Studying the book of Leviticus,
I keep praying that the Lord will himself be my teacher and
that he will show me the message for our souls in each of these
types and pictures. I want us truly to behold the
wonders of God's law. The wonders revealed in the law
are the wonders of grace and redemption. May He be pleased
to anoint our eyes with the eyesalve of His grace and take us by the
hand as He did John, as He led John through the streets of the
New Jerusalem. May He lead us through these
types and pictures, causing us to see all the precious gold
and every precious stone. May Christ Himself lead us to
fountains of living waters and cause us to drink. He promised,
I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter,
that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him. For he dwelleth in you and shall
be in you. And I will not leave you comfortless.
I won't leave you by yourself. I'll come to you. Oh, Son of
God, come to us one more time today. Our text is Leviticus
23, verses 15 through 22. In these verses, the Holy Spirit
gives us God's instructions to Moses and to the children of
Israel concerning the feast of Pentecost. Now, these feasts
are called by different names in various parts of the scriptures.
Don't let that confuse you. The Feast of Pentecost is commonly
referred to as the Feast of Pentecost in the New Testament because
the word Pentecost simply means 50th or 50. And the Feast of
Pentecost was to be observed 50 days after the Feast of Passover. In the Old Testament, this feast
is referred to as the Feast of Weeks. Actually, we only have
one reference to this feast during the history of the Jews as far
as they're keeping the feast in the Old Testament. It's found
where Solomon kept this feast. But it's obvious that in that
one reference, this Feast of Weeks was well known and commonly
kept among the Jews. Now let's begin reading at verse
15. Leviticus 23 and verse 15. And you shall count unto you
from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought
the sheaf of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be complete. Even unto the morrow after the
seventh Sabbath shall you number 50 days, and you shall offer
a new meat offering unto the Lord. You shall bring out of
your habitations two wave loaves of two-tenth deals They shall
be of fine flour. They shall be bacon or baked
with leaven. They are the firstfruits unto
the Lord. Now, the feast of firstfruits
was held at the beginning of the barley harvest, this feast
of weeks or Pentecost. This feast of Pentecost was at
the beginning of the wheat harvest, seven weeks afterwards. The Feast
of Firstfruits and the Feast of Pentecost have many similarities,
but there are some striking differences. The firstfruits of the wheat,
like the firstfruits of the barley, were to be offered to the Lord.
But the barley was to be taken and gathered as one sheaf and
offered to the Lord. The wheat, rather, was to be
taken, the seed of it, crushed, milled, and baked in two loaves
of leavened bread. The offering was to be made,
we're distinctly told, with leavened bread, leavened bread which the
priest would later eat. This offering was to be made
with specific animal sacrifices. And these two loaves of leavened
bread were to be weighed with two lambs of the first year before
the Lord God by God's appointed priest. Now, what does all that
mean? What's the significance? Without
question, this feast, this ceremony was given in the Old Testament
to be for Israel a ceremonial time of thanksgiving. It was
given at the time of the beginning of the wheat harvest when they
would give thanks to God because of his bountiful provision, acknowledging
that we have waited on you for the former and the latter rain,
that the seed we sowed in the ground brought forth fruit only
because you caused the seed to open and bring forth fruit bountiful
to us this day, recognizing that every good and perfect gift comes
from above, from the Father of lights, with whom there's no
variableness, neither shadow of turning. But there's more
than that. This Feast of Pentecost, was
specifically designed by our God as a picture of the in-gathering
of God's elect from the four corners of the earth by the mighty
and gracious operations of his Holy Spirit. Now, be sure you
get that. This Feast of Pentecost is a
picture of the in-gathering of God's elect from the four corners
of the earth by the mighty operations and grace of God the Holy Spirit. The two loaves of leavened bread
represent God's elect, gathered from the four corners of the
earth, Jew and Gentile, and presented before him in the perfection
and preciousness of Christ, our Passover, who was sacrificed
for us. Now, these feasts were kept in
this order. The Passover was a feast by which
we see the sacrificial death of Christ as the Lamb of God.
