Leviticus 2:1-16 (Teaching)

[0:00] I appreciate it. I appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again for that. How do we do it?

[0:12] Last week we went through Leviticus 1. This week with the Lord's help. We will try to get through Leviticus 2. Leviticus 2, you'll find isn't quite as exhilarating as Leviticus 1 is.

[0:30] It has to do with the meat offering or some of the first who is the brain offering. However, all the offerings brought up in Leviticus are at tops of Christ.

[0:46] They're at tops of our Christ and our relationship to God. And when we read through the offerings, including last week when we went through Leviticus 2, and last week when we went through Leviticus 1, we have to take it in the context and read it and understand it in the context of relationship and of reconciliation with God.

[1:10] And that greatly helps our understanding of it if we take it all in that context. The burnt offering was given first in the book of Leviticus.

[1:22] And I talked last week how this wasn't the first mention of the burnt offering. It was mentioned back in Genesis. So this definitely wasn't the first burnt offering that was ever mentioned, ever commanded, or anything else by God, or first given to God.

[1:44] But all these offerings point toward Christ and they're at a certain order. And the burnt offering was as what we talked about last week, that the Israelites, the Hebrews, the Jews, God's covenant people were indeed reconciled to God.

[2:06] They were reconciled to Him. They were sanctified by God to His service and for His glory. And that was the purpose of the burnt offering, the purpose of the meat offering is a little bit different.

[2:20] And the piece offering in the next chapter, in chapter 3 it was a bit different. And so on, throughout the first few chapters of Leviticus. I'm not going to try to get through all 16 verses of Leviticus chapter 2.

[2:36] So Leviticus chapter 2 starting in verse 1 says, And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be a fine flower, and he shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense thereon.

[2:52] And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priest, and he shall take there out his handful of the flower thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof, and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the offer to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord.

[3:12] And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons. And this is the thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. We'll stop there and back up.

[3:24] This section, this chapter begins with a word of encouragement. It says, And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, anyone could do this.

[3:38] Anyone could bring a meat offering to the Lord. His offering should be a fine flower, and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense upon it. And we read that here in 2023, and it don't make a whole lot of good sense to us.

[3:56] Why would they bring grain? Why would they bring meat? Why would they bring something that would sustain them while they were out there in the wilderness? Remember folks, they hadn't gotten to the promised land yet.

[4:08] They hadn't gotten to the land of milk and honey. And we read that for you. This is not long after they had left Sinai. This was not long after the law had been given from from Mount Sinai.

[4:24] And we've got to keep that in mind as we read this. So here's God telling Moses to tell the people that if any man brings a meat offering unto him, that it has to be done these ways, and it has to be fine flower.

[4:40] It can't just be this coarse stuff. It can't just be anything that they want to bring. God puts down stipulations as far as what kind of meat offering to bring him.

[4:52] Folks, and it's no different in the New Testament. This meat offering, this grain offering that we're reading about here tonight, once again taken in the context of being reconciled unto God. That's why this follows the burnt offering. The burnt offering was the purgy. It was the taking away of the sins. It was getting someone in shape good enough to be presented to God that they could have relationship to God. This grain offering had nothing to do with getting into relationship with God.

[5:26] It was something that was given unto God to show that we trust God, or show that they trusted God, and to show that they were depending on Him to get them through this wilderness and through the Promised Land.

[5:42] As far as the New Testament application of this goes, God won't take just anything. If it's not a heartfelt confession, God won't accept it. If it's not a heartfelt offering unto God, if it's not heartfelt worship, God will not accept it. There's a lot of worship that goes on in churches nowadays that is false worship and God does not recognize it as worship at all.

[6:06] It's people that, a lot of the people that are quote unquote worshiping God, are unregenerate centers, or people that don't even know who God is, but they think that they're worshiping God, and they think that they're appeasing God and pleasing God in doing so. It's the only thing that will please Almighty God is Jesus Christ.

[6:26] And if we don't have Jesus Christ, God will not be pleased with us. It's plain and simple if these people did not bring the the meat offering that God told them to bring.

[6:38] If it wasn't a fine flower, if it didn't have the old, if it didn't have the frankincense, if it wasn't a way that God prescribed it to be, it would be rejected by God. And our worship is no different. If it's not done in a way that is prescribed by God, if it's not, if we don't worship Him in spirit and in truth, God will reject that worship and we're doing nothing but wasting our time, our time trying to worship Him in such a manner. These people here, he said it must be fine. I said this wasn't the run of the mill stuff.

