All right, we're in Leviticus chapter 2, and the homework was for 2 and 3, but I told you I wasn't sure if I was going to go at that pace. You know, I, again, for this week we're just going to be covering the law for the grain offering and the next week is going to be the law for the peace offering.

So each one of these things have so much significance and I felt like covering 2 and 3 would be too much and I'm going to have to cram and just kind of speed through these things. And even if it is less material, I think it's better for us to slow down, especially in this area, because the first five offerings are so foundational to our understanding of the gospel and everything that takes place in the New Testament.

So if you have a superficial understanding of this, you're kind of missing the foundation. So again, we're going to be going slow. So this week is going to be the grain offering, next week we're going to be going into the peace offering. And as you are reading this, there's chunks of it in chapter 6 and chapter 7.

It goes into a little bit more detail and instruction. So the main part of the teaching on the grain offering obviously is in chapter 2, but also there is a small portion, maybe a few verses in chapter 6, and then when you get to the peace offering in chapter 3, chapter 7, I think verse 11 through 21, I apologize, I should have put it on here, but it's not on here, but there's a small portion.

If you flip through your Bible to chapter 7, you'll be able to see it in there. And so there's some, a little bit more instructions on the peace offering in chapter 7. So I encourage you guys to take a look at that. And then when we get there to chapter 6 and 7, we're not going to spend this kind of time on it, okay, because this is all kind of integrated, even if I don't specifically mention chapter 7, we are going to be in a few of the verses in chapter 7, okay?

So let me pray for us and then we'll jump right in. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much for this evening. We thank you, Lord God, for your living word. And we know, Father God, that we have such great access to it, to be able to study it in English, to have the resources and so much of it, Lord, around us.

I'm not realizing what a blessing, a true blessing this is, Lord God, to be able to interact with you, to know your heart, your will, to be able to study commentaries and scholars, Lord God, who have in-depth understanding of all of these things, Lord. Help us not to take any of these things for granted.

Help us as we study this book that you will give us a clear understanding of who you are and what you have done and why it was so important for the nation of Israel to take so much time in obeying these details. And we know that every part of these things, Lord God, was with a purpose.

Help us to understand as much as possible so that we may have greater insight into Christ and what he has done. And so we pray for your blessing and your Holy Spirit, eagerness in our heart to learn and to apply all of these things in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

All right, so let's look at the grain offering. The first thing that we want to look at is the meaning of the grain offering. Again, there's not a lot of details where it says this is the purpose and this is the reason why people can get so easily lost in the book of Leviticus, because you really have to take time to dig.

If you just read it like you're reading a Bible plan and you read three chapters of Leviticus, obviously, you know, these are not things that you're going to actually apply, so it may just go over your head. But Leviticus was never meant to be read that way. So even if you were the first recipients of this letter, this is not something that you just read in three chapters in one, because basically it's a law book of what you ought to do.

You don't just read law books, you don't skim through it, because there might be a particular word or a phrase that if you don't understand it, you may get into trouble, because that's the law. So every single thing that it says, so if you've ever read a contract or entered into any kind of agreement or sold a house or anything, you know that those little things that are in there are absolutely important, and the more important it is, you know, they had dozens of lawyers comb through how they phrase something and the words that they use, because it has legal ramification.

Well, the book of Leviticus was written with that kind of mindset, that when he said not to touch something, and only these people are to touch something, and this is how you consecrate something, you have to follow it to the letter of the law, right? And then the first application we see later on in Leviticus chapter 10, God told them not to put up anything strange, and then the first two priests who put up something basically ignored certain aspects of the law, and as a result of that, what happens to them?

They get consumed, because they didn't take God's law seriously. So Leviticus was never meant to be something that you just kind of skim through, you know, you can't just read this kind of like get a broad understanding, you really have to comb through what does this word mean? Why did he do this?

What was the reason behind this? What were they seeing? Because that's exactly how God intended for them to apply it, every letter of the law. If God told only this tribe to touch the poles, anybody else touch the poles, they die. If God said that your tribe is on the east side and you started camping on the left side, your whole tribe would have been punished.

And so again, as we study it, we want to do our best to comb through some of the stuff that we can understand, some of the stuff we don't understand, but just because we don't understand doesn't mean there isn't meaning. You might not understand it this time, you may understand it next time you come around as you learn more about the scripture.

So we're going to do our best to dive into the significance of this thing, the meaning of the grain offering. The word in itself, again, it doesn't say here, this is the meaning itself, but the word itself for grain offering is "mina," or "mina" if you want to pronounce it.

