chapter 2, Leviticus chapter 2. We continue our series together on what is, for some even admittedly, their least favorite book of the scriptures. But I hope that as we progress through this, we will find the rich treasures that God has for us in this passage, and that our hearts will will be blessed and encouraged, and that we will be challenged to live as we have been called to live. Leviticus chapter 2, this is found on page 211 in the Pew Bible, if you're following along in the Pew Bible, page 211. Follow along in your copy of God's word as I read. When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour. And he shall pour oil on it and put frankincense on it. He shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, one of whom shall take from his handful of fine flour and oil with all the frankincense. And the priests shall burn it as a memorial on the altar, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. The rest of the grain offering shall be Aaron's and his son's. It is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire. And if you bring as an offering a grain offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. But if your offering is a grain offering baked in a pan, it shall be a fine flour unleavened mixed with oil. You shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it. It is a grain offering. If your offering is a grain offering baked in a covered pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. You shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord, and when it is presented to the priest, he shall bring it to the altar. Then the priest shall take from the grain offering a memorial portion and burn it on the altar. It is an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. And what is left of the grain offering shall be Aaron's and his son's. It is most holy of the offerings to the Lord made by fire. No grain offering which you bring to the Lord shall be made with leaven. For you shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, and any offering to the Lord made by fire. As for the offering of the first fruits, you shall offer them to the Lord, but they shall not be burned on the altar for a sweet aroma. And every offering of your grain offering you shall season with salt. You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your grain offering. With all your offerings you shall offer salt. If you offer a grain offering of your firstfruits to the Lord, you shall offer for the grain offering of your firstfruits green heads of grain roasted on the fire, grain beaten from full heads, and you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it. It is a grain offering. Then the priest shall burn the memorial portion, part of its beaten grain and part of its oil, with all the frankincense as an offering made by fire to the Lord." And this is the word of the Lord. Amen. Well, friends, let me give you an overview of this passage, and we'll launch into it together. The passage begins by speaking of regulations for an uncooked meal or grain offering. The use of this term and the instructions that follow indicate, as we'll see, that dedication is the theme of the passage. In verses 4 to 10, we see regulations regarding the cooked meal offering. And then in verses 11 to 13, we see regulations about mandated and prohibited elements in the offering. And then finally in verses 14 to 16, we see regulations regarding the meal offering of first fruits. Now, as we've read this, perhaps you reached a state of perplexity and wondering why did the Lord include this in scripture? I remember Pastor Daniel, of course my good friend Daniel, he told me when he was going to grad school, there was one class and his professor stood before the class and said, this information will be of no benefit to your life and ministry. But if you want to get an MA after your name, you have to learn it. And maybe some of you, as you look at this passage of scripture, you think, maybe this information will be of no benefit to my life and ministry, but if I'm going to be a good Christian, I have to read it and believe it. Well, there is more to it than that for us this evening. But what is there to learn from this strange passage? What is there to learn from these commands that God gave to people in the ancient Near East, a grain offering, that could be of any relevance for us living as Christians in the year 2024. Well, I hope that we will see that there is much for us to learn and to be reminded of today. Let me give you the big point of this passage, and I think we'll see it pervade this entire passage, and that is this. Those who have been graciously accepted by God, must show their grateful dedication to God. Those who have been graciously accepted by God must show their grateful dedication to God. I want to look at this in three main points and then derive for us some applicational points that I think we see Think with me about the progression of the sacrifices. The grain offering that we find here in chapter 2 was an offering, you see the use of the word, it was an offering that would express dedication to a sovereign, to one that was in a position of strength or power over that person. This word, by the way, is the same word that was used of what King Eglon was expecting to receive from Ehud. Remember that story in the Book of Judges? Ehud, the left-handed judge. And he comes and he says to Eglon, I have a tribute for you. And of course, Eglon did receive the tribute. He also received a dagger to the belly and then everyone else received the aroma of his digested breakfast. And that was how that story went. It's the same word that's also used when Jacob is going to meet with Esau and he's going to try to pacify his brother. Remember the last time he had seen his brother, his brother said, I'm gonna console myself and my parents' death by killing my brother. So as he prepares to meet