The sheaf of firstfruits was a picture of the resurrection,
ascension, and acceptance of Christ as our sin-atoning substitute. And here the feast of Pentecost
shows us the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh for
the in-gathering of God's people whom He had chosen, whom Christ
had redeemed, which was the result of Christ's accomplished redemption.
And we've seen this in our readings this morning in Joel 2 and in
Acts 2. Hold your hands here in Leviticus
and turn to Galatians 3. Galatians 3. I want you to see
that these things are done by divine order. The Lord Jesus
Christ must die. Redemption must be accomplished. Sin must be put away before we
could be brought to God and accepted of Him. The sheath must first
be offered. Then and only then could the
loaves be baked and presented to God with and upon the basis
of the sacrifice made. Here in Galatians 3, the Apostle
Paul explains that this is exactly the connection made. Christ hath
redeemed us, verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now watch this next
word, that. There wasn't any other way it
could happen. That. That the blessing of Abraham
might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Oh, what is that? Read the rest of the sentence,
and you'll find out that we might receive the promise of the Spirit
through faith. In other words, it's not possible
that God could pour out His grace and give you His Holy Spirit
and give you life by His Spirit, except first Christ has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. And this, too, is not possible.
It is not possible that Jesus Christ could redeem you from
the curse of the law and God not pour out His grace and His
Spirit upon you. The blessing of God comes because
of the redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ at Calvary. Now
let's look at this Feast of Pentecost and let me show you four or five
specific things that are very obvious here. So obvious they
are commonly overlooked. So obvious that they were overlooked
by most everybody I read after. First, look at the time of the
feast. It was a time of divine revelation. Now remember, Pentecost
was specifically to be observed 50 days after the Passover. 50 days after the Passover. Why
was that? Why was that? because it was
God's purpose that it represent the result of Christ's finished
work and display the enthronement of our substitute who had finished
our redemption at Calvary. Our Lord Jesus, our Passover,
was sacrificed at Calvary. He walked upon the earth for
40 days, and then he was received up into heaven, where the Father
had made him to sit down on his throne as the King of Glory,
our Mediator, and had given him power, dominion over all flesh
as a man, to give eternal life to as many as the Father had
given him. And 10 days later, Pentecost
came. And the disciples were all gathered
together in one place, worshiping God, waiting for Him to do what
He said He would do, to pour out His Spirit upon them, to
endure them with power, the power of life. And suddenly, the Spirit
of God fell. And Peter said, boys, Jesus is
enthroned. The King has taken His seat.
Here's the Spirit poured out, just as He has said. Now, that's
the significance of the time. But there's more. Now, I don't
commonly pay much attention to Jewish tradition or religious
tradition of any other kind, because it doesn't have any basis
in reality, usually. But the Jews have a tradition.
And the tradition is that the day of Pentecost was observed
at this specific time, because this was the time when God gave
his law to Israel. Now, there is a reason for it.
Though God didn't specifically tell us that, there certainly
seems to be a verification of that in the scriptures. The children
of Israel came out of Egypt on the day of the Passover, when
the Passover was sacrificed. And they came to Mount Sinai,
according to Exodus 19, during the third month, which begins
about the week of Pentecost. And then Moses went up into Mount
Sinai, and God showed Moses his law and declared himself as God
alone, to be worshiped alone, to be trusted alone, to be loved
alone. And thereby, he revealed himself
to Moses and to the children of Israel in a unique way. But this giving of the law. was
given for a purpose. It was not given merely to make
life miserable for the children of Israel or miserable for other
folks. It was not given to be a battleground
for religious folks on the right and left throughout the ages.