The word "mina," it's used kind of generically. It doesn't specifically refer to the grain offering, but it also refers to both the animal sacrifice and the grain sacrifice. So early on in the book of Genesis, where we see the story of Cain and Abel, both of their offerings are called "mina," or "mina" is probably the correct way to say it.

So generally speaking, it means, again, it's referring to a particular type of sacrifice, but the word in and of itself, it means tribute. Again, all of these things are going to help us to understand the meaning behind this particular sacrifice. It was the money paid by a vassal king to his overlord as a mark of his continuing goodwill and faithfulness.

And so the term "mina" would have been understood as a form of tribute given to the Lord as an acknowledgment of his lordship over them. So again, it doesn't say that this is the reason why you need to give it to us, but the word in and of itself is used that way in other parts of the scripture where someone who is subordinate is offering tribute and it's kind of a relationship between somebody superior to somebody who is inferior.

And again, it is often used as if one king, let's say it's the king of Syria conquers other nations, the nation that was conquered has to pay tribute, and so their tribute basically is a sign of submission to whatever kingdom that rules over them. So that is the literal meaning of the word, and as we go through it, we're going to see that the overall meaning of this is very related to this.

We see that in Deuteronomy 26, 9-10, again a portion of it, "And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. And behold, now I bring the first fruit of the ground which you, O Lord, have given me, and you shall set it down before the Lord, Lord your God, and worship you before the Lord your God." Okay, so this is not directly related to what I said, but again, this is an act of giving tribute to God as first fruits.

And so when we think of giving tribute to God, like a lower kingdom to a higher kingdom, say again to Egypt or whoever conquered, we think of a context where we're forcefully giving. But again, even though the word itself is referring to tribute, the idea in this particular offering is more of a dedication, a voluntary dedication.

So the grain offering was an act of dedication and consecration to God, acknowledging Him as King. So it expressed not only thankfulness, but obedience and willingness to keep the law. So by offering this sacrifice, it was an act of acknowledging His Lordship over their lives. So this is the offering that is the closest related to, sorry, the burnt offering brought peace with the Lord, Lord God, and the grain offering was a sign of thankfulness and dedication to the Lord.

So let me explain this real quick. Those two offerings, the burnt offering and the grain offering, almost always was sacrificed together. So remember last time we were here, we talked about how the burnt offering was giving morning and night every single day, right? Every single day that the lamb, the bull, they were all slaughtered in the morning and at night, right?

And in the burnt offering, what did they burn? Here's another word for burnt offering, whole offering, and what did it signify? What is the overall meaning of the burnt offering? Atonement, right? So that was the most important of all the sacrifices, and that sacrifice had to be made on a daily basis, and it signified that they could not be in the presence of a holy God without the shedding of this blood.

And so they needed to do this over and over again. So when the author of Hebrews says that the sacrifice in the Old Testament were only a shadow of the things to come, and that these sacrifices in and of itself did not have any power, and so they needed to do it over and over and over and over again, where Christ did it once for all, finished, right?

So the burnt offering, the other name of the burnt offering is whole offering, because all of it was sacrificed, right? It wasn't just a portion, that all of the animal, every part of it, they weren't allowed to touch any of it, right? So that burnt offering is first sacrificed, and then the grain offering is sacrificed afterwards, and it's almost always done.

So in the morning, they would begin with a burnt offering, and then a grain offering. And then evening, they would do the same, burnt offering, and then a grain offering, okay? What is the significance of these two offerings together being sacrificed? What are the terms that we use that seems to point to these two sacrifices?

So if you call the burnt offering – somebody say sandwich? What did you say? Sorry, I can't hear you from there. Okay, sin offering. Well, sin offering is actually coming later. There is another offering called the sin offering. No, no, I'm talking about in relation to our salvation, the very first thing that happens is what?

Justification. Okay, so that's the word. Reconciliation is also true, but the word I was looking for is justification, right? Where our sins are atoned for. So if our salvation begins with justification, what comes immediately, simultaneously with justification? Going to church? No. Joining BCC. Sanctification, right? So if the burnt offering pointed to justification, the grain offering pointed to sanctification because the grain offering was an act of dedication, of lordship, right?

So remember in Romans chapter 12, it says in view of God's mercy. Well, which mercy is he talking about? Atonement for our sins, right? In view of atonement for our sins, what does he say? To offer your body as a living sacrifice. So that living sacrifice is an ongoing sacrifice of dedication to God, to serve him.

