THROUGH THE BIBLE - Leviticu..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Let's read together the word of the Lord. This is Leviticus chapter two.

When anyone brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be a flying flower. He shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it, and bring it to Aaron's sons the priest, and he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil with all its frankincense, and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion on the altar. a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is a most holy part of the Lord's food offerings.

When you bring a grain offering baked in the oven as an offering, it shall be unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers smeared with oil. And if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle, It shall be of fine flour and leavened, mixed with oil. You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it. It is a grain offering. And if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.

And you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord. And when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. And the priest shall take from the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. But the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons. It is a must holy part of the Lord's food offerings.

No grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall burn no leaven or any honey as a food offering to the Lord. As an offering of firstfruits you may bring them to the Lord, but they shall not be offered on the altar for a pleasing aroma. You shall season all your grain offerings with salt. You shall not let the salt of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt.

If you offer a grain offering of firstfruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits fresh years, roasted with fire, crushed new grain. And you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it. It is a grain offering. And the priest shall burn as its memorial portion some of the crushed grain and some of the oil with all of its frankincense. It is a food offering to the Lord.

Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Now, brothers and sisters, as we said last week, we are beginning this very interesting book of Leviticus. And the way that I tried to summarize the book of Leviticus last week for you was with a simple question. If we were going to get the substance of the teaching of the Book of Leviticus for us, that will be a question that is answered.

And that question is, how can a holy God, how can a perfect God, how can a sinless God dwell in the midst of a sinful people? And not only that, but remain in relationship with those people who are sinners. And what I said to you last week is that the sinfulness of these people in which this holy and perfect and sinless God dwells, It is a sinfulness that is by nature, that is, that they are sons and daughters of Adam, so they are unrighteous and sinful by nature, but also they are actively disobedient. They manifest their unrighteous nature that is inherited from Adam through their disobedience. And we could see that in the breaking of the covenant, for instance, in Exodus chapter 32.

Now this is very important because these two aspects of the sinfulness of the people of Israel are going to help us to understand the different nuances of the sacrifices. The people of Israel were a sinful people by nature but also they were sinful because that sinful nature manifested in disobedience, in acts of disobedience. And the way that this book is going to answer that question of how can a holy and perfect and sinless God dwell with a people that are sinful by nature and also actively sinful and unrighteous, it is answering through the sacrificial system. Here we're going to be presented with a sacrificial system. Later on in the book we're going to be presented with the role of priests And also we're going to be given some precepts of holiness for the people of Israel as a nation.

So the book of Leviticus is going to answer that question. How can this holy God dwell with these sinful people by nature and also actively disobedient? In the first five chapters of this book, that question is answered through the concept of sacrifices. And we are going to be given different types of sacrifices. And this is here when the book can become a little bit complex for our minds.

But the word of the Lord, as I said last week, is perfect and is all sufficient for us. And these sacrifices are going to be pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is through sacrifices that this question is going to be initially answered. And remember that a sacrifice is a very intimate offering from the covenant people of Israel. that is meant to be a manifestation of this relationship that they have with the Lord God of Israel who gave them freedom from the land of Egypt is the sacrificial system.

The first way that in this book of Leviticus, we answered that question of the fellowship of a holy God with a sinful people. And now last week I gave you a very important principle, not only only not only for chapter one, but for the whole book. And I said to you that the sacrificial system that is outlined in the book of Leviticus, deals primarily with unintentional sin. That is a very important principle, the book of Leviticus. deals primarily with unintentional sin.

Those sins that are intentional, or as the Bible calls it, high-handed sins, those sins receive the punishment of the law. That is that the people will be cut off from the covenant people of Israel. So the sacrificial system, in a sense, is a manifestation of grace and the love of God towards the people of Israel so that they could make atonement for their unintentional sins but this is a very general way of seeing it because the different sacrifices they have different nuances as we will see it as we progress through these different chapters now brothers and sisters last week we dealt with the first type of sacrifices and those are the burnt offerings the burnt offerings and something that is very important for you to have in your mind is that the burnt offering is not a sin offering that is that the burnt offering it is not an offering that is made when a person has committed a sin rather the burnt offering is a is a burnt is a is a voluntary A offering that produces worship and it is a manifestation of the relationship between the person and God and the preservation is exactly the word that I used last week. How the relationship between the person and God can be preserved. Later, when we go into chapter 4, we will see the offerings that are for sin or sin offering.

