In this sermon, the speaker discusses the importance of studying the offerings in the Bible and finding the Lord Jesus in all parts of Scripture. The speaker mentions that they have already looked for Christ in the history of the nation and in the Tabernacle. They now want to find Him in the offerings, and will later explore His presence in the prophets, Psalms, and Poetry. The speaker emphasizes that these chapters on offerings are valuable for all believers, as they deepen our love for Christ and are relevant to priestly ministry.

Again, we give you a very warm welcome in the Lord's name, and on behalf of the Christians who meet here, we make you very welcome indeed. If you're visiting, we hope that you'll feel at home and come back another evening in the will of the Lord as our meetings continue. Now, we are looking for the Lord Jesus, and that's not a very difficult task and a very delightful task to find the Lord Jesus in all parts of Holy Scripture. We are following that little exhortation from Luke 24, that there is Christ in all the Scriptures, and we have looked for him already in the history of the nation. We have looked last night at what sometimes we call typology. We have seen him in the tabernacle, and tonight we want to find him in the offerings. And tomorrow night, God willing, we're going to turn to the prophets, and on Thursday evening to the Psalms, and on Friday evening to poetry, that lovely little song of songs, to find the Savior there. On Sunday, the Lord's day in the gospel, our brother Eddie Jemison will be here, and then our meetings continue again next week, God willing, from Monday through until Friday, and we hope that you'll come back as often as you can in the will of the Lord. Now, tonight, please, we want to turn to the offerings, and I want to read one particular offering, and that is the offering in chapter 2, chapter 2 of the book of Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 2. I will not read all the chapter, but a few verses here and there, and we'll begin at verse 1. When any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord, fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon. And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord, a savor of rest, as some say. And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons. It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. Now in verse 4, that offering may sometimes be of cakes mingled with oil, anointed with oil, and following that certain instructions with regard to the baking of the offering. Now we come further down the chapter, please, down to verse 11. No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven, for ye shall burn no leaven nor any honey in any offering of the Lord made by fire. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt. Now the Lord will bless that reading from his word. Now I always have to confess that I was shamed into a study of the offerings. I had been saved for a good number of years, and one day walking down Sandy Row in Belfast, I met a man who had not been saved for a very long time. And indeed he had been saved from a very wild life, indeed, with not many privileges. And as we walked together down the street, we were talking about the Lord Jesus and enjoying a little conversation. And then I made some remark about the Savior, and he said to me, that of course is the burnt offering. And I had no idea what he was talking about, but I had to sort of nod my head, and I felt rather ashamed, and we walked on. We conversed for another wee while, and something else was said about the Lord Jesus, and he said to me, now of course that's the sin offering. And again I nodded my head, and I confessed that I had no idea what he was talking about. And I thought to myself, as soon as ever I get away from this man, I'll get to these offerings and find out what they're all about. And I confess again that I was driven to a study of these offerings by shame. When I got to them and got some help in the reading of them, and I think every young believer should look for help, reliable help, printed help to understand the offerings, I found of course that they were indeed a very, very thrilling portion of the word of God. And for a long time after that, I confess I reveled in these early chapters of the book of Leviticus. And still tonight, as with many of the Lord's people, I'm sure that they would be a very favorite portion of Holy Scripture to which we are often drawn, and it seems that we shall never exhaust finding the beauties of the Savior in these lovely chapters. Now what I propose to do this evening, I want to look at the offerings in a general way. I have in mind very specially those that are young in Christ, and perhaps as yet you have not gotten to a study of the offerings. I want to try to encourage you this evening to get to the reading of these lovely chapters, and then when we have looked at the offerings sort of generally and put them in order, I want then to look particularly at the meal offering, not only to see what the meal offering teaches, but perhaps to see a kind of a pattern as to how we should be approaching the rest of the offerings, how we should study these chapters. Now for anyone to say that Christ is not in these chapters, well I just don't understand that. If the Lord Jesus is not here, then it would seem to me that these chapters are meaningless. I don't understand how anyone is interested in them at all if Christ be not here, and I'm sure that from the epistles of the Hebrews we have ample authority for finding the Lord Jesus in these offerings. We need of course to be very sane, I think, and balanced about it, and careful in our interpretation, and we must, as someone has said, we must be careful that we're not delving and dealing in imagination rather than interpretation, so we've got to constantly ask for help that we might approach the chapters sanely and in a very balanced and spiritual way, and trying to discover just what is being taught concerning the Savior in these chapters. Now the book of Leviticus