Hartley, Mark: Levitical Offerings-06 ~ Lev

Read all of chapter three. It's a rather lengthy reading this morning, but all of chapter three and a good portion in chapter seven, dealing with the third of the offerings, the last of the free will sweet s- uh, savor offerings, the peace offering. And reading verse one. And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether male, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord. He shall lay his hand upon the head of the offering and kill at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. He shall offer the sacrifice of the peace offering, an offering made by fire unto the Lord, the fat that covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards, the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the cow above the liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And Aaron's son shall burn it all on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is by on the fire, is an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. And if his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering unto the Lord be of the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish. If he offer a lamb for his offering, he shall offer it before the Lord, and he shall lay his hand upon the head of the offering and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron's son shall sprinkle the blood thereof round about upon the altar. He shall offer the sacrifice of the peace offering, an offering made by fire unto the Lord, the fat thereof, and the whole rump, it shall he take off hard by the backbone, and the fat that covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the cow above the liver, with the kidneys, that shall he take away. And the priest shall burn it upon the altar. It is the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord. And if his offering be a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord, shall lay his hand upon the head of it and kill it before the tabernacle of the congregation, and the sons of Aaron shall sprinkle the blood thereof upon the altar round about, and shall offer thereof his offering, even an offering made by fire unto the Lord, the fat that covereth the inwards and all the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the cow above the liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away. The priest shall burn them upon the altar. It is the food of the offering made by fire for a sweet savor. All the fat is the Lord's. It shall be a perpetual statue for your generations throughout all your dwellings, that you eat neither fat nor blood. And over in chapter seven, and we'll begin reading in verse eleven. Chapter seven and verse eleven. And this is the law of the offering of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord. If he offered for thanksgiving, then he shall off- shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes min- mingled with oil of fine flour, fried. Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread for the sacrifice of Thanksgiving of his peace offerings. And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for a heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall he- shall be, and it shall be the priest to sprinkle the blood of the peace offerings. And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that is offered. He should not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow or voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offered the sacrifice, and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten. The remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. And if even the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it. It shall be an ab- an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. And the flesh that touches any unclean thing shall not be eaten. It shall be burnt with fire, and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings that pertain to the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from the people. Moreover, the soul that, that shall touch any unclean thing as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, any of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, You shall eat no manner of fat, or ox, or sheep, or of goat. The fat of the beast that dieth of itself, the fat of that which is torn with beast may be used in any other use, but you shall in no wise eat of it. For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, or of which man offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people. Moreover, you shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwelling. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall off- shall bring his oblation unto the Lord by the sacrifice of his peace offerings. His own hands shall bring the offering of the Lord made by fire. The fat with the breast it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord. The priest shall burn the fat upon the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron's and his son's. And the right shoulder shall you give unto the priest for a heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings. And among the children of Aaron that, that openeth the, excuse me, that offereth the blood of the peace offering and the fat shall have the right shoulder for his part. For the waved breast and the heaved shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of your peace offerings and have given them unto Aaron and his son, Aaron and the priest and his sons, by a statute forever from among the children of Israel. Let's just have another word of prayer. Our Father and our God in heaven, again, we are looking into very deep things this morning, things