But the law was given to shut us up to Christ. to show us our
sin and to make us know our need of a substitute and a mediator. And this law by which God revealed
himself, this revelation of God, could never be complete. No one
could ever understand what was given at Mount Sinai. No one
could ever understand the meaning of the Ten Commandments. If you
don't believe that, just listen to what folks say about it. Just
listen to the tomfoolery that goes on in our local newspaper
concerning the Ten Commandments and all the wrangling that goes
on about them. The law could never be understood until it
is understood in the light of the fact that Christ has come
and fulfilled the law and now Christ, the end of the law, has
established righteousness as a substitute, and God reveals
His glory in His grace through Christ the substitute. It was
this fact that is the declaration of the gospel, and yet glorious
as the fact is, the Lord God has brought in righteousness
for people who could never perform it. by the obedience and death
of His Son, magnifying the law and making it honorable. But
you can't see it. You can't see it. You can't see
it. It means nothing to you. It's
insignificant to you until the day of Pentecost comes, until
God the Holy Spirit is poured out on your soul from heaven.
until God the Holy Spirit invades your cold, dead, blind, hard,
rebel heart and makes you to see what Christ has done, gathering
you into God's garner by His almighty grace, granting you
life and faith in Christ. And so the time of Pentecost
is the time of divine revelation and divine grace. All right,
now look at this. Verse 17 mentions two loaves. Two loaves of leavened bread. Don't miss this. Don't miss this. We're told that the sacrifice
of Pentecost was to be two loaves of bread. And they shall be baked
with leaven, we're told in verse 17. That sounds strange, doesn't
it? Isn't this a word from the same
God who had commanded Israel on Passover to sweep their houses
and take out all the leaven, to purge out all the leaven,
have no leaven remaining? Isn't this the same Lord God
who said, I will not accept your Passover sacrifice if you bring
that sacrifice with leaven? It is indeed. But why does he
here say, Now, on this feast day, you come and you bring me
a meat offering that's an entirely new meat offering, a meat offering
that is made into two loaves and leavened. Well, these two
loaves, clearly, being baked with leaven and presented to
the Lord God as leavened loaves, were intended to represent something
specific. And the thing specifically they
represent, Bob Bonser, is you and me. They represent God's elect in
this world, saved by his almighty grace. Two, because God saves
his people out of both the nations of Israel and the nations of
the Gentiles, Jew and Gentile. Say, well, but there are more
people in the world than that. No, they're not. Everybody's
either Jew or Gentile. Everybody. Everybody. We are
either of those who are the seed of Abraham and Jews, or we're
those other people who were by nature raised and born into pagan
darkness Gentiles. Gentiles. And so the Lord God
said, make two loaves, because I have people not only of the
nation of Israel, but scattered in the four corners of the earth,
Gentiles as well. And make a new loaf, because
he shall of the two make one new man in Jesus Christ the Lord,
and so making peace. But the significant thing that
I call your attention to is the fact that these two loaves were
to be leavened. You see, though born of God,
justified by the blood and righteousness of Christ, sanctified by the
grace of His Spirit, forgiven of all sin, adorned with all
the gifts and graces of our Lord Jesus Christ and of His Spirit. God's people in this world are
a people defiled by sin. And that never ceases. And they
all acknowledge it all the time. We confess our sin. The Lord
God has put away our sin, yes, but our sin's still in us. He's
put it away judicially, and he shall ultimately put it away
when these bodies are dropped in the grave and we have been
put to death in the flesh so that we might be raised in the
Spirit. This body raised in immortality,
once sin has done its work. But while we live in this world,
we are a people leavened with sin. On the day of Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit was poured out in mighty power. astounding wonders. God came down to earth again. He came this time in grace. He came this time in power. He
came this time in the person of the Holy Spirit working wonders
among men. But all the power and all the
grace and all the work of God the Holy Spirit can never put
away sin. That can't be done by grace.