might be a book that we very often avoid, but I hope that the young believer gets to it soon, and there are some very lovely things in this rather strange book. The name of the book, of course, Leviticus, a very difficult name in some respects for Gentile minds, but if you just remember the first half of it that it has to do with Levi, and you remember of course that the Levites and the priests, this is what this book is all about. It is about the Levitical priesthood and the ministry of the priests. The book of Exodus, from which we read last night, again of course it means just exactly what it says. It is the book of the Exodus, the book of the going out. The book of Genesis, from which we read another evening, that of course has got to do with the beginnings and that word genetics that we use, and you know of course that that is the beginning of things, and the book of Genesis is just the book of the beginnings. Exodus is the book of the going out. Leviticus is the book of the going in, because that's priesthood, and when you come to numbers, that's the book of going on, because that's the people being numbered and going through the wilderness, and when you come to the book of Deuteronomy, that's the book of looking back. It's the book of the review, and Moses is reviewing what the Lord has done for the people. So these five interesting books of Moses, we can nearly get the contents of them suggested in their very names. So we come tonight to the book that has to do with the priests and with priestly ministry, and of course we've got to remember a very simple thing right away, that we belong today to a people who are all priests. Now that was not so back in these days. There was a particular peculiar class of people who were priests. The priestly ministry was their responsibility. They were engaged in it, and they acted on the behalf of others, and the people were divided. I mean in the good sense, they were divided, and there was a priestly class, and then there was the ordinary people. Now that does not apply today. Need I say it again, that today we live and we belong to a people, to a great family, in which all are priests, and the division of the priests and laity, or if you like, of clergy and laity, has absolutely no foundation in the New Testament, as you very well know. And so we all tonight have priestly privilege, and that means that these offerings are of interest to all of the Lord's people. Now of course there are some brethren and all of our sisters who don't take part publicly in the leading of the company in but nevertheless worship is not confined to the collective gatherings of the Lord's people, and we worship at home, and we worship as individuals, and we worship silently in the company. And so these chapters are of interest to all who engage in priestly ministry. That means that they are really of profit and value to all of the Lord's people. Now that is a very simple thing, but a very important thing, and there we must begin. Now we noticed one evening before, maybe Sunday afternoon was it, when we were talking about the tabernacle, that God began right in the very inner shrine, and from that high ground of the holiest of all and the Shekinah glory, God came out to meet man. He came out from that. His description began in there, and he comes out. Now we saw of course that in experience it's a different thing. We begin at the gate. We go into the outer court. We go through past the altar and the laver and in, and eventually into the holiest. We go as it were in the reverse way, because that is the way of our appreciation and the way of our experience. Now when you come to the offerings, that very same principle applies, and you'll find that God begins at that very high ground of the burnt offering. Here is an offering in chapter 1 where the Lord Jesus is all and entirely for God, and when we go to that chapter dealing with the burnt offering, it is very, very high ground indeed, and that is where God begins. Now God comes from that through the meal offering that we have read about this evening, and then he comes to the peace offering, and in the meantime of course in experience I have started at the other end. There are not many people who start with the burnt offering in their experience as Christians. I confess that I didn't. I came as a sinner, and it was my sins and my trespasses that burdened me down, and I didn't know the language, but what I was looking for was a trespass offering. I know that now, that that's what I needed. That's what I wanted, and that's what I found in the Savior, one who had taken my place. He had become my substitute. He had died for what I had done. That was what I wanted, and that's what I found. I know now that I had found the Christ of the trespass offering, but after a little while I learned, as many others learned, and it comes as a shock sometimes to learn it, that what I am is even worse than what I have done. You see, what I have done, I have done because of what I am, and what I am in my old nature, in myself, that's even worse because that's the root and the old evil principle. Everything that I do springs out of what I am, and what I am, I repeat, is worse than what I have done. For that reason, perhaps there were some of us who, although we were saved young, you see, some of us, and for that reason perhaps we had more of a conviction of sin afterwards, more of an appreciation of how hateful sin was to God. Perhaps we had a deeper appreciation of that afterwards, and it comes as rather a shock to learn how sinful you are, and to discover that you've got an old nature that you're going to carry with you that has never changed, an old wicked thing that will be with us to the very end, and that's quite a terrible thing for some people to learn. Well, anyway, we need an offering for that, and having found an offering for our trespasses, in the trespass offering, then we come to this next offering, working backward, we come to the sin offering, and the sin offering is that offering for what I am. Now, you'll find in the text