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[0:00] Amen. Leviticus 2 says this. Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour, and he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it.

[0:14] He shall then bring it to Aaron's sons, the priest, and shall take from it his handful of its fine flour and its oil with all of its frankincense, and the priest shall offer it up in smoke as a memorial portion on the altar, an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord.

[0:34] The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons, a thing most holy of the offerings to the Lord by fire. Now when you bring an offering of a grain offering baked in an oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers spread with oil.

[0:50] If your offering is a grain offering made on the griddle, it shall be a fine flour unleavened mixed with oil. You shall break it into bits and pour oil on it. It is a grain offering.

[1:01] Now if your offering is a grain offering made in a pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. When you bring in the grain offering, which is made of these things to the Lord, it shall be presented to the priest, and he shall bring it to the altar.

[1:14] The priest then shall take up from the grain offering its memorial portion and shall offer it up in smoke on the altar as an offering by fire of a soothing aroma to the Lord. The remainder of the grain offering belongs to Aaron and his sons, a thing most holy of the offerings to the Lord by fire.

[1:31] No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven, for you shall not offer up in smoke any leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to the Lord. As an offering of first fruits, you shall bring them to the Lord, but they shall not ascend for a soothing aroma on the altar.

[1:46] Every grain offering of yours, moreover, you shall season with salt, so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering.

[1:59] With all your offerings, you shall offer salt. Also, if you bring a grain offering of early ripened things to the Lord, you shall bring fresh heads of grain roasted in the fire, grits of new growth, for the grain offering of your early ripened things.

[2:14] You shall then put oil on it and lay incense on it. It is a grain offering. The priest shall offer it up in smoke, its memorial portion, part of its grips and its oil, with all its incense as an offering by fire to the Lord.

[2:29] Leviticus 2, the grain offering, or is referred in other scripture, the meal offering. I want us to see tonight the mindfulness of our worship.

[2:40] When we come to these sacrifices and we come to the things which God has commanded His people to offer, we need to realize and we need to understand that it is not the things which God is really concerned about.

[2:54] God was not in need of grain to be burned. He was not in need of an animal to be roasted on the altar. God was not in need of being fed, as was the common practice and thought of many idols of that time.

[3:08] God was not in need of food, but rather God was more concerned about the attitude and the thinking and the heart preparation of His people for the offerings.

[3:19] It was quite possible to bring the right offering in a wrong manner. It was quite possible to follow the letter of the law, but not really adhere to the requirements of the law.

[3:31] God was more concerned about what His people had in mind and what they had in heart and the lives that they were living than He was concerned about that which was being laid upon the altar. The reason there are so many stipulations and requirements for each of these offerings are so that God's people would take the time to be the people He had called them to be when they came to Him and worshipped Him as a result of their covenant relationship which they had.

[3:58] This grain offering is one which shows us very clearly what it is God longs for us to have in mind. Now as with every other offering, its true fulfillment is found in Jesus Christ.

[4:11] There are so many symbolisms here that we could probably preach this passage two or three different times and never preach the same message. We know that the oil that is sprinkled on anything in Scripture which has oil covering it is always a symbol of something which has been dedicated to the Lord.

[4:27] We know that frankincense has a fulfillment as one of the gifts by the wise men that we find in the birth of Christ. We see a number of things here, but we see the ultimate fulfillment of this is that it's found in Jesus Christ who is the true bread of life which was offered for all men.

[4:45] We see that this is a grain offering of sustenance, something which the people depended upon, something which fed them, something which they required to have for their existence and yet they were giving of something they needed in order to demonstrate their desire to worship the God that so loved them, cared for them, and called them into relationship.

[5:08] I want you to see just a few things we have in mind as we worship throughout Leviticus 2 and we see the application and the things that we should have in mind when we come to worship today and any other day.

[5:20] Because we do not, though we have the opportunity, by the way, the grain offering is an offering which could be offered publicly or privately, which means there were times in which they had public grain offerings.

[5:34] The waving of the sheaves, the end gathering, the offering of the Feast of End Gathering. It's a Passover time. There were times where they brought loaves publicly, but anyone could offer it privately.

[5:47] You could come at a time of private adoration and private worship. I think I read somewhere that one of the things that it could not be offered with is it could not be offered with a sin offering. So if you were going to make an atonement for sin, you could not first bring this offering of grain.

[6:03] The reason why is because you could not worship until your life had been cleansed and atoned for. That is why this offering follows the burnt offering found in Leviticus 1. Remember the correlation we saw that when God proclaimed the instructions for the building of the tabernacle, He started in the inner court.