Yes? So we would call that sanctification. And so this offering points to sanctification, an ongoing, repeated act of sanctification. So again, it doesn't spell this out, but if we were to look at the details of it today, I think it'll make more sense. And this is the offering that closely is connected to tithe, giving to the Lord to support the Levites in the temple.

So what was giving in sanctification, okay, the second offering, grain offering, a portion of it is offered and the rest of it is to be used by the Levites, right? The priests were to take that, and again, the offer cannot eat it. They would take a portion of it and the rest of it was to support the temple work, right?

And so the idea of tithing comes from this particular offering, the offering of the first fruits. Again, let me give you a few passages that highlight this. Deuteronomy 12, five through six, "But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of your tribes to put his name and make a habitation there.

There you shall go and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and contributions that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd of your flock." Okay, so this is in reference to this particular offering. And then Proverbs 3, nine through ten, "Honor the Lord with your wealth and the first fruits of all your produce.

Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine." So when it's talking about first fruits of all your produce, it's referring to this particular offering, the grain offering. When we talk about giving and sacrificing and offering in the New Testament, the foundation comes from this particular offering.

So the grain offering, this is the only offering that does not require an animal sacrifice because the offering does not atone for your sins. Every other offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering, the guilt offering, the confession offering, every single one of them are given to atone for a particular sin.

The meaning behind these things, again, we're going to find out as we study it, but this particular offering is the only offering out of the five that does not require animal sacrifice because it is not offered as an atonement. It was an offering of dedication. Again, as I mentioned already, that this offering is always, almost always, coupled with the burnt offering.

And the reason why is because you cannot have sanctification before justification. What is somebody who isn't justified, who is working hard to be a good person, what do you call that person? Just a good person. Your moral person, your kind person, you're giving, you're a gracious person, but you're not a Christian.

So sanctification must follow justification. That's why every time before a dedication was made, there had to be a burnt offering to prepare them for the dedication. That's why Romans chapter 12, 1 wouldn't make any sense without chapter 1 through 11. It says, "In view of this mercy, now give your life as a sacrifice." So you tell non-Christian, somebody who maybe sometimes even grown up in the church and is jumping through hoops and doing all these things, but his sins have never been justified, he doesn't really have true faith.

He just has been cultured in the church. And there's a huge difference. And there's so much warning in the scriptures for cultural Christianity because it is so deceptive, because it is so deceptive because on the surface it looks the same. You do the same thing. I mean, think about the Pharisees who actually even evangelized, memorized scripture, gave to the poor, gave to the temple.

They memorized the law. They did all of these things and yet they weren't justified. And so these two offerings go hand in hand because sanctification and discipleship and dedication and sacrifice, none of it means anything unless there's true justification. Unlike the burnt offerings, only a handful of sacrifice was offered while the rest was saved for consumption by the priest.

So again, the whole offering was complete dedication, right? Burnt offering, whole offering. There was nothing saved, nothing eaten. Burnt offering that you typically follow the burnt offering, only a portion of it, they call it a memorial portion, right? Just a token of it is burnt up and rest of it is consumed by the priest.

Not by the offerer. That one comes next, the peace offering or sometimes called the fellowship offering. Well, this is not that offering. This portion is given, rest of it is for the purpose of supporting the Levites. Flour and oil were the main ingredients for this offering. With other sacrifices, God made it very specific.

He had specific instructions on how they were to be offered. The rules governing grain offering had some flexibility. He kind of gave some rooms, like you could do it this way, you can do it that way, where if you look at the other offering, especially the burnt offering where the instruction is very clear.

He even instructs them where to sacrifice, to the north side, where to get checked, right? He gives very specific instructions, what to touch, what you cannot touch, what to cut out, what to be offered, but in this grain offering, there's a lot of flexibility. The flour could be cooked or uncooked.

There's three different ways that he mentions that even as you offer it, you can offer it in a baked in an oven, baked on a griddle, cooked on a pan. Why do you think this is? Why do you think there's so much flexibility in this offering? Yeah, basically it's the same ingredient.

Why do you think there was so much flexibility? You don't have to answer that. These are questions I want you to ask as you are studying this before you come if you can. Instead of just reading it, ask yourself, "Why is this different? Why did God make him do that and not make him do that?

What is the meaning behind that?" So if you come asking these questions, I think it'll be easier when I try to explain it to you. Again, it doesn't spell out and say, "This is the reason why you have flexibility," but if you just kind of do deductive reasoning behind the meaning of this offering and why they were giving it as a dedication, who was it for, I think we can see that there might be twofold explanation.

