We've seen in the earlier chapters
in the book of Leviticus that the Lord ordained five offerings
that should be offered. The burnt offering, the meat
offering, the peace offering, the sin offering and the trespass
offering. And we've seen recently having
depicted these offerings that in chapter six of Leviticus This
book takes a new turn in which further laws, further instructions
are given to the priests regarding the manner in which they should
offer these offerings. We saw with the burnt offering
the everlasting nature of the fires of God's wrath. That the
fire on the altar upon which the burnt offering was laid would
never go out. and how God's wrath against sin
continues perpetually wherever there is sin. As his love for his own in Christ
burns perpetually, never to be quenched. As long as God loves
his Son and his people in his Son, and the righteousness and
holiness of Christ and his people. He will also hate with an everlasting
vengeance and wrath the sin and the rebellion of man against
his son and his people in him. In verse 14 of chapter 6 We begin
to consider again the meat offering. Verse 14 reads, And this is the
law of the meat offering. The sons of Aaron shall offer
it before the Lord, before the altar. And he shall take of it
his handful of the flour of the meat offering, and of the oil
thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering.
and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, even the
memorial of it unto the Lord. And the remainder thereof shall
Aaron and his sons eat. With unleavened bread shall it
be eaten in the holy place. In the court of the tabernacle
of the congregation they shall eat it. It shall not be bacon
with leaven. I have given it unto them for
their portion of my offerings made by fire. It is most holy,
as is the sin offering and as the trespass offering. All the
males among the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be
a statute forever in your generations concerning the offerings of the
Lord made by fire. Everyone that toucheth them shall
be holy. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, This is the offering of Aaron and of his sons, which
they shall offer unto the Lord in the day when he is anointed,
the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour, for a meat offering
perpetual, half of it in the morning, and half thereof at
night. In a pan it shall be made with
oil. And when it is bacon, thou shalt bring it in. And the bacon
pieces of the meat offering shalt thou offer for a sweet savour
unto the Lord. And the priest of his sons that
is anointed in his stead shall offer it. It is a statute forever
unto the Lord. It shall be wholly burnt. For
every meat offering for the priest shall be wholly burnt. it shall
not be eaten. Now we've considered this meat
offering, this bread offering before and the various instructions
regarding it, how it speaks of the bread of heaven, how it speaks
of Christ, how it speaks of the offering of Christ in the flesh,
in the place of his people. How it speaks in the instruction
that some of this offering, some of the flowers should be burnt
and offered up to the Lord and some should be baked and eaten
by the priests. How it speaks of the union between
God's people and His Son. How they are one flesh as a bride
and a husband are one flesh. There's this unity between the
church the Saviour. There are various aspects of
this meat offering which are brought out here and stressed
here and the first aspect I draw your attention to is in verse
17 where it is stressed that this meat offering shall be not
bacon with leaven. It shall not be bacon with leaven. I have given it unto them for
their portion of my offerings made by fire. It is most holy
as is the sin offering and as the trespass offering. No leaven. It's unleavened. Unleavened bread. No leaven. Nothing to be added. Nothing to puff it up. Nothing
to make it rise. No air. No false appearance. Unleavened. This speaks of the perfection
of Christ in himself. He's pure. He's spotless. He's blameless. And his righteousness is without
mixture. There's nothing to be added to
the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. But when we offer this
bread offering, this meat offering unto the Lord by faith, when
we as it were by faith, offer up Christ unto God as our meat
offering, we offer him up pure, without addition, without leaven,
adding nothing to Christ and taking nothing away. This cuts to the heart of the
gospel and of every corruption of the gospel. This in its singularity
brings out the great difference between the gospel and the grace
of God in that gospel. with every other religion and
corruption of the gospel this world has ever known. All man's
religion is centered upon what man can bring unto God by way
of his works, his worth, his will. his devotion, his sincerity,
his goodness, his righteousness, in order that God should be pleased
with him and reward him. Every other religion, every corruption
of the Gospel, no matter what it says of a saviour, no matter
what it may say of the work of God in saving man, adds to that
work, the works, the will, the worth of man. It adds leaven. Leaven. But this sacrifice, this offering,
Christ, our meat offering, our bread offering, was not bacon
with leaven. He was perfect. There was no
sin in Him. He was without sin. He took into
union with His divinity, humanity. He was made with human flesh
like unto ours and yet without sin. Born of a virgin, untainted
by the male seed. Through which sin is passed,
untainted by man, but with real flesh, taken into union with that seed
of the Holy Ghost. Christ was a real man, but a
man without sin. Perfect. And he was offered up. as the
perfect Lamb of God, without anything added. He had no sin