Esau again, after being away with Laban, he is preparing this offering, and it's an offering that was to express a type of submission. The grain offering is the second offering that is listed. First, the burnt offering, chapter one, and then second, the grain offering. And this is not random. In official daily offerings, the grain offering always followed the burnt offering. There were some other occasions where the grain offering would be offered by itself. You can read about those. We will read about some of those. But the daily pattern was always first burnt offering, then grain offering. First burnt offering, then grain offering. The burnt offering, you might remember, spoke of the way of acceptance by God. That is, the worshiper could only enter into a right relationship with God. They could only be accepted by God on the basis of a bloody substitute sacrifice. first accepted by God through that sacrifice, then followed this offering that showed submission and dedication to the sovereign. The grain offering speaks of dedication to God, but the burnt offering had to come first. Acceptance by God precedes dedication to God. Or if we could put it another way, dedication to God must follow acceptance by God. Every time the worshipper entered into this pattern of sacrifices, the fact that it was first burnt offering, accepted into fellowship with God on the basis of a bloody substitute sacrifice, then dedication the point would be driven home to the worshiper. Those who have been graciously accepted by God must show their grateful dedication to God. Of course, why, as we look at this pattern today, why would we also not give such devotion? God owns us. He is our sovereign, but we have been bought at a price. 1 Corinthians 6 verses 19 and 20, do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own. For you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Bought at a price, Therefore glorify God. Accepted by God by the price of a substitute sacrifice, therefore dedicate yourself to God. The pattern is the same for us today. And of course our service and our dedication should not be a grudging duty, but a grateful dedication. It's not the greatest provision that God has given to us. Salvation in Christ. acceptance through His substitute sacrifice, the blood of His sacrifice. All that God has given us, and every time the offerer would bring a grain offering to the Lord, they were recognizing that this was from God. All that has been given to us has been given to us by God's grace through Christ. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. Those who have been graciously accepted by God must show their grateful dedication to God. And this for all of us, brothers and sisters, is a heart check. Have you been graciously accepted by God? Have you been pardoned? Have you been forgiven? Should you not then glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's? Acceptance, dedication. But there is more for us to glean about our dedication to God. And there is much to glean, I think, from the preparation of this offering. So we see the progression of the offerings, first the burnt offering, then the grain offering, but also the preparation of the offering itself. We see something about the price of our dedication in this offering. Dedication is costly, but God is worthy. The word that's used here several times, the word fine flower, it's used in chapter two, verse one, his offering shall be a fine flower. Chapter two, verse four, we see, fine flour mixed with oil. That word, fine flour, that was used for both the cooked and the uncooked versions of the offering is a word for the most purified of flours, of the flour. It was the best and most costly kind of flour. It was made with the inner kernel of wheat. Add to that the fact that God said that oil was to be added. And then on top of that, incense was to be added. All of these things spoke to the fact that this was not a cheap sacrifice. This was not something that you throw together with stuff that you find in the back cabinet. This was costly. An idea here about even just the price of oil and fine flour In Ezekiel chapter 16, God is really rebuking his people who had received so many blessings, so many things that he had given him and still had been unfaithful, but he describes the blessings that they had been given. He says, thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. Notice, you ate pastry of fine flour. He's talking here about their privilege rich blessed status. You ate pastry of fine flour, honey, and oil. You were exceedingly beautiful and succeeded to royalty." So you get from this the idea of the costly nature of this sacrifice. When we read further, we come to God's directions about the offering of first fruits. We see that in chapter two, verse 14. that word firstfruits signified not only that which was first of the crops, but that which was best of what came first. In other words, as the crop started to come in, you didn't go through that crop and you look for the blighted ears of corn, you didn't look for the stuff that's a bit of a mess and you keep the best stuff for yourself and then give God the rest. of that first fruit, you gave the best of it. There's a price of dedication. Our dedication to God is costly. To be truly dedicated to God, it costs something. Sadly, for many years, we have lived with a cultural sort of arrangement that our Christianity didn't really cost us anything. And now that it's starting to, we don't know what to do with that. The fact that Christianity is no longer something that actually gives you bonus points in the eyes of society, but actually something that in many people's eyes is a negative, it's a strike against you. We're like, what do we do with that? But we see all the way back in the Old Testament, this principle that dedication to God is costly. We should be willing to give our best and that our