Two Sweet Smelling Offerings

God's work that He is doing through Christ is manifold. It's got many aspects to it. Sometimes it's easy for us to think, well, it's one aspect that's just preaching the Gospel, but it's not. It's one aspect that's off. It's not many aspects. Christ is doing the Father's will. If He turned with me, please, to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. Let's see how the Father Christ is doing His work. I mean, the Father is doing His work through Christ. I must spoke there and apologize. How the Father is doing His work through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ. So, Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 through 19, it says, talking about Christ, He is the image of the invisible God, which is the Father, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him, all things were created by Christ. All things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. It was even angels that we can't see were created by Christ. Where the crowns, the dominions, the principalities of powers, all the authorities that we don't even begin to understand in heavenly realm, they all were created and appointed by Christ. All things were created through Him, through Christ and for Him. And He is above all things, and in Him all things consist. He keeps them running. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things in Christ may He have three elements. Verse 19, for it cleansed the Father, that in Him, that's in Christ, all the fullness should dwell. It cleansed the Father that everything should go through Christ, that He would have all that authority under the Father, and therefore we can easily say the Father is the Creator. But He created everything through Christ. And we can also say Christ is the Creator, therefore, it's not in opposition, it's just that the Father decided, made the decisions, and all the execution was done through Christ. So we can say that Christ has many names. For instance, Christ is our Savior. Look at Titus chapter 1 verse 4. Titus chapter 1 verse 4. It says, to Titus, a true son in our companion faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. So Christ is our Savior. But, as I said, so is the Father. The Father is also our Savior, because He instructed Christ to do that act of saving. And so the Father is our Savior. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 1. It says, Paul and the apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God, our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Hope. So the Father is our Savior. So both titles are applicable, or titles are applicable to both.

But it does not mean that Christ is above the Father. He's completely under the Father, under the authority of the Father. So the Father instructed Christ to do all these things. In a sense, it's like He delegated everything to Jesus Christ and proved Christ under the Father's instruction, under the Father's rule, and the Messiah did everything. Look also at what the Father says to Jesus Christ in Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8 and 9. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8 and 9.

And this is saying, speaking about the Father's back to the Son. So this is the Father saying to the Son, Hebrews chapter 1 verse 8. He says, Your throne, O God. So the Father is speaking to Christ and saying, Your throne, O God. It's for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, that is Christ, your God, which is the Father, has anointed you.

So this is the Father himself using that terminology. So Christ has many titles. His work has many fold views of aspects. For instance, we know He's our Messiah, Christ, Messiah, the anointed one.

As we've seen, He's our Creator. We saw that. We know He's our High Priest. He's our King, King of Kings. He's our Lord, Lord of Lords. So He's got many aspects of His function because everything comes to Him. So all those titles come to Him. And so when we look at that, one of the functions of Christ was to save us, to reconcile us to the Father. And therefore, part of that process of action was to do an offering of His body, of His life, for us. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 with me. Hebrews chapter 10. There's a few titles ahead. Hebrews chapter 10. We're starting in verse 1. It says, For the law, having a shadow of things to come. Which law? As you're going to see in the context, as we're going to read in a moment, the law is the ceremonial law, the law of offerings. It's a shadow of things to come. And not the very image of the things. So it's not the reality, it's just a shadow. It's just a picture of the reality. And so, can never with these kind of sacrifices, so if you talk about in the law, because of these sacrifices, the law of sacrifices or offerings, which they offer continually, year by year, make those who approach perfect. You see, because those sacrifices don't make the people perfect, because the real sacrifice is Christ. For then, would they not have cause to be seized? Have not peace to be offered available? For the worshippers, once unified, would they have no more conscious substance? So, that's it. They would not feel guilty. The sacrifice would be done. Do it once, and that's right. They don't have to do sacrifices, those physical sacrifices, any further. But, verse 3, in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. They have to do them around every year. They have to do them every day, morning and evening, and there were specific sacrifices, some were daily, morning and evening, some were weekly, some were monthly, some were at the feast days, etc. Verse 4, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Those offerings did not wipe away sins. Therefore, when it came into the world, he said, that's in Christ, said sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. A physical body was prepared for the world, and the world received a physical body and became incarnated in the physical body, prepared for him. If you burn off in the sacrifice, then you have no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come. Christ came in a physical body, because he had a body. In the volume of the book, he's written of me, that's of Christ, to do your will of God, or Heavenly Father, the highest. Previously saying, sacrifice and offering, burn offerings and offerings for sin, you did not desire. No end-pleasure in them, which are offered according to the Lord. Obviously, this is the ceremonial offering that that Lord of Offers. Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will of Father, of God, in the words of the highest. So Christ is saying, he came to do his will. He takes away the first, then he may establish the second. Takes away those first offerings, so that the second offering, which is Christ, the reality is the one. By that will, we have been sanctified. We have been made right with God. We've made justified. We will, I beg your pardon, we may, not only justify, we may reconcile with the Father. We sanctify, make, make, set aside and clean and perfect through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So those offerings only pointed to Christ.