[7:14] Fine flower in these times it was a delicacy to come by. Once again, you remember these folks weren't farmers out there in the desert. They didn't have land that they were cultivating and that they were growing this stuff on.

[7:32] This is something that would have been hard to come by and here's God telling them to give it up. Give up the fine flower. My question to myself and everybody in here is when was the last time we depleted our own resources to the point where we were depending completely and totally on God to replenish those in His time and His manner. I'm not saying go out and sell all of your goods. I'm not saying go out and sell your home and your vehicles and your clothing and everything else about you and just depend on God to supply you with those things.

[8:08] My Bible teaches that God will sustain us and I do believe that. The God expects us to use some sense in it too. I'm not saying any of them. I'm not saying go sell everything that you got and give all the money to charity and say, okay God here I am. You do what you promise to do. But when was the last time that we truly gave? I'm not preaching on tithing or teaching on tithing that matter. I'm not teaching on what we put in the plate every Sunday or every Wednesday or wherever the case is.

[8:36] That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying sometimes we hold things back from God. Sometimes He told these folks that we must be fine flower. He said if any will bring we'll offer a meat offering on the Lord.

[8:52] The offering shall be a fine flower and He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense there on it. That's heavy duty stuff that God has told these people. Not only must they be fine flower but they must pour oil on it.

[9:06] Again, they're out here in the wilderness. The olive is not there at their disposal. Just any wind that they want. And nor was the frankincense.

[9:18] Frankincense was something that was pretty expensive back in this day. So God is saying if you bring a meat offering unto me, if you bring this grain to me, it must have old and it must have frankincense.

[9:32] You think about Jacob over in the book of Genesis. When Jacob, we all know the account of Jacob's ladder that's popularly known. Just before that account, just before Jacob had that dream, what happened?

[9:48] He saw what got mad at him. And he saw what got so mad he was ready to kill him, was he not? And Rebecca called for Jacob and said, your brother has got it on his heart and got it in his mind to kill you.

[10:02] You need to get out of here. You go to Laban. You spend a few days with him is what the scripture says. So Jacob took off. Jacob laid his head on that rock that night. And when he woke up the next morning, what did he do? He poured oil on that rock.

[10:18] He poured oil on it after he had his dream. After God had shown him what he had, he poured oil on it. Remember Jacob left in a hurry. That was probably the only oil that Jacob had on him.

[10:30] But he gave it to God. He gave it to God. And that's what we need to do. Once again, I ain't saying sell all your stuff and give the money to the church. But just folks got owns it anyway.

[10:44] Let's go ahead and give it to him. Hang it on to it. I ain't talking about your cash. I ain't talking about your wallet or your check in account. I'm talking about God owns it all. And if you're here and you're saved and you're born again, you should know good and well that Paul told us in the New Testament. He said you're not your own. You're a bought with a price. We belong to God if we've been born again.

[11:08] And if we belong to God, it is not just our bodies. It is not just our souls. It is our families. It is our home. It is our vehicles. It's our jobs. It's our abilities.

[11:20] Everything about us belongs to God. Whether we want to have it or not, but we hang on to those things. A lot of times it gets us in trouble with our families.

[11:32] I'm talking on a spiritual plane. We'll say God and just give that over to you. That's the little thing I can do something. We can't do nothing for. Yes, we can witness. Yes, we can tell them the gospel.

[11:44] We can tell them about Jesus. We can tell them about the Bible. We can tell them about scripture. We can tell them the truth of the Word of God. But ultimately it will take God to get a hold of those people.

[11:56] And that's when we need to give it over to God. When we come to that realization we can't save them. We can't save them. And we give them to God. That's when God can do a true work. Don't give your own God.

[12:10] You can do a true work whenever he wants to. But we can get in the way of God's work. We can hinder the work of God in someone's life. By getting in the way. And God can remove things out the way.

[12:22] God has a way of doing that. I told people for years now, basically all the years that I've been saved I've told people you be careful what you put in front of God.

[12:34] What you put between you and God. You be careful what you put between you and church time. And you and Bible reading time and you and prayer time. Because God can take that hindrance out of your life. Whether it's your spouse, whether it's your children no matter what it is.

[12:48] God can remove that and look down and say now you have no reason to not pray. Now you have no reason to not read your Bible. Now you have no reason to not worship me. God can do that.

[13:00] They tell these people if any, if any brings a meat offering. It must be a fine flower. It must be of the best in other words. God don't rule secondary stuff.

[13:12] Back in the burnt offering we read last week the burnt offering had to be a male. Had to be without spot. You read over it with the Passover lamb.