[6:20] He started in the Holy of Holies and made His way out. The offerings are the same way. God speaks from the inside out. He speaks from the inside out in which the burnt offering in Leviticus 1 is the nearest and dearest.

[6:33] It is one for those who are living in communion with God that are worshiping Him in sacrificial worship. The worship's costing them something. It is a worship not of pleasure, but of pain.

[6:46] This one is a worship of giving. This is a worship of mindfulness. And we gradually move out until we get to that sin atonement worship, which is because we messed up and we faltered. There are, in the first five sacrifices introduced, three of them are described as a soothing aroma to the Lord.

[7:04] That is, it smells good to Him. That is not saying that God smelled it and said, oh, that smells great. That just means that it was pleasing in His sight. The first three here, which are just a result of worship, the last two of the five introduced, is not defined as a soothing aroma to the Lord because the last two deal specifically with our sin.

[7:24] It is an atonement. It is a price paid because we messed up. It is a price paid because we falter and we stumble and this is what His people were to offer up. But with the grain offering, we see that which we must have in mind here with God's people and also which we must have in mind today when we come to worship Him.

[7:43] Number one, we see the precious value of our worship. The precious value of our worship. I think that unknowingly and unintentionally, we have set ourselves up for worship times.

[8:03] We have set ourselves up for an order of worship. And we mechanically follow through that order of worship. And while order is a good thing, we must be very careful in making an order or a planned aspect out of worship because worship is something very precious.

[8:25] Worship is not something that we approach hoping to get it in in the amount of time. It is not something that we approach hoping that we do it in the right order and that if we get out of order, we kind of get bit out of shape.

[8:36] We need to be careful in maintaining such stringent rules because worship has always been something that is precious. Worship has always been something that was magnificent and at times spontaneous.

[8:51] It has always been something which has been very dear to God. And we see here, now when anyone, again, we are reminded, just as we were in Leviticus 1, if you were here, that this is something that was an open invitation, right?

[9:03] Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, this is not a closed thing. It does not say just a select few can. It says when anyone. This isn't even something that is reserved for the Levites or the priest or the inner circle, if you will, inside the tabernacle.

[9:20] This is something that is extended to all of the nation. Now when anyone presents a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering, here we begin to see the precious value of it. Look at this. His offering shall be of fine flour.

[9:35] Over and over again, we read in this passage those words, fine flour. Now fine flour is something we find in scriptures, that which was reserved for those of great wealth or in positions of royalty.

[9:48] Fine flour was something that was available to all but cost a lot of money to get. It was something which was not inaccessible because it just took a little bit longer to make it.

[9:59] It would be the difference between your bread flour and your all-purpose flour. I'll just be honest with you. A lot of times, I know, I'm a weird guy. You don't have to make fun of me. I like making bread.

[10:10] I do. I don't make it much anymore because I don't get to eat it anymore. But I like making cinnamon rolls. The reason I like making bread is I like watching things grow. I know it's kind of weird.

[10:21] I know it's strange. And you're like, that guy, I thought he was a little tougher than that. I just like, I like making bread. But one thing I have never done is used bread flour. You know why?

[10:32] Because it costs too much. I don't want to spend that much money on, some of you are going to say, but it makes a difference. You're right, but not in my house because we don't have it. We don't know what difference it makes.

[10:42] We just use all-purpose flour. We use good leaven or we use this other stuff, yeast, but it costs more. It's not that important to me to make it with that kind of flour.

[10:55] I've looked at it and said, well, no, I'm not going to do that. I would rather skimp a little bit. What we see here, God is calling his people to worship him and he's offering them an invitation to worship him.

[11:06] He says, but when you come, much like the burnt offering, you're going to bring me the best of your calves or the best of your rams or the best of your lambs.

[11:17] You're not going to bring me something that is second rate. He says, when you're bringing me flour, guess what? You're going to bring me the best of the flour. The best of the grain.

[11:30] It reminds us of the precious value of worship. He says over and over again, it will be fine flour with oil pulled over it.

[11:42] And if that didn't cost enough, put some frankincense with it because frankincense was expensive. He says, when you worship me, it's going to be precious.

[11:57] Now, if you're going to the tabernacle and you have in your hand fine flour, which is not very common around your house, and oil pulled on top of it, and frankincense, which cost you something, and you're going and you're going to present that to someone, guess what?

[12:17] Now you're a lot more mindful of just how great it is to worship the Lord your God. It is the mindful aspect of worship is precious.