That can't be done by power. That has to be done only by blood
atonement. Only justice satisfied declares
sin put away. The Holy Spirit has come not
to destroy sin. He can't do that. The Holy Spirit
has come not to put away sin. He can't do that. The Holy Spirit
has come to give us a new nature, to unite us to Christ. On that
day of Pentecost, that one time miraculous wonder, like the miraculous
wonder of Calvary itself, our crucified, risen, ascended Lord,
poured out His Spirit and baptized His church into a totally new
realm of life so that those who are born of His grace now walk
in the Spirit, walk by faith, united to Christ the head as
one body with Him. But the Holy Spirit doesn't do
anything to put away sin. He subdues it. He controls it. But He doesn't put it away. And
those who have experienced His grace, who are taught of God,
Acknowledge all the time we are sinners still. In me, in my flesh, in this body
dwelleth no good thing. Nothing. The flesh constantly
wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. The Holy Spirit gives us a new heart, a new will,
a new nature. But the heart, the will, the
nature of flesh is just exactly what it always was. Flesh is
flesh. It never gets better. It never
gets better. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. What a painful reality. But reality
it is. Now turn to John 12. These two
waved loaves were made out of wheat seed, made out of the fruit of that
which had been sown in the earth. Here in John 12, our Lord seems
to be referring in his own mind to this very thing, back here
in Leviticus 23. These Gentiles had come up to
Jerusalem on the holy feast day to keep the feast of God. And
these Gentiles, they'd heard about the Lord Jesus, and they
were curious at least, probably more than curious. But they came
and they said to the Lord's disciple Philip, said, sirs, we would
see Jesus. And they brought these Gentiles
to the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus looked at
them. And He seems to look in their faces and see us, His people
whom He had come to save among the Gentiles. And it says in
verse 24, Back in verse 23, he said, the
hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. This
is what it came here for. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn, a seed of wheat, fall into the ground and die,
it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Look at verse 27. Now is my soul
troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Look
at verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. Now watch this. And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. Jew and Gentile. And this he
spoke signifying what death he should die. Back here in Leviticus
23, look at verse 18. These two leavened loaves were
accepted, though leavened. accepted by the holy Lord God,
and accepted by Him as an offering of a sweet savor because of another
sacrifice. They were not accepted because
of what they represented, but they were rather accepted because
of another sacrifice. I've already shown you that the
leaven loaves portray God's people in this world. Saved by grace,
but sinners still. Clearly, there is an indication
there. That God knows and acknowledges the evil that's in us. But blessed be His matchless
name. The evil that God has recognized,
God has provided for. Verse 18. And you shall offer
with the bread seven lambs. perfect, complete, without blemish,
seven lambs representing a perfect, complete sacrifice. Seven lambs
without blemish of the first year. And one young bullock,
one strong young bull, a mighty sacrifice. And two rams for Jews
and Gentiles. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
God's perfect sacrifice, God's mighty sacrifice, God's only
sacrifice for both Jew and Gentile. For they shall be for a burnt
offering unto the Lord with their meat offering. That is, off of
these seven lambs, this bullock and these two rams, with the
meat offering. with their meat offering and
their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire of a sweet
savor unto the Lord. Now, here is rest and comfort
and joy for our souls. The Lord God, omniscient, knows
everything. And He acknowledges what we are. He remembers, Lindsay, we're
just dust. Just dust. But He doesn't deal with us according
to our iniquities. He doesn't reward us according
to our sins. He deals with us on the basis
not of what we are, but what Christ is and what Christ has
done. He rewards us not upon the basis
of our worth, because we have none, but upon the basis of His
Son's worth, this mighty, perfect sacrifice. This sacrifice that
He Himself has accepted as our substitute. And now, here we
are, in all our vileness, standing before God, in the perfection of Christ's
perfection. And thus He accepts us. Isn't
it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful? Isn't it wonderful that the fulfillment
of this Feast of Pentecost, that which we see in Acts chapter
2, is declared clearly by divine
inspiration and by divine intent, not by John, not by Matthew,
not by Mark, not by Luke, But by Peter. He said, boys, here I am. Look
here, look here. One of those leavened cakes. And God's poured out his grace
on me. And this is fulfilled, which
was spoken of by the prophet Joel. Well, pastor, that all sounds
fantastic, but what's your authority for that? I'm not talking to
you about speculation theory. I'm telling you exactly what
this passage is intended to teach. Look at verses 19 and 20. Here's
the third thing. Two lambs and a priest. Then
you shall sacrifice one kid of the goats for a sin offering.
and two lambs of the first year for a sacrifice of peace offering.