One is, it was meant to be a free will offering. Sorry, erase that. It is not a free will offering. I was looking, I used that a couple times and I erased it, but I forgot to erase this time. Okay, so just mark that off. It's not a free will offering, but it was an offering dedicated for the worshippers as an act of gratitude with the exception of it being offering the first fruits.

So again, I apologize. This is not a free will offering. This was required, but it was to be given when you desire to give. So because it was an offering that was meant to be eaten by the priest, so it may have required some flexibility of how it was cooked or for taste.

So let me just explain this real quick. So again, this is just reasoning, deduction based upon understanding of this offering. This offering was, one, was to be given mostly to the priest for them to eat. So when an offer came to give, they could have either baked it in an oven, griddle, or pan.

So it was kind of a, if you really think about it, somebody prepared a meal for the Levites, right? Because they didn't just dump it. And then it could have been cooked, it could have been not cooked. So if it's not cooked, they get an uncooked flour and oil and they can cook it themselves.

Or they could cook it and bring it and leave a portion and then give the rest to them. So it would make sense. Yes? Yeah. So I think that's one of the reasons why there's flexibility in this offering is because it was meant to be consumed. And it was kind of like somebody who took the time to cook it and say, "We're offering this to you, Lord, to be used by your servants." And secondly, it was an offering of dedication.

So if you're going to dedicate something, it's probably better if you had some part in this dedication that you chose for yourself. Now how does this lead to sanctification? If you, again, just connecting it to our understanding, our application, when we think of sanctification, we say the Bible talks about pick up your cross and follow me, right?

And to give generously. So there's a lot of imperatives in scripture. But he doesn't say, "Pick up the cross and follow me," means you need to sell your house. You can't drive this car. You're going to have to go overseas. You're going to have to serve the church in this way.

It tells us to serve. But it doesn't spell out, "Here are 15 things that you need to do, and I want you to mark this off." It doesn't do that. Remember we talked about that? God gave us different gifts, and everything that we do is supposed to be an act of what?

Act of worship. Whether you eat or drink, do it for the glory of God. So a lot of times, especially if you come from a background where you're, you know, a lot of times if you're in a very strict discipleship group, especially in college, and they tell you what you're supposed to do on Friday, what you're supposed to do on Tuesday, you know, what to do with your money, who to date, when to date, how long you're supposed to date, what to wear, what not to wear, and you become very accustomed to that, and all of a sudden people are not telling you what to do, you feel very, like, you feel very strange, right?

And so you're really good at jumping through hoops, but you don't really think through why you're doing it. And then when you do offer it up, you just do it because people told you to do it. See, God doesn't want our sanctification to be just jumping through hoops, right?

You could memorize scripture because somebody is going to make you buy boba if you don't do it, and you did do it, but you had no desire to do it. So again, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with accountability, right? But the danger of just jumping through hoops, you can do that all your life without worshiping God once, right?

So in this particular offering, God gives a little bit of flexibility because what God desires is worship, right? Not for you to check off the mark. So live in purity, serve God, be generous, right? Use your gifts to honor God and all of these things, but as an act of worship, right?

What are you convicted in? Are you going to live your life for Christ? And so I believe that there's flexibility in this because of the meaning behind it. What God desires is a pleasing sacrifice, an aroma, and we're going to get to that. And that's actually a big part of this offering, right?

So in this offering, he says frankincense oil was to be added to this offering. So when you bring the flower, make sure there is oil. Other places in the scripture, oil is often associated with joy. I think I have verses for this. And then again, in other places where when you see oil being burned, it describes it as sweet aroma of prayer to God, right?

I think I have verses. Well, those are verses that you can look up later, okay? So in both instances, frankincense in particular, when they burned this, they said that it had a very sweet aroma. It was a very pleasant smelling oil when it was burned, right? So remember we talked about that last time when they made burnt offerings?

And where were the Israelites camped based upon the tabernacle? Where was the tabernacle? Right at the center, right? And all the tribes are equal distance from each other, right? And then in between them were the Levites, right? So you had the tribes and a Levitic tribe between them and then you had the tent, right?

And so all the sacrifices that they made, burnt offering, you know, all the other sacrifices, but in particular burnt offering, they probably heard the slaughter of animals constantly. And if you walked into this tent, it was like a slaughterhouse, right? I mean at the slaughterhouse at the end of the day, they clean up, but you know, you're looking at dirt and you had hundreds of animals being slaughtered in this particular spot over and over.

So there's probably, visually, they probably saw blood everywhere. They didn't do a good, they didn't clean it up. But God didn't tell them to clean up the blood. He actually told them to sprinkle it everywhere. He wanted it to be bloodied. And all of that pointed to the blood sacrifice of Christ.

