Mellish, Norman: Levitical Offerings-02 Lev 1 ~ Fleetwood

Go to the book of Leviticus, please. And chapter one. The book of Leviticus and chapter one. We're just going to read, uh, three short portions out of the first three chapters, and then I want us tonight, uh, just to take a look at those, if it's possible this evening with you. Levid- uh, the Leviticus and chapter one, verse one. the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, he shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd and of the flock. And from verses, uh, one down to verse nine, we have what was to be done, uh, with that, uh, animal that came from the herd. The idea really is the son of the herd. Uh, then from verse ten, if his offering be of the flock, namely of the sheep or of the goats, and verses ten down to verse thirteen tell you what had to be done with the sheep or the goats. Verse fourteen, and if the burnt sacrifice of his offering, uh, to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or young pigeons. And, uh, lovely to see what they do with the turtle doves or young pigeons when they offer them for the Lord. Chapter two and verse one: and when any man will offer a meat, uh, offering, uh, unto the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it and put frankincense thereon. Then, when you come down to verse four, it says, and if thou bring an oblation of the meat offering, baten in an oven. Uh, verse five, baten in a pan. And again, when you come down to verse seven, if thine oblation be a meat offering, baten in the frying pan. Uh, when you come down to verse twenty— sorry, there isn't even twenty verses in it, um, just a blip. Verse twelve, please. Verse twelve, Uh, for, as for the oblation of the firstfruits, you shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor. I notice when you come down a little further, verses fourteen to the end, there is an offering of firstfruits offered upon the altar. But chapter three and verse one: and if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be male or female, he shall offer it without blemish unto the Lord. And a lovely expression when you come down to the end of verse ten— uh, what's the matter with my brain? Verse five, sorry, the last clause of verse five, uh, it is an offering made by fire, a sweet savor unto the Lord. And if his offering of the sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord be of the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. And the rest of the chapter goes on to tell you about that which is offered, uh, out of the flock, be it a goat or be it a sheep or be it a goat. And we trust that God will bless his word to us, uh, once again this evening. Now, last night we were just taking a look at the general character that marked some of these offerings, and uh, uh, taking a look to see, uh, what was involved in connection with them. Uh, what we might say is that these offerings, they take us, uh, to the end of chapter seven. And chapters one to seven are taken up with the offerings. In chapters one to six verse eight we have the offerings as the people bring them. And then, uh, from uh, verse nine of chapter six and onwards, it's not the offerings, but the law of the offerings. The offerings were what the people brought. The law of the offerings were for the pri- uh, for the priests, and how the priests themselves, they were to minister it when offering these offerings. Now, one thing that's before me is that, uh, we cannot, child of God, bring anything to God. That's very, very clear when we look at these offerings. God tells us just exactly what he wants. You know, we were seeing yesterday that God wants worship, and these offerings are to teach us worship. And when we look at these offerings, what we see is we cannot bring anything to God. Uh, people today, they seem to think that God will accept anything. God won't accept anything of your hand, and God won't accept anything of my hand. And the whole of these offerings are to teach us again some various aspects of the lovely person of our Lord Jesus Christ. What God wants from you is his lovely son in worship. And there's one thing that the, these offerings will do, they will teach us how that we ought to worship when we ga- when we gather on a Lord's Day morning, particularly bringing Christ to the Father. The Father has always had intense pleasure in his lovely Son, and God still wants the saints of God to get pleasure in the Lord Jesus too. Now, let me tell you, the Father knows more about Christ than you'll ever know, but he still delights in you speaking about him. I love people to talk about my family, you know. When they were young, they used to talk about them an awful lot. Now I think that they, uh, that they want to forget most of them as they're getting older. But I must confess, when they were young, they used to come and tell me how lovely this one was and how lovely... I could have listened all day, you know. But let me tell you again, I knew how lovely they were, and and they were more lovely to me than they were to anyone that brought the, uh, that that spoke about them. But I just love to hear people talking about my family. You do the same, don't you? It's lovely to hear people talking about your children and how lovely your children are. You know more about them than anybody else, but you still love to hear it. And I seem to think, child of God, that that's the case with these offerings. They speak about Christ, and you know the Father knows more about the Son than you'll ever know, but he still, he still delights for you and for me to speak about the Lord Jesus before his throne. And that's what these offerings are going to do. They're going to teach us how we ought to be worshippers. But if we cannot bring anything to God, and be it a burnt offering, be it a meal offering, be it a peace offering, God tells us what we can give to him. Uh, we see in the burnt offering the absolute devotion of our Lord Jesus the Father. There it is. I- in this meal offering, we- we- we see the perfections of the Lord Jesus. It brings before us the life of Christ. There it is, the perfection of the Son of God. We'll look at that a little this evening. And in this peace offering, we're going to see that this really, as we saw last night, uh, was the fact that the saints of God, they are now enjoying a meal around the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Everybody was taking a portion and a part of this one here. They didn't all take a part of this. In fact, the offerer got nothing. They didn't all get a part of this. The offerer got nothing. But in this one, everybody enjoyed it. It was really a meal that they shared together. God got a portion, there it is. The priest got a portion, there they are. And the offerer, he got the rest, whatever it was, with his family and with his friends. The Bible says they had to eat it in the holy place. That's