Now, this is very important because this first sacrifice that we studied in Leviticus chapter 1 is rather a sin or an offering that is rooted in the condition of the person and not so much in the sin that is committed. that it is that when the person is bringing this burnt offering, this is a recognition of their sinful nature, because the word atonement for him is used in chapter one of Leviticus. But this is a voluntary offering that is brought by the person. And remember that there were three different types of burnt offerings. Bulls, and the second one, sheep and goats, and the third one, doves and pigeons.

These ones corresponded to the financial capability of the person. Those who were rich will bring bulls that were really expensive and difficult to get, and those who were poor will bring doves and pigeons. But the sacrifice was not so much in the price of the value of the sacrifice itself, but rather in the disposition of the heart of the person, independently of what their financial or economic background it was for each one of those person but brothers and sisters it's very important that you understand that the burnt offering was not an offering that was made because of sin but rather it was a recognition of the person that just because who i am there is a need that i bring an offering to the lord to make atonement for me that to make atonement so that the relationship will be preserved between the person God this is very important because when we move on to the second type of offering this offering that we have here in chapter 2 is this type of offering is also an offering that is not made because of sin as I said when we get to chapter 4 we will see those offerings those offerings the sacrifices that are offered because unintentional sins when they are committed but these offerings that we're seeing here are rather a manifestation of the worshiper they come to the Lord to offer these sacrifices. So this grain offering is going to be in a similar category of the burnt offering of chapter number one. And they were so similar that most likely these two offerings will be offered together one with the other.

Remember that I said that the burnt offering is the most common sacrifice that was offered in the morning and in the evening. So the grain offering will also be also more than likely, offered together with the burnt offering with the same disposition of the heart of the person. So this grain offering is not a sin offering, but rather it is also a gratitude, a dedication offering from the person. Now, the way that this grain offering works is very interesting and is going to be slightly different to the burnt offerings. We can see here, as we progress through the text, that the first thing is that the worshipper will prepare this dough.

A grain offering was made of flour so the worshiper will prepare this dough and he could either cook the dough or he could bring the the dough uncooked or raw and then after that once he had this dough this offering he will bring this to the tabernacle to the priest And then one of the priests, we're told in the text that he's going to take a piece, a handful, that is used in different translations, is used sometimes the word memorial or a small piece or a handful of the dough that the person had brought. This is the grain offering. And he will take that and he will offer that little portion or that little piece, that handful of the offering, he will offer that on the altar and he will burn that and that will be the sacrifice. And then we're told that the remaining part, most of the part of the sacrifice will be taken by the priest. And this was a provision or this was for the priest for them to eat.

They were supposed to eat this at the tabernacle. Now, there are two very important details of this grain offering that I want us to pay attention to. Two important things about this grain offering. that if we can just put in our minds and meditate in our hearts, I think are going to be very beneficial for our souls. I have said already that this grain offering is not a sin offering, but rather just as the burnt offering is a worship offering, is a preservation of the relationship type of offering, is a dedication if you want a gratitude offering to the Lord.

Now, these two things that I want you to have in your mind are the following. The first one is that I want you to see how the offering is to be holy. That which the worshiper or that which the person is offering as a grain offering is to be holy. Just as the burnt offering, we were told that it was meant to be an animal without blemish and without spot, a blamelessness. an animal here with the grain offering we are told in verse one that this offering is made is meant to be made of fine flour fine flower and that doesn't mean that this is a flower that has been very well sifted but rather this is flower that it is the best type of flower it is the best flower that is available for the person and here we can see the connection of holiness of the offering that the worshiper is bringing to the lord but even more than that in verse 11 here in chapter 2 we are told that no grain offering that you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven for you shall burn no leaven nor any honey as a food offering to the Lord this concept of unleavened a offering or an offering that is without honey is very important because this present to us the idea that the offering was to be made or was to be it was meant to be holy that is without the presence of sin we know Then from New Testament teachings, that when we speak about leaven, it is equivalent or somehow related to the concept of sin.

Now, there's not so much biblical evidence for honey, but it is believed that the Lord decided that there should not be any honey on this type of grain offering because the pagans will offer sacrifices with honey. So he said to his people that they were not going to offer this grain offering sacrifice with any honey of them, then symbolizing the separation not only of the offering itself, but also the setting apart of the people of israel and beyond that in verse 13 we are also told that this offering is to be seasoned with salt verse 13 says you shall season all your grain offerings with salt you shall not let the salt of the covenant with your god be missing from your grain offering with all your offerings you shall offer salt salt we know that it's a very covenantal term that represents the preservation and the keeping of the covenant so this offering is holy because his offer under the covenant that god has instituted with his people so brothers the first thing that we are to notice here is that all of these offerings that the people of israel are bringing to the lord are meant to be according to the terms of the covenant holy. That is, that no one else outside of Israel could have offered these sacrifices to the Lord, and then the sacrifices were to be offered to the Lord in the way that the Lord described. That teaches us that worship is to be done with what God says, not what we think that it should be done, but rather all of our worship attitudes, all of our worship actions, all Everything that we do in worship before the Lord should be completely and utterly governed by what the Lord says, because what the Lord says is what makes the things and the processes and the methodologies holy, just because He says it. Now, that is the first thing.