that, uh, even to many believers are hard to understand and hard to, uh, see the, the fullness of the, the type and the picture that is there, and yet we know that your spirit wants us to understand these things and guides us in all truth. And so we ask that he would have liberty among us, that our hearts might be open and receptive to receive the implanted word, that we might understand what we read, that we might apply it to our lives, and it might bring forth fruit, uh, eternal lasting fruit. And so, Father, we just thank you again. We lift up this time to you and the remainder of this day for the glory and praise of your son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, they said this is the, um, the last of the free will offerings, last of the sweet savor offerings, and and I don't want to make it seem like, well, you know, the sin offering and the trespass offering are of any less importance or of any less value before God. Obviously they are. Uh, the the the beauty of these first three offerings is that they talk about the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself willingly, gave himself voluntarily. He wasn't obliged to go to the cross, and that's a wonderful truth for us. Uh, you know, sometimes we feel obliged to do things, uh, especially as young people. I know my children, I've talked to some of you do the same thing. You know, our children didn't have a choice in a lot of things when they were young. Uh, they went to meetings, that was it. There wasn't any question about it, um, and uh, wasn't any doubt about it. And now they do it not because we force them to do it, they do it because it's the right thing to do, and they've learned that, and they've grown to the point in their maturity where that's where they want to be. But in the beginning, we forced them to do it. And so in oftentimes in our experience, we, we realize there's an obligation, there's an obligation to go to work, there's an obligation to, for mothers to get up in the morning and make food for their family and care for their family, and, and sometimes we have to do that. We just, we don't really want to, we don't really feel like it, but sometimes we feel obliged, and we all experience that. There's other times when we do it just because we really have a joy in doing it, and we really want to do it. But the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for us freely. He didn't feel any kind of obligation. He didn't feel any kind of restraint upon him. He gave himself willingly. And when we look at this peace offering, uh, McIntosh and his commentary made this statement: the main thought concerning the peace offering is the fellowship, the communion of the worshipper. Because this is the only offering, and I think it's i- I think it's important that it's the middle offering. There's two that come before and two that come after. This is the only offering that the offerer ate part of. In fact, he got the majority of the offering to take home and share with his friends and his family members. Everyone participated in this. The priest had a part, the God had a part, and the offerer had a part. It's the only offering like that, and its significance. You know, the, the whole idea of the peace offering is we have fellowship, and this is a wonderful thing, brethren. You, uh, reading in First John chapter one, we read this great truth, uh, in verse three, that which we have seen and have heard declare we unto you. Why? Why? Why was he th- why was the New Testament written? Why did, why were the epistles written? Why? That ye may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Now, we come from all different kinds of economic, educational, social, even sometimes cultural and, and national difference, uh, different, um, different places, backgrounds, and yet we all have something in common. And what's that, what do we all have in common? The Lord Jesus Christ, right? The fellowship that I have with any of you is because of him, and he's the one that only stands between us and God, but he's the one that stands between me and you. Isn't that a wonderful thing? And so how can we have fellowship apart from Christ? I, I, I can't have fellowship with someone except for the Lord Jesus Christ, and, and I, you know, I have brethren in, in, in other groups, in, in different denominations, and I love them and I appreciate them, but there's things that we don't agree on. But, but where's the fellowship? It's in Christ, and I can have as much fellowship with them as they have with Christ. And where they differ from the Word of God and from the Lord Jesus Christ, I can't have fellowship in that. I can't. It's impossible because we don't have those things in common. And, you know, Gerald and I go back and forth about this baseball thing. You know, he's, he's got a, his favorite team is one of those minor league teams, and, and I, I have a major league team as my favorite team, you know, the Cardinals, the world champion, two thousand five world champion Cardinals. And, you know, he supports the Yankees. I don't understand, but that's okay, you know, everybody has a choice in that. Well, you know, we can kid back and forth. We both like baseball, but that's where it ends, because he roots for the Yankees and I root for the Cardinals, and if they got in the World Series, you know, I mean, that'd be terrible, wouldn't it? You know, we'd almost be at enmity one with another, you know, because we differ on that. You see what I'm saying? The fellowship we have is we both like sports, we both like baseball, but that's where it ends. He supports one team and I support another. Well, the same thing is true as far as our Christian experience. I