[13:24] Over in the book of Exodus it had to be without spot. Didn't have any problems with that lamb before they slaughtered it and they struck the door post and the side post with the blood of that lamb.

[13:36] Otherwise when the play of the first born came through, those people would be just as susceptible to it as the Egyptians were. When God says something he means it.

[13:50] He means it. When he told these people it must be a fine flower and it must have all and it must have frequencies. He means it. We'll get into a little bit more of that towards the end of the chapter here.

[14:04] He shall bring it to Aaron and sons the priest and he shall take his handful of the flowered arrow and all the old arrow and with all the frankincense arrow and the priest shall burn the memorial over upon the altar to be an offering made by the iron of a sweet saver under the Lord.

[14:24] We pointed this out in the burnt offering last week too. Who was doing what? It says verse one begins and when any will offer a meal offering. This is how it begins. Then verse two and he shall bring it to Aaron and sons the priest and he shall take their out the handful of flower their offering. He showed it. Who?

[14:46] The one that brought the offering is the one that takes out the handful of the flower and of the old arrow and all. Now it says that he takes out a handful of the flower there all and all the old arrow.

[15:00] In other words, he's not taking all of the flower and he's not taking all of the old that God specifies here. He specifies with and with all of the frankincense there all. None of the frankincense is to remain with the offer.

[15:16] None of it is to remain. Why was that? Well, for one the rest of this was to go to the priest that was to go to Aaron and sons those that were in service to God and they would have no use really for that frankincense.

[15:30] So, God said, burn it. Burn it. Something that is expensive, something that is rare, something that meant something to these people. Think about where they would have gotten this from.

[15:44] God had just delivered them out of Egypt. Not long before this God had parted the Red Sea and they crossed through the Red Sea with the wall with wall of water on either side of them and on dry ground and got to the other side. When would they have had time to stop in the local 7-11 and buy frankincense?

[16:04] They brought it from Egypt. That's the only place they could have gotten it from. It was something that they brought from where they were departing from. Now they could have had good intentions in doing that.

[16:16] They could have been a bartering tool. They could have been any number of things. They could have had very good intentions. But again, not just the frankincense, we're about to find flower. Where would they have gotten that from? They would have had that brought that with them out of Egypt as well.

[16:34] God's saying, leave everything behind. You're going to give this stuff up because I am going to take care of you. I am more God in the side of me. There is no other. I will sustain you.

[16:46] I'll get you through this, Lord. You can give all of this back to me because it's mine anyway. So he tells me that he, the Offer, should take his parts and all of the frankincense thereof. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the Offer to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. So the Offer takes his parts and all of the frankincense and does what?

[17:16] He gives it. And the priest burns the memorial thereof. He burns the remainder of the offering. He burns what's there. But the priest does this.

[17:30] The Offer doesn't go to the Offer. The one who brought the flower, the one who brought the oil, the one who brought the frankincense, he doesn't have this part. The priest has this part. But it's all separate parts that make up one part.

[17:44] What is the one part? The one part? The meat offering? The frankincense and the oil all make up one offering unto God. Once again, everything about you needs to be offered unto God.

[18:00] When Paul says in Romans chapter 12 of the C-Tupra, of the merchants of God that you present to yourselves, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.

[18:12] He doesn't say but you can leave this part out. He says present yourself a living sacrifice. Once again, that is everything about you. Everything about you.

[18:24] How often do we thank God for everything that we've got? Everyone of us in here probably do that every day. We might go through a short list of things. We might go through a medium-sized list or a long list of things that we haven't seen. God, I thank you for it all.

[18:36] When we thank God for our home, we thank God for our vehicles, we thank God for a way to make money for our jobs. Do we ever really break it down and say, God, I thank you for the ability to do my job.

[18:50] I thank you for the talent that you do. I thank you for this or for that. Do we break those things down or do we keep them general? Here it's three parts of an offering.

[19:04] It's three parts of one single offering that's being given unto God. It says that the priest will burn this offering upon the altar. And just like the burnt sacrifice that we read about last week, it's a sweet sacred, a sweet smell and the nostrils of God.

[19:24] As you remember, you remember that the burnt offering that we read about last week, earning flesh does not have a good smell. Earning air does not have a good smell.

[19:38] Burning grain doesn't have a good smell. The meat offering is we're reading about here. Burning oil does not have a good smell.

[19:50] People will say, well, that frankincense gave it a good smell. Of course, that's not what this is talking about. It's talking about the heart that we give these things here, that these interlites would have given these things to God with.