that it's an offering for what the text calls sins of ignorance, and the sins of ignorance are sins, of course, that reveal what I am, and you see, we sin because we are sinners, and we are sinners because we sin, and those are the two truths of the trespass offering and the sin offering. So, what now? Well, I ought to be progressing, and if I have now enjoyed an appreciation of the trespass offering, and I have gone now to the sin offering, and acknowledged the Lord Jesus there, an offering for what I am, as well as what I have done, now I progress a little further, and I come to the peace offering, and that, of course, is the middle offering of the five, and when I come to the peace offering, I find that God is already there, and if God is there enjoying the peace offering, and now I come and enjoy the peace offering, too. Indeed, that word is just the fellowship offering, and what is happening now is that God and Christ and I, we are all enjoying Christ together. We are all feasting together upon the peace offering. This is a lovely thing now. God has come from the high ground of the burnt offering, and oh, that we could all sometime arrive there, but we begin at the trespass offering and move the other way, usually, and then we meet God in the peace offering, and if we still progress and commune with God, and keep reading his word, and looking for Christ, and learning a little bit more, then we ought to reach higher ground than the trespass offering and the sin offering, and we ought to recognize that great as our need is, and much as we appreciate the man who has met our need, you know there is more at Calvary than the meeting of my need, and what God has found in Christ is exceedingly more important than what I have found, and I'm not for one moment minimizing what we have found in Christ, but what he means to God is exceedingly more than what he means to me, and so we come to the meal offering, and we find a lovely life here that has been lived for the pleasure of God, and then we come to the burnt offering, this is the highest ground of all, and we find that this lovely life has been poured out in death, not only lived for God along the way, but now actually poured out for God, and that is chapter one, and here is the sweet savor, sweet savor in chapter one, sweet savor in chapter two, and sweet savor in chapter three, but when you come to the sin offering, and the trespass offering, no sweet savor there, but God does delight in the man of the first three chapters, there is sweet savor here, this is the life and the death of the Lord Jesus for the pleasure of the heart of God. So you see there's a very interesting order then in these offerings. Now I know of course that you can't always sort of in a stereotype way, you can't follow that pattern, because I didn't know one or two men, I think of one man in particular, and if he's giving his testimony, he keep telling you that he was saved in chapter one of Leviticus, he was saved on the ground of the burnt offering, and you see what happened was this, he was anxious to be saved, he was looking for a savior, he was, he couldn't understand fully the gospel, the simplicity of it, but one night I think it was in a ministry meeting, and someone was speaking about what Christ meant to God, and he thought to himself that night in the meeting, well if he means all that to God, if he has satisfied God, and filled the heart of God, then he's enough for me, and he said I just rested there, and this brother would keep telling you he was saved in the grounds and in the spirit of the burnt offering. Now that does not usually apply, we usually come burdened down with sin and guilt, looking for a trespass offering, and we start therefore at the other end. Well here are five offerings then, but what do they mean? Well they are of course five aspects of the ministry, the life, the work, the death of the Lord Jesus, and the savior is here in every chapter, the burnt offering is God's delight in the death of Christ, what that death meant to God, the trespass offering is the meeting of my need, but God comes on now to the meal offering, and I come on to the sin offering, and then God and I meet in the middle in the peace offering, and God and I now we share our delights in the Lord Jesus. So here are five lovely portraits of the person whom we all love, and I do trust that while there are many complicated details in all of these offerings, that nevertheless you'll get to them and get there with a little bit of help from others, and if you find something, I keep telling young people, if you find something that you don't understand, well then ask your elder brethren about it, and that helps them too, keep plaguing them with questions, and it keeps them reading and helps them as well. So we trust that you keep reading and get to the offerings and find the savior here, a study of what he means to God and what he means to me in these chapters, I think must be among the sweetest studies in all of the word of God. Now there wouldn't be time to look at the details of all the offerings, so I thought that if we picked out this lovely meal offering and see something of how to study an offering and what to look for in this chapter, perhaps that would give us a kind of a pattern, and then the young believer could read the rest of them and see what you can find there. Now before you get to the text of this offering, there are two problems. One is a very simple problem, the other is simple too, but for a it's not just so easy to find. The first little problem is that in our authorized version, this offering is called a meat offering. But of course you'll constantly hear brethren refer to it, and I perhaps have called it this already, we call it the meal offering. And when I was a young Christian, I confess I was rather backward about asking questions, and for a long time I struggled, I wondered was there something wrong with the text here, and I wondered all sorts of things. Here it was meat offering in my Bible, but the brethren kept calling it the meal offering, and