a blessed thing, isn't it? Or in the court, actually. Uh, it it uh uh when I think of the holy place, I'm thinking of the tabernacle. You know, when we're enjoying Christ, it will keep us near the tabernacle, and it will keep us in close fellowship with each other, and it will keep us in connection with the precious things of God as they at this in the court of the tabernacle. So that here all were enjoying what was of Christ, and they were doing it because they were at peace. Wasn't to bring them to peace, peace, but because they enjoyed peace with God, the peace that passeth understanding. Then they just wanted to share that one with another and enjoy the fa- the meal. But when we come to these offerings, as we've already said, uh, up to chapter six verse eight, he he talks about these offerings. Yesterday we were seeing the first three, they were voluntary offerings, they were for worship. The last two, they were compulsory offerings. It's when sin came into my life, or sin comes into your life. It robs us of being worshippers. God wants us restored to himself, and that's the idea of these two here. It is not to deal with my sin as a sinner apart from God, or my trespass as I, uh, uh, as I violated the laws of God. No, child of God. The idea here is that as a believer, I failed, and when I fail, God wants me recovered, and God wants me restored because he wants my worship. And failure will stop me worshiping, so these are to bring me back Godward. But when we come to chapter six verse eight and to the end of chapter 7, it is not the offering, it's the law of the offering. And that law was for the priest himself, this gentleman here. You see, I had to bring my offering, but how that offering was presented and things that were done with it, that man had to know that too. You see, you couldn't approach that altar carelessly, and you couldn't offer the things of God anyhow. You couldn't give God what you wanted, and neither could you offer them anyhow. There's a voice to Christendom today, you know. I get very disturbed. My son, one of my sons has a television, and he's got, I think they call them the God channels. He has shown me some of those God channels. You know, they grieve me very, very sorely. As I find men, oh, vast audiences, but child of God, making a mockery of all that God has brought before us in the Word of God, and a complete denial of so much that the scriptures bring before me. You know, you've got to be very, very careful. For God wants you as a worshipper, but in priestly activity, he wants you to be careful how you worship. Not just what you bring, but how you bring it. And the law of the offerings would tell us, uh, the fact that God himself wants us to be very, very careful in our approach unto him. But that's enough for an outline tonight. I want us tonight very simply, just to take a look at this burn, this meal, and this peace offering. Now, the idea behind the meal offering, of course, uh, the authorized says a meat offering, a meat offering. But strictly speaking, in the Western world today, no meat was involved. We're going to see that everything came out of the field, and everything came from the grain. But then, of course, really, the the idea of, uh, uh, of meat is that which provides food for you, isn't it? The Lord Jesus said, my meat to do the will of him that sent me, my food. And the idea behind this, uh, this meat offering is just the food, the food that's going to go on the altar, something for God, and we'll see something for the priests. But here, the idea was that it was really meal that was brought, that is, it was grain that was offered. I want us, very simply tonight, just to take a look at these three offerings, and I want us to see something of the things that mark them. Now, we gave a little outline last night. We're going to see that these things speak of Christ. In the burnt offering, the first thing you could bring to God was a bullock, a bullock. Could I suggest to you, this speaks of, speaks of Christ, as we saw last night in his service for God, because that bullock, it did all the work. It, uh, it, it, it pulled the plow, it trod out the corn, whatever they had to do, there were no horses, it was the bullock that did it. I- I'm glad the Bible tells us you'll never, uh, bring a bullock and an ass together. You'll never put a yoke upon them together. You know, the Lord Jesus was never linked with that which would speak of sin and evil, for the ass always speaks of that which is, uh, uh, speaks of sin and evil. And the Lord Jesus had a solitary life here for the Father's pleasure. And thank God for that life. But there's one thing I like about that, i- i- is the strength that marked it. But there was plenty of strength there, wasn't there? And let me tell you, we could go through our New Testament, couldn't we? And usually if I'm taking this up for a week or more, then I would link verses with all these things, you know, just to show you the character of the ministry of my blessed Lord, a- and the might and the power that marked him as he moved amongst men, but he moved here for the Father's pleasure and for the Father's will. Do you know in worship what God wants you to do? What he wants you to do? He wants you to reflect upon the various aspects of the Lord Jesus as seen in the various gospels, and just to tell God all about it. And a lovely thing for you to do, and a lovely thing for me to do. When you come to look at the, uh, uh, the, the, the goat that we saw yesterday, not so much his strength, but his stateliness. Uh, the lamb would speak of his submissiveness. But then, of course, we've got two birds. There is a pigeon and there is a turtle dove. When you think of the, uh, uh, of the dove, they put it on the funeral cards, don't they? Sympathy. And it would tell me of the sympathetic heart of the Christ of God. Last night we were seeing how he's the heavenly man, and you know, i- if that bullet was offered before the Lord, and if these two gentlemen here were offered on the side of the altar northward, they came directly to the altar itself. And when the Lord Jesus came here, he came here just to go directly to the altar. And there was just one thing in the mind and heart of Christ when he came into this world. Bethlehem, a stepping stone to Calvary. Without Bethlehem, there could be no Calvary. But, child of God, Calvary was before the Lord Jesus, and as that heavenly man, he came, and he came that... Is it still with us? Yes. He came that he might go to Calvary. But thank God for the sympathy that marked him. They tell me a pigeon, you know, it's, it's a bird of solitude. And I see that lonely path of my blessed Lord here. Interesting now, when we even come to look at the grain, that the Lord Jesus had a lonely path, didn't he? He, he tells in the Gospel of John, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. You know, the Lord Jesus linked himself with us in life, but we could never be linked with him without his death. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. And my blessed Lord had a lonely path here. For men could never be linked with him, you know, in all its fullness, until he'd fallen to the ground and died. But thank God on resurrection. You remember the word to Mary? My God, your God, my Father, your Father. For you see, we are linked to him now, because the fourth corner of wheat has fallen to the ground and died. And child of God, there are links now, but it can only be linked with a resurrected man, the loneliness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Another interesting thing about that dove, would it not remind us again of the man of sorrows, and one whose grief, uh, uh, uh, with whom grief was constantly acquainted. It would tell us of the fact that the Lord in the pigeons, the Lord had desires for home, but here it would tell us of, of that man that knew what it was to suffer in this world. Now let me just take a look at one or two very simple things. First of all, with the bullock. With the bullock, take a look, please, when you come down to, uh, to verse, uh, verse 8. By the way, just a, a little aside, you'll notice verse four, verse five, verse six, it, it speaks about he, he, he. That's the offerer. It says in verse six, he shall put his hands upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Now, what does it mean? Well, the good brethren will tell me what atonement's all about, you know, won't they? But can I just add a little something just now? Do you see, child of God, I don't believe there's anything of a sin offering in this. And when it says here i- i- i- in verse four, he'll make atonement for him. Uh, I think the good brethren would know very well that that same word is used in connection with the ark and that Noah constructed, when it says you pitch it within and without. And that word pitch is the same word for atonement. It's a word that literally means to cover. Now this word, child of God, it it means to cover. Can I suggest to you, there are times when the work of Christ cover- covers my sin. Here they are. Or my trespass. But can I suggest that in the burnt offering, what's it doing? It's covering me. And it's getting me out of sight. For you see, in worship, you don't want to see anything of me, do you? We want to know something of Christ, and we want to present Christ to the Father. So that the idea of atonement here, as far as I see it in verse four, i- i- is not to cover sin, but to cover the offerer. Get him out of sight. So that, child of God, it's only the offering that's seen. And a blessed thing when we present the Lord Jesus to the Father, it's not us, but it's Christ that is supreme in everything. And here it tells us what the offerer does, and then it it tells us what the priest does. Uh, the what the priest does is everything that is brought to the altar. The offerer is not allowed to touch the altar. Now you come as an offerer, but thank God you minister as a priest too. And you're able to bring Christ, but you're able to present Christ to the Father. Thank God for the priestly activity of the saints of God. But come down to verse eight please, for a moment. It it it says that, oh, by the way, I I I I must go back to verse seven. Forgive me, will you? The sons of Aaron, the priests shall put fire upon the altar and lay the wood in order. I like that, you know. Lay the wood in order. Do you have a fire? We don't, we have a gas fire. They're lovely. Just switch it on, switch it off, great. No mess, no fuss. Folks keep telling me, oh, we we we love the old coal, you know, we love the old wood. I can't be bothered with it now, I'm too old. And then it dies down and you get cold, and then it flares up and you got to take your chair away, and then you've got to go and start stoking. No, thank you. Just let me press a little button, lovely. Eh? I like it very much. But you know, when I did light a fire, I wasn't too interested in putting the wood in order. Are you? I used to just stoke it on, you know, and shove the paper up it and put a, a, a, a, a, a, a shovel there or a, a, a, a, a thing there and put the paper around it, let it go. But you're not stoking a fire in worship. You're ministering at the throne, and you're moving at the altar, child of God, and the Bible says the wood was put in order. You see, God's a God of order. And even the wood that went upon that fire, it had to go in order, for God likes order. And everything that God does, there's a God of order, and I'm glad the very wood itself went in order upon that fire. Now, I did learn something, uh, from some folks that are tree fellers, you know, they cut down trees. They've been to our house three times, and and I'm very glad that in the meetings they've never charged me a penny, it would have cost me thousands. And I'm very thankful for them, the butlers from down in Newbury. But they taught me once, they were literally cutting down this huge wood, cots, whatever you call it, you know, and cutting down all the middle of the trees for taking away to, uh, to the woodyards. But then they had to burn the residue. How do you get it going? You know they did. Just a few little twigs. But they put those twigs in order, one against the other. And let me tell you, with just a few little twigs, it wasn't long before the fire was going. They didn't just throw them on anyhow, they put them in order and put them together. A- a- and the very proximity of one against the other caused them all to ignite and caused them all to burn, and it wasn't long before whole parts of trees were going on and the bonfire was away. Putting it all in order. Child of God, if we're approaching the altar, even the very wood, it must be done in an orderly way. But look again at verses eight and nine when it says, the sons shall lay the parts, the head and the fat in order upon the wood that is on the fire, that is upon the altar, drawing attention to that wood again. There is a wood offering, by the way. You can look that up in scripture, can't you? But it says, but his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made, uh, by fire, a sweet savor unto the Lord. But child of God, they all went in order. What did he put on that altar? Everything went on that altar but the skin. That whole bullet was for God, and the life of Christ here was for God, and the service of Christ here was for God, and it was for the pleasure of God. And thank God the lo- the Lord Jesus could say, I have glorified thee on the earth. He did, didn't he? But everything that he did was for God. It all went on the altar. What went on? The head. Can I suggest to you that the head would bring before me his will? For the head dominates the will, doesn't it? And the will of my blessed Lord to do the will of him that sent him. Then it says, and the fat. What is the