want to seek the, the unity that the Spirit has, and that we're all sons and daughters of God. We're all, uh, joint heirs of the Lord Jesus Christ. We all have things in common with him, but where others reject the truths of God's word, I can't participate in those things. You know, the big catch word today is tolerance. We've got to tolerate this and tolerate that. What, you show me one place in the word of God where Jesus Christ tolerates sin. He doesn't tolerate sin, and any deviation from the word of God is sin. It, it just is. It is. I, I was speaking in my home assembly, and this wasn't very popular, and it may not be very popular here. For, for a woman not to wear a head covering is sin. It, it's just sin. Why? Because it violates God's word. It says that a woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. Who's her head? The Lord Jesus Christ. We're not touching things that are just tradition here, we're touching the person and work of Christ. To have a one-man pastor is sin. Why? Because it denies the headship of Jesus Christ. He's the head, not a man. He's the one we look up to, not a man. To to go out on the mission field looking to men to provide for our needs, going out with a mission board and and and seeking funds and going out and looking to men to provide for us and asking people to give us guaranteed support, that's a violation of God's scripture. How did the s- the early missionaries go out just trusting the Lord? Why? Because we're not servants of men, we're servants of God. And I could go on and on and on. I can have fellowship with my brethren as long as they're in agreement with God's word, and when they separate from God's word, I can't participate. You know, the funny thing about this whole con- concept of tolerance, when people call for tolerance, the people that I know that say, Mark, you got to be tolerant, you got to be tolerant, are the most intolerant people that I know. They won't tolerate the truths of God's word, but they want me to tolerate the violations of God's word. You see? That's not right, brethren. We ought to love them. They're our brethren. We're going to see them in heaven someday, but that doesn't mean that I have to agree with and participate and tolerate the things that violate God's word. Our fellowship, you see, is with God. Now, the interesting thing about this, and and we're not going to go back and look at those verses because we, just for time's sake, because I want to finish this this morning and get to the sin offering tonight. But but the thing that you see here is everyone that participated in the in the offering, every single one, there was one thing they had in common. They all had to be holy. They all had to be clean. It didn't matter if it was the sons of the priest, didn't matter if it was the family members or the offerer himself, all of them had to be holy. All of them had to be clean. What fellowship? We get to chapter ten of First Corinthians, it talks about fellowship. The First Corinthians chapter ten talks about the table of the Lord, and the table of the Lord is something we'll enjoy for eternity. It talks about fellowship. Chapter eleven talks about the Lord's Supper, something totally different. That's going to end when we leave here. When we, with the day we leave this earth, we'll never celebrate the Lord's Supper again. We'll always have the Lord's table because the table speaks of fellowship. Uh, Psalm twenty three talks about the, the Lord sets a table before me in the midst of my enemies. Fellowship, even among the world, I have fellowship with God, and even my enemies see that. But it says in First Corinthians chapter ten, how, how can we have fellowship with darkness? How can the sons of God have fellowship with the sons of Belial? How can we participate in the things of God and then go participate in the things of the world? That's what's so interesting. You know, we, we, we, especially, you know, young people, we go, we come to the meetings here and, and, and we, we participate in the things here, and then we go out and participate in the things in the world. You, you can't do that. You can't live part in the world and part in Christ. You, it's, it's impossible. I, I, I always give people the illustration. Go, go dig a hole in the ground, you know, nice big hole in the ground about a foot, two foot deep, and then stand on that hole. Put one foot on, on the side, on the, the ground, and one foot on the hole, and then put fifty percent of your weight on that foot that, that's above the hole. Fifty percent on this, this foot and fifty percent on this foot. You know what'll happen? You'll fall in the hole every time. Try it sometime. You'll fall in the hole. And that's what happens if you try to live part in the world and part in Christ. You're going to fall every time. You always will. You can't be stable like that. You've got to live in Christ. Our fellowship is with Him, and we can't have fellowship with the world. Friendship with this world is enmity with God. It's, if we're friends with this world, we're enemies with God. And that's what we got to realize. I mean, that's the whole beauty of the, of the peace offering. The Lord Jesus Christ has made peace by the blood of his cross. He's made peace with God on our behalf. We were enemies of God. I- if, if you didn't see yourself as an enemy of God, then, then what did you get saved from? I was lost. I was undone. I saw myself as in this great tra- tragic place of being under the condemnation and wrath of God. And I'll tell you what, it scared me to death. It scared me to death. I- I- I realized I was an enemy of God. Friendship with this world is enmity with God. You can't have