dedication to God will cost us something. We see as well more from the preparation of the sacrifice. We see the price of dedication, which tells us that the dedication to God is costly, but God is worthy. He's worth our greatest sacrifice. But we also learn from the purity of this dedication. Not only is there an expectation of purity that's seen in the command to bring the fine flour, but it's further seen in what God requires of every grain offering. He says, for example, that leaven and honey are prohibited. Don't put that in this offering. There was an exception where they could bring it as part of the first fruits, but it was not to be offered on the altar. It was not that kind of an offering. Now, why were leaven and honey prohibited? Well, both of these substances are by their nature linked to corruption. Leaven already has corruption working in it. That's the very nature of leaven. It's fermenting. Honey also very quickly ferments. The New Testament links leaven with the corruption of sin several times. For example, Jesus referred to the doctrine or the teaching of the Pharisees as leaven. He referred to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees as leaven. And Paul would say very pointedly to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians chapter 5, Verses six to eight, he would say, your glorying, your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? So ladies, when, or guys, if you're into baking, when you go to make a loaf of bread, it doesn't take much yeast. If you use an equal amount of yeast as flour, you are in for some big trouble. A little leaven is all that's needed. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. And then Paul continues, he says, therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, since you are truly unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. Not only were leaven and honey prohibited, but salt was demanded. In contrast to the pervasively corrupting effects of leaven and honey, salt has a preserving effect. In fact, one of the fascinating things about this sacrifice is that when you burn this sacrifice with the salt, salt doesn't actually burn. And salt would have this preserving effect. God specifically links the salt of the covenant with the identity of his people. The use of the salt indicated faithfulness to God's covenant and faithfulness to the God of the covenant. The sacrifice is also called a memorial. We see that in verse 2, verse 9, verse 16, which links to this covenant. It's a reminder that they were God's people and that everything they had they owed to Him. Everything they had was His. So if the price of the dedication of this sacrifice reminds us that dedication to God is costly but God is worthy, the purity of this dedication, of this sacrifice, indicates that dedication to God must be expressed without corruption. Dedication to God must be expressed without corruption. Such is the sinfulness of our human heart that so often even those things that are good things are infused with corrupting influences. We come to church because we want to please people and are afraid of what they'll think if we don't come. We involve ourselves in ministry because We think it's going to make us feel better. We serve, but in our serving is mixed pride and self. So often our very offering of our dedication to God is mixed up with all kinds of rotten, horrible stuff. And how, brothers and sisters, we need to check our own hearts and look within by God's grace and ask the Spirit of God Why am I doing what I'm doing? Reveal to me, if I have mixed and sinful motives, may my dedication to God be a pure dedication. No leaven, no honey, with the salt of the covenant. May that be the kind of dedication that I show to God. That's a daunting thing, oh brothers and sisters, to really ask that kind of question. Because you may not like the answer that God, by His Word and His Spirit, provide for you. He might reveal to you some very ugly things going on. And those very things that you took such pride in and maybe you enjoyed the most in your service to God, reveal themselves to be flawed and tainted in a very deep and profound way. But brothers and sisters, getting rid of that leaven is worth it. It's worth it. It's worth it because the God we serve is worth it. Just as dedication to God is costly, but God is worthy, so dedication expressed without corruption is worth it because God is worth it. We need to move on for sake of time. I want to think with you as well, not only about the price of this dedication, the purity of this dedication, but I also want you to think about the hope of this dedication. I have read this passage so many times over the years. And I admit that at times, like all of us, I get into some of these offerings and I'm scratching my head and maybe even just, okay, let's get to the end of the chapter because I'm not entirely sure how this intersects with life. But I missed something over the years in my time reading this. I missed a note of hope. that resounds in this offering. Let me try to explain it to you. Where is Israel when God gives this command to offer the grain offering? Well, they're out in the middle of the wilderness. They're in the middle of the desert. To offer fine flour And the best of the harvest was an incredible act of faith. Because you couldn't just grow it and have another crop the next season. Especially after the failure that left them wandering for 40 years in the wilderness. This sacrifice was an incredible act of faith. It was an act, really, of forward-looking faith, of hope. God had told them, I'm gonna bring you into a land that's rich. It's flowing with milk and honey. I'm gonna bring you into this rich and fertile land, which is what flowing with milk and honey means. It's flowing with milk because there's plenty of pasture, the animals are able to be strong and produce a lot of milk. It's