And the priest shall wave them with bread of the first fruits
for a wave offering before the Lord with the two lambs. They
shall be holy to the Lord for the priest." The priest... Let me see if I
can... picture for you. The priest would take the lambs and his two loaves. These sinless, holy, innocent,
perfect lambs. And he'd put the loaves with
the lambs and he'd hold them up to God. and wave them before the Lord
in the eyes of the people. The lambs won with the loaves. The loaves won with the lamb. One sacrifice, a sweet savor. And God accepted the leaven loaves
because of the perfect lamb. The only reason. The only reason. The only reason. Christ is our priest. Christ
is our sacrifice. Christ is our God, and God accepts
us as one with Him. The work of the Holy Spirit in
the believer, I repeat, does not remove indwelling sin. But rather, the work of the Holy
Spirit, Bobby, causes you for the first time in your life to
detect When God the Holy Spirit comes
in saving grace for the first time in your life, you're going
to dead sure know you're a sinner. And to judge it against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And when He comes, He calls you
to detect your sin. and to judge your sin, and to
reckon your sin no more. In the full awareness that you're
personally as corrupt as hell itself. Look at Romans chapter
11, or Romans chapter 6 rather, verse 11. This is the meaning of the sacrifice
here on this marvelous day of Pentecost. When the Holy Spirit
comes, we stand before God in all our
personal corruption, in all the perfection of Christ. One with Him. And God doesn't
behold sin in Israel or iniquity in Jacob. And the believing heart
says that's exactly right because justice is satisfied. Righteousness
is brought in on our behalf by another. This is what Paul says
in Romans 6, verse 11. Likewise, Reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord." What does that mean? Oh, Paul says, now this
is the religious world around us talking. This is what you
hear everywhere. What Paul is saying is now, Now
what you ought to do, children of God, is you reckon yourselves
dead to sin so that you're not affected by it anymore. You kind
of exercise good spiritual discipline. And you rise above it. And you
walk around and look down your nose at other folks and say,
I don't see how you could do that. I ain't sure if you're Christian
or not. Nah, not you. Look here. See how good I am? I'm dead set. That ain't at all
what it's all about, Merle. This is what it says. Since Christ
died for you, and you believe in Him, Since Christ died as
your substitute, and God reckons you dead to sin, God reckons
the debt paid, God reckons justice satisfied, you reckon the way
God does. I'm one with Christ. Let's see
if that's not what Peter teaches, 1 Peter 4, verse 1. 1 Peter 4,
verse 1. For as much then as Christ hath
suffered for us in the flesh. Now watch this. Arm yourselves
likewise with the same mind. What's he talking about? Arm
yourselves against the assaults of Satan? Arm yourselves against
the assaults of hell with this mind. He that hath suffered in
the flesh doesn't have anything else to pray. He's ceased from
sin. He ceased from sinning. These two leaven loaves... Watch this back here in verse
20 in Leviticus 23. I've got to hurry, but I can't leave
this. These two leaven loaves, we're
told in verse 20, specifically were for the priest. They're made holy before God.
But they're for the priest. For his bread. For his nourishment. For his life. For his contentment. For his joy. For his satisfaction. John 4 is a pretty good sermon
on that. The Lord's disciples came to him. He had just saved an old sinner, old whore. He sought her out on purpose.
He came to her and he stuck his finger in her heart and exposed
her sin. She was now made to detect it
and to judge it. And the disciples came and saw
him sitting by the well. talking to this woman that nobody,
they'd have walked 20 miles out of their way not to see her.