both. You can't serve manna, you can't serve the things of this world and serve God at the same time. It's impossible. You can't have two masters. Have any of you ever have tried to have two bosses at work? I mean, I've had that before. It is the most ridiculous, most difficult thing because one tells you to do one thing and one tells you to do another thing. Which one do you obey? You're gonna get in trouble either way. Could get fired either way. You can't serve two. So it's either with God or with the world. We've got to make a choice. But the great thing is Jesus Christ saw us in our condition as enemies of God. God wasn't our enemy, we were his enemy. But the Lord Jesus Christ made peace, didn't he? Now, this is a wonderful thing. We not only have peace with God, but the God, God, it says in Romans, God is the God of peace, and we have the peace of God ruling and reigning in our hearts. I, I, I can relax. You know, the one thing of the, when the offerer came back from offering this, this peace offering, he came back with joy. He not only had offered that offering on the, on the altar, but he brought back part of it with him, and that joy was shared with his family, with his friends. Do, do we share the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we share the joy that we have in our salvation with our family and friends? Do they see it in us? Or do they see us as cynical, uh, uh, just, um, depressed people out there that we just kind of drag along down the street? Oh yeah, we're happy when we're in meetings, when we're with other Christians, but we kind of just drag through life. I- is that what should characterize our lives? Should we be joyful? You know, the difference between joy and happiness is happiness can be, can be, um, um, brought about or taken away by circumstances. But joy is something we have all the time. Nobody can take my joy away from me. Because God is the God of peace. He's made peace on my, the Lord Jesus Christ has made peace on my behalf with God, and he, he ge- he fills me with his, his peace. Be anxious for nothing, but everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Isn't that a wonderful thing? We have peace with God, and we can rest in that. We know that, that we're not, no longer at enmity. We know there's no longer something that separates us from God. And here's the wonderful thing. Now, this, this is how different God is from the world. You know, oftentimes when there's a war that takes place, and, and there is, um, uh, an end of the battle and they have a, a peace treaty. Okay, in the peace treaty, what, what oftentimes, if not always happens, is the victor receives the spoils, doesn't he? He receives part of the territory or some kind of renumeration or something like that. He receives something back. And the person that lost loses something, doesn't he? Isn't that, isn't that the usual? Isn't that the norm? That almost always happens, if not every time. But look at it. God was the victor. We were the spoil. He didn't get anything, really. Nothing was added to him when we were saved. We were the ones that were the benefactors. God didn't need us. I mean, you look at us, and we're a pretty ragged crew. We're a pretty rough bunch. Look what God got for his, his, his, uh, the offering of his son. He got us. He got us. And what did we get? Oh, we, we haven't even begun to imagine what we've gotten, brethren. We we we've tasted a little bit of it down here. We haven't even tasted the fullness of it. When we get into heaven, we're going to be shocked. We're going to be shocked at everything that's there waiting for us. You know, any we we talk about it, and it's easy to say. Anybody that goes up to heaven, none of them would come back down here. None of them would trade what they have up there for what they have down here. So if we know that, why are we so caught up with the things of this world? We were seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, and that's one of the things this peace offering brings out, he died as our representative. He died as our substitute. We could even say to the point that he died there in our place to the point that, that we actually died there on the cross. And when he rose again, we rose again from the dead. And when he ascended up into heaven, we ascended up into heaven. What does Paul say? We are seated right now in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Look at all the things we have. God just didn't say, okay, what we're going to do is we're going to cease any kind of hostility between you and me. We'll just leave it right there, and we'll just... that- that's how we do sometimes. Okay, we won't fight anymore. God didn't do that. He said, not only will you not be my enemy anymore, you're going to be my son. You're going to be a joint heir of my son, the Lord Jesus Christ, of everything I have. That's what the peace of God has brought in. That's a wonderful thing. And, and again, the great thing about that is everybody participated. Everybody went away satisfied. Are we satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ? Are we satisfied with him, or are we still looking for something else? I see a lot of Christians that aren't satisfied. Oh, we have to have entertainment. Well, we don't want to have a Bible study tonight. We've got to have entertainment, you know? We got to watch some silly video, or we got to play some game, or we got to do this, that, or the other. Man once told me when I, when I after I was saved, he said, Mark, what you save them with is what you save them to. If you save them with just skits and entertainment and, and that kind of stuff, which is what these mega churches are doing now, that's