So again, this was not a clean slaughterhouse that they cleaned and then at the end of the day, cleaned it up and started over. This is over and over again. Every time they use this altar, it has dried blood on it and then they sprinkle it over and over again.

That was the particular scene. The altar where the animals are being sacrificed, how often was it burned? 24/7. It never went out. There was some kind of sacrifice being offered there morning and night. So visually, they saw blood. Visually, they saw, they probably heard the animals being sacrificed constantly to constantly remind them of the need for sacrifice.

And then they probably smelled. What did they smell? Burnt animals, right? But in this particular offering of frankincense, it was known to emit this particular sweet aroma. And that's how it's described, that this offering was a sweet aroma to God. It was an act of dedication and whenever they burned the sacrifice, there was this smell that went out, not only inside the tabernacle, but probably all throughout the camp.

So they smelled the animals, they smelled barbecue, and they smelled the oil being burned. Constantly, morning and night. So if you were to imagine yourself in that camp, if you could close your eyes and imagine that you're in the middle of the desert and with this little tent in the middle and you hear animals being sacrificed and you draw near and you see blood everywhere, but the smell is barbecue and frankincense.

That's probably what you were smelling 24/7. What is prohibited is leaven and honey. These two things were prohibited that you're not to bring to God. The reason behind it is, one, we see that in the Passover, in Exodus chapter 12 and in chapter 13, where God says not to make sure that they eat of the unleavened bread.

And what was the reason behind that, where God forbid eating of leavened bread? It was to act out the Passover, right? They're to run in haste. And it was to remind them that God delivered them in haste, in the manner in which God delivers Israel. So leaven, again, connected to the book of Exodus, was something that God prohibited.

But the meaning behind it, rest of scripture, where yeast and honey are known for fermentation. So it was considered a corrupting agent. So if the dough touched yeast or honey, that it wasn't pure. So it was kind of a form of, you know, when God told them to bring a burnt offering, that it has had to be a male animal without defect.

So when God tells them to not to add yeast or honey, it's kind of like the grain offering version of offering something to God without defect. Then no corrupting agent would come and corrupt that. Okay? Does that make sense? Okay. Yeast is often referred to in the New Testament as a corrupting agent of pride, in particular the religious leaders.

Honey again is described sweet in the mouth, but also had a very corrupting agent. It was, again, oftentimes in the Bible uses it as honey to trap somebody, right? Where you're attracted to the sweet flavor, but once you put it in your mouth, it becomes bitter in your stomach.

Remember that prophecy in the book of Revelation? That gigantic angel, he eats of it and it's sweet in his mouth and bitter in his stomach, right? It describes how the word of God came and it was so sweet, but then the effects of it was judgment, right? So oftentimes the Bible describes honey in that way.

So both of them were forbidden because it was considered a corrupting agent. So we see in scripture over and over again how yeast is described. Matthew 16, 6, "Yeast said to them, 'Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.'" So again, the leaven is where pride enters into them and it just completely corrupts them and it says to watch out.

Everything that they do is corrupted by their motivation, what's inside of them, right? And that's how leaven was used, where leaven comes into a man and he corrupts his views, his motivation of why he does what he does is completely corrupted by this pride, right? Again in 1 Corinthians 5, 6-8, "Your boasting is not good.

Do not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Turns out the old leaven that you may be new lump as you really are unleavened. For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." So obviously if a Jew was to read this, he would have immediately referred back to this particular offering.

So again, honey and leaven was used to describe a corrupting agent, right? So what would that mean for us today when talking about sanctification? What is one of the greatest hindrances to our sanctification? It's our pride, right? It is our pride where we refuse to yield to God. We say, "Well, this is who I am.

This is how I am. This is my personality. This is how I am." And we're not willing to yield to what the Word of God says, right? And that's pride. That's not our personality. That's not our background. That's just our pride, right? Being stiff-necked, right? So that's how the Bible describes leaven, where you kind of stiffen.

You know, like you put a little leaven into the dough and the dough all of a sudden becomes a completely different agent, right? It's no longer flat. It just puffed up. And that's the imagery that we see with leaven, a little bit of pride, right? And you become unteachable.

But it also says to add this, the salt, right? It's stressed in three different ways. So if you look at Leviticus 2, verse 13, it says, "You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing in your grain offering.

With all your offerings, you shall offer salt." So if you read verse 13, you know this is important. He says three separate ways. Use it, make sure you offer it, and when you offer it, that the salt is not missing, make sure you have it, right? So it is repeated over and over again that this is a crucial part of this offering.