[12:30] And it's not something to be taken lightly. It's not something to be discounted. It is a reminder that I get to worship God, and it doesn't matter how much it cost me to worship Him.

[12:44] It's not that I have to worship God. It's I get to worship God. You say, oh, but it's going to cost me this, it's going to cost me that, it's going to cost me this.

[12:54] Yes, but I still get to do it. But it's going to, I'm going to lose out because of this, or I'm going to miss out because of this. Yes, but I still get to worship.

[13:07] Friend, listen to me. worship is a precious thing. It is something that is a great privilege of God's people, and it is not extended to whosoever.

[13:21] It is extended to whosoever will. Right? Worship is not open to all. Worship is a very select community of believers because it says we come boldly before the throne of God, what?

[13:36] Through the blood, of the Lamb. We get to run into His presence. We get to barge into the courtroom of heaven.

[13:47] We get to go before the throne of grace because of the blood of the Lamb. Worship is precious. And we'll be upon God's people when they take it lightly.

[14:03] And we act like it's just something we have to do to pass the time. worship is something which is a very precious value.

[14:15] God does not call us just to come before Him. He calls us to come before Him being mindful of how much it costs. By the way, you would either go out and buy the best.

[14:27] Again, provisions are made, right? It says, just like last week, if you couldn't afford the, if you didn't have the bull, then you could bring the goat. If you didn't have the goat, then you could bring the lamb. If you didn't have the lamb, then you could bring the birds, right?

[14:39] Turtle doves or the pigeons, anyone could come and worship. Here, if I could not go out and buy the best of the fine flour and put oil on it and frankincense, then I could at least work. That means I could make some bread.

[14:50] There are five different ways to cook this flour and bring it. God says, if you don't have the money to buy it, then you can put forth the effort to work for it, but either way, you're going to be reminded that your worship of me is a precious thing.

[15:05] It's going to cost, it's going to be sacrificial, but it's going to be worth it. Not all would do it, but what a blessing for those who would.

[15:17] We see the precious value of worship. Number two, we see the provisions we share in worship. The provisions we share in worship. Unlike the burnt offering, the grain offering was not something which was consumed entirely upon the altar.

[15:33] Remember that when the burnt offering was brought, all of the clean parts of the animal were put upon the altar and it was burnt in its entirety. Every bit of it belongs to the Lord God. But this one is not that way because it says that when you bring it, whoever wants to can bring it, they bring it to the doorway of the tabernacle.

[15:51] You could not go beyond the doorway they had to bring it from the east towards the presence of God and they brought it to Aaron and his sons and they would give it to Aaron and his sons and Aaron and his sons, the priest, would take a handful of it and that handful would be the portion that would go on the altar.

[16:07] Now that altar would be on fire. We would have the fire of the altar already. By the way, they offered a grain offering in the morning and in the evening and in those which came throughout the day and they would offer that portion there.

[16:19] But what was left, the scripture says, belonged to Aaron and his sons. It was holy to the Lord. We will read later that this was not grain that could just be eaten anywhere.

[16:31] It had to be eaten within the boundaries of holiness. It had to be eaten within the tabernacle. It could only be eaten by the males of Aaron's household, but it was something that belonged to them. So if I brought twelve loaves, say I had twelve loaves which I had made, and I brought them to the tabernacle there, they would take a portion of those and put it on the altar and the rest they would hold on to and they would eat.

[16:56] It was God's way of providing for his people dedicated to his service. This was the way God saw fit to provide for the priest.

[17:06] Why? Because grain was a very important thing to the nation. Grain was something that would sustain them and keep them.

[17:17] It was something that would be very beneficial to them. And in order to grow grain, you had to what? Own land. Guess who did not own land? The priest.

[17:30] Therefore, they could not grow grain, which means they were dependent upon the offerings of everyone else to support them, and they were dependent upon the faithfulness of God's people to support them for a sustenance of life.

[17:48] They were dependent upon others to be that provision for them. What God was providing, that was, the grain offering is very unique because the grain offering was something in which we would sow, that you would sow the seed, you would harvest the seed, you would refine the seed, you would grow it, and all these things you would labor, and you brought to God that which came first because you were showing him, God, this harvest you have given me first belongs to you because you are the giver of the harvest, and it would also entail that I am trusting you for the remainder of the harvest, right?

[18:22] I'm going to give of the first fruits. God, when it starts to come in, the very first portion is not going to be what I put on my table, it's going to be the very first thing that I put on your table and the table of Aaron and his sons.