what you're going to save them to. And the problem is the church down the street has a better show going on than you do, and they're going to go from here to there to there, and that's what's happening, especially in America today. One brother, Bill Gustafson, some of you might know he's talking about in Augusta, Georgia. He drove by this one, um, church building, and they have a aerobics class there and thing, and they said, um, but on the marquee that day it said, like you all have out here, on the marquee it said this, Sunday evening worship, volleyball in the gym. You say, oh, that's terrible. That, that could never happen here. I don't think they probably thought that years ago would ever happen there either. We got to guard against those things. You see, we got to be satisfied with the Lord Jesus Christ. We got to come here and be enthralled with him. He's the lover of our souls. He's the one that we should long after. We should want to come here and hear of Christ. Not of men, not of man's entertainment, but just be satisfied with Christ. The Father was satisfied with him, wasn't he? This is my well-beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He was satisfied. He ate the fat. Now, the fat is that part of the offering that talks about the energy, that talks about the strength of the, of the, of the animal, the sweetness of it. You know, you have a piece of meat, you cut all the fat off, and it just kind of is there, doesn't have a whole lot of flavor, does it? Doesn't have a whole lot of flavor. The fat is what gives the flavor to it. That's why, you know, some of us are more flavorful than others, you know? The fat is what gives the flavor. All the flavor went up to God, didn't it? None of the fat was left for the priest or for the people. All the flavor went up to God. And the true flavor of the sacrifice for Christ, we've already seen this, was reserved for God. Just like the incense, the frankincense was all reserved for him. That's reserved for God. But God is generous. The priest, and that represents Christ in his ministry to us as a priest, as a mediator. He was satisfied, wasn't he? Isn't it interesting? You don't hear any voice from heaven in John chapter nineteen when the Lord Jesus Christ is hanging on a cross, and you hear those words, it is finished. Who decided it was finished? Jesus Christ did. He was the one that was satisfied. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand. Jesus Christ was satisfied. I, I like that, you know? Because, you know, you and I sometimes we do things and we're not satisfied with it. I, I think sometimes when we build something or do something, we're the least satisfied, aren't we? We always know we could have done something more. We always know we could have done something better, right? Some people look at it and say, oh, what a wonderful thing, you know, look at what you've done, look at what you've built. Wow, that's beautiful, that's wonderful. And we look at it with a different eye, and we say, yeah, but it's got a flaw right there, and I had to do this right there, and we, we know that, we know the mistakes that we made. We know that we could have done better. But the Lord Jesus Christ knew that was it. He did it all. He was the one that was satisfied. He was the one that said, it is finished. What a wonderful truth. And then you and I are satisfied. You know, this offering could be offered up as two different kinds of offering. It could be offered up as a vow or as a thanksgiving, and the difference between the two is they always offered up a meat offering with those, and even one of them in the Thanksgiving offering, it had leaven in one of the cakes, and they were offered up as a heave offering, not laid upon the altar. We saw that ye- uh, last time, but they were offered up as a heave offering before the Lord, and then the priest would take those home. And the difference was the Thanksgiving offering had to be eaten the same day, and the vow had to be eaten by the third day. Now you say, what's the difference? Well, the, the Thanksgiving offering talks about praise, talks about worship. Um, the, the, uh, vow offering talks about service. And you know, the third day speaks of the resurrection. And what's the difference? Okay. Well, the Thanksgiving offering speaks of the fact that every day we've got to glean something from God's word and praise him. You can't carry things over. You know, the manna came down every day. You can't just say, well, I'm going to read the word of God today and not read it tomorrow. I'll read it this day and, and, and won't read it for a few more days. You know, I get enough. I read extra today, and that takes up for what I didn't read yesterday. That's not the way what God's word is. We've got to glean from it every day. Every day we ought to get on our knees and say, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for all the things you give to me. I- I'm just amazed. I- I- I'll tell you, I- I was just, just praying this morning. I was just saying, Lord, I don't understand why you give me the wife and children you give me. I- I don't understand it. I can't understand why you would entrust me with them. And I just thank you for them. I thank you. I just think this morning, thinking, just thinking about you all and how kind y'all been to me. I talked about it the other night, and I just can't believe it. I mean, if y'all really knew me, you wouldn't be that nice to me. Seriously. And I mean, I say that seriously, you know, and I probably, if I knew you, I wouldn't be that nice to you. If we really knew what the inner man, if we really saw all the thoughts and intents of the heart of each one of us, it's