Look a little bit further in verse 14. For by one offering, that's Christ's offering, he has perfected forever. That one offering is enough to make us perfect. There's no need of additional offerings.

Those who are being sanctified, as, which were not so right, we still mess up now and again, some of us a bit more often than others, but we're all messed up and then, but that offering is enough to perfect us. There's no need of another offering of Christ. So we are being sanctified. So that law, as we saw in verse 1, the law of offerings, was a shadow of good things to come, which is Christ's sanctified offering for us.

So these physical offerings pointed to Christ. But you know, as we mentioned, Christ has many aspects of his work. There are many, therefore, many spiritual lessons that we can derive from the ceremonial laws of these offerings. There are many lessons we can derive. And so by studying the offerings in the vititas, and basically five types of offerings from the vititas, one from the vititas, one from the vititas, five, one per chapter. And they are repeated in chapter 6 and 7 with a few additional points. But there's basically five offerings.

They highlight various aspects of the sacrifice of Christ. The interesting thing is that the first three, that's the vititas one, the vititas two, and the vititas three, the first three offerings are sweet-smelling to God.

The other two, the vititas four and the vititas five, are not sweet-smelling to God, because they represent sin. Which means the first three have other lessons, important lessons for us. And today, brethren, I want to cover the first two of those offerings, the vititas one and the vititas two, which are sweet-smelling, aromas to God. And I want to, by giving a quick synopsis of these two offerings, I want to highlight some spiritual lessons that we can derive from those physical offerings.

Now, there is an interesting book about these offerings. The book is The Law of the Offerings, and it's by Andrew Jukes. And I use some of the reference material from there, but it's a very interesting book. But obviously, I use the Bible as the source of everything. The Bible is our source. So, when, and you might just want to go to Leviticus chapter one, and maybe put a mark there, because it will be in and out of Leviticus, so it will make the capability of going back to Leviticus quicker.

But as we look at these offerings here, each offering is a different aspect of Christ's work. For instance, let me give you some examples of different aspects. For instance, look at about the Israelites, and you say, okay, what can I learn about Israelites? You can look at one aspect of the Israelites, for instance, about their life in Egypt.

You can look at a different aspect of the Israelites' life about their life in the wilderness. You can look at a different aspect of Israelites' life about their life in a promised land. And there you can look at the time of the Judges, the time of kings, etc. Then you can look at a different aspect of Israelites' life as far as their time in exile. You see, those different aspects give you different perspectives. Let's give you another example of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, basically of his life.

Now, there is both the Gospel of Christ and the Gospel of the Kingdom. The Gospel of the Kingdom is what we aim for. The Gospel of Christ is what Christ did do in his physical life, and that it is our failure. And that the Gospel of Christ is a part of, a component of the Gospel of the Kingdom, a subset of it.

But it is an important subset that has to be highlighted during the early Church history as well. But when you look at the story of, or the four books of the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you see different aspects, or let's call it different eyewitnesses, of Christ's life.

