to be half the man he was. Peter was willing
to die for the Lord and did. Peter was bold in the cause of
Christ and yet he trembled before a maid, cursed and denied and
forsook the Lord. Paul caught up to the third heaven,
saw things and heard things that no man had before or since seen
and heard and come back to the earth. That man, Paul, so greatly
used of God was constantly afflicted the rest of his life with a thorn
in the flesh, a message of Satan to beat him down lest he'd be
lifted up with pride. How often I have in preaching
the gospel, I'll just talk about that, just preaching the gospel,
doing that by which I desire most to honor God and
serve Him. In the midst of preaching, how
my heart, my mind is overwhelmed with corruption. What evil I
have spoken unintentionally without necessity to hurt and to injure. God, forgive me. even the very
best we do, in and of itself dishonors God, dishonors the
name of the gospel, and dishonors the name of our Redeemer. We
pray. Have you learned to blush as
you pray? How often we repeat sayings and
words, just repetitious things. How much weakness we manifest
in these things, and even more in lesser things. This meat offering,
the fine flour, speaks of Christ, our Redeemer, the bread of life. If any man eat this bread, our
Savior said, anyone believes on me, he shall live forever. He is the bread by whom we have
life, and the bread that satisfies our souls. and he is the bread
that satisfies God. He is represented in the meat
offering, number two. Not only was it a bloodless offering,
we read in verses two through seven that this meat offering
was a baked offering. And he shall bring it to Aaron's
sons, the priest. And he shall take there out his
handful of the flour thereof, and of 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 sweet savor unto the Lord. and the remnant 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. This was an offering to
be made by fire to the Lord. It could be baked in an oven,
we're told in verse four, or it could be, if it wasn't, men
didn't have an oven, it was too poor to have an oven, it could
be prepared in a frying pan, even an earthen frying pan if
men couldn't afford a regular frying pan. No matter what the
instrument was that was used to bake it, the flour had to
be thoroughly baked. Every particle exposed to fire. Again, the reference is to our
all-glorious Redeemer. Our Savior cried in his hot distress,
I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. It was fire, the fire of God's
wrath burning in his soul, which he felt like we can't imagine
when the Lord God made him sin for us and forsook him. And he
said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Look at the
third thing, verse four again. This meat offering was an offering
mingled or mixed and anointed with oil. First, it was mingled
with oil. Thou shalt bring an oblation
of a meat offering, bacon in the oven. It shall be unleavened
cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed
with oil, verse seven. And if thy oblation be a meat
offering, bacon in the frying pan, it shall be made of fine
flour with oil. Now you don't need me to remind
you that oil is the well-known symbol and picture of the Holy
Spirit in scriptures. When the angel announced to the
Virgin Mary the birth of the promised Messiah, he said, the
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest
shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Though
the Lord Jesus was the seed of woman, he was not the seed of
man. But as the angel said to Joseph,
that holy thing conceived in Mary's womb is conceived of the
Holy Ghost, so that his entire nature was perfectly holy. unlike our nature, which is nothing
but enmity against the law of God, enmity against God and his
law and is now subject to the law of God and cannot be. But
this oil mingled with flour also speaks of us. The oil in the
flour, excuse me, speaks of God's spirit in us as he was in our
Savior. It is only by the Spirit in us
that we worship God. Only by the Spirit in us that
we call upon God. Only by the direction and leading
of His Spirit do we walk with God. Only by His Spirit are our
steps ordered through the Word. And yet, be sure you understand
this, the Spirit in us and the Savior's work for us are never
to be mixed. The Spirit's work in us is not
our acceptance with God. That's the fruit of what Christ
has done for us by the sacrifice of himself. The work of the Holy
Spirit in us contributes nothing to our righteousness, nothing
to our holiness, nothing to our perfection before God. That's
Jesus Christ obedience made ours. The meat offering also was an
offering anointed with oil. He said in verse four, these
cakes are to be anointed with oil. The unleavened wafers, a
fine flour, anointed with oil like our Savior was when he came
up out of the watery grave of baptism and the Spirit of God
descended upon him like a dove. So our Savior was anointed by
the Spirit. And you and I, who are one with
Christ, like our Savior, have an unction from the Holy One. God the Spirit is in us. God
the Spirit dwells in us. God the Spirit lives in us, giving
us and sustaining in us that divine nature which was created
in us by His grace. Peter also testifies that God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost. And John says,
this unction, this anointing, this is yours by which you know
all things. If the blood of sacrifices in
the Old Testament availed to the cleansing of things in the
Old Testament ceremonially, and even for the people of God ceremonially,
how much more shall the blood of Jesus Christ, who through
the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
consciences to serve the living God? Purge them from dead works. How does that have a connection?