Now, the second thing that I want you to pay close attention to is to this concept of the transferring of holiness that we can see here very, very clear in this portion of this text in Leviticus chapter two. Remember that in Leviticus chapter one, we had this principle of transferring the unrighteousness, a substitution that the person will transfer his guilt and his authority onto the animal and then the animal will be then offering sacrifice. Here in the grain offering we have something very interesting. Just remember the process of this grain offering. The worshipper, the person will prepare the dough that is made of fine flour, which is the best flour that is available, he can bring this to the priest either cooked or uncooked.

But when he brings it to the priest, the priest, we are told that he takes a little piece, a memorial piece, and it's only this small piece that is offered upon the altar, that is burned upon the altar. And then the priest takes all of the rest of the of the dough and he eats that at the tabernacle in a sense the priests are having a meal with the lord in the tabernacle in the presence of the lord but verse 13 says something very interesting in verse 3 it says but the rest of the grain offering shall be for aaron and his sons and it says it is a most holy part of the lord's food offerings What he's saying, brothers and sisters, is that the most of the part of the door which did not touch the altar now has been made the most holy part of the offering. Now, this is very important language, because remember that according to Exodus, the reason why sacrifices are made holy is because they are offered upon the altar. So when the blood of the animals are sprinkled, touch the horns of the burnt offering altar outside of the tabernacle, this is what makes the offering an acceptable offering before the Lord. But here with the grain offering, we have two parts of the offering, one small piece that makes it to the burnt offering, the altar, and is burnt there.

But most of the dough does not make it and is not burnt, but is rather given to the Lord. Yet, We are told here in verse 3 that this constitutes the most holy part of the Lord's food offering. This is what I've called the transferring of holiness in all of this ceremony. Now, this is glorious, brothers and sisters, because now here we have in the law of the Lord, this portion, which is most of the portion of the dough or the offering, that has received holiness from the Lord without following the procedures of touching or being burnt upon the altar. In a sense, this most holy part of the offering has received its holiness from the memorial part that was offered initially so this little piece that was burnt made the rest of the dough holy this little part that was offered initially made the rest of the of the grain offering holy and brothers this is glorious because this transferring holiness to the rest of the lamp or this transferring of righteousness and holiness to the rest of the door to the rest of the offering is what the Apostles use in the New Testament to speak not only of the salvation that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ but but also of the christian life that we have in the lord jesus christ specifically the apostle paul speaks of this concept of transferring holiness in in two ways negative and positive when in in the negative sense it means that just as holiness can be transferred also unholiness can be transferred and the apostle uses even the concept of the leaven or or the lamp in in first corinthians you might remember and i think also in galatians apostles says that a little leaven leavens the whole lamp that is that if a little portion of the lamp is unholy or it is unrighteous then that can transfer unholiness and righteousness to the whole lamp but the same apostle in 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 and also in the beginning of chapter 7 he says to the believers that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers with what has unrighteousness with unrighteousness or light with darkness because that which is unrighteous can contaminate that which is righteous so that we're to cleanse ourselves from all the defilements of the body and the spirit this is this concept of transferring in the negative sense that a little loving can leaven the whole lump that a little thing can corrupt the whole lump but brothers and sisters the most glorious application of this transferring of holiness as we see it in the grain offering it is by the lord jesus christ because the lord jesus christ is considered to be under new testament theology or not new testament doctrine to be the first born among many brothers.

He's the first fruits of the people of God. He's the one that is the first that makes the rest holy as the author of hebrew says and we studied last week in hebrews 9 and hebrews 10 that is through the sanctification of the lord jesus christ that the rest of the saints are sanctified once for all that is that the sacrifice that is offered by the lord jesus christ makes the rest of the lamp or the rest of the door it makes it Holy and the rest of the people of that can only receive the holiness. that is given and imputed by grace through faith, put in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's him that is meant to be offered first as a pleasing aroma to the Lord, accepted by the Lord so that the rest of the lamp and that the rest of the dough can be considered in the eyes of the Lord most holy as part of the sacrifice in the eyes of the Lord. Amen.