I've got an interesting book that I'm reading around called, called Case Christianate. I think that's what it's called. It's an analysis of a man which is an homicidal inspector. And so he learns certain techniques, because you're coming to an homicide or a situation, and there's a dead body.

And then he will do some research to try to identify, from the different witnesses' stories, etc., the reality. And what is true. And it is very interesting, because it shows how, under certain circumstances, the detective looks at this information and analyzes the different witnesses' reports, which at times they may appear to contradict, you know, but they don't when you look at it in more detail. And then he says, by looking at those witnesses' reports, you can then determine the truth by putting it together.

And in this book he looks at that, and then he says, Christ believes this, and he did die, and all that. He proves it by using those witnesses' reports and eliminating different things, just purely as a detective would do. So I thought, it's an easy reading book, and I enjoyed it, I'm reading it, and I'm nearly halfway through it, and it's very interesting.

But looking at Christ's Gospel, if you look at Matthew's viewpoint, you're looking at the king. If you look at from Mark's viewpoint, which all indications are that actually Mark was ascribed for Peter. So it's actually Peter's eyewitness report. It looks at Christ as a servant. Then if you look at Luke, it looks at Christ as the Son of Man. And therefore, in Luke, there's a lot of comments about his genealogy, about his early life, his story, how he grew as a man. So there's a lot of stories relating to him as a man.

So it's an eyewitness view from a different aspect of his life. And then if you look at the last one, the Gospel according to John, it looks at it as the Son of God. So it looks at it from a different angle. And so a lot of other things that were not mentioned in the others are then told in from an aspect of being the Son of God. So you can see there's different aspects to Christ's life. And so likewise, when you look at the offerings, we see different aspects of the offering that Christ did for us. The first one, which is in Leviticus 1, is a burnt offering. The burnt offering.

So if we just read from verse 1 to verse 3, it says, It's a burnt offering of the earth. Then it goes into some detail, but now talking about the things of the earth. A little lighter talks about the things of the flock.

A little lighter talks about the things of birds. So, but just continuing on, looking at the example, the things of the earth. So, yeah, there's a few interesting things. First, it's a burnt offering, which means it's completely burnt. There's nothing left over. It's completely burnt. Second, it's a mild.

Third is without blench. And fourth, it's a free will offering, because it says, It shall offer it of its free will at the door of the tabernacle. So, some people may want to offer it today, or may not want to offer it, may want to offer it some other time in the future. It's a free will offering, a voluntary offering. So, there are different, interesting lessons about Christ's sacrifice.

You see, Christ is offering. Christ is also the one that made the offer because he offered his own body. And Christ is also represented as a high priest. Those are interesting things, though. But it represents, because it's a complete offering, Christ's complete sacrifice of his body. He gave up his life completely. He didn't leave a little bit of it behind. He gave it up completely. It's a mild. There's no sin. There's no blemish. And as you see later on, they expect inside as well when they open it up. So, there's no blemish inside or outside. You can see voluntary, free will. Christ offered himself free, over the free will. He was not forced. Nobody took it from him. Look at some scriptures about that. Let's first John chapter 3 verse 16. It's a very well-known scripture that we all know. John chapter 3, 16. Because now we see the Father offered Christ. So, there is the Father offering his Son, but we'll see the next scripture that the Son himself offered himself voluntary as well. And so, let's look at John chapter 3 verse 16.

For God did not send his son in the world to condemn the world, but at the world through him might be saved. So, reconcile the world. Now, note it's the world. It's not just the church. It's the world. And so, when we look at things into understanding the feast and the eighth day or the last great day in a meeting, where the whole world will have an opportunity in its time. It's for the world. It wasn't just for a few. Let's look at another example in Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians chapter 2 verses 6 through 8. We'll start in verse 5.

As we read a little earlier, Hebrews says, the Father said to the Son, God, your God. So, who was in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal to God. In other words, it did not consider it to be what we'd call it today, identity theft to be called God. There was no identity theft. That's what he was. Verse 7.