He doesn't just mention it in passing. He emphasizes it three separate times. Salt has the exact opposite effect on the dough as leaven and honey, right? Salt prevents the offering from rotting while leaven and honey produce it. And so we are described in the New Testament as a salt of the world, right?

So Matthew 5.13, "You are the salt of the earth. If a salt loses its flavor, what good is it other than to be thrown on the ground and to be trampled?" Right? So it has a preserving agent. So how does the world experience common grace? Through the church, right?

You think about all the disasters, and I'm not saying the Christians are the only ones who respond, but you think about all the humanitarian aids, Compassion International, World Vision, all these humanitarian aids. If you look at the background, I'm not saying the Christians are the only ones, but predominantly throughout history, who are the ones who responded?

Christians, right? I think I shared this with you years ago in Indonesia when they had that big tsunami, had that huge earthquake. I think it was 9.1 or 2, and at the corner of Indonesia, a city called Aceh, and it was completely blocked off from any Christians. Only Muslims can get in.

And it was known as one of the heaviest concentration of militant Muslims in that area. When the tsunami hit, they were so desperate, and they started opening the door, and guess who came in? Christians. They came in with food. They came in with medical aid. And as a result of that, a lot of the nominal or maybe Muslims who weren't as committed began to say, "Where are our Muslim brothers?

Why only the Christians are coming in?" Because if you look at human history, Christians serve as a preserving agent in the world, right? Humanitarian aid and charity, again, the church is not perfect. We have all kinds of problems, but when you look at the totality of what the church has been to the world, it really has been a preserving agent.

And that's what the Bible says that salt was, right? It functions as a preserving agent. But also, it describes a covenant with God which signifying preserving power of God's covenant. So if you look at Numbers 18, 19, and 2 Chronicles 13, 5, both of them describe the covenant as a salt covenant, right?

So what do you think the significance would be to call God's covenant that he made with Israel as a salt covenant? Immediately you would think of preserving, right? Don't you think that's a really appropriate description of the covenant that God makes? Because the only reason why Israel is not destroyed is because God is preserving them.

The only reason why they weren't swallowed up by the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians and the Greeks and the Romans and why they still exist, you look at the church today, the only reason why we exist with all the sin and corruption and bad doctrine and church division, why do we even still exist today?

Because we are under God's salt covenant. God is preserving us because he said, "I will build my church and gates of Hades will not prevail against it." So his covenant preserves us. So this adding of the salt, right, it wasn't simply for flavor. I'm sure it was better with it.

But the meaning behind it is that God is preserving this covenant, right? And that's why Israel is Israel. Not because they're good, but because God promised. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Again so Matthew 5, 13, "You are the salt of the earth. If the salt loses its taste, how shall it be salty to be restored?

It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." Right? Numbers 18, 19, "All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you." Again, these are verses that I quote, 2 Corinthians, 2 Chronicles 13, 5, "Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt." Meaning that he's going to keep his promise, right?

So the grain offering in the New Testament, so all occasions where burnt offering was offering in the New Testament was followed by grain offering, expressing dedication and lordship. So if you look at justification, sanctification always follows, right? Isn't that where we are now in Romans chapter 12? In view of God's mercy?

Now do this, right? Ephesians chapter 1, 2, and 3, God's election, his pursuit, his adoption to pray that we would understand the depth of his love. And then it says in view of all of that, right? Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And then he gives the imperative.

So it always goes hand in hand, justification, sanctification. You don't have, you can't have one without the other. There's a lot of people in our generation walking around claiming justification and no sanctification. They have no desire to walk with the Lord and yet they're absolutely certain that their sins have been justified.

You do not have one without the other. They go hand in hand, right? God didn't just free us from sin so that we can sin. He freed us from sin for what? For good works, right? He freed us from the bondage of sin, from the curse of sin that we may be able to live holy lives because we couldn't do it ourselves.

So you do not have justification if there is no sanctification. We are saved by the blood of Christ and Christ alone. There's nothing that we do that adds to justification. But when justification happens, sanctification also happens, right? In different degrees, 30, 60, 100 fold, right? So you may look different to different people, but sanctification does happen.

So any instance when you see in the scripture where Christ paid the penalty, there is always now follow me, right? There's always now follow me. You can't just say, you know, I love Jesus, but I just don't love the church, right? I love doing Bible study, but I just, you know, prayer is just not for me.

I just want to be a good father and take care of my kids, right? I mean, the fundamental Christianity is he who confesses with your mouth that Jesus is what? Lord, and believes in his heart that Christ is raised from the dead, then you shall be saved. It's both, right?