He walked 20 miles out of his way just to get to see her. And
I said, what's he doing? Where did he get any meat? And
he said, I have bread to eat you know not of. He said, this is what I come
to do. And this is the bread I feed
on. This is what sustains me. His bread is to do the will of
His Father, which is to save our souls by the sacrifice of
Himself. Look at verse 21. When all this was done, Sacrifices made. The new meat
offering. These two leavened loaves are
offered with the two lambs. And the priest is taken to bread
as his own. And God has accepted the sacrifice. The rest was to be proclaimed.
And you shall proclaim on the selfsame day that it may be a
holy convocation to you. And you shall do no servile work
therein. It shall be a statute forever
in all your dwellings throughout all your generations." The gospel, the preaching of
the gospel, is the proclamation of rest forever. If God the Holy Spirit comes
to you, my friend. He calls you to hear this word
of His grace. Everything's done. Rest. Don't ever, don't ever Don't
ever pick up a shovel. Don't ever pick up a hoe. Don't
ever carry a load of bricks. Don't ever do anything by which
to commend yourself to God. Reckon it all done. God does. Rest. Come unto me, all you that
labor and have it laden, and I'll give you rest. And then
verse 22. Verse 22. This just looks totally out of
place. But it's connected with the Feast of Pentecost. And when
you reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make a clean
riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest. Neither
shalt thou gather any gleanings of thy harvest. Thou shalt leave
them unto the poor and to the stranger. I am the Lord your
God. I heard a fellow who pastored
a church where Shelby was raised preaching one time. This had
been a long time ago. He had been out picking apples.
And he said, I was picking apples and getting ready to just clean
it all up, and this scripture came to me where the Lord said
not to glean the corners of the field. leave some fruit for the
strangers and for the poor. He said, I did, but I didn't
have to work for it. I left them in the top of the tree. It sounds just exactly like what
some freewill Armenian preacher would say about God's grace. This is talking about grace,
bounty, the gathering of the harvest. Without a doubt, it's
a picture of God's provision for both Jew and Gentile. We
are by nature poor and needy, bankrupt sinners. We are by nature
strangers far off from God. But the inheritance of Christ
for his people is the inheritance bestowed by grace and bestowed
upon all God's elect, both Jew and Gentile. So our Lord says,
to the Jews in the land of Canaan, who had gone in there and driven
out the enemies and taken possession of the land. When you go reap
your fields, don't you take everything. It ain't all just for you. I've got some people scattered
in the four corners of the earth, poor and strangers, going to
be gathered, and this inheritance is theirs too. The gleanings
of grace. are not like gleanings out in
a field, but rather the gleanings of heaven. And the gleanings
of the fields of glory are bounteous, boundless, infinite bounties
of grace, free grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. The gleanings
of Canaan represent the glories of heaven then, the glories of
Christ. Now listen to me. Children of God, oh, God help
us to get over this. The blessings of God upon us
are not merely blessings by Christ. They're blessings according to
the riches of His grace with Christ. With Christ. That means what
he has as a result of his obedience in death, we have as a result
of his obedience in death. The bride of Christ in heaven.
I sometimes wonder if anybody pays any attention to anything
I say. I got up here this morning and made 10 statements I made,
I guess it's been 15 years ago. Thank you for listening. Listen
to this. The bride of Christ in heaven.
shall possess and enjoy forever." Are you listening? Her own wealthy,
happy home. She shall possess and enjoy forever
her own wealthy and happy home, the home that she rightfully
holds. The home, it is her right to
possess. The home to which she belongs,
it is hers, and hers by right. Because she's married to the
King of Glory. She's the queen with the king
on his throne. She's the sharer of his joys. his dignities, and his glories. The eternal mansions of the Father's
house, that house on high, is Christ's portion. And because
it's Christ's portion, it's our portion.