pretty wicked in there, isn't it? But God knows all that. He knows all that, and we ought to get down on our knees and say, thank you, Lord. I don't deserve to be saved today, let alone twenty seven years ago when you saved me. I'm still a sinner. I still sin against you every day. I don't understand why you saved me, but I thank you that you did. We should be joyful every day as we glean from God's word what the Lord Jesus Christ did. We should feed upon him every day. Now, not many of us go a day without eating. Sometimes circumstances, or maybe we just decide to fast, or maybe we're on a diet, but we don't go any day usually without eating some food, drinking some water, drinking something. How can we go and let our souls thirst and hunger for the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, then the vow talks about service, and isn't it a wonderful thing that the service of the Lord carries on and on and on and on until we see him? Now, let me ask you something. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he, when he, when he rose again from the dead, he could have, he could have gone straight up into heaven, couldn't he? He didn't have to stay down here. Why'd he stay down here? He stayed down here as, as, as a resurrected, glorified savior that he might minister to the to the um the apostles, to the saints, that he might prepare them for the work that was there for them. And then what God does for us, you know, there's an interim between the fact that we've been born again, we've been, we've been, uh, justified, we've been sanctified, we've been glorified. All those are in the past tense in Romans chapter eight. but there's, there's a practical time between now, when we were saved, and when we see the Lord, when we're taken up into heaven and made like him. And there's where the service is. Our service goes on day by day and carries on for the Lord, and that service spreads over into our family and friends. They didn't just bring that, that animal home and, and, and just reserve it on themselves. I mean, this was, this was a spotless animal without any blemish. It was perfect. They could have kept it for themselves, but they shared it with their family and friends. And isn't that what the Lord wants us to do? He wants us not just to serve for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others, and give it all to him. Um... Only got a few more minutes, so I want to look and see what exactly... what else I want to talk about. Oh. The, um, when the offering was offered up, as I said before, the fat was reserved for the Lord. There was two parts that were reserved for the priest. Um, the priest who offered up the peace offering, the one who actually did the sacrificing, laying it upon the altar, got the right thigh. Now, the right thigh speaks of strength and power. He offered that up as a wave offering to the Lord, and then he took it home and ate it with his family. The, the, the strength and the power, isn't that where we get our strength and our power from us, from the Lord? Isn't that what gives us the impetus? What were the very first words the Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples on the day that he rose again from the dead? When he walked into the room or went through that door, walked into the room, what were the very first words out of his mouth? Some brother remember? Peace be unto you. Peace. Isn't that a wonderful thing? These guys were downhearted. These guys were as low as you could possibly get. I mean, here was their Lord. He had been crucified. They thought this was the one that was going to be the Messiah, the savior of the people, the one that will restore Israel to its place. I mean, you couldn't get any farther down than these guys were. And what's the words that the Lord gives them to power, giving them power and strength, joy, peace. Peace. Wow, how those words must have fallen upon those ears. Peace be unto you. Peace be unto you. And then he showed them his hands and his feet in the side. Then he showed them the marks of his redemption. What joy must have filled their hearts that day. Isn't that, you think that's going to be some of the first words he's going to say to us when we get up into heaven? I mean, isn't that what's going to flood our souls when we get there, the peace of God? I mean, what I can say, we experience it here, but we experience it in such a, a, a, a, a way that's so incomplete. We don't really understand it. When we finally see God, we're going to understand what peace is all about. We're going to understand what it's all about. And then the other part that was given to the priest was the breast. That was to given to all the other priests, that, that part of the animal, the, the, the right shoulder and, uh, was given to the, to the, um, the priest that made the offering, the right thigh, excuse me, but the, the breast was given to the off- to the other priest, and they offered it up as a wave offering, and the breast speaks of affection and love. And isn't that the other aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ? Not only does he give us strength and power, but don't we feel that place of affection? I know one of the things that really has been in just so precious to me. My, my dad left when I was about a year and a half old, just, just abandoned the family, and my mother raised us four, four children. She had to work. We started working when we were young, and, uh, one of the things that has always been precious to me is God is my father. He said he would be the father to the fatherless and husband to the widows. And those of us here that are fatherless in that sense, I mean, my dad's alive. I've seen him a few