fat? Uh, the fat, that internal organ that, or or or or or the internal, it's not an organ, is it? It's, uh, whatever it is, you know what fat is anyway. But it's that which which, uh, which gives strength and energy to us. I should have plenty of that, shouldn't I? Eh? And yet they keep telling me to diet, you know. I don't know why. Because the fat's supposed to be the thing that gives me strength, and to give me energy, and to give me go. But I suggest to you, not the will, but the worth of Christ. The worth of Christ. It all went upon the altar. Then the inwards. The inwards will speak of affection. And here, uh, uh, for the sake of alliteration, not only the will, not only the worth, but the warmth. Oh, the tender compassions of God's beloved son. I- I- I wish we'd time. That clock won't allow it. But child of God, when you look at these things, i- i- i- it's so interesting to see, uh, in the ministry of my blessed Lord here. Do you know, when he looked upon people, how did he look upon them? With compassion. There's the inwards. Even that man that, that, that, that was offered salvation, the rich young ruler, do you remember? And he turned because he was very rich, his money meant more than glory. But Jesus, looking upon him, loved him, loved him. And we can see in all those miracles, child of God, none of them done just as matter of fact, you know, as on these God channels, as they try and do things. No, my blessed Lord, his heart was in it. His affections were there, and thank God for everything that marked him as he moved here, the inwards of our Lord Jesus. But if we with the will, with the worth, with the warmth, the legs went on. Here's the walk, the perfections of the walk of God's beloved Son, all going on the altar for God. And again, can I see that the, the, the priest, he laid it in order. I believe, child of God, the head went in the right spot, the inwards went in a spot, the legs went... When you looked on that, on that altar, you'd have looked to see as if the animal was there. It had been cut into its pieces, but child of God, put in order. Doesn't just stoked on, you know. Because we're dealing with the lovely person of Christ, and child of God, when dealing with him, everything must be done in a way that's consistent with the glories that are his. When you come to the, uh, to the, uh, uh, the goat and the sheep, again, the same sort of things were said, uh, though not so much. Come down to the bird, please, for a moment, will you? The birds that speak of that heavenly man. By the way, uh, there's one book that tells us that these offerings here, they really speak of grades of worship. Uh, the writer would tell us that when you're offering a bullock, well, that's really the fathers that offer a bullock. You know, they've learned much of the person of Christ, so they can offer a bullock. And then they would tell us that the young men, they're, they're the people that offer the, the sheep and the goat, and the new convert, you know, he offers the birds and the, and the t- the, the turtles and the, and the pigeons. I'm not happy with that. You see, if I want to speak of Christ, in his submissiveness to the will of the Father, I've got to bring a bullock. Nothing else will typify that. If I want to bring Christ in his meatness or the stateliness, I've got to bring a sheep or a goat. And there are times when brethren are bringing that, but if I want to speak of a heavenly man. There's nothing inferior in these. That they look and sometimes talk about the respected values, you know. But child of God, I believe that these offerings, what they do bring before us is the different aspects of the life of our Lord Jesus. And it takes these various things that just to be able to portray Christ. And at some time, I'll be bringing the, the deep sufferings of that blessed man, the lowly man, the rejected man. I've got to think of that dove. I'll be bringing a thought to the man that longed for home, I've got to think of the pigeons, and so on. A- a- and I don't think the Lord was too interested in the respective values. Every one of them was a sweet savor. Every one of them brought pleasure to the father's heart. That's what it tells me now i- in each of these verses. Uh, ver- the end of verse nine uh, for the bull, the end of verse thirteen uh, for the, uh, sheep or the goats, and again the end of verse seventeen uh, for the, uh, for the birds. They were all precious to God. But God just wants you to speak well of his son, of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, people would have thought of the degrees in the, in the value. Well now, there were degrees in value, weren't there? And I tell you, that gentleman there had cost you a pretty penny. Some of these folks here know friends of ours called the Hats. Farmers, you know. And I've been with Harold once or twice when he's gone to the market to sell his, his, his beasts. And I remember one time he took this gentleman to the market. The word really is the son of the herd. You see, you didn't give God a, a certain rate animal. You gave God the very best you could give him. But let me tell you, it'd be a costly business. And worship can be costly. It'll cost you something to be a true worshipper. And I remember that day, one day we went to the Reading market and, and Harold had taken this prize bull. He wanted a pretty penny for it, you know. But unfortunately, the hammer didn't drop because it didn't bring the expected price, and Harold took it home again. It didn't bring its price. Always a dear. Worship, very costly. Does it cost you anything, brother, sister, to prepare for a morning meeting or for the gatherings of God's saints, or even in your, in your own private worship? Does it cost you anything? But worship is costly, you know. These gentlemen here, okay, I might get them for forty or fifty pounds. Never had one of them, by the way. But I've certainly had a number of these and put them in my freezer. Up to a hundred dollars. Not cheap to worship, you know. It'll cost you something if you're going to be a worshipper. And I never forget Mr. Kundick speaking to me on one occasion and just simply telling me, he said, you know, we get our ministry on the cheap and we get our service on the cheap. It's true, you know. Doesn't cost us a lot, does it? But there should be a measure in which these things costs us something, child of God. The things of God, if they're going to be entered into properly, it's a costly business. It'll cost you your time. It'll cost you hours of meditation, just to glean something of the lovely person of our Lord Jesus, to tell God of the full value of all that he's worth. Well, let's come to the next one, please, because I, I can't stay with them all, and I can't give you all the details that perhaps we might like to take, take, take to you. I want us to speak of the, uh, of the, uh, meal offering now in chapter