[20:02] And it's the same way with us. It's our attitude. And it's our heart. And it's where that worship is directed. And if it is true worship to God, then it will be a sweet smell and a savor in the nostrils of an almighty God. But it's only then that it will be so.

[20:20] We can bring all these things unto God. We can bring a tenth of the world's fine flower unto God. 10% of all the fine flower in the world and a huge bunch of frankincense and we can offer it to God without our hearts being in the right place and it wouldn't matter a hill of beams as far as our worship toward God.

[20:44] So if we just bring a portion of what we have, we bring it, like God says, fine flower with all frankincense. And it's truly the best that we have.

[20:56] The best that we have about the world. We have a bow to us and we offer that to God. Then it's a sweet smell and a savor.

[21:08] And if thou bring an oblation, don't be afraid of that word oblation, it's just a fancy word for offering. And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering, bacon in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes, a fine flower, an eagle with hole, or unleavened wafers anointed with hole.

[21:26] This is important. This is important. Because we have a great relationship with God, we have a great relationship with God, with God.

[21:38] So if we just bring it to God, we have a great relationship with God. And we have a great relationship with God. So this is the Bible. And we have a great relationship with God.

[21:52] And there's also some differences between the burnt offering This is important because just like the bird talkers, we began with the ox, we began with the bigger and the stronger animals, the ones that the people with the money would have had.

[22:06] Then we went to the lambs and the rams after that, the ones of the flock. We started with the one of the herd, went to the one of the flock. Then it got down to something as simple as a pigeon or a turtle dove.

[22:17] That was for the ones that couldn't afford those things. Those that were poor. This is the same manner that we're talking about here. It's the exact same thing. Anyone could bring a meat offering unto God and say, God, this is what I've got. It's the absolute best that I had.

[22:33] Whether it was something like a trisket or whether it was a huge mound of fine flour, anybody could bring it to God and offer it the way that God says to him. God would accept that offering.

[22:46] Why would God want them to get rid of their food though? Especially the poor. Why would they want to do that? Why would God want them to do that? I hope it was worship of God and it was them saying, God, I trust you.

[23:00] My goodness, these folks, as I've already said, they've done been through the Red Sea. I would have been scared out of nowhere, and you would have too, to be walking through a body of water.

[23:10] There was a wall on one side and there was a wall on the other and there I am in the middle of it. And yet some of these people were probably afraid to give away some of their flour.

[23:23] Some of them may not have been afraid, they just didn't want to. But God says, this is how I'm saying to do it. This is an offering made unto me. And if you offer it correctly, I will accept it.

[23:35] If it's an oblation of meat offering, bake it in the oven. It shall be of unliving cakes, all fine flour, mingled with all manning. This will be unleavened cakes that have the oil mixed in with the flour.

[23:51] Now, we get to the next part. Or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. We all know what it is to be anointed. We all know you take a little bit of holy food on a person's head, shoulders, how we do it.

[24:06] But we don't soak the person in oil, do we? We don't force them to drink the oil, to mingle it throughout their entire body. This is what this is talking about when it talks about wafers, anointed with oil.

[24:19] This was for the poor. God's making provision for them. I still want you to worship me. I've done made a way that you can be purged of your sin through the burnt offering that you can bring me in the form of a pigeon or a turtle duck.

[24:32] And this is how you're going to worship me. You just bring me a little cracker with some old dab dominant. It's basically what God's saying in language terms. That's what he's saying.

[24:43] He's saying, just bring me what you've got. Bring me your best. And even if your best is just a speck, it's still your best and you're still offering it to me. And the college you were showing that trust in me, and the college you were showing that dependence on me, I'm going to see you through this thing.

[24:59] And folks, we need to trust God in the exact same manner. In the exact same manner as he was expecting these people to trust in him.

[25:10] He says, now the first part of that, back to that, the meat offering, bacon and oven, it shall be as unleavened cakes of fun flower mingled with oil.

[25:23] This was more or less for the middle class, kind of like the rams and the sheep were for the burnt offering. It was for those that were kind of sort of well to do, but not as well to do as those that may have the oxen.

[25:40] And those are the animals of the herd. But then he gets to the ones with the wafers, and going in with oil there at the end. So God is making a way for everyone to worship him.

[25:52] God has made a way for everyone to worship. Even here in this building, we may not have a Francis building. We may not have stained glass windows.

[26:03] We may not have a hundred people in our choir. We may not have the choir rows or all that, but folks, if we offer God our best, and we worship God with our best, that's all God wants of us.

[26:19] That's all he wants. We don't have to be fancy in it. We don't have to be like the church down the street. We don't have to be like the congregation across town.