So it was a complete sacrifice. He gave his whole life. Now, quite often, you and I may just think, or maybe initially we only think of Christ giving up life, physical life.

But think about it. He was prepared to give up his eternal life. Because he divested himself of that power freely and became a human being and had his sins. That was it. So, he gave up everything. It was a complete burnt offering. He gave up everything. And look in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14.

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God? He offered himself and he had no blemish. So that burnt offering was voluntary. He offered himself and he had no blemish. He had no spot. And because of that, he cleanses your conscience from dead works, exterbed the living God.

So Jesus offered himself. There was no blemish and cleansed it. In other words, he reconciles it, atounds it to God. Look at John chapter 10. John chapter 10 verse 17 and 18. John chapter 10 verse 17 and 18. John chapter 10 verse 17 and 18. Therefore my father loves me because I lay down my life. I lay down. He did it himself. I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down. You know, look at it when I let us in, you know, are you king? And he didn't defend himself because he laid down his life completely. Had he defended himself, he would have held something back. But it was a complete burn off. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. Just come on, I have received from the Father. How does he have power to take it again? Because he has power not to sin, because he's God's only Spirit. And because he knows he's not going to sin, it will be given back to him.

Now, he was tempted like we all are, but he knew that he was not going to come to temptation and to trust. That's quite something. So let's continue back with Leviticus chapter 1. So that represents Christ, an amazing burnt offering. And then verse 4, Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted on his the earth to make a tongue for the infant.

So the man shall put the stand on his the head, and it will be accepted on his the earth to make a tongue for him. So he cleanses our sins and cleanses us.

We as ourselves, because in this case, he was the human being offering the bullock, and he would put the hand on that offering, which was representing Christ, and he would be a tongue. He would be reconciled. Look at verse 5. He shall kill the bull. Now, who kills the bull? It's the offeror. It's the person that's doing the offering.

We all have a responsibility, not just Christ. And so he had to kill the bull, which obviously represents power and the glory of God, and that's why they had three types of offerings. Three types of offerings was a bull, as it says, from the livestock, and there's also the herd, which was a goat or a lamb, which then represented a different facet of Christ, because the bull represents the strength and the glory. The lamb represents that willingness to follow, and the sheep, that submission, and then could be a goat, which represents leadership, or could be turtle dogs, for instance, which represents that sincerity and generalness of Christ. You see how it's different aspects of a wonderful sacrifice that Christ is doing for us. But the interesting thing, the idea is that the person has a responsibility, the offeror has a responsibility.

We have a responsibility to put on our minds and our hearts the love for the truth. It's our responsibility. We have a responsibility. A responsibility to love the truth. And look at Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. And so this sacrifice points not only to Christ, but points to our living sacrifice, which is going to be complete. Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

I beseech you therefore brethren, by the message of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. So it's no more just a body that's killed, but it's our life that we are giving as a living sacrifice. How? By our deeds, by our deeds, by our actions, by becoming more like Christ. So we have a part to do. So it's lessons for us as well that we've got to do it completely, not just all back. And it continues that. It says, holy, acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service. And do not be conformed to the soul, but be transformed, be changed by renewing your mind completely, inside, change, a whole complete lack of bad offering, that you may prove, it was that you may examine yourself and prove. Prove means examine yourself. The Greek word dokimasu means you examine yourself. You really analyze yourself to determine what is good and acceptable and perfect. The world of God. So that is our duty to God. Put it in very simple words. It's our love to God. Love God first. Put God first. About all else, our love to God. He has a bird offering, which symbolizes our complete dedication, commitment, sacrifice of our lives, living sacrifice, living offering, completely to God, putting God first. So we ask to serve and obey and please God, not because we have to, but because we want to, a free world of it, because we want to. Can we see how these sacrifices, when we start meditating on them, wow! They bring so much meaning, which is spiritual to it.

Let's continue in verse 7. First Leviticus chapter 1 verse 7. The sons of Aaron are the priests, so put fire on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. And then the priests, Aaron's sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon altar. Everything is done in order. The wood is laid out in order.