two. Now, it's interesting when you come to this meal offering, I want you to notice, child of God, that there are really uh three little divisions and three ways in which you can be offered. In verses one to three, you could bring, you could bring God just simply meal. Where are we? Here. You could just bring him flour. Now, notice, please, i- i- if this would speak of the devotion of our Lord Jesus, this speaks of the perfections of our Lord Jesus. We'll see that in a moment. This brings before us the life of Christ, child of God. This speaks of the life of Christ devoted to, uh, to death. This speaks of the life of Christ that was also offered at Calvary. But, child of God, it's bringing before us basically the life of our Lord Jesus, and it's bringing before us the perfections of the life of our Lord Jesus. But I noticed it can, that it can be offered in three ways. It can be offered in verses one to three just as flour, and it tells us in verse one that, uh, if his offering be of fine flour, he's got to bring flour. And in verses one to three, he can bring flour. But when you come down to verses four, uh uh down to verse eleven, uh will you notice, please, that here it's not just flour, but here it's an offering that's been baked, and you could bring a baked offering to the Lord. These could be something that you brought, something that had been baked, uh, in the oven, says verse four, or something that had been baked in the pan, says verse five, or something that had been baked in a frying pan, says verse seven. A baked offering, a cake, if you like. Can I suggest to you that in verses one to three we've got the life of Christ. In verses four down to verse eleven, with the sufferings of Christ. And I'm going to show you very simply tonight how that those baked, uh, uh, uh, offerings, they bring before me the sufferings of God's beloved Son. And I'm not speaking of the sufferings at Calvary that everybody refers to when they think of the cross and think of that altar. I'm thinking, child of God, of sufferings that my blessed Lord knew in life, you know. Little wonder the Bible calls him the man of sorrows. Let me tell you, he suffered here. Long before Calvary. The deep sufferings of God's beloved son. Uh, we'll see if we can touch a few of them in a moment or two. But then, I- I- I want you to see, when you come down to verses twelve, uh, down to verse sixteen, uh, i- i- it's not just the life of Christ, the sufferings of Christ, but the resurrection of Christ is brought before us. In verse twelve, for the oblation of the firstfruits. Now, the firstfruits, they are always that which were way before God, uh, to bring the idea of a resurrected man. Thank God there's a man today that's come out of the grave as a man in the glory, and that blessed man, he is waved before the Father, would speak of the Lord Jesus in resurrection power. Now, there's a lovely little expression that occurs in each of these sections. Uh, look at verse two, the middle of the verse again. It- it says, and the priest shall burn the memorial of it. Again, when you come down to verse nine, it, it, it says, and the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, a memorial thereof. And when you come to verse sixteen, the priest shall burn the memorial of it. And in each of these little sections, in fact, I, I, I noticed that the word memorial, it, it a few times in the, uh, uh, book of the, of Leviticus and again in the book of Numbers chapter five. but child of God, it's always linked with a meal offering. What is a memorial? Well, you know what memorials are about, don't you? We have them in our paper every night at home. It's just reminding folks of folks that have died. And it literally means just to remember, just to remember. Oh, says God, I want you to bring a memorial of the life of Christ. I want you to remember that. I want you to bring a memorial of the sufferings of Christ. I want you to remember that. And I want you to bring a memorial of a resurrected Christ. I want you to remember that. And these offerings will tell us much of that blessed man and bring to our memory so that we can tell God what, uh, what God wants to know of the lovely person of our Lord Jesus, a memorial of it. Now, uh, just take a look at that fine flower for a moment, will you? First of all, I want you to notice in verse one, and I was very thankful to hear my dear brother on Lord's Day morning, uh, when he spoke about these ingredients that made up the, the, uh, the meal offering. And, uh, those things that he brought before us were very, very true. So I'll not just touch them now. Uh, but I notice he speaks in verse one um as he shall bring fine flour. Now, will you notice he doesn't say he'll bring refined, uh, flour, does he? They're always refining me, you know. Half the times the brethren fail, I'm sad to say, and when you know me, uh, uh, uh, as little as you do, you know I've not been refined yet. I've got to wait for the coming of the Lord, you know. And then the work will be complete. But they're still at it. I never forget one of the brethren telling me, many, many years ago, he said, Norman, we're still trying to rub the corners off. Me they were talking about, you know. Well, sadly, there are corners there, jagged edges, the flesh. By the way, you've got a few too, haven't you? We forget about our own. We we we look at everybody else's. Well, might the Lord Jesus tell us to take the beam out of our own eye when you're looking at the mote in somebody else's eye. We're very good at that, aren't we? Eh? But we forget the beam here. Gives us a distorted vision, you know. But anyway, forget that just now. All I'm saying is, when speaking of the Lord Jesus, it doesn't talk about refined flour. This is speaking about a fine flour. There were no lumps there, you know. There was no unevenness there. You brought what was symbolic of all that Christ was in his life, and my blessed Lord didn't need any refining. He didn't need the corners knocking off. That's why I hurt you sometimes. That's why you hurt me sometimes. I- I'm talking generally now. Because of the corners. Thank God, my blessed Lord, he would never have hurt any fine flower, the perfections of a life that was absolutely sinless when the Lord Jesus was here. No mill, no sieve with the Son of God. There was with Peter, wasn't there? You remember? Satan hath desired to sift thee as wheat. Peter needed to be shapen. But all that God was doing then, you know, was, was getting rid of the, the, uh, uh, the, the lumps and just leaving, leaving the fine flour. And that's what God does with you and me sometimes when we're, we're putting the sh- the sieve and we're shapen. Just getting rid of the lumps, you know. Put no lumps in Christ. No outstanding features. Oh dear. Nothing outstanding in your Lord and mine. It might shock you a wee bit. But child of God, there was nothing