times in my life, but I never really had a father. And those of us that are like that, don't have fathers, and those dear sisters that don't have husbands. I think the Lord is even more precious to us, even more special to us. I just think of times when, I just think of when I get to heaven, I just think I just can't wait to be like the Apostle John. I just want to lay my head on the Lord's breast. I just want to hold him and be held by him. I just long for that, you know? That affection, that love. You know, sometimes in this world we don't feel love, do we? Sometimes in this world we don't feel appreciated. Sometimes in this world we don't feel that anybody cares about us. We all get like that, but from time to time, maybe some of us more than others. But you know what? You go to Christ, and you always feel love. You always feel that affection. You always feel that tenderness. You always feel that compassion. Nobody can give that to you. No human can give that to you. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can. And he gathers us unto his breast. We lay our head there and we rest. How can we rest? Because we have peace. What does a mother do for a crying child? What does she do? She holds him close to her breast. She cuddles him there, that warm, soft place of affection, and he has peace there. And that child that's crying and can't go to sleep, that's where he finds peace. That's where he rests. That's where he lays his head. The Lord Jesus Christ had nowhere to lay his head, except at the end of his life, he laid on his own breast. He invites each one of us to come and find peace there, laying our head on the breast of the Lord Jesus Christ. Love and affection is found there. McIntosh said this also, the worshiper is introduced not merely as a spectator, but as a participator, not merely to gaze, but to feed. And the wonderful thing, in just a few moments, each one of us is going to come here and participate, not just spectators. We're not like a football game or a baseball game or some sports event or some movie or theater, theatrical event. We're going to come here as participators, every single one of us, the men audibly, the sisters in silence, but we're all going to participate. We're all going to partake. You know, the peace offering, everyone took a part of it and ate it, and the Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter six that we take of his flesh and we take of his blood and we participate. Now, not literally. Some would say that, but that's not the way it is. Symbolically, we do it, but we've done it, haven't we? We've all participated in the Lord Jesus. We've all eaten of him. We've all drunk of his blood. We've all participated in him. He indwells us. You know, when you eat food, it becomes a part of you, and we e- when we partake of the Lord Jesus Christ, he be- he indwells us. We're participators in him. We're not just spectators, and we ought to be excited about that. And every man in this assembly that knows the Lord Jesus ought to look forward to with anticipation, with a great desire. I want to participate. I want to be a part of it. I want to stand up and lead the saints in remembrance of the Lord Jesus. And you know what the Father does? He partakes of that offering, and he is satisfied. What a wonderful thing. What a wonderful thing. The feeble sacrifice that we give him of our hearts and of our lips this morning, God looks down and he says, I am satisfied. Just as he was with this peace offering that the offerer brought. He's satisfied. Oh, brethren, let's come. Let's come with holy, sanctified lives. Let's confess our sins before we ever walk through this door. That's the only ones that could participate, the ones that had their sins confessed, the ones that were living holy and righteous lives. The rest couldn't. It was an abomination if they did. Let's come here with holy, sanctified lives, and let's be participators in the peace offering that is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our Father and our God in heaven, we thank you for him, the Lord Jesus. His offering, his person, his work is so vast, so wonderful. We haven't even scratched the surface of it. We haven't even begun to understand it. The fullness of it will only be known when we see him there in glory. Then we'll know as we ought to know. Then we'll understand as we should understand. But Father, in the interim, have mercy upon us. With our finite minds, with our limited experience, with our limited understanding of your word, help us to appreciate the great work of your son, the Lord Jesus, in making peace with you on our behalf, with being that peace offering, making peace by the blood of his cross, bridging that gap between sinful man and a holy and righteous God. Let us revel in that. Let us rejoice in your son. Guide us this morning in just a few moments as we gather together again in this place, with the thought in mind to gather unto the Lord Jesus, to see him pictured to us in the emblems that he gave us in the bread and in the cup, to gather around him and worship him as only he is worthy, to bring thoughts to you concerning him, that your heart might be filled and pleased with the fruit of our lips, the sacrifice of our hearts. And might the Lord Jesus Christ leave at the end of that time, or or be finished at the end of the time with pleased with what we've offered up. And might you be pleased, and might we be pleased, rejoicing in our salvation, rejoicing in our Savior. Blessed now, Father, again, not w- that we because we deserve it, but for the glory and praise of your name. We ask these things and give you thanks through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.