[26:32] As long as we're giving God our best, as long as we give Him our best, that's all he wants. That's all it requires of us. Verse five, and if thou ablation be a meat offering, bacon in a pan, it shall be a fine flour unleavened, mingled with old.

[26:48] Thou shalt part it in pieces and pour old thereof. It is a meat offering. We've got it here. I'm kind of reiterating what he just said, but he says if thou ablation be a meat offering, bacon in a pan, it shall be a fine flour unleavened, mingled with old.

[27:05] And this unleavened is pretty significant. We're going to get it in that towards the end of the chapter as well. Thou shalt part it in pieces and pour old thereof. It is a meat offering.

[27:16] Thou shalt part it in pieces. You just spent time to bake it in a pan. And then God wanted the people to part it in the pieces.

[27:27] But just as the fine flour and the old and the frankincense was in verse one, this is part of them pieces and it's parts of one offering that's given unto God.

[27:43] Why did God want it part of them pieces? Only God knows that really. I'm not real positive. I've read all kinds of different people's theories as far as I go.

[27:54] The bullshit boils down to the simple fact that this is how God said to do it. And this is how he expected these people to do it.

[28:05] Verse seven, I thought it would be a meat offering baked in the frying pan. It shall be made a fine flour with old 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 unto the altar.

[28:18] So it was gone from baking it in the pan, which is another sign of middle class, to baking it in a frying pan. And that's something a lot of people don't expect to find in scripture, something about a frying pan.

[28:32] But this was a sign that you were poor. And these times it wasn't just for the Hebrews. This was in near Eastern culture, period.

[28:42] If all you had was a frying pan to cook in, that was a sign that you were poor. And that's what God is getting at here. Once again, not just with the offerings, but how the offerings are made, how they are concocted, and how they are presented to God is the same way.

[29:02] You bring it to the priest, and the priest does what he needs to do. Folks, when we offer our worship directly at God, I should say, does God recognize that?

[29:15] No. But if we offer worship directly to God through Jesus Christ, our high priest, God will recognize that.

[29:26] God will recognize that as worship. If it's directed at God the Father, we can forgive him. Folks, if we try to approach God the Father outside of Jesus Christ, we can forgive him.

[29:41] And if we can't approach him for forgiveness outside of Jesus Christ, what makes us think we can worship him outside of Jesus Christ? We can't. So these people all had different potential, different ways and means of preparing their offering, whatever it was, whether it was wafers, whether it was cakes, whether it was mingled with oil, or had old dad on it, or whether the oil was just brought and dumped on top of it.

[30:07] Regardless of what it was, it was all offered up by the priest. This was to typify Jesus Christ.

[30:18] Jesus Christ is our high priest, and he is the only one that can reconcile us to God. And if we've been reconciled to God, he is the only one we can worship God through. He's the only one we can get to God through.

[30:30] I'm the way of the truth and the life. You've been with him and the Father, but by me. That's everything. Anything we want of God the Father has to be gotten through God the Son.

[30:43] It has to be asked through God the Son. It has to be. The priest shall take from the meat offering in verse 9.

[30:53] 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.

[31:03] Folks, this would have encouraged the poor greatly. He said, the priest is going to take this, and the priest is going to burn it on the altar, and it is an offering.

[31:15] So regardless of what the bigger churches might think of, little churches like us, regardless of what people that might be in a 500 person congregation might think about a church that only has a 10 or 12 person congregation, regardless of any of that, God accepts our worship if it is true, and it's done the way that he says to do it.

[31:37] This was encouraging to the poor that felt like they had nothing to offer God. God says, you've got something to offer me. Worship me. Worship me the way that I have told you to, folks, and us in the New Testament.

[31:50] We can worship God regardless of how rich we are, regardless of how poor we are, regardless of our stance or our clout in society or in our jobs or in our family, regardless of any of that, we can all worship God through Jesus Christ.

[32:06] And that's all God wants is our worship. He wants our worship, and he deserves our worship. Our worship is due unto God. My goodness, he saved our souls.

[32:17] Yes, he deserves our worship. David. Let's put it to the truth. Really cut a shine to serve, and none of y'all say, me cut a shine to eat. But I still worship God. I ain't gonna say I've never thrown a holy fit, but none of y'all have seen it.

[32:32] But that's not necessarily what worship is. Yes, some people worship more excitedly than others, and more frequently in that manner.

[32:45] But sometimes people just sit on their pew and cry, and that's worshiping God. Why? Let's keep reading. We'll get to that. And that which is left of the being offering shall be Aaron's and his son's, and is the thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.