for a good while that was a problem to me. Until of course I found a very simple answer really, that this is meat in the sense of food. It is not meat in the sense of flesh, as you would have it in other offerings, it's meat in the sense of food. You remember the Lord Jesus said, my meat is to do the will of him that sent me. And he simply meant of course, that his sustenance, his nourishment, his food was to do the will of God. And this is the way that that word meat is used, and it's quite alright. But we call it the meal offering, because the bulk of this offering, the basis of this offering was flour or meal. And so if brethren call it the meal offering, you know what they're talking about, it's the same thing as the meat offering. It's only a little problem, but it is a problem to some young believers. Now the second problem is maybe more of a problem, and it is this, that here is an offering without blood. How do you explain that? Now you go of course through the rest of the offerings, and you find the blood being shed and poured out, and as we mentioned in the Lord's day, you know the brazen altar was not a very nice sight. It was rather a gory sight, with the blood flowing round about. It must have been really a very difficult thing sometimes to behold. But here is an offering, and there's no blood. And you say that's very strange. You say, I hear the brethren preach, you know, from Genesis chapter 4, and I hear them denouncing Cain, and showing of course that Cain had brought an offering without blood. He had brought the very fruit of the ground, and yet here is an offering without blood, and Cain's was wrong, and this one is right. And what is the answer to this problem? Now there's a very simple answer to that as well, and it's this. This offering was never offered alone. It was a companion offering. It was always a companion of another offering, and usually of the burnt offering. So that when you go through some of these later books, you keep reading about the burnt offering with his meal offering. The burnt offering with his meal offering. And you'll find that it's a companion offering, always accompanying, or when it is an accompaniment, usually it is the burnt offering that it is accompanying. Now you see that answers the problem, because what we have now is this. We have two offerings being brought, and one is a blood offering, and the other of course is a companion of the blood offering, and it's just very beautiful because it really is the life and the death of the Lord Jesus inseparably brought together, and we must appreciate both of them, or really in a sense we appreciate neither. What kind of ministry would that be that brings out the death of Christ and does not believe in the perfections and the sinless character of his life? That the death of Christ would be of no value if we did not have the perfection of the life of chapter 2. But then again, what kind of gospel would that be that preaches a beautiful life and preaches a sinless example and leaves me there without any blood? That gospel would be no good for me at all. It wouldn't meet my need, and so we must appreciate both the blood of chapter 1 and the beauty of chapter 2, the burnt offering of chapter 1, the meal offering of chapter 2. They were companions, and it is just saying really that the life and the death of Christ are inseparable, that the life is of value eventually because it was poured out in death, and the death is of value and of worth to God and to me because it was the pouring out of such a life as is depicted in chapter 2. So the life and the death of the Lord Jesus cannot be separated really. They are equally, equally of value in the sight of God, and so the meal offering has no blood, but it was a companion offering with an offering that did have blood. Now we come to look at the text of it, and of course, as has often been pointed out, there are six ingredients mentioned in connection with the meal offering. Four of them are essential ingredients, and two of them are forbidden. So they're all important, not just enough to write about the four ingredients that are included and to make no mention of the other two. The other two must be mentioned, and mentioned and expressly forbidden. So there are six ingredients mentioned, four of them are essential ingredients, and two of them are forbidden. They must never be included in any meal offering. Now those ingredients, of course, are fairly well known. The basis of this offering is meal, or as we have it here, it is fine flour. The second ingredient is oil, and the next one is frankincense. The third one is, the fourth one is salt, and in the two that are forbidden, there must be no leaven, and there must be no honey. And all of these ingredients have got a meaning of some sort, and I think that if we keep referring to other scriptures, there's no problem really. Scripture usually interprets itself, and when you're reading the book of Revelation, you keep reading the book of Daniel and the book of Ezekiel, and you'll find that if there's a symbol in the book of Revelation, and you can't understand it, you maybe find it explained for you in the book of Daniel or the book of Ezekiel. And conversely, if you're reading the book of Daniel, you'll find maybe an explanation of something in the book of Revelation. And so, with scripture interpreting itself, there should be no problem really about a discussion of these ingredients, and always keeping in mind that we are looking for Christ. Looking for the Lord Jesus in these ingredients, and learning some little thing more about him in all his glory. Now what is it that we learn? Well, I sometimes use some little headings, but there are four that I want to leave with you with regard to the included ingredients, and I want you to think of the fineness of the flour first of all. And then we go to the fatness of the oil. Then we want to talk about the fragrance of the frankincense, and then the freshness of the salt. And the other two ingredients, leaven and honey, we'll of course have to say a little