of his own, no pride of his own, no glory of his own, to corrupt
the pure leaven of his flesh. And nothing was to be added of
man. No works, no false doctrine,
None of our will. None of our pride. None of our
own knowledge. None of our self glorying. Nothing. What does leaven do? When you
bake a loaf and add some yeast, leaven puffs up. It makes a small
quantity appear great. It makes that which is small
appear great. And that's what man loves to
do. He who is so small. He who is so worthless. He who is a nothing. You and
I created out of the dust of this earth but worms, nothings,
small grasshoppers upon the earth in the sight of God. Nothings. We love to puff ourselves up. We love to take that which is
small and make ourselves appear great. We love to vaunt ourselves
in front of everybody else, particularly in religion. Oh how we love to
gain a bit of knowledge, how we love to teach others, how
we love to have a bit of praise. How knowledge puffeth up when
that knowledge comes through our own efforts, through our
own study. Through our own strength by which
we can praise ourselves that we sought this out, we learnt
this, we grasped something that others never saw. Rather than that God revealed
that unto us to which we were blind. How that knowledge that
we go and get puffs us up. and how our pride puffs us up. What leaven is pride in man? How pride takes the smallest,
the most worthless, the most base, and deludes him into thinking
he's something, something before men, and something before God. This is the great fallacy of
so much which is preached which claims to be Christian. How we're
told to live like this and to walk like this and to do this
and to say this and God will be pleased with us. How we're
told that if we turn from this and from that then we will be
closer to heaven. how it is implied in so much
which is taught and said regarding the gospel even that if you live
a certain way in your own strength that God will be more pleased
with you than if you fail how we're brought to think that
our success our righteousness counts for something. And how
this pleases our pride. It's pride which is the great
sin that runs through all the scriptures. You can read the
accounts of the patriarchs of so many and how pride comes to
the fore. How we hate to be told we're
nothing. How we hate to think that our
works could be filthy rags before a holy God. We may quote the
scriptures. We may read Jeremiah and read
of our filthy rags of righteousness. We may read that our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. We may pay lip service to that. But deep down we believe that
those things we have done which are right must be pleasing unto
God and must give us some credit. And how hardly we will be cut
down to truly believe that we are nothing and that we have
nothing. How hardly a rich man will be
saved. As a camel should pass through
the eye of a needle. How thin you must be to pass
through the eye of a needle. You must be as nothing. You must
be as nothing. You must have nothing. You must
be brought to say before God I have nothing. I have nothing
in my hands today. I haven't done one work which
I could bring before God and say, there Lord, there's a coin
to pay for my salvation. There's a penny to contribute.
There's some token that I desired to please Thee and I did something
right. When God teaches us by grace,
his gospel. He shows us that even those things
we did which were right, even our devotion, even our desire
to turn away from the world and its sin and its corruption, even
our longing to read the scriptures, even our falling down upon our
knees in prayer and weeping with tears over the scriptures, even
our confession of our sin and corruption, God teaches us that
even these things, are as filthy rags in his sight. They don't
pay the price. They don't clear the debt of
our sin. They don't wash us clean. They
don't bring forgiveness. They don't count for righteousness. They're filthy rags. And if you
look at them, if you keep hold of them, if you feel that God
must be pleased with you because of them, because you did the
right thing, because you said the right thing, because you
went to the right place, because you were born of the right parents,
because you were in the right meeting, because you had the
right Bible, because you dressed in the right clothes, because
you sang the right hymns and psalms, because you turn from
this and turn from that because you spent those hours in prayer
and those hours in reading the scriptures if you think that
any of those things are of any worth or count for any part of
your salvation then you're hanging on to leaven You're hanging on to your pride. You're hanging on to your works
and your self-righteousness. and you're taking that unleavened
meat offering and bringing some leaven of your own to add to
it and saying Lord here's my offering and he sees that offering
all puffed up by your works and all puffed up by your good decision
all puffed up by your right decision to go this way and not that way
all puffed up and he won't receive it He won't receive it. Oh, if you're
going to have some knowledge that counts, that knowledge won't
be the knowledge that puffs you up with pride. That knowledge
will be the knowledge that causes you to fall down on the dust
before God and say, I'm filthy, Lord. I'm nothing, Lord. I've
got nothing to bring except Christ crucified for me. except a meat offering offered
by God in my stead for me which was bacon without leaven. He's my only plea. He is all my plea. He's my meat
offering. Christ in Matthew's gospel spake
unto the disciples of bread. and they did not understand what