You have to believe in his death and resurrection, and you have to confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. They both go hand in hand, right? So whenever you see justification, sanctification follows right along, just like the way they sacrifice in the morning, burnt offering, grain offering, at night, burnt offering, grain offering, always.

More specific application, the offering given in the New Testament is used to support the gospel work of the New Testament church. So as the grain offering was given, and a large portion of that was for the purpose of the tabernacle and the Levites to continue to do God's work, we see that offering being applied in the New Testament to support the gospel work, right?

Oops, sorry. Romans 10, 9, because if you confess with your mouth, which I just shared, let me go to the next passage. Okay, I'm just going to read 1 Peter 2, 5. Be yourself like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ Jesus.

Again, the last part that I was sharing, 1 Corinthians 9, 9-14. For as written in the law of Moses, you should not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain. Is it for oxen that God is concerned? Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.

So let me stop right there. So what he's referring to here is the grain offering, is a dedication offering. Let me keep reading. If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much that if we reap material things among you? If others share the rightful claim on you, do not we even more nevertheless we have not made use of this right?

But we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve at the altar shall share in the sacrificial offering? So again, he's referring to the grain offering here.

In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel. So again, this is a, again, when we talk about the application of the grain offering in the New Testament, it's to support the gospel work, right? Through our tithing and through our giving, through supporting missionaries, through, you know, supporting the Indian pastors.

And so this is the application of that. It's part of, a big part of sanctification in the New Testament is sacrifice, again, and giving for the gospel work. First Timothy 5, 17, 18. That the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

For their scripture says, "You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain," and the labor deserves its wages. Again, this is referring to this particular offering, okay? So so much of the New Testament language, it is based upon what we see in the Old Testament, right?

And so when we understand the Old Testament sacrifices, you can see that when Paul says what he says here, this is not new, right? Paul doesn't say anything new. He said the mystery was hidden and he made it clear, but it wasn't hidden where nobody knew, right? So the more you study the book of Leviticus and numbers and the prophecies, you see that everything, even the vocabulary that is used by apostles in the New Testament was all connected to the Old Testament.

So the one, a Jew, think about it, for hundreds and hundreds of years, all of these things were not just something that somebody said, that the once a week they went to the temple and a pastor gave a sermon and then they went back. They smelled this. They saw it with their eyes.

They touched it. They, they had to make the sacrifices and it was constantly in their camp, their feasts, the sacrifice, their, their, you know, their holidays, everything about the Jewish community was about the preparation for the coming of Christ. So imagine after seeing this, after God preparing them, I mean, we only looked at two sacrifices, I mean, we just started the book of Leviticus, right?

Every, every single one of this chapter is to get them prepared for the coming of Christ. So imagine God doing this with the nation of Israel for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of years, and Jesus comes and they say, and they don't recognize it. If you've ever tried to teach somebody, whether it's Sunday school or your kids, you know, and I remember when Jeremy was, I forgot how old he was, he was like three or four, and I tried to teach him the letter C.

He got A, B, D, E, he got everything, but he, I don't know why every time he saw C, he would say something else. And I was starting losing it. He'd be like, C! And he just couldn't say C, and Esther was like pulling me back, like, he's just three.

I know, but this is just C, like, why couldn't he just get the C, right? Just how frustrating it was, because I tried so hard to get him to say C, he couldn't say C. So can you imagine that God did this with the nation of Israel to prepare for the coming of Christ, and then Christ stands right before them, and they don't recognize him?

You know what I was thinking about this week? Where the Jews demand signs and the Greeks desire wisdom, and they want to see the power of God, and I was just meditating. I forgot what triggered it, but I was just thinking today, you know, the greatest power that God demonstrated is what he didn't do.

You think of moving mountains and creating, like, yeah, all of that required power. But I was just thinking, like, how much power it must have taken for him not to destroy us. You ever get so angry that you just couldn't contain yourself? I mean, if you just, if you see what he was doing with the nation of Israel, just how patient he was, and how many times he forgives their sins and restores them, and over and over sends his prophet, kills the prophets that he sends to restore them, over and over, and then they end up killing Jesus?

And I was just thinking, meditating this week, you know, like, it must have required tremendous power for him to not to just slap his hand, just destroy it all. Like, that's enough. And I was just thinking, like, God's greatest demonstration of power was what he didn't do, right? What he didn't do.