There's an order. The head is put first in order, and then the fat in order. It's all organized and in order, representing Christ's body, which is the church, which everything is to be done decently and in order. And Jesus Christ is the head of the body, and that is put first. And then the fat, which belongs to God, which is basically represents the health and wealth of Christ in order. And then in verse 9, initial washed its entrails and its legs with water.

Its entrails and its legs. The entrails are the inward parts, representing the inner emotions, the inner feelings. Look at Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1 verse 8. Philippians chapter 1 verse 8. For God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all with the affection of Jesus Christ, with those internal feelings of Christ. Really gentle, loving, grace and kindness of Christ.

Look also in chapter 2 verse 1. It's probably there in the same page where you open. Philippians chapter 2 verse 1. Therefore, if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy. Those are the inner parts, the inner feelings, the inner emotions, the bowels of mercy, as it says elsewhere, remember? The bowels of mercy there. The bowels of Jesus Christ, that inner part. And then it says also, the legs, which points the way, right? You walk with the legs, the way of life.

Then you and I are supposed to walk. And then it says you gotta wash them with water. What does water mean? God's only Spirit. God's only Spirit. The fruit of God's only Spirit. And that's why the sacrifice is a sweet aroma to God. Because when you first look at it, it says, how about burning a whole animal? But it is a simple You didn't have to do it. You did it when you felt encouraged and compelled to do it. And maybe you did it, as it says, for a bullock. Or maybe you did it with a sheep or with a turtle dog.

But if you were a poet, you did not have to offer the others. The turtle dogs would be fine. But it shows those different characteristics of Christ. Different aspects. Let's continue back in verse 9. We read just the first part of verse 9. But it shall wash its entrails and its legs with wood. And the priest shall burn it on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to God.

You see, the sacrifice is but no sin. It represents Christ in this case. It represents the willingness of Him to give of Himself completely. Completely, voluntarily. And it's a pleasing sacrifice to God. It's our living sacrifice which is pleasing to God. Look a bit further, for instance, in verse 10.

It says, So that soft gentleness of Christ. So people, as we see, people had the liberty to offer as they were inspired, as they were moved. And over time, they may have had a deeper understanding of these things. And they offered, therefore, maybe they felt like doing a big offering. Because maybe initially, they didn't fully understand, etc. Maybe they just said, well, we'll just offer to God. But then maybe when they saw that commitment and understanding, the offering became vegan. They said, well, I'll offer of my sheep and my goats, which are very precious for the family.

That was part of their income. And then later on, they may have a deeper understanding in the years, 30 years down the road. And then they were offered a whole book. It was voluntary. Can we see how it applies to us? It's not so much meaning. So it's a total commitment to God, a complete surrender of our lives. And Jesus Christ's life was completely consumed in doing the work of God.

And therefore, the question is, are our lives completely consumed in doing the work of God? So let's look at the next one, which is Leviticus 2. And let's read just verse 1 and 2. And this is talking about the grain offering. And basically, it's some people say it's a meal offering. It's a meal. So there's no animal sacrifice, which is food, basically offering like bread flour. And it says, when anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be a fine flour. Now this flour is beaten fine, fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put cranking stents on it. He shall bring it to Aaron's times, the priests, one of whom shall take from it.

He's a handful of fine flour, so he brings an offering of flour, and then he takes a little handful from this offering of flour. So maybe let's say it's a whole tray or whatever it is. So he just takes a little portion of it, which is a handful, and says, from its handful of fine flour and oil with all the cranking stents, and the priest shall burn it.

What? This little handful? Not the whole offering, just this little portion that was taken out, and that portion he burned. As a memorial on the altar, as an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. This is also a sweet aroma to the Lord. So we can see, Jahan, that it's a sweet aroma offering, which is also pleasing to God. It's very, very pleasing to God, a very pleased, pleasant aroma.

There's no giving of life. There's flour, oil, and frankincense. So there's no meat, there's no death, but there's fruits. There's fruits, and about the fruits of somebody's work.