he was speaking of he spake unto them to beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees and they thought
he was speaking of real bread and real leaven and he says unto them How is
it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning
bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that
he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine
of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. it's not whether this meat offering
offered up physically had actual leaven within it that matters
it's what that leaven was a picture of and the doctrine of the pharisees
and Sadducees was Levin. That doctrine that taught the
people to add to the offerings of God, add to the laws of God,
add to the instruction of God, add to the gospel of God. That doctrine that taught the
people to do this and to do that and to go here and to go there,
to make the right decision, to bring their will, to bring their
works and add to the provision of God that he has granted unto
the people by grace in those five offerings he depicted in
Leviticus which pointed them all unto Christ and Christ alone. that doctrine which added unto
grace and said that grace alone, grace only is not sufficient
but you must do your part, you must live your life aright, you
must contribute that doctrine which subtly says well God has
done all of this for you then should you not be playing your
part? Should you not be contributing? Is it not right that you should
do something? Is it not right that you should
add this or add that? That doctrine that plays to the
pride of man and the misplaced idea of justice which man has
that thinks that yes he ought to be earning his way, he ought
to earn his way to heaven. It's not right that he should
rely on God alone. It's not right that God should
do it all. It's not right that the offering
alone should be sufficient. He ought to do something. And
how easily we are beguiled by this. How easily the Galatians
were beguiled by this, when the doctrine of the Pharisees and
the Sadducees was brought to the church at Galatia. by those
Judaizers, who came from Jerusalem with this doctrine, with this
leaven, and beguiled them, and said, yes, the gospel's wonderful,
yes, Christ is our Passover, yes, Christ has died, yes, he's
our burnt offering, yes, he's our meat offering, our peace
offering, our sin offering, our trespass offering. But that being
so, you should be doing this. You should be circumcised. You
should return to the law and live right by it. You can't expect
God to be pleased with you and save you simply by looking at
that sacrifice of Christ. You should continue to live and
work and bring your works in addition and how subtle and beguiling
and bewitching this is and this was and this is today. How many take the truth of the
gospel, take the truth of Christ and Him crucified, take the truth
of salvation by grace, take the truth of justification by faith
and corrupt it and bring some leaven in. Paul had to rail on the Galatians,
he had to correct them with strong words. He says in Galatians 5.9,
a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. One glance aside
from Christ and Christ alone, one turning from grace and grace
alone, one spot of leaven added to that meat offering, one bit
of your will, one glorying, something that you've done, something that
you are, will leaven the whole lot. You may pay lip service
to the gospel, you may say Christ is your Savior, without Him you'd
never be saved. But if you're resting with a
bit of pride on where you attend worship, on the people you know,
on the preachers you've heard, on your attendance, on your prayer,
on your devotion, on your kindness, on your lack of corruption, if
it pleases you that your pathway never led you to sin quite as
wickedly as that one, If it pleases you that you never did this or
did that, you never went there or went here, then you're bringing a little
leaven into the lump, which corrupts the whole. And as Paul goes on
to say in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, your glorying, your glorying
is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened. For even Christ
our Passover is sacrificed for us. He's our unleavened meat
offering. We need nothing more. He's our
all. even Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us therefore let us keep the feast not with old leaven
neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth. Oh rest in the gospel rest in
the grace of God rest in the grace of God and know that the
grace of God in Christ Jesus alone is all you need for salvation
and more than you what you need it's a wondrous overflowing gift it's a cup which runneth over
it satisfies God's righteousness God's justice to the uttermost
It blots out your every sin. It washes with the blood of Christ
every spot, wrinkle and blemish. It cleanses you outside and inside. It is a sweet smelling savour
unto God. It is a finely perfumed offering,
covered with oil, perfumed with frankincense. It is that in which
God the Father is well pleased. He looks upon Christ alone, offered
by grace as a sacrifice for His people and looks upon them in
Him and is well pleased with Him and well pleased with them
in Him. He's all He needs. Christ is
all God needs for your salvation. All he needs for your righteousness. All he needs for your holiness.
All he needs for everlasting glory. He's all sufficient. He was bacon without leaven. Bacon without leaven. Oh, the perfection. of Christ,
the meat offering. Oh the perfection of the humanity
of Christ, without leaven. Christ himself, that meek man,
that humble man, the Son of God, the Son of Man, who lived his
life seeking not his own will, Not what he wanted to do. Not what pleased him. Not what
brought him glory. Not what brought him comfort.