flowing with honey because there's a lot of bees in the area and that brings health and vitality to the plant life. It's a rich land. When they offered these sacrifices with the right heart, they were offering a sacrifice of faith and hope. hope that any sacrifice, any offering would be more than repaid just as God promised. There's this hope then as they offer this offering that they will enter the promised land. They will come into that land that's flowing with milk and honey. They can offer this sacrifice, this offering now because God will more than make up for it when they enter that land. There's also in this a hope of future harvest. The feast and offering of first fruits was an act of faith and hope. They gave the first of the harvest and the best of the first of the harvest, rather than eating it and storing it. And they did this in faith and hope that God would bring the rest of the harvest in. All of this reminds me that dedication to God must be infused with hope in God's future grace. That we dedicate ourselves to God trusting that God will more than repay any sacrifice that we make. This morning, at Carmel Lagos, I spoke on Luke chapter 18, verses 18 to 30. And in that passage, it's the story of the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus and asking questions about how he may inherit eternal life. One of the things that's often missed is the big picture of that passage is the issue of giving ourselves unreservedly to Christ. The young man goes away sorrowing because he doesn't want to give up on his riches. He'd rather leave Jesus and go back to his riches than leave his riches and follow Jesus. But this is the reason why after that Peter says, Lord, we've left everything to follow you. because he sees what's going on in this conversation with Jesus and the rich young ruler. And Jesus says, in effect, any sacrifice you make now will be repaid now, but even more in eternal life. I just have mentioned the fact that there is a price or a cost of dedication. And some of us might feel daunted by that. But I want to encourage you with this note of hope in this offering. Because we dedicate ourselves to God in hope that He will, according to His promises, give us all things richly in Christ. That we will not lack anything that we truly need. that he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? So dedication to God must be infused with hope in his future grace. But let me move on. Think about the provision of the sacrifice. So we thought about The progression, first acceptance by God, then dedication to God. We thought about the preparation, the cost. We thought about the purity. We think about the hope. Now let's think about the provision of the sacrifice. In this grain offering, there's a memorial portion that is burned with fire. As I mentioned earlier, this was a reminder that everything they had, everything they were, was God's. because they were his covenant people. But the rest of the offering was given to the priests. We might be tempted to think that the portion burned with fire, that's the really holy portion, right? Because that's burned to God as the memorial portion. Maybe the rest of it is just secular or more secular because it provides for the earthly needs of those in God's service. But that's not the way that God saw it. God said it was all most holy. That which was consumed by fire and that which would be consumed by the priests, it was all holy. Both the performance of God's work and the provision for God's workers was holy. But there's another principle that runs through this passage of matter of the provision of the sacrifice. And that is, it was through the dedication of God's people that provision is made for God's work. Through the dedication of God's people, provision is made for God's work. God's plan is that God's work be provided for through the offerings of God's people. This Old Testament principle revealed here is repeated in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 9, verses 13 and 14, Paul says, Do you not know that those who minister the holy things eat of the things of the temple, and those who serve at the altar partake of the offerings of the altar? Even so, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should live from the gospel. Thus it is God's plan that through the giving of God's people, the work of God goes forward. It's through our dedication that provision is made for God's work. So let me just summarize again really quickly. The big point is this. Those who have been graciously accepted by God must show their grateful dedication to God. The progression of the offerings teaches us that dedication to God must follow acceptance by God. The preparation of the offerings teaches that dedication to God is costly, but God is worthy. It teaches us that dedication to God must be expressed without corruption. It teaches us that dedication to God must be infused with hope. Then the provision of the offering, provision for the priests, teaches that dedication to God is the means by which God provides for his ministers and ministry. Through the dedication of God's people, provision is made for God's work now. We might get to this point and we might wonder, what does this have to do with Jesus? Does it have anything to do with Jesus? Is it just all about us biting down on the mouth guard and gritting our teeth and giving it our best shot? Some people think that because this is the only bloodless sacrifice, that it has nothing to do with Jesus, but they're wrong. Let me mention four things quickly that turn our eyes on Jesus from this. First of all, Jesus is the foundation of our dedication. Jesus is the foundation for our dedication. It is his sacrifice that provides fellowship with God. He is the ultimate grain sacrifice, the bread of heaven. Jesus would say it this way in John chapter six, the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives his life to the world. Jesus would say a few verses later in John six, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. Few verses later, Jesus will say, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread come down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world. All of this to remind us brothers and sisters that in Jesus we are accepted by God. In Jesus we are accepted. We are accepted as Ephesians 1 verse 6 says, in the beloved. And remember that those who are graciously accepted by God show their grateful dedication to God. Jesus then is the foundation of our dedication. But second, Jesus is the motivation for our dedication. The love which he demonstrated in living and dying for us compels us to dedicate our lives to Him. We sing that song, the lyrics, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 14 and 15, the love of Christ compels us Because we judge thus, that if one died for all, then all died, and he died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. And so, Jesus is the foundation of our dedication. Without his sacrifice, we have no foundation. We are not accepted by God apart from his sacrifice. Have you trusted in Jesus? And He is the motivation for our dedication. Look to Jesus. Guilt can never motivate you like grace can. So look to Jesus and be reminded of His great goodness. Third, Jesus is the standard for our dedication. Jesus is the standard for our dedication. only Jesus has wholeheartedly dedicated himself to God. He's the only one. There is clarification in this. There is conviction in this, and there is consolation. There's clarification because Jesus is what true dedication looks like. He is the measure of maturity. Not you, not your friend, not your favorite preacher, not somebody you saw on television, not a former pastor. Certainly, we follow spiritual leaders as they follow Christ. That is a biblical concept, but we follow them as they follow Christ. True dedication, what it looks like, is Jesus. He's the measure of maturity. This is the reason, by the way, that God gave all the gifts to the church. He gave it for the edifying of the body of Christ so that we would all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, that we would all come to the perfect man. What's the perfect man? Well, we have a tendency to look within us or around us. Oh, he's a pretty good guy. I'll compare myself to him. Or we look within us. I'm a pretty good guy. No, that's not the standard. The measure, Paul tells us, Ephesians 4.13, is the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what dedication looks like. And when we realize that, we recognize, number two, under this conviction, because we realize that we don't measure up. We don't. Listen, brother, listen, sister, you don't measure up. Stop saying you do. I really get concerned when I hear people talk more about their own righteousness than Jesus. I get concerned when I hear people talk about what is right and immediately they cite themselves as an example. God help you if that's you. because only He can. That is that insidious self-righteousness that rises within each of our hearts. How great are you? If I could quote Jonathan Edwards, you contributed nothing to your salvation but the sin that made it necessary. And you would have fallen away a hundred times this morning before you even put your socks on if you weren't kept by the power of God. We don't want to hear about your righteousness. We need to look to Jesus. And this then is when we find the consolation that He is the standard for our dedication because He is the perfect righteousness for those who trust in Him. Not us, not someone else, Jesus. But let me move on. Number four, how does this point us to Jesus? Jesus is the hope of our dedication. He's the hope of our dedication. Because Jesus has lived and died and risen for us, we have hope. And it is only in this that we have hope in our dedication. All this living for God, trying to give God our best, trying to give God the most pure sacrifice we can, all of this means nothing if Jesus has not lived and died and risen again. I have heard people say before, oh, Christianity is so wonderful and life in the Lord is so wonderful that I would serve Jesus even if there wasn't heaven to come. That's not the way the Apostle Paul thought. He said, if in this life only we have hope, we are of all men, Most to be pitied, we're of all men most miserable. Don't think about lovely platitudes about how wonderful it is. Recognize the reality, if this is all there is, you're to be pitied. But Jesus has risen. He is ultimately that first fruits offering. He is the guarantee of future harvest. As Paul would say, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most pitiable, but now Christ is risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. And as he then speaks about the wonderful grace that is yet to come to us who are in Christ, the hope of the resurrection, the hope of the coming kingdom, As he speaks about this in light of our own service, Paul will say, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. How is it that we know that our labor is not in vain? How is it that we know our dedication is not in vain? Because Christ has died and risen again. Because He is that firstfruits. So friends, we serve, we serve knowing that our labor is not in vain in the Lord. Does that mean that we can make sense of it all right now? No, it doesn't. But God is making sense of it. Your labor isn't meaningless. And so, brothers and sisters, those who have been graciously accepted by God must show their grateful dedication to God. But even as we do this, we look to Jesus. He is the foundation of our dedication. He is the motivation for our dedication. He is the standard of our dedication. And He is the hope of our dedication. Amen. Well, friends, for sake of time, and I know that there is fellowship