As we call the burnt offering, had an analogy of love to God. This one, the meal offering, or the great offering, has got an analogy of loving the neighbor.

So, love God, and love your neighbor. So you can see, look at it, you think about Christ said, Love one another as I have loved you. You know that? That's in John 13. And then you're looking at John 6, verse 35, and I want you to turn there, please. John 6, verse 35.

John 6, verse 35. And he will say to them, I am the bread of life. You come to me, shall never hunger, and he believes in me, shall never thirst. The eyes and offering of bread, pointing to Christ being the bread of life.

And we saw it's a small portion, which is burnt in a fire, representing there are trials. There are trials, as we heard in the sermonette, we do go through trials. Why? To make us better people. To make us better people. Yes, as we heard in the sermonette, good people can have bad things happening to them. You know, makes us better people. But that's only a small portion. You know, those trials, it's not our whole life, it's just that we go through trials in certain portions of our lives, some people more than others.

But we are not completely destroyed. We've got to keep going, and we're not completely destroyed by fire. It's a sweet aroma because a frankincense, when it's burnt, it brings out that aroma. You see, it's got that, that, that, quote-unquote, perfume-like fragrance, that when the frankincense is burnt, it brings out that fragrance. Let's go back to Leviticus, chapter 2, verse 3. It says, the rest of the grain shall be Aaron's and his sons. So there's one small portion that is burnt, but the rest goes to Aaron and his sons.

His sons are the ministry.

And it says, it is most holy, often often to the Lord, made by fire. It's most holy. Why? Because, you know, it's hard work to make flour. If you have to plant, you've got to prepare the field. You have to then plant the wheat. You have to water it. You have to ream. You have to separate the chap and clean up all that. You have to grind it. You have to work hard at it. If you grind it kind of sloppily, it will have little grains in it. So you ground it fine, finely ground.

Why? So there's no unevenness. What is the symbolism in that? Christ, the bread of life, there's no evenness in his character. His character is perfect. There's no unevenness in his character.

And so there is a trial related to that work. And then, you don't eat it yourself, you give it in disguise to the ministry. So you are giving it to your fellow man to eat. So he has nothing for himself as the person that's offering it, because the selfless sacrifice. You are giving freely to other human beings.

So we can see the spiritual application behind this offering, that Christ is the bread of life, that we are to serve and help others. For instance, at the feast, but also in our daily lives.

We are to comfort those that have serious trials, whether they be financial or health or marital, whatever they may be. We are to encourage. Think of how we can encourage others. Actually, you know, even in fact, we give in small acts of kindness. We can be hospitable. That requires planning, effort and time. So all these things of fine grounding, that fine grounding of the flower, it always brings that thing that it's always the same.

Regardless of circumstance, regardless of trials, it's an even character. So are we doing this work of giving to fellow man, symbolized by the grain offering? Look at verse 7. I move into verse 2. It says, Your offering is a grain offering, baked in a covered pan, which shall be made of fine flour with oil. Well, when you put it in a pan and you put oil, you ladies know very well that it helps not to speak.

So it helps the cooking to go smoother. But look, in Luke chapter 3 verse 22, when you look at Christ, look, chapter 3 verse 22. It's the bread of life, but also look here in chapter 3 verse 22. And that's when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was there then, in bodily form like a dove upon him, and the voice came from heaven, which said, You are my beloved son, and you are my well pleased.

So Christ was full of the Holy Spirit, and this is that oil symbolizing that symbolic of the Holy Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit, through us, helps us to overcome the feelings in our life, and it helps us not to have speaking points in our character development. You know, how many times do we have a little speaking point, you know?

And it means that we've got this problem, and then tomorrow we've got the same problem, and we think we've overcome, but next month we've got the same problem. And it's a speaking point in our Christian growth. We need a little bit more oil then. We need a little bit more oil, and we need to ask God for that oil, because it helps us to grow in a smooth manner, even in all areas, being balanced. Not going through peaks and troughs in our Christian growth, but even, even growth. And so the Holy Spirit helps us to smooth that.