outstanding. Because everything was in perfect balance. There was plenty outstanding with others, you know, Moses, the meekest man in all the earth. And that was his outstanding feature, wasn't it? And yet, you remember how it says of Moses, hear now, ye rebels. When he smote that rock, it cost him the land. He failed in his outstanding feature, and all men fail in their outstanding feature. Remember the patience of Job, an outstanding feature. The wisdom of Solomon. He lost that, didn't he? Seven hundred wives? Man must have been mental. I tell you. And a thousand concubines, was it? Goodness gracious, no wonder the Muslims are like they are when they're going to, to, to, to commit suicide. They must take a wee leaf out of Solomon's book because they believe they're going to get these seventy wives over on the other side, and... I'd be quite happy with the one I've got, thank you very much. I can just about cope with that one, and you can just about cope with me too, I think. But child of God, the wisdom of Solomon, the zeal of Elijah, outstanding features, weren't they, that marked them, and yet you will see again how that even Elijah failed under that juniper tree. And just because of the accusations of a woman, and would God had died, failed, you know. A- and we could look at all of these and various ones, but child of God, nothing outstanding in that blessed man. Everything was in perfect balance, and everything was held together in beautiful harmony in the life of God's beloved son. But, you know, there's something about flour. It's very, very sensitive to impressions. Now, my stepmother, she was a killer. I, I wouldn't like any of you to have had my stepmother a- a- a- as your stepmother, let me tell you, she wouldn't have liked you. And you'll take it from that, she didn't like me, and she didn't like my little sister. But there's one thing my stepmother did, she used to bake every Friday. She had a routine. Uh, every day was the same, you know. But, uh, every Friday she used to bake, and every Friday there was always the flower. A- a- and as a a young fellow, as I was stood there, i- if she was doing something else, I used to take a spoon, and I used to just love to play in that flower and make those... Oh, I tell you the things you could do, because flower is very sensitive to impressions. Not sure, Lord, you know. We did touch it a little before. You go and ask the widow of Nain whether he was sensitive to the impressions around him. Her only son. Twice going to the funeral yard, eh? Until my blessed Lord stopped on the way. You asked that leper. You see that leper that came and fell at the feet of the Lord Jesus after a day's ministry there in the book of the Acts in chapter one, uh and fell before him, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst. Of course I can. Be thou clean. Ah, but no. There was more than that, you know. He says he touched him. I wonder what that must have meant to a leper. You wouldn't have touched a leper. Contagious diseases that you would have wanted to get away, wouldn't you? Here's a man that everybody in society shunned, but there's a man sensitive to the thing, and my blessed Lord touched him, the outstretched hand. I tell you, lovely things about the life of my blessed Lord, the fine flower, the fine flower. We can think of that poor man at the pool of Bethesda. We can think of Martha and Mary. And I tell you, there are things there as we, we look at John chapter eleven. My blessed Lord made his way to Bethany. He deliberately stayed back, hadn't he? The only place where we, we, we, we find that, no, there weren't. He wept over, and he said the only place where we find tears. That's not true, is it? Because he wept over Jerusalem too, and he wept in the garden. Hebrews chapter five, strong crying and tears, but wept over Mary and Martha, wept with them. And let me tell you, he didn't weep because Lazarus had died, did he? He knew he was going to the tomb. He knew the stone was going to be rolled away. He knew he was going to come forth, bound hand and foot, just like sinners are. The features of the old life still about them, you know, and up to the saints of God to release them and let them go. That's what ministry and meetings are all about. Just delivering them, uh, sinners from the burdens and bondage that marked them before they got saved. Don't hammer them, you know, will you? You just remember that, that a tree doesn't lose all its leaves at once, and a few hang on a little bit longer than the rest. You be careful with them now. My Lord was. And a blessed thing to, to minister like him amongst men, isn't it? Well, he's sensitive to impression. But with this fine flower there was. I- I- I've got to hurry now. The oil would speak of the power of the Holy Spirit that ever marked, uh, the life of our Lord Jesus Christ, ever. Now look, there are three ways in which that oil was used. Look at verse one. It says he shall pour oil upon it. Uh, come down to verse four. It- it talks about these unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and these wafers anointed with oil. Oil that was poured, oil that was mingled, oil that was anointed. Can I suggest to you, child of God, when you see this that was mingled with oil, that would tell me of the birth of my blessed Lord. That which is born of thee is of the Holy Ghost. And thank God, a life mingled, every part of that life ordered by the Spirit of God. But then, when we look at the anointing, uh, with oil, I can only look at the book of Acts in chapter ten, when it says of God, speaking of the Lord Jesus, whom he anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power, went about doing good, healing all that were oppressed of the devil. Child of God, uh, not the birth, but the service and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. But then look, it says you pour o- oil upon it when you come down to verse, uh, verse one. And could I suggest to you that this is the whole life of my blessed Lord, a- as he is under the movements and influences of the Spirit of God as it was brought upon him. Now, I have a lot of verses that I could bring these things to you tonight, but, uh, time's not going to allow that, so I- I'll leave those things just as it is. But notice there was also frankincense. Now, what is frankincense? Well, it's just what it says, it's an incense. I don't like these incenses, you know, so much. I don't like the smell of them, I must admit. And, uh, these joss sticks and everything. No, I don't like the smell. Frankincense, they tell me, was, was, was snowy white. Maybe consistent with the glories of the person of Christ himself. But it is an incense, and that incense is a sentence Godward. And can I suggest to you that in all the life of my blessed Lord, there was an incense all for God that was ascending Godwit. That's why heaven must open, mustn't it, on its three occasions. Jordan's