God, the Holy Spirit, takes the blood and sprinkles our consciences
from evil works, the dead works of ungodliness and the dead works
of false religion, and He sprinkles our hearts and gives us a pure
conscience to walk before God without guilt, with a sense of
forgiveness and acceptance with Him. And here's the fourth thing. The meat offering was an offering
offered with frankincense. In verse one, the very last line,
put frankincense thereof. It was not only anointed with
oil, it had to have frankincense put on it. This word frankincense
is derived from a word which means white, or to make white. This is the word that David used
when he said, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Put frankincense
on this piece of bread you're bringing to God. oil and frankincense,
the Spirit of God and perfect whiteness. This is the word God
used in Isaiah 1 when he said, though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. The word is used 20 times in
the Old Testament. It's closely connected with the
holy anointing oil. the picture of God the Holy Spirit.
It was placed on the 12 loaves that were on the table of showbread
constantly in the presence of God. Where sin was in question, this
frankincense was not found. The frankincense, this whiteness,
speaks of the relation between Christ and his people. It's used
four times in the Song of Solomon where first Christ speaks of
his church as a hill of myrrh and frankincense. And the church
speaks of him in that same way as being all whiteness, frankincense,
making him sweet and precious to us. Without question, the
frankincense then represents the constant intercession, the
sweet savor of Christ, accepted of God, smelling sweet before
God, but this frankincense is Christ himself. And we, with
Christ, accepted of God so that God smiles upon us. We bring God our thank offerings,
our thank sacrifice of praise because he has made us the very
righteousness, whiteness, sinlessness of God in Christ Jesus. Look
at another thing. In verse 11, the meat offering. must be made without either leaven
or honey. Now the leaven's easy enough
to figure out, but the honey, why no honey? Leaven was a symbol
of evil and hypocrisy. Look at verse 11. No meat offering
which you shall bring unto the Lord, none of it, shall be made
with leaven, for ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any
offering of the Lord made by fire. Why was the honey forbidden? Perhaps to teach us that whatever
it is that's sweet to nature must be disowned if we would
walk after the example of Christ who pleased not himself. Perhaps
this has reference to the fact that these, the leaven and the
honey were both used commonly in the sacrifices of the heathen
in their idolatry. Perhaps there's something else
here. It's the leaven, speaks of the leaven of the Pharisees,
their self-righteousness, their goodness, their morality, their
uprightness, their devotion, their consecration, their imaginary
superiority. And the honey. speaks of that
which may become unknown to a man, fermented, so that it produces
its own leaven. We bring those things that are
appealing to ourselves, that we think highly of. Don't bring
that to God. Oh no, you come to God bringing
nothing but His Son. Not your works, not your righteousness,
not your good deeds, not your prayers, just His Son. And as
we come to God in His house to worship Him, we're to come to
Him Without any of the leaven of the religion of this world
and without any of the honey of the religion of this world
Nothing of our own making and nothing appealing to the flesh
And that just about shut down church houses everywhere, wouldn't
it? Nothing appealing to the flesh Here's the sixth day verse
13 the meat offering Like all the offerings of the Old Testament
was an offering seasoned with salt. 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
thy meat offering. With all thine offerings thou
shalt offer salt. Salt. Salt preserves. It arrests the spread of corruption.
It's used throughout the scriptures as a symbol of God's covenant
mercy, redemption, and grace by Christ. It's used by our Savior
to describe his people in this world. The salt here, like the
frankincense, was not to be brought by the one worshiping God and
offering sacrifice. The salt was provided by the
priest. It's Christ, you see, who preserves us with the salt
of his grace. With the covenant of grace, it's
a covenant secured and kept by the salt of God's goodness. We
are useful only by the salt of his grace. We're secured and
kept only by the preserving salt of his grace. One more thing.