Not what brought him ease or riches. But he lived his life
for the Father. He came into this world to know
nothing but suffering. And he suffered because he glorified
and loved his father and loved the bride which his father had
given him before the foundation of the world for whom he should
suffer and die. For whom he should be bacon in
the fires of God's wrath. Where was this sacrifice bacon? Where was the unleavened bread
of Christ offered up on the part of his people? Verse 16 tells
us, And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat.
With unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place. In
the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat
it. In the court of the tabernacle
of the congregation they shall eat it. they took of this bread
they took of this offering and they ate it in the holy place
in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation it was taken
within and taken within in the holy place within within this
bread this righteousness must be within. If we're to be saved
we must have this bread within and that which is within us by
nature our sin must be taken away. We must be made the righteousness
of God And this being made the righteousness of God is not simply
something which is external. But it's something we are made
to be. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5,
21, God hath made Christ to be sin for us, that we should be
made the righteousness of God in Him. Because of our unity
with Him, because He dwells within His people by faith, by the Spirit
of God, because He comes to dwell within us by His Spirit, we have
the righteousness of God in Christ, within. We are told that we are
the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. Then Christ himself by his Spirit
dwells within his people, his tabernacle. This shall be eaten in the court
of the tabernacle of the congregation. Christ himself comes to dwell
within. And he can do this. because he
took that which was within his people, their sin, and was made
to be it, that God should burn him in the oven of his wrath
to take away that sin, that they should be made the righteousness
of God. This is within, it's about what
we are. It's not just what we do, it's
not just what comes out of us, it's not just what others see
on the outside, it's not that which we can fabricate. We can
do good deeds, we can give an appearance of godliness, we can
have a form of godliness that denies the power thereof. We can have an appearance of
righteousness. We can have an appearance of
righteousness on the outside whilst the inside is full of
sin. But we'll never be saved with
it. We must be right within. We must have righteousness within
and we must have that which is within us, our sin removed. It's
about what's within. It's about the leaven being taken
out. The pride being destroyed. Being slain. It's about us being
made to know that we are nothing before a holy God. And that his
unleavened sacrifice, his meat offering, Christ, is all and
in all. This points us to Christ being
made sin within, that his people should be made the righteousness
of God in him, within, in the tabernacle, where the spirit
enters in, in the body, in the body of Christ. The body must
be cleansed within. not just on the outside. The
Pharisees and the Sadducees with their false doctrine, with their
leaven, you see, cleansed the outside. As Christ said of them,
they were whited sepulchres, they were white on the outside
like the wonderful sepulchres, the wonderful gravestones that
they would decorate for their for their dead they'd have a
lovely gravestone with lovely engravings and lovely flowers
but underneath the soil laid the rotten flesh these Pharisees
with their religion and their doctrine would make the outside
wonderful in the appearance of others yet their heart within
was full of sin and that's why when Christ came unto them they
hated him because all their religion was outward. Now what of you? Where is your
religion? Are you just a whited sepulcher? Does everyone look at you and
say there's a godly man, there's a godly sister, look at her isn't
she wonderful, she's at every meeting, he's at every meeting?
And men and women can't find fault with you? And yet you know
that on the inside bubbles up the sin every day
that you manage to conceal from others but God with his perfect sight
sees within oh you need more than that if you're going to
enter heaven's glory you won't get into heaven with a heart
like that with sin within that sin must be removed and it can
only be removed by a saviour, a meat offering, who was made
sin in your stead, that you in him should be made the righteousness
of God. When he was bacon in the oven,
without leaven. In verse 18 we read regarding
these priests who'd eat of this meat offering, they were male. Verse 18. All the males among
the children of Aaron shall eat of it. It shall be a statute
forever in your generations concerning the offerings of the Lord made
by fire. Everyone that toucheth them shall
be holy. All males. Why male? Why is this stressed? We know
that the priests were males but why is it stressed here in connection
with this? Because of this representing
substitution. Because of the substitutionary
nature of the meat offering. Because of the nature of Christ
taking the place of his people and taking the sin of his bride
and being made to be sin that she should be made the righteousness
of God in him. that focuses on what the bridegroom
does for his bride, and what the Saviour has done for the
church, and what the Son of Man, the Son of God, suffered, that
sinners like you and I should be delivered. Verse 20 goes on, This is the
offering of Aaron and of his sons, which they shall offer
unto the Lord. In the day when he is anointed,