word about these. Now this was flour, not only flour, but fine flour. And this fine flour, well immediately of course we go over to the gospel by John, and we find the Lord Jesus is the bread of life, no problem there. Here was the bread in John chapter 6, and it's called among other things the bread the Lord Jesus is called in about six different ways he's referred to as the bread in John 6. But one particular way he's referred to is as the bread of God, the bread of God. I wonder what that means? Do you think it just means the bread that God provides? I don't think it just means that. I'm sure it does mean that, but it means more. I think that it means that here is the very bread upon which God feeds, the bread of God. And the Lord Jesus is that bread of God. And of course we come here and we find that it's cakes and bread and flour, and it's the very same thing. There's no problem. Here is the bread upon which God feeds, and as we have it in another place, it's the food of the altar, and here is God delighting in his Son. Here is that bread of John 6 that has delighted and satisfied the heart of God. God is satisfied. Whoever and whatever this man is in chapter 2, he's the man who has delighted the very heart of God, and God feasts upon him. He's the bread of God. But you notice of course that this is fine, fine flour. Now here is that unsullied consistency that there ever was in the life of the blessed Lord. He was, as far as God was concerned, he was unresisting, and he was always yielding. And you know how that fine flour will go into any shape that you want it. It is unresisting. It yields to every pressure as it were. And I don't mean of course that the Lord Jesus yielded as far as principles and truth were concerned. He never did that. But in one other epistle, we are encouraged to what the apostle calls a sweet reasonableness. And certainly we get that in connection with the Lord Jesus, and there is this unresisting, yielding, giving character to the blessed Lord. Here is fine flour. And not only that, but this even and smooth consistency, and brethren hardly ever mention the fine flour, but they point out of course that somehow, well, it goes through your fingers. There's no grit in it. There's no harsh lumps in this flour. It's fine flour. And this flour, if you bruise it, the only thing you can do, if you do anything to it, is to make it finer, if that be possible. That's all you can do to fine flour. You can make it finer if possible. So here is the blessed Lord, and there are no harsh lumps, you know, and no grittiness like there is in our lives. Here is a blessed one, and it is all smooth, even unsullied consistency in the life of the Lord Jesus. Now, to illustrate that, then, what we think of, of course, is this. We think of good brethren who have passed on. Aye, we think of some that are still alive, and if I were to mention names to you, I find it a very interesting thing to see just the immediate reaction of the Lord's people when you mention certain names. I could mention the name of a man to you, and if I were to say to you, do you remember him? Oh, you'd say, yes, a very holy man. You would say that. Oh, nine out of ten of the Lord's people would respond like that if you mentioned that man's name. I think of another man, and if I were to mention his name, you know, the brethren would say, a very gracious man, a very gracious man. I think of another man, and I don't know that he had so much grace as the other brother, but if I were to mention his name, the brethren say about him, very knowledgeable man he was, very knowledgeable man. And I think of yet another man, and if you mention him, the brethren say, happy little man. You know, we love to see him coming, a very happy little man. Maybe he didn't have the knowledge of the other man, and then I think of others, and if you mention the name, the brethren say, very faithful man, but stern, but severe, but a very faithful man, a good man. You see, that's good. All of that's good to be remembered in some special way like that by the Lord's people. That's very nice, and all of these men have the very best of testimonies. But you see, what I'm trying to say is this, that all of them had something outstanding. Now, if I were to mention to you that blessed name, the name of the Lord Jesus, tell me what is outstanding in his life? And you begin to think about it, and there's not one feature that is outstanding beyond another. And you think of the fruit of the Spirit that was born perfectly in his life, and I hope that very early the young Christian learns from memory the fruit of the Spirit. Now, I keep telling you that some of the older believers have left it too late. They never get it now, but while you're young, get these things into your mind. And here is the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit, and it's not fruits, it's fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. And there's love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control. Now, that is the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit. Which of those was outstanding in the life of Christ? Now, you read through the Gospels. There's love, oh yes. Is there more love than joy? You say, I don't think so. Well, is there more gentleness than goodness? I don't think so. Is there more peace than there is long-suffering? You say, I don't think so. And you come to the right conclusion that there is not one of those moral features that you could select and say, that's the one that was outstanding in his life. Not one. Because in absolutely perfect balance, they were all there. There was a perfect blend. This is fine flour, brethren. There is nothing outstanding. There are no lumps in this flour. This is the even consistency of the life of the Lord Jesus. It is the bearing in a perfect blend of the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit. A lovely life, indeed, he lived. So, the bulk, the basis of this offering was flour. Fine flour. And I repeat that if you bruise fine flour, the only thing you can do to