[33:05] So God here is not only making a way for the people of Israel, for the Hebrews, to worship him, but he's also making a way that the priests can be sustained in their service to God.

[33:18] Remember, the priests, the tribal Levi, they weren't going to get any inheritance in the promised land when it comes. God says, I'm your inheritance. I'm what you get, and your job is to serve me in the tabernacle.

[33:33] Your job is to offer up the sacrifices and to burn the incense. Your job is to intercess on behalf of these people by bringing their sacrifices that they bring to the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, or bring to you in general, and to offer those unto me.

[33:51] Folks, they couldn't go out and get a job at the gas station. They couldn't go to Walmart and get a job. They were constantly working in the temple. They had to be sustained somehow, and this was God's way to do it.

[34:03] But you remember this. It was still the offers that were bringing an offering to God, and it was still God's offering. But God was saying, part of that's going to my service.

[34:18] Part of that's going to those that are in my service, in my tabernacle, at my altar, at my table, at my table of shoe bread, at my candles.

[34:29] That's saying, part of my offering is going to them. God was making a way that everybody could be taken care of. And the priests doing what they were doing to offer these things by burning this meat offering on the altar, they were worshiping God in doing so.

[34:48] How were they worshiping? They're not the ones that brought the offering. The offering was the form of worship, was it not? Yes, it was. But they were worshiping God in doing what God told them to do.

[35:00] Most of that's the form of worship. God told them. He said, you're the service being. You're to do these things. They were worshiping God. The people of Israel were able to worship God. Everybody was able to worship God.

[35:12] No one was excluded from this. And no one's excluded from worshiping God now. No one's excluded because we have Jesus Christ. We have that common ground that not only that we can meet on, but that we can all worship God at all.

[35:30] Verse number 11, no meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven. For ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey and any offering of the Lord made by fire.

[35:43] So God says, you're going to bring fire. You're going to bring gold. You're going to bring frankincense. Regardless of whether the flowers baked or whether it's piled high on a charger or wherever the case is, you're going to bring these things to me.

[35:58] But it's not to have leaven in it. Why is that? Folks, what is worship? Why do we worship God? If you're here saying you're born again, why do you worship God?

[36:11] It's because you gave me life. It's because you were dead and your trespasses and your sin and He gave you life. This entire chapter here and the one before it, even though the one before it was the burnt offering, there was death involved.

[36:27] It had to do with a reconciled life unto God. It's all about life. What is leaven? Leaven is really nothing more than what we call nowadays yeast.

[36:38] It was put in the bread to call it to rise. But what process takes place there? It's corruption. There's a corrupt process that takes place when you put yeast into flour to call it to rise.

[36:52] There's corruption that takes place and corruption signifies death. God wanted nothing to do with death in His worship. Why should we concentrate on death or even have it on our mind?

[37:03] Even the tinge of it on our mind when we are celebrating, we are worshiping God for the life that He has given us. These people, God was telling them, you worship me.

[37:13] You worship me in this manner with this mead offering. And they were out in the wilderness. They didn't have houses. They were in the wilderness.

[37:26] They didn't have a place to go every night. They didn't have nice comfy beds. They didn't have a dining room table to sit down to.

[37:37] And yet God was saying, you worship me because I've given you life. I've reconciled myself to you and in doing so you are reconciled to me.

[37:49] That's why they were to worship God. That's why we are to worship God because we have been reconciled. He says no leaven in the mead offering.

[37:59] He says it's not to be burned. It's not to be mixed in. I don't want anything to do with it. You remember in the Passover in the book of Exodus, God told the Israelites, He said no leaven is to be found in your house.

[38:12] You're in this time. They had to rid their house of all the leavens. And to this day, a lot of the Jews, when the Passover comes, they still practice that very thing.

[38:25] But, well, we'll get into that, but it'll take me off course. But here, God says no leaven is to be offered. No mead offering which you shall bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven, nor any honey.

[38:41] And you might say, well, what's wrong with honey? Folks, this Hebrew word for honey here isn't just honey. This is anything sweet. Honey, berries, anything along those lines.

[38:55] So you're not to give that to me. Now, all that being said, when you consider that, and you consider the leaven, God says, I don't want anything sweet.

[39:07] I don't want anything that was leaven, brought to me as an offering. We've got corruption in the leaven. We've got fruit that's able to rot.

[39:19] Grain wasn't that susceptible to such things. Grain, and Yolk, as well, as I do, if you've ever stored flour, not goodness you can put it back in the fridge.

[39:31] It'll keep for years, as long as it don't get moist. Keep for years. It'll put it in the freezer, it'll keep longer. Now granted, they didn't have it in the refrigerator, and they didn't have freezers in this time.