Bank, the Transfiguration, in the temple in the Gospel of John. And each of them, the Father's pleasure, that incense rise, the smell comes, he gazes upon his lovely son, and child of God, he he's just got to, just got to let the world know the pleasure that he finds in our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not going to touch the salt, the preservative. I'm not going to touch the leaven and the honey that is here. One thing I do know, where they prepared it, they prepared that at home, you know. To bring it to the altar. And a blessed thing for you to prepare and to gaze upon the person of Christ at home, to bring it to the altar, for it all went to the altar. Now, what went on the altar? Child of God, a- a- as far as the vacant things, I- I wish we'd time to stop there a little. Can I just bring a few things before you, uh, uh, uh, and leave it there in the oven? Well, you know what an oven is, don't you? The oven, child of God. Today they put a wee glass front on it, but they never did that. In fact, we've got an auger cooker, you know. If you know what an auger cooker is. If you wanted my auger cooker, it would cost you fifteen thousand dollars to put one in your house, at least, probably more over here. Because they're made over in our country, you see, not far away from where we live. Uh, and the only reason it's in my house now is because it was there when I bought it. And I have promised my wife if I ever went to another house, there's still an Aga going because I love the Aga cooker. There's nothing like it, let me tell you. But you can't see into the ovens, and let me tell you, when that oven door's closed, you can't smell it. You've got to have a timer. Otherwise, you get a piece of charcoal, because you forget all about it. And we've had many a piece of charcoal, let me tell you. What I'm interested in when I look at the oven, can I suggest to you that these are sufferings that the Lord in, uh, the Father himself saw? Because there were more movements here of my blessed Lord as he moved amongst men, and child of God, only the Father would see those things. As the Lord Jesus suffered in his movements amongst men. But look, it it it tells me in these verses, uh, that, uh, if thine oblation in verse five of a meat offering being baked in a pan, and the margin says a flat plate. You know, a griddle, I think they call them in Scotland, just a flat plate. That's open for all to see, isn't it? And you remember the weeping of our Lord Jesus, behold how we loved him. And you could look at many scriptures that would see men that saw how the events of life touched the Christ of God and caused the Lord Jesus to feel the sufferings of his movements here. But look again, i- i- i- it says in these verses that, uh, verse seven, uh, if his oblation of a meat offering be baked in a frying pan. And you know, the frying pan, of course, has got the wee sides, hasn't it? So that might exclude the vision. A wife was ki- uh, cooking a few things today, and she put them in a frying pan. Uh, and you know, if I looked acro- I couldn't see what they were doing. You had to get close and look over the top to see what was going on in the frying pan. My wife tried to get me out of the way, you know, because I'm always poking my nose in. I want to make sure it's doing the right thing. She thi- she thinks I think she can't cook, but she's not too bad at it now. Forty six years, she's doing pretty well. But I think, child of God, the sufferings in the oven, what God saw. In the flat plate, what man saw. But in the frying pan, what angels saw. They were there in the garden, weren't they? They were there in the wilderness. And the angels saw it all. And it seems to me that these things would just remind me of all that the Lord Jesus went through as far as the frying pan is concerned. Let me come, please, to the peace offering for a moment or two, can I? I- I've got a few notes here. The trouble is these things take a, a night or two, so I- I- I've got just to, uh, they're just headings for me, but, uh, there we are. I- I- I notice that when we come to this peace offering, that word, child of God, uh, i- it's the first time that occurs now. And uh, it really has the, sorry, it's the first time that uh the the uh it says you'll make a sacrifice of peace offerings. And the first time that the word sacrifice is used, is used in connection with the peace offering. In your New Testament, offerings, sacrifices, offerings for sin, the offerings of the burnt offerings, the sacrifice, the peace offering, the offerings for sin, the other offerings. Child of God, the word sacrifice always used i- in connection with the, um, uh, with the peace offering. But you know, behind that word sacrifice i- i- is the thought of praise and thanksgivings and joy. Uh, I could bring a few thoughts to you. If you looked at Psalm twenty seven, for instance, and Psalm fifty four, and uh, uh, Jonah chapter two, I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgivings, and it always has the idea of joy and praise and thanksgivings behind it. That's what this offering's all about, child of God. Here, we we have learned something of the lovely person of Christ in in all that he is and uh uh uh and the life that he lived, and now we're just moving in joy and thanksgivings, and we're going to sit down and eat a meal around it all. Well, you notice that the birds are missing. Will you notice that? There's no birds here. Well, I'm not surprised. No, no pigeons. You know, there was a brother in one of the meetings in Scotland, and he was a gamekeeper. And one day he gave to the folks I was staying with four pigeons. He'd shot them for the preacher's dinner. Well, the dear lady of the house, she cooked these pigeons, gave two to her husband and gave two to me. I tell you, they were as tough as old boots. I don't know whether you cooked them, whether she cooked them right or not, but they were like, honestly, they were like eating leather. And when she had, had cooked the things, why, the breast was about that big. Y- y- you couldn't even, you know, two little things like this on the plate. Pigeons. I don't know, you might be able to do better than she did. But, uh, let me tell you, it was one meal. Well, thanksgivings and joy, no, thank you very much. I didn't get too much thanksgivings and joy after that, uh, that that offering that was given to me. Uh, I didn't blame the dear lady of the house, of course, and at least I can tell you I've eaten pigeon. But it was, it was nothing to eat. Boys, and don't please, if you invite me for supper, unless you're a genius a- a- and know what you're doing, don't give me pigeon, please, will you? Pigeon pie? Well, I think you'd need a dozen of them to make something reasonable i- inside that pi- but we got it. But there's no pigeons here. Because you see, you can't make a meal, can you really, out of a pigeon? She