it, if you can do anything, is to make it finer, if that be possible. And they bruised him all his ministry. All the days of his ministry, they bruised him verbally. And when it came to the end, they bruised him physically. And when they finally lifted him up on the tree, all that the fine flour said was, Father, forgive them. If anything, if it's possible, you can only make it finer. And all the bruising that they made out to him only brought out the perfections and the beauties of what he was. So, we come, indeed, to look at an absolutely perfect man. And what a fitting symbol of that is the fine flour, which becomes, of course, the food of the altar, and God and his people together feast upon that fine flour. Now, in two different ways, the oil was applied to the offering. Sometimes we get the word anointed, and sometimes we get the word mingled. And we've got to distinguish between these two. Maybe I should have said it the other way around. We get the mingling perhaps first, and then we get the anointing. And mingling and anointing, well, there may be a similarity, but there is a very important distinction here. And we find, of course, that the oil is a figure, a type, a symbol of the Spirit of God. Again, I think that would be easy to find from other scriptures, that the oil is a symbol of the Spirit of God. And here we find that this perfect man, this blessed one of Leviticus 2, the meal offering, there is a mingling and an anointing both with the oil. Now, I wonder if the mingling with the oil is that mystery of Bethlehem and the incarnation, and that miraculous conception of the Lord Jesus. And might the anointing with the oil be that public linking of the Spirit of God with the Lord Jesus at the moment of his baptism? Well, certainly there was a mingling and an anointing. And one is a mystery thing that we don't understand. The other is something that we can see. And perhaps we have Bethlehem and Jordan both involved here. Now, the symbol of the Holy Spirit, this oil, of course, it was used for lighting, it was used for anointing, it was used for healing, and all that applies with the ministry of the Spirit. But we are not just talking now about the ministry of the Spirit, but only in the way that the Lord Jesus and the Spirit are seen together as two divine persons. And in his humanity, we see the mingling together. Now, the angel says to Mary, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee. The power of the highest shall overshadow thee. That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And here, in some mysterious, miraculous way, the conception of the Lord Jesus in the womb of the Virgin is by the power of the Spirit. And right even before his birth, in his very conception, there is that mingling with the Spirit. In his boyhood, we read the child grew and waxed strong in the Spirit. Now, I know that some will make that a small s and think that it is his own human Spirit. I'm putting a capital S at it, and see the Lord Jesus growing as a boy, still in evidence, that mingling with that other divine person. You come to his baptism then, and the Spirit comes down like a dove. And notice too, a very interesting thing, that it was when John Baptist pointed him out as the lamb, that the Spirit came down like the dove. Now, need I tell you that the dove is a very timid creature, indeed, and very easily frightened. But when we think of the lamb, we think of meekness and gentleness, and isn't that interesting? That when the Lord Jesus is introduced as the lamb, in all his meekness, the dove is able to come down and abide upon him. So again, we have the Savior and the Spirit together. Now, in his ministry, when he began his ministry, he began with these words. He said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Those were his opening words in Nazareth. So the Spirit and the Son are together again. And you remember that when eventually you arrive at his death, it was through the eternal Spirit that he offered himself without spot to God. So the Spirit is there at Calvary as well. And you remember too, that when he went up eventually and was received up in glory, that it was then that the Spirit came down. And as he goes up and the Spirit comes down, the Spirit on earth is evidence that the Son is now glorified in the heavens. So there is a mingling always between the Son and the Spirit. This fine flour is mingled with oil in a mystery way that we can't understand. And not only that, but anointed with oil in an outward way that we can see. So there are things we can see and appreciate, and there are other things that are too big for us and we can't understand them. Can I exhort again, the young believer and the older one too, don't get too alarmed when there are things that you don't understand. Rather, give God thanks that what we have in our Bible and what we have in the Savior is far bigger than our tiny little minds. I wouldn't like a Savior and a God that my little intelligence could fully understand. I'm glad there are things that I can't grasp, things that I don't know. Now you come to the next ingredient, which is frankincense. Now this frankincense, there were four things about it. It was white, it was fragrant, it was very pure, and it was precious. Frankincense. White, fragrant, pure, and very costly, very precious. Well, need we say more? Here is the whiteness that always speaks of purity, the fragrance, of course, that ever arose from himself to his Father. Here is that purity intrinsically, purity in himself and purity in what he's doing, what he's saying, purity in everything about him, and how precious he must have been to God. How precious such a one must have been to the Father. Now here is the very important thing about the frankincense. Whenever this man was bringing his offering, he brought it, of course, to the priest. And what the priest did, he took out his handful of the flour, and he took a handful of the oil, and he mingled them together, and it was handfuls that went to the altar. The rest was for the priest to enjoy. The handful was