[18:33] I will put it on the priest table because God, I'm going to trust that if you brought me the first fruits, you're going to bring me the rest fruits, right? And it was a rejoicing in how God had provided for you.

[18:43] And the way God's people rejoiced in the provisions God gave them, they shared those provisions with others. Now all of a sudden you should be connecting the dots and following a little New Testament theology here through the book of Acts where all of God's people were together and what?

[19:04] Had all things in common. Breaking their bread from house to house. It has been this common theme throughout all of Scripture not just in Leviticus 2 that God's people would share their provisions with one another.

[19:21] Really it is a common theme. Hospitality is a great theme that we find throughout Scripture and by the way hospitality was not that just inviting people you knew into your house. Hospitality was inviting strangers into your house and taking what you had and sharing it with them.

[19:36] knowing that there was no hope that they would ever give it back to you but we see this theme that runs throughout Scripture that God's people worship by sharing their provisions with others.

[19:47] It is trusting that that which God has given me will continue to increase and I will be able to bless others with it as well. It is such a wonderful aspect of worship.

[20:01] Because God gave the most precious of gifts to every one of us and it is not something that is limited to just a select few rather it is enough to meet the needs of all.

[20:14] And we see here in our worship that we keep in mind when we give to God we are not just giving to God to appease Him rather we are giving to Him to meet the needs of others and it is a mindfulness of we are providing we are giving back what has been given to us to share.

[20:37] What a blessing it is. Paul says Jesus said it and it was quoted by Paul that it's more blessed to give than to receive right? We see this here as well that the grain offering was a true picture of taking my provisions my food and bringing it to the temple for the extent purpose of worshiping and sharing.

[21:03] I knew when I brought it that the majority of it was going to be eaten by Aaron and his sons but that was okay because that thing they were eating guess what was most holy to the Lord.

[21:17] Not just that that was laid on the altar but it was a form of worship to share with others. It's a form of worship.

[21:28] This is why James says in the application of our salvation James says to the one who knows a brother in need and does not do anything about that need now I'm giving you Billy Joe's version right?

[21:41] Then it is sin to know of a need and have it within your ability to meet that need and not meet that need then we have sinned because part of our worship is taking that which God has provided for us and sharing it with others.

[22:04] It is the provisions we share and we keep that in mind it is more than just coming together and thanking him for what he's given us and being so happy that he gave us some it is thanking him that he is giving us enough to share with others and reaching out to an act of worship and sharing with others.

[22:22] It is the provisions we share number three we are mindful in Leviticus 2 not only of the precious value of our worship not only the provisions we share but the purity that is required the purity that is required here is where we begin to see and understand that God does not just accept all forms of worship he only accepts true worship Jesus told the woman at the well in John chapter 4 that he is seeking those who would worship him in spirit and in truth God was not just seeking those who would worship him in any way but in spirit and in truth it speaks to purity because it says here no grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven he says that when you bring this grain offering none of it should be made with leaven now leaven is often a representation all throughout scripture of sin or impurity or something coming in that would cause it to grow when it should not grow it is a process which I use yeast when I make cinnamon rolls and other things but it is a process which leads to fermentation fermentation is a dying out process or decaying process which leads to something growing now it's good when you cook in the oven

[23:39] I understand all that but we know what it represents here it represents a breaking down or a decaying truth and what he is saying here is that you will not bring leavened or decaying elements into my worship because I only want that which is pure and undefiled and it is a worship of life not a worship of death or decay we see that it will not bring in leaven and you shall not offer up in smoke leaven or any honey as an offering by fire to the Lord again this is not necessarily just a natural honey some point to this as being a honey of decaying and fermentation also that which is manufactured but we see that the issue here is that you will bring to me something pure and undefiled something true and sincere God is calling his people to bring not only the best to him but the purest the cleanest this is why this is even after by the way the atonement this is after the covenant relationship again this common theme we find through the book of Leviticus be holy as I am holy this is where we find this and is repeated again in the

[24:47] New Testament be holy as I am holy this is God's command to the saved this is God's command to the redeemed which means when you come before me in worship come before me in purity and in holiness God demands that our worship be true sincere and pure my friend if we're going to be honest we need to say that we cannot be 100% pure and you're absolutely right this is why we must come through the blood of the lamb and we must be seen as pure we must have a righteousness given to us not a righteousness of our own it is a righteousness we are proclaimed right in his sight or pure in his sight and God demands that our worship be a worship of purity which means that each time we approach him we must first search out our own hearts we must have that cry from the book of Psalms test me oh Lord see if there be any wicked or deceitful way within me try my heart know my wicked thoughts