couldn't. You can't. A- a- and what are you going to enjoy, all of you, i- if you're going to feed upon a pigeon? Oh, we can make plenty out of that. We can make plenty out of these, can't you? And they're going to make a feast out of this. And they're going to sit down and enjoy it together. Will you notice, please, i- i- i- when you come down to, uh, uh, to verse eleven, it it speaks about the fact the priest shall burn it upon the altar. It's the food of the offering. And here we're really at the table of the Lord, you know. For the table speaks of fellowship, and we're enjoying what is of Christ together, and we a- and we're sitting down at the table to enjoy it together. That's why the book of Malachi says, you're making my table contemptible. You are bringing to God that which was lame and halt and blind. It's not fit for your governor, but you'll give it to me. No, child of God. We don't give God anything. We give God the very best. And here we're coming to the table. Lovely to see those that got to the table, you know. The Queen of Sheba got to the table, didn't she? And how did she get to the table? She saw the glory of Solomon, and when she saw the sitting of his servants, a- a- a- and the meat of his table, there was no more spirit in her, you know. Oh, to get a glimpse of the glories of our blessed Lord. She saw the way by- by- by which he went up, and, you know, no more spirit in her. Lovely child of God, to get to the table and just to see it because of the glory that we've heard of God's beloved son. Mephibosheth got to the table, didn't he? That's where David brought him. The Bible tells us that, that David hated lame men, but Mephibosheth got to the table. H- his feet were under the table, mind you. They were out of sight, but he got there. But let me tell you, it wasn't glory that brought him there, it was grace that brought him there, wasn't it? And poor old Mephibosheth, he he was shaken a wee bit before it. He thought that that Jacob, uh, that that David was going to go- going to cause him to join his his father and his grandfather. But no, to sit at the king's table. Thank God for the grace that brought him there. The prodigal got to the table, didn't he? Someone has said the only one that was unhappy when the prodigal came home was the fatted calf. I don't know, but he got to the table. What put him there, child of God? If glory brought the Queen of Sheba, if grace brought Mephibosheth, it was just love and affection that brought the prodigal, uh, up to the table. Remember Lazarus? The man out of the tomb? In chapter twelve, he's at the table. What put him there? Oh, power put him there. Thank God to be able to get to the table. And thank God for the goodness of God towards us that brings us there, to be able to feed on the lovely person of our Lord Jesus. Can I just go back up here, please? Uh, here, out of this offering, what the priest gave to God was a handful. A handful. You know, your grasp of the lovely person of the Lord Jesus, a- a- a- a- and depending how big your hand is will depend how much you can give to God. But let me tell you, there's an awful lot left over, isn't there, afterwards? And who was to get that? The priest was to get that. So that when we gather before the Lord, we give God his handful. But, you know, there's an awful lot more that we feed on as we're going. But we come here and we discover, what does the priest get here? The Bible says he got the wave breast and he got the heave shoulder. The wave breast, that speaks of Christ in resurrection. The heave shoulder, that's power, but it speaks of Christ exalted in glory. And I notice this, that that this man that's bringing his offering, what's he doing? He's strengthening priestly exercise. Are we priests? When he brings his offering, he's strengthening priestly exercise. And we're priests before God. And, you know, the more we offer, why here he's getting dressed in those things, but here, excuse me, he's being fed by those things. And a blessed thing for you to learn what it is to give to God and to strengthen the priestly exercise in God's assembly. But that's what they were doing. Feeding on a a a man that was weighed for the pleasure of God, a resurrected man, but feeding on a man that's been exalted to the right hand of God. But when I come to these offerings, what happens? The family takes the rest home. No, they don't, sorry, they take it into the court of the tabernacle there, and they feed on it there. Keeps us near, you know. Fellowship keeps us near. Sad thing when folks don't want fellowship, isn't it? And a sad thing when we don't want to be g- be together, and just to enjoy with thanksgivings those things which God has given to us. Brief. Dear brother said I can go on till nine o'clock. I've been very naughty. I've gone till quarter to. So forgive me, will you? Perhaps tomorrow night will not take so long. But the Lord bless you now in your appreciation of Christ and in your priestly activities before him. Shall we pray? Can I just say one thing before I go? Now, I do notice, see the altar, Yanda, please. You can relax a little now. See the altar. A lot of people speak about altar as the place where Christ gave himself in death for us for our sin. Child of God, sin offerings never went on there. That altar was only for burnt offerings, and that altar was only for the pleasure of God, and it would speak of the saints of God moving for the pleasure of God at that altar. There's a lovely thing in chapter six. It it talks about the priests in their activity around that altar, and it tells us that when they come, number one, they've got to put on clean clothes to be there. We must be clean if we're going to minister at the altar, chapter six. But then it tells us he's got to remove the ashes, uh, when he comes to minister at that altar. What were the ashes? They were yesterday's sacrifice, weren't they? In fact, the psalmist says, turn all thine, uh, thine offerings to ashes. It's the proof of the acceptance of God, uh, uh, uh, uh, of that which the saints of God have brought, which yesterday's sacrifice. Son of God. God doesn't want today what you gave him yesterday. Okay? You remove the ashes. I hear some reverend, you know, they only seem to have one, they keep bringing the ashes back and giving God the ashes. You get a fresh exercise, that's what God wants in your worship, and get something fresh to give to God, because God doesn't want yesterday's ashes. You remove them. You take them out into a clean place, but child of God, you don't just hoist them up. When I had a fire, I was always glad to come down in the morning and see that the end is still all clean. I don't have to work so hard. Let me tell you, that will work. At the end of the day, I've got to clean the thing out, I've got to start all over again. But let's have a fresh exercise about what we do in our ministry. God bless. Thank you.