The fact that you and I are here, right? We're just beginning the book of Leviticus. Every single one of this stuff is to get us ready for Christ, right? And then I think about us. I think about how much access we have to the Word of God. We have access to guys like, I mean, world-renowned pastors that we can just click of a button on the internet.

Like, you know, one of my favorite preachers is Martin Lloyd-Jones, who doesn't even, he's been dead for decades and decades, and I can still click a button and hear him anytime I want in the middle of the night. I mean, just the access that we have, right? The fellowship, air-conditioned room, bills paid, right?

Food to eat. I mean, we have everything we could possibly need to come to God, and then our greatest struggle is nominalism, not caring. And I think about how much restraint that it takes for him to persevere with us. And the only reason why he perseveres with us is because the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, because his suffering covers us over these sins.

I forgot what triggered that thought this week, but even as I was studying this, I was thinking, "Wow, this is what he was doing. This is how much time, effort, and energy he put into preparation for coming to Christ." So therefore, when we come to the New Testament, how can we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Neglect, not reject, neglect. And I pray that that would not be the case. As we study the book of Leviticus, at least recognize, at least recognize what it is that you have in Christ, right? That we may live in view of this mercy. So the discussion questions for today, what are you the most thankful for today, specifically?

In what way do you express your gratitude to God for what you are thankful for, other than how you feel? So this was kind of a Thanksgiving offering, an offering of dedication. So is our Thanksgiving just how we feel, and do we just sing louder on Sunday? Is there a very specific way that you give Thanksgiving to God?

Because this offering was very tangible, right? So how do you do that? What should you do? Number two, how is lordship reflected in the way that you handle finances? Does it reflect lordship, right? You can give without reflecting lordship, right? And that's why God required a tenth. Again, a tenth was not all.

Tenth was a dedication that rest of it also belongs to God, right? So every once in a while, you're going to read an article that says, you know, "I stopped giving tenth," and then you might just read the title and then just move on and say, "Yeah, me too." Click that button and read that article.

See what it says. Ten out of ten times, what he's saying is, it's not tenth. It's all. Tenth is just a dedication, right? So the way we handle our finances, does it represent lordship in our life? And then the third practical is, outside of work, what do you think you spend the most time doing day to day and week to week?

How is lordship expressed in the way that you spend your time? Do you tend to see time spent at church enough, or is Christ Lord over all your time, right? And you say, "You know, I go to church Wednesday and Sunday, and that's probably more than, you know, a lot of nominal Christians, so I get to – the rest of it is mine to do whatever I want," right?

That's not lordship. If you pick and choose what to give and what not to give, that's not lordship, right? Lordship is when it is all dedicated to God. It all belongs to Him. It doesn't mean that you can't have fun, you can't take vacation, but that needs to be applied in every aspect of our lives.

So the two most tangible way that we can see lordship is the way you spend your money, the way you spend your time. It does matter, because it is not your life to live anymore. Our life is hidden with Christ. When He comes in glory, we will also be glorified with Him.

So God says, "I have purchased you, now you are mine." This grain offering reminds us that we belong to Him, right? So how we spend our time, how we spend our money, needs to reflect that, that we've been purchased by the blood of Christ, that it belongs to Him.

It is not for me to use any way I want. What does that have to do with lordship of Christ, right? Can you feel uncomfortable? It should, right? Because these are questions that we should really dig into our lives and ask ourselves. The things that I am pursuing, the things that I've held dearly in my heart, every free time I get, I'm so eager to do something, but it has nothing to do with God.

These are things that we need to consider carefully to establish lordship in every aspect of our lives. So if you're here for us, then I'll have you guys get into your small room, take some time to discuss. Gracious Father, we ask for your continued patience and grace. We desire to be genuine followers, not simply out of obligation or burden, but in light of what you have done.

Knowing Father God that the day that we met you was not the day that you knew us, that from the beginning of time, how you knew us, pursued us, knowing all our failures, our past, present, future rebellion, that despite all of these things, Lord God, how you continue to call us to come to you.

I pray that that truth would overwhelm us, that we would give you this grain offering, Lord God, as an act of dedication, thankfulness, of lordship, to express our love for you, Father, for what you are and what you have done. I pray, Father, that whatever it is that we are holding onto dearly, afraid, maybe because of unbelief, maybe because of immaturity, maybe because we've hardened our hearts against you, maybe because of a particular sin, Lord God, that we are cherishing.

I pray that you would anoint and bless this time, Lord, that we would be honest and open, not just to share our weaknesses, but to confess that we truly may repent and come to you, knowing, Father God, that you are our only hope, you are our only strength. So for that end, we pray that you would anoint and bless this time.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thanks for listening.