[39:44] But you can carry flour around for a long time, and as long as it didn't get wet, it was fine. God says, this is what you would bring to me, and it's to be the fine flour.

[39:55] But I won't go leaven. I don't want anything to do with corruption, and I don't want anything to do with rot. I don't want anything sweet. I don't want anything along these lines.

[40:09] You remember when Paul was talking to the Corinthians church in the New Testament, and he was warning them about certain sins, certain solicitous sins, really, in the church that was there at Korea, and he was telling them, you need to purge the leaven out of your church, purge it out of yourself, so that a little leaven, leaven it the whole lung.

[40:31] Just a little pinch of it will affect the entire lump of dough, or the entire amount of flour. Once you put a little leaven in the church, it will do the exact same thing.

[40:41] It will affect the whole congregation. And don't think that this church is not susceptible to that, or any other church in town there. It doesn't matter if there's ten people in that church, five hundred.

[40:51] And a little leaven, a little leaven, if the whole lung. If it was true in Paul's day, I promise you it's true now. If a little bit of corruption gets in. Verse 12, As for the ablation of the first fruits, you shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor.

[41:13] And of every oblation of thy meat offering, shall thou season with salt, neither shall thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God, to be lacking from thy meat offering, with all thy offerings thou shall offer to the scouts.

[41:27] Back to verse 12, As for the ablation of the first fruits, this is the first we've read about the first fruits here. What was so significant about the first fruits, of the first fruits was the guarantee of what was promised to come.

[41:41] The first fruits was what was the first thing to sprout up out of the ground, whether it was corn or wheat or anything. The first fruits was what was first come up.

[41:53] And God says, if you're going to bring any of these things to me, He says, as for the ablation of the first fruits, you shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar.

[42:05] The first fruits would have been gathered, they would have been brought in, they would have been corn, they would have still been green. Folks say they picked it green then, they pick it green now. Over there, they wouldn't like us and wait until it's getting golden before they get it off of the stalks.

[42:22] They pick it green, they set it in the coolest place that they can find, and they let it ripen then. And like I said, they did it then, and they do it now. They say, you're going to bring these first fruits here to me, but they're not to be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor.

[42:37] And of every ablation that I meet offering, shout thou season with salt. This is significant. You might say, why is it so significant? Now remember, the meat that we're talking about is grain.

[42:50] It's corn, it's wheat, it's flour. It's not the meat like we would think of meat, like a big steak or a pork chop or a ham or something along those lines.

[43:01] The grain that they were offering me says, every meat offering shall be offered to me with salt. Every one of them. That excludes no one, whether you were rich, whether you were middle class, whether you were poor.

[43:13] Every meat offering should be offered with salt. These people knew what salt was. Salt was a preservative. A lot of people say that salt, when exclusive to God, was talking more about giving something spicy to give it some flavor.

[43:28] And yeah, it does have that significance, but more often than not, we're talking about it as a preservative. Remember what we just come out of, what we were just reading a little while ago. No leaven, no corruption, no fruit, no honey, nothing sweet, nothing that can rot.

[43:44] But I want salt in my offering, something that preserves. When Jesus told us an assignment on the mountain, Matthew chapter 5, he said, a year of the salt of the earth, a year of the light of the world.

[43:58] And he called us the salt of the earth. What does that say? And there's so many people, there's so many Christians, say, well that means that we're supposed to give the world some flavor. No, it's not. Salt is a preservative.

[44:09] We're here to prevent decay, to prevent further decay. You take a piece of meat that is rotting, and it's rotted halfway through. If you douse it with salt on that one side, that salt will stop that decay and that corruption from further going into the meat.

[44:26] It can't do anything for what's already rotted though. But it can save that part of the meat that hasn't been corrupted yet, that hasn't rotted yet.

[44:37] God says every one of these offerings, regardless of your social status, every one of them are to be offered with salt. And these people would have understood that, that salt being a preservative.

[44:50] But keep in mind, and I've said it a couple of times, I'll say it again, that none of these things would they have had plenty of. They were in the wilderness on their way to a promised land.

[45:04] That God had promised their father Abraham, way over in the Book of Genesis. So God was saying, you're to give me flour, you're to give me frankincense, you're to give me whole, you're to give me salt, you're to give me all these good things.

[45:22] You're to get rid of them, you're to give them to me. They were His anyway. And this would have furthered their dependence upon God. As for the oblation, or I'm sorry, verse 14, I'm sorry.