In verses two through three, we see that this meat offering
was an offering offered to the Lord. He shall bring it to Aaron's
sons, the priest. And he shall take there out his
handful of flour thereof, and of 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 sweet
savor unto the Lord. And the remnant 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, verse nine. and the priest
shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof and shall
burn it upon the altar. It is an offering made by fire
of a sweet savor unto the Lord. God says, I'm going to accept
this offering that you bring me, this offering of thanksgiving,
a sweet savor. And that which is left 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. I remind
you, this was a voluntary thank offering. It was an offering
made by grateful men according as God had prospered them by
his grace. Oh my God, what a reproof. What am I to offer to God? according as God has prospered
me by his grace. Whether you're talking about
bringing your gifts to the cause of Christ, are you bringing your
work and service to the cause of Christ? Serve him as he has
prospered you by his grace. That means there should be no
man walking on two legs more utterly, completely, totally,
universally devoted to the Son of God than the one talking to
you. As He has prospered me by His
grace, let me offer my thanks offering to Him. The sacrifices
were made and considered by God to be most holy to the Lord because
they were sacrifices made to Him. They were sacrifices, yes,
sanctified and washed in the blood of Tomer, pictured in the
burnt offering, but the sacrifice we bring to God, washed in the
blood and cleansed by the blood, we come to God and bring to God
what we can. thanksgiving to Him and God marvelously
accepts that we bring to Him as being done for Him and smells
it and says that's a sweet-smelling Savior. Our Lord took that gift
the woman brought when she broke the alabaster box and anointed
his feet and washed his feet with her tears and and wiped
them with the hair of her head. He said, she has wrought a good
work on me. Anything done for him, anything done for him, God calls
a good work. Not you, not you. I've never
done anything for you. I've never done anything for
you to receive, let alone God receive. But what's done for
God by His people, God calls a good work. And that which we
give to and for others in the name of Christ is accepted by
Him as a sweet smelling savor. Paul wrote to the Philippians
and he said, to these Philippians, I have received of Epaphroditus
the things which were sent from you. They had, Paul was in prison
and they, I don't know what they did, maybe baked him some cookies,
maybe sent him some bread, maybe sent him a piece of cloth to
wrap up in. I don't know what they did, but
it wasn't much. They sent him something, but he said, God takes
that as an odor of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing
to God. Our Savior said, if a man offers
so much as a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, he'll
not lose his reward. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you have showed toward
his name in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. The meat offering was a gift
of thanks, a tribute of praise, offered by a forgiven sinner
to God. And God symbolically granted the forgiveness of sins
through the burnt offering and accepted the worshiper who came
responding to him with his tribute of praise and thanksgiving. It
was an act of dedication, an act of consecration to God as
savior and covenant king. It's expressed not only thankfulness,
but devotion to the Lord. And that's how we ought to come
to God continually, with thanksgiving. I love the story, true story,
of Eddie Rickenbacker. You, I'm sure, have heard me
tell it or you've read the story of this man. He was an ace pilot
in World War II. He was shot down in 1942. And
he and his companions were Floated for 30 days on a raft, eight
men in a raft. He and eight other men, I think
it was. And they were far out to sea. Every day they'd have
a time of worship, best they could pray. And one day when
they were starving to death, just starving, had nothing to
drink, nothing to eat. They were just starving. Mr. Rickenbacker laid back and laid
his head over his eyes He'd been there just a minute and felt
something on his head. Opened his eyes and realized
it was a seagull sitting right on his calf. Where on earth did
it come from? They were hundreds of miles from
shore. Hundreds of miles. Where'd that
seagull come from? God sent it. Soon all the other men on that
little raft spotted that seagull and everybody was dead silent.
Rickenbacker realized that their lives may very well depend on
that one scrawny bird, and quickly grabbed it. They killed the bird,
ate it, and used its entrails for bait to fish. And by that
bird, they were preserved until someone caught them. Many years
later, living down in Switzerland, Florida, just outside of Jacksonville,
week after week after week, this old man, We'd come walking across
the beach and he'd walk up on the pier and as he did you could
see Just dots flying everywhere. So you realize the seagulls and
he got a five-gallon bucket full of shrimp Just throw it out the
seagulls just throw it out seagull what a waste what's he doing?
He'd come out and feed those seagulls day after day, week
after week, year after year, doing the only thing he could
with them, saying, thank you, thank you, thank you. God give me grace to take my
life and everything in it, and give it to him day after day
after day, week after week after week, measuring my days, saying to him, thank you. Thank you. Oh God, thank you. for all your bounteous grace
in your darling son.