Look at verse 11. That is in Leviticus, chapter 2, verse 11. No grain offering which you read to the Lord shall be made with leaven. No leaven. A leaven, as symbolic as you know of sin. And so we must put it off. Not sure we do, actually, but we must put it off of our lives. So we've got to be changed and put that spin off.

And then look at continuing reading, verse 11. But you shall burn no leaven nor any honey. Why no honey? Because if you burn honey, it corrupts or ferments and gives her unpleasant odor. And so it says, no honey. It brings a point that it's spoiled. So what it is, our life for fellow man must be genuine. Not sticky like honey, you know, not syrupy.

You know, my wife would quite often remind me, you know, you've got to be careful when we love people that will not syrupy how we come across. But we have to be genuine, genuine friendliness and genuine outgoing love, sweet and truly pleasant and lasting from the heart. Look in verse 13. Verse 12 talks about the first fruits. I'm not going to talk about that today.

But look in verse 13, it says, you shall cease and it was salt. Why salt? Because salt is a preservative and preserves us against corruption. And it also gives a nice bang, a nice taste. Isn't our speech to be seasoned with salt? Aren't we the salt of the earth? And so it features that balance in how we speak to others and how we approach others. And look at Mark chapter 9 verse 49 and 50. Mark chapter 9, Mark chapter 9 verse 49 and 50.

Mark 9 chapter 49 and 50. For everyone will be seasoned with fire, fire. And every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good. But if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another. So we'll be seasoned with fire. So there will be trials. There will be trials. As we heard in the sermon, there will be trials.

But we need to be seasoned with salt. We must not lose the flavor. We must be predictable. Not under trials. Suddenly under trials we just shoot out of as if we're from a different planet and we just react completely different. No, we need to be predictable with salt. Don't lose that saltiness, that predictability, that evenness. So have salt in yourselves and have peace with one another. You see, when we have situations and if our conversation is seasoned with salt, we avoid a lot of potential problems in interpersonal relationships. We do avoid a lot of that. So the meal offering shows Christ's duty to man, but likewise our duty to man. Do we really love our neighbor in a selfless manner?

Now, the third offering, which I'm not going to cover today, but I just want to draw your attention to it, which is in the litigious chapter 3, is a peace offer, which is also a sweet-smelling offer. It's also a voluntary act of worship and typically related to thanksgiving and fellowship. Typical what we do in God's peace, because the peace offering then is one where we eat that offering. See, the other two we didn't, but in the peace offering we actually eat with the priest and symbolically with God, fellowship with God and man.

And so in this offering, the peace offering, we're allowed to eat. We're allowed to enjoy the offering with the whole family in God's presence. Isn't that what we do when we have a potluck, when we're off to church, when we have fellowship, when we have a few little bites to eat? Think about it. It's like a little peace offering. It's beautiful when you think about these things. At the feast, we have what's so called the love feasts. That's what it is, because we show love and that fellowship in that. In a sense, it's an offering to have unity. It's an offering to have unity. And Christ is the one that brings unity to the body.

So we can see that all the offerings, these three offerings, that are sweet-smelling to God, but particularly the two which I've spent today and time, the first one that represents our love towards God and our complete dedication towards God, and our second one which represents our love towards man, which is helpless, which is not selfish. They have extreme important significance about us doing the work, because they don't only apply to Christ, but they apply to us. Are we doing a living sacrifice completely? Are we going out and serving others so it's love to God and love to man? And now, look at Ephesians 5.2. Ephesians 5.2.

Ephesians 5.2. And verse 1 says, Be imitated of God as the children, and think about the sacrifices. It's Christ who lets imitate Christ in those actions of spiritual value and intent, and it says in verse 2, Walk in love. Those first two sacrifices are about love towards God and love towards man. Walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us an offering, a complete offering, and a sacrifice to God, and He's giving Himself for us. So for mankind and to God, love to God and love to man, for a sweet-smelling aroma. Isn't that beautiful, brethren? The meaning of these offerings as they apply to our Christian life. And there is, therefore, right here, a great part that you and I have in doing God's work.