[45:38] And if thou offer a meat offering for thy first prince unto the Lord, thou shall offer for the meat offering of thy first prince green years of corn, drive by the fire, even corn beaten out of full years.

[45:53] This would have hurt some of these people's feelings, because why I said when they were getting the first fruits, and they were offering this unto God, this would have been, once again, the guarantee of the harvest to come.

[46:08] But that's why God wanted it. He said, I gave you this to begin with, you're giving it back to me. It was never your possession to begin with. It's always been mine, give it back to me, and I will continue to sustain you somehow, some way.

[46:25] And folks, like I said, in the beginning of this lesson, we're so bad to hold on to some things. We're so bad to think that we can do the right thing.

[46:38] And I ain't saying that always the case that we should just, I hate to say it like this, but I want to, just give it to God and forget about it.

[46:50] That's so hard to do, is it not? I've tried doing it, and I can't. But when we give it to God, regardless of what it is, when we give it to God, it's done as an offering.

[47:03] And God, I've tried, God has done everything that I can, and a lot of times that's the problem. We've done everything that we can, and we wouldn't let God put His finger in it.

[47:16] Not that God needs our permission to get it in there, but once again, we can hinder the work of God in our lives. But He says that these are to be green ears, drive by the fire, even corn, beaten out by the full air.

[47:31] This is another offering, but it's an offering of first fruits. Now if you want to get down the spiritual plane of this, and typify something, you can typify Christ with this.

[47:45] Christ being the first fruit, first Corinthians Paul wrote that He was the first fruit to them to sleep. Well who was that? And they're dead. He was the first fruit. He's the first one to go to heaven.

[47:57] He is the first one to enter into heaven with an actual body, as far as the Scripture goes. He was the first fruit. But what was the first fruit again? It was the guarantee of the harvest that is to come.

[48:11] Christ entered into heaven as the first fruit to them to sleep. He entered into heaven as our forerunner to say, hey, I've gone, I've done my job, I've made a way of redemption for all of mankind, and all of those that will leave in me and repent of their ways will be here one of these days.

[48:32] Christ is the first fruit to them to sleep. But that is the guarantee of what's to come. And what's to come is that innumerable number that John sees in the book of Revelation.

[48:45] The number of 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands and thousands, that John says. That's the guarantee. Jesus Christ is the guarantee of that harvest.

[48:57] He was the first fruit. But that means that we're coming behind Him. And praise God, that's the faith. Because none of us could have made that way.

[49:10] But it had to be great years, drive by fire, drive by fire, could, typical five, Jesus Christ suffering, and even corn beaten out of full ear.

[49:24] This could typify His suffering across. And if we look at all this, as a topic was crossed, and we look at it in a way of redemption, and the way of reconciliation, and the way of relationship with God, He's very well-been taught all across that we're reading about here, and being drive by fire, and Him being burning with pain, if you'd like to praise it that way, and be beaten.

[49:50] My goodness, we all know from the scriptural accounts how bad that Christ was beaten, and how He was scattered. So these could be types of cries.

[50:01] But verse 15, and thou shalt put all upon it, and lay frankincense thereon, it is a mean offer. This is another, God doesn't make a different way for this particular offer, even though it's called something different.

[50:16] Something different, and it's not an offering in the first preach, but He says, this is still a meat offering, it's still a grain offering being made unto me. And it's got to be made the same way.

[50:27] Let Him put all upon it, and let Him lay frankincense thereon. It is a meat offering. The priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the old thereof, with all the frankincense thereof, it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

[50:45] And all these are offerings made by fire unto the Lord. By by fire. And by the sweet sabers, that it will be Him in the nostrils of God.

[50:58] But not only that, but it was to show Israel that God is having them bring their stuff that they had, that they almost had to have brought up out of Egypt.

[51:14] Remember the time we talked about here, and say, you give this to me, I'm going to burn it. Therefore, or that way, you can't go back in time, you can't go back and get that part that I've burned, and the rest of it is going to go to Aaron and to his sons who are serves to me.

[51:33] So God, in an up-shell, and all of this, God has made a way for everyone to worship Him through this meat offering.

[51:44] No one excluded rich, poor, middle class, Levi's, the priests, and the lay members, if you like to refer to the rest of the visual, is that everyone has the same opportunity to worship the God that reconciled them back in chapter number one with the burnt offering.

[52:07] Once again, all these offerings are in that order for a reason. These people are worshiping God because of the litacist chapter one, because of the burnt offering, because God was saying, this is what's purging your sins, this is what's bringing you back in the right relationship with me.

[52:25] Peroризang LORD Chapter 2