what he brought to the altar, you see. But when you come to the frankincense, not a handful now, but you'd have noticed that we read all the frankincense, all the frankincense. What is this? Oh, I think that here is the teaching. There is a fragrant, precious thing about Christ that eventually will be appreciated only in its entirety by God. You know, some of our dear brethren, they have reached high ground of appreciating Christ, and we love to hear them speak of him. On the Lord's Day morning, we love to hear them speak to the Father about the Son. It's a delightful exercise, and some dear brethren, it's just a joy to listen to them as they speak to God about his Son, and use terms, and exalt the Savior, and find language to somehow express for all of us what we are feeling and thinking about the Lord Jesus. But in the end, it's a handful, a handful. Here is a something, all the frankincense, and it reminds me of that word, of course, that we sing together, but the high mysteries of his name an angel's grasp transcend, the Father only glorious claim the Son can comprehend. There is a something in the Lord Jesus that only the Father can properly comprehend and understand, says God, bring all the frankincense to me. I want it all. Here is that aspect of God's appreciation of the Lord Jesus in a unique way, in a way that transcends our little handfuls. But nevertheless, bring your handful, and this is very important too, because you see, these priests when they came, well, I'm sure that they were all different shapes and sizes of men, you know, these priests, and they all had different sizes of hands. Some of these men, I suppose, had big hands, and when they brought a handful of flour and put it on the altar, it was quite a lot, and here's another priest, and he's just a little fellow, and his handful, well, it's not nearly as much as the man beside him, but that's not the point. God is not concerned here with the size of the hand. He simply asks for a handful, and if the hand is filled with Christ, that's all that God desires. Now, there's an encouragement for young men to rise on the Lord's Day morning. How the saints are waiting for you to speak of Christ, and if it is only just a handful, well, bring that handful anyway. You may not be able to go on and on for as long as some of the older brethren can go on, but bring your handful anyway. Bring it, and God will be delighted, and so will the saints be, and you too will be blessed just because you gave. When we come on the Lord's Day morning, as we often say, we don't come to get. We don't come to receive. We come to give. We come to bring, but when we give and when we bring, we find that invariably we get, we receive, and you know the Lord Jesus taught with regard to material things that it was more blessed to give than to receive, and that perhaps applies very much at that meeting on the Lord's Day morning. If you come to receive, you might receive, but you might be disappointed, but if you come to give and you do give, then you will receive, no doubt about that. So, we trust that you'll bring your handful, and that you'll encourage the saints and speak for them, speak to the Father about his Son. That means, of course, that there's got to be a little bit of, what might you say, a little bit of sacrificing during the week maybe. You'll have to get alone and get to reading and get to studying, and you'll have to perhaps make preparation for coming on the Lord's Day morning, but what a delightful privilege it is to lead the saints. We hope that you will. So, the frankincense then, in all its sweetness, in all its fragrance, and then the salt. Now, I don't know anything about baking, but I know that if you want to ferment and if you want to introduce a corrupting element into the dough, then of course it's the leaven that you introduce, the yeast, the leaven. And the leaven is always, I would say invariably, right through even in the parables, the leaven is always a symbol of evil. And the Lord Jesus used it. He spoke of the leaven of the Pharisees. He spoke of the leaven of the Sadducees and the leaven of Herod, and we get leaven again in 1 Corinthians in the assembly, and always leaven is that corrupting influence, a corrupting element. Now, there must be no leaven, but there must be salt. And you put those two together in your thoughts. Salt, but no leaven. Because that is just really a double way of telling of the purity of the Lord Jesus. It's a double aspect, a double way, a twofold way of looking at His sinlessness. Here is salt, which is of course a preservative, and it must be put in, and here is leaven, which is the corrupting element, and it must be kept out. So you put in the preservative, and you keep out the corrupting thing, and it's just a twofold way of preserving and protecting the sinless character of the Lord Jesus. Now, we were born in sin. We were born in sin. Not only that, but we have committed sin. And in us there is sin. And of course, we all have a practical, experimental knowledge of sin. Neither of those things were true of the Lord Jesus. He was not born in sin. He did no sin. He knew no sin, and in Him there was no sin. And in that fourfold way, He is different to us. And I know that there is, and sometimes perhaps we seem to be keeping repeating it, but there is a sad doubt in many quarters today as to what we call the impeccability of the Lord Jesus. That is, whether or not He was liable to sin. There is a sad doubting of that impeccability in many quarters today. Now, if you doubted the impeccability, and by that we mean, was it possible for Him to sin? If you have any doubts about that, I don't know how you are going to interpret the salt and the leaven. Because the salt and the leaven is in a double way, as if to leave no loopholes. It is saying this, put in the preservative, keep out the corrupting. There is not a suggestion of sin about the man of the meal offering. He is absolutely removed and apart from sin, and not vulnerable to sin, and cannot be tempted by sin or by evil at all. Oh, well then