the tenth part of an ephor of fine flour for a meat offering
perpetual, half of it in the morning and half thereof at night. In the day in which Christ, our
great high priest, of which the sons of Aaron are but a figure,
was anointed, he was sent forth as Jesus, Jesus Christ, God's
anointed saviour sent forth into this world to suffer and to die
as an offering for his people and he was taken on that awful
night before the magistrates, before the court offered up to
the trial which was concocted by the Jews and by the authorities
in order that he should be found guilty. Well they could not find
any guilt in him. They brought him before Pilate
and Pilate said he found no fault with him. Yet despite this the
people cried out crucify him and he was led away. and taken
to that tree and nailed upon the cross and lifted up and he
suffered there on that cross for hours in the day when all
men passed by and saw him as a witness before a fallen world
that here's the Son of God, the Saviour. For those three hours
in the light he was slain and suffered and hung on the cross,
hung on the nails and then for three hours in the
dark he hung as Christ laid upon him the sins of his people and
made him to be sin in their stead and he passed through the darkness
of the night of God's wrath he was offered in the day and in
the night half in the morning and half at night a thorough
substitute three hours in the light, three
hours in the dark, in which that unleavened bread of God's Son
was bacon under the fires of God's wrath that he should deliver
his people from their sin. He was bacon. These fires which
burnt upon him burnt him to the uttermost. Verse 22, and the priest of his
sons that is anointed in his stead shall offer it. It is a
statute forever unto the Lord. It shall be wholly burnt. For every meat offering for the
priest shall be wholly burnt. It shall not be eaten. Christ
was wholly burnt. those fires of God's wrath which
we read of earlier in chapter 6 which never go out those eternal
fires which burn against sin which will burn against your
sin if you know not Christ if you have not this offering those
fires which will burn against the sins of sinners for eternity
day in day out year after year after year after year if you
measured it in time eternity without beginning without end
no escape those fires of God's wrath for God's people for God's chosen
for those that know the grace of God for the bride of Christ
were poured out upon Christ during three hours of darkness upon
the cross and he was wholly burnt until all their sin and all their
sins was taken away and God could look upon them in him and see
in him, in them, the righteousness of God. in the tabernacle of
the congregation. Holy burnt. Why? Because this is the length, the
depth, the height to which God's grace, to which
God's everlasting love for his own runs. God burnt his son. His unleavened bread of His Son,
in the place of His people, He wholly burnt Him, in order that
they should be made the righteousness of God in Him, in order that
they should taste of His grace, in order that they should know
His overwhelming love, in order that their sin should be destroyed,
judged, blotted out, taken away, Christ their substitute suffered
for them. It's the only way. The only way
that God could deliver his people. The only way that God could magnify
his grace, his love, his righteousness, his mercy, whilst at the same
time upholding his eternal justice, righteousness, at the same time upholding his
anger and his wrath against sin. That sin must be burnt, it must
be wholly burnt. Those sins must be paid for to
the uttermost. Justice must be demanded, justice
must be met. Then an offering must be offered,
a meat offering. which is bacon without leaven. And that offering was Christ,
the substitute. He died that we, his people,
if we know him, should live. He was made sin that we should
be made the righteousness of God. Salvation could come no
other way. It must be by grace. It must
be holy by grace. It must start by grace. It must
continue by grace. It must finish by grace. It must
be delivered by grace. It must be received by grace.
It must be believed by grace. It must be fulfilled by grace. It's all grace without leaven,
without works, without will, without one spot of your will
or your works or your filthy self-righteousness, without one
grain of your pride to puff up and to take away and to destroy
this sacrifice. God's provided a sacrifice for
his people which will accomplish all that for which he's purposed. Has he provided it for you? Have
you come to God wretched, loathing yourself, loathing your sin,
loathing your religion, owning up that you're nothing and crying
out to him for mercy? And has he by his gospel led
you by faith to the foot of the cross and said, here is a meat
offering, bacon without leaven. for you wholly burnt in the morning and the night
which takes away all of your wretchedness all of your unbelief
all of your rebellion all of your hatred of God all of your
false religion all of your pride all of your self-glorifying knowledge
all that came between you and God all that set you at enmity
all that kept you out of the kingdom it's all been taken away
and all you see When you look by faith at that cross, at that
Saviour, at that sacrifice, at that meat offering, at that unleavened
bread, all you see flowing forth is the unadulterated pure grace
of God. Grace alone, the everlasting
love of God, the glory of God, the light of God, the righteousness
of God, the salvation of God, the Saviour. The Saviour. Salvation could
come no other way but by unleavened bread. No other way but by grace
alone. No other way but by Christ alone. By grace. By Christ alone. By grace alone. Is that your Saviour? one that
you've received by grace. Amen.