[25:57] Lord search me out so that when I come before you I'm coming before you to worship you in purity how many times we impede or hinder our own worship because we long to bring something impure into worship so we see here that the mindfulness of our worship is our worship must be pure fourth and finally we see in this grain offering in the mindfulness of our worship that it is a reminder of the permanence or the permanent nature of the covenant here at the end it says in verse 13 every grain offering of yours moreover you shall season with salt so that the salt of the covenant of your God shall not be lacking from your grain offering with all your offerings you shall offer salt salt it wasn't that God wanted a little bit of salt in his bread it wasn't that God needed a little more flavor in there salt again is a representation of something to the people at this time in the near eastern culture around the time that the book of

[27:08] Leviticus is being written salt was often used as a symbol of a ratified and signed covenant it was something that when a covenant was agreed upon among nations or a covenant was agreed upon people that they would take salt and they would use that as a symbol why because the salt would never lose its value salt was unchanging it would not lose its saltiness salt is pure it stays true to form it does not decay it does not break down it was something that was used as a preservative but also it was an enduring nature you say well I thought Jesus said that if the salt loses its flavor it's not good for anything well we'd have to go into a whole covenant is made as long as this salt lasts so too will this covenant and when the people would put salt on the flower and they were worshiping

[28:25] God they were worshiping him because they had the freedom to worship since they were already in a covenant relationship the salt would be a reminder I get to worship as long as this covenant lasts and I am in an enduring covenant with Yahweh just as salt is unchanging so too is the covenant with Yahweh unchanging just as salt endures so too does my covenant with Yahweh endure just as salt preserves so too does my covenant with Yahweh preserve my right to worship it was a reminder that I have an enduring open door of worship and it showed us the permanent nature of the covenant that they were in that God's promises do not fail that when

[29:25] God had called them to himself he called them to an enduring relationship friend listen God has not to this day given up on the nation of Israel I believe that with all of my heart not because I can look at history and see that out of nowhere a nation came to be once again in 1943 not because I can see all of these things that resonate and they show us the technology and all these things in history that point I believe that because God told Abraham in a covenant he made a covenant with Abraham that his people would endure and that his people would be his people and it goes all the way back to the covenant and they are not changing and we ought to be mindful of that because each one of us through Jesus Christ have entered into not only just a promise but a covenant relationship with God and just as his covenant relationship with his people the nation of

[30:30] Israel does not change neither will the covenant relationship which we have through Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior change which in my estimation is one of the greatest apologetics or defenses for the preservation of the saints once saved always saved why do I believe that you cannot lose your salvation because you're telling me that the covenant that I made with God can be changed because there was a moment in time where I hit my knees and I entered into a covenant relationship with the Holy God through the blood of the Lamb and I cried out to him and he sealed that covenant with grace and mercy and the presence of the Holy Spirit and God does not change his covenants he has not changed the ones he made in the Old Testament and he is not changing the ones he makes today and they would put salt on their offering to remind them God told me he loved me he still loves me and I still worship my worship is precious because

[31:39] God made a covenant with me and I still get to worship him as a result of that covenant even if I fail him tomorrow and I probably will in some aspect even though I fail him later today and I probably will in some aspect just as salt endures so does the covenant I have with the holy God and I still get to worship may we always be mindful because the reality is this there are scores of people that walk into the doors of the churches across our nation who hope to be able to worship a holy God they have a desire and a longing to worship a holy God but we need to be mindful that because of the relationship we've entered into through Jesus Christ worship is not a hope or even a desire it's a very present reality that we get to do and in spite of what

[32:45] Satan whispers on our shoulder and in spite of what he tries to convince us of in our mind and in spite of the way he tries to pull at our heart strings! Listen my friend the truth of scripture resonates we still worship and we bring him that which is precious and we bring him that which is true and when God's people are always mindful that day in and day out they get to worship God guess what it changes the day in and day out now all of a sudden worship is not just some privilege worship is an open invitation to whenever anyone brings the grain they can worship let's pray Lord I thank you so much for this day and Lord Jesus I am reminded again just how great it is to be able to worship you so

[33:48] I pray oh Lord that even in our failures and shortcomings we would worship you in sincerity and truth or sometimes we may worship in silence sometimes we worship in song Lord may we always worship you in truth and we ask it all and we thank you for it all in Jesus name!

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