you say, is this not a real humanity? Is this not a true? I don't understand the reasoning. What do you mean by a true humanity? Brethren say to me, you are affecting the humanity of the Lord, if you say that He could not be tempted to sin. And they say that they are preserving His real humanity. And if we agree that He was a real man, then they say, He must have been liable to sin. He must have been subject to temptation to sin, just like we are. Well, with respect, these brethren miss out a very important principle, and it is this. What do you mean when you say a real man? What do you mean when you say a true man? I tell you what they mean with their argument and their reasoning. What they mean is, was He a man like me? And I say without hesitation, no, He was not. He was not. Well then, was He not a true? He was a true man, and He was a real man, and He was a perfect man, but He was not a man like me. Because I've got an old link with Adam, and an old nature that won't leave me alone, and an old thing that breeds sinful things within me, and He had not that. He had not that. But He was a real man, and a true man, and real flesh and blood, and a real man who could be tired, and weary, and thirsty, and hungry, and disappointed, and angry. He could be all of that, but He didn't have the old sinful nature, and He had no link with Adam, none whatever. And if when you say, was He a true man? Was He a real man? Think about it. Maybe what these brethren do mean is, was He a man like me? Well, He wasn't a man like me, but He was a true man. Therefore, there was absolutely nothing in Him to respond to sinful temptations. That sin had no foothold in Him, that He was not vulnerable, that He was untouchable. And there are two things that prove it. I say prove it because I don't know what you do with Him if you don't believe that He was impeccable. He comes down, He doesn't cease to be God. James makes a sweeping statement. He says, God cannot be tempted with evil. Well, you say, James, does that only mean, does that mean just when God is in the heavens? Or does that equally apply when God is on earth amongst man? Oh, that's a sweeping, blanket statement. God cannot be tempted with evil. It is in the very nature of God that you can't reach Him with evil. Are there things that God can't do? Of course there are. He can't lie, He can't sin. God can't do that. It is impossible for God to lie, impossible for God to sin. Don't be afraid then of saying there are things that God cannot do. It is against His nature. God cannot sin. He cannot, therefore He cannot be tempted. God cannot be tempted with evil. And in my opinion, it doesn't matter whether that God is in the heavens or whether He's down here. The nature of God doesn't change. And if this man amongst men never ceased to be God, then you can't touch Him with evil. But now there's another thing. This is maybe even more serious. He has now gone up, our Lord Jesus has, into the heavens. Tell me then, has He ceased to be a man? Oh no, you say, He has gone up. We call Him the man in the glory. He has gone right up as a man into the heavens. Well then, if that man was vulnerable, touchable, temptable on earth, does that mean that He's still touchable in heaven? Have I a man representing me in the glory who might even yet be liable to sin? And of course the thing is unthinkable and absurd. If He, God, comes amongst us and doesn't cease to be God, and if this blessed man who is God goes up now into heaven and doesn't cease to be a man, I'm happy to see that here is impeccability, a Savior who can't be reached by sin at all. And so this is what I see in the salt, the preservative. Put it in. It must never be lacking, this preserving salt. But the leaven, keep it out. It's a corrupting thing. It must not be there. Well now, you say there's no honey. And you would think, wouldn't you, that the sweet honey would be something to put into the offering? If this is bringing out the beauties of the Lord Jesus, wouldn't you think that putting in the honey would be nice now to see something of the sweetness? Well, of course you know the sweetness of honey. It's very nice and all that, but the sweetness of honey is a rather temperamental thing. And if you apply the fire to it, you know, you can very soon make it sour and you can actually turn it to vinegar, you can turn it sour, you can turn that sweetness wrong. So it might be all right now, the sweetness of honey, that's very nice, but it is after all a natural sweetness that can't be soured by the fire. But the sweetness that I see in this blessed man, it's not a natural courtesy, not just a natural courtesy. It's not just a natural sweetness. It's not just a sort of a nice, sweet personality that you have here, humanly speaking. No, no. What you have here is divine sweetness that is never touched, never touched by circumstances, that is never touched by men, that never is soured. You know, there are some people, and they're all right as long as you go along with them, but if you cross them sometimes, you know, the sweetness can disappear. The Lord Jesus never was like that. Lovely to see him in the Gospels and how they try to engineer the circumstances and trap him and trip him in his words, and so much they tried, and still he seems to be, may I use the word, unruffled, untouched by it all. And in this calm sweetness, he moves about through in the midst of men. So says God, the sweetness here, but it's the sweetness of the frankincense keep the honey out. That's a natural thing that can be spoiled. So, here are six ingredients, four of them essential and two of them forbidden, and they bring to us the unsullied consistency of his life, the unbroken communion that ever was between him and the Spirit, the unmeasured preciousness of frankincense, the unspotted holiness of salt and no leaven, and the unspoiled sweetness because there must not be honey. I trust that our appreciation of the blessed Lord might be deepened a little bit, our love for him increased as a result of our meditation. May the Lord bless his word.