 Hey, man, so keep your place there in Leviticus chapter 2. We're going to be looking at this entire chapter this evening. So we're looking at the second sermon in the sermon series, the offerings tonight. We're looking at the meat offering tonight. All right? And what's the goal of this sermon series? So the goal of the sermon series is two things, really. Number one, I mean, you read through that chapter and you might just read like, you know, what in the world does that have to do with me? But what we're going to look at is two things in each of these offerings. The first one is to show you how, you know, this comment that I always make during sermons that the Old Testament is pointing to Christ, to prove that to you, to show how all of these things in the Old Testament are really pointing to the Messiah, pointing to Jesus Christ. And then number two, show how these offerings, even these obscure things in Leviticus, apply to us today as Christians. That's really the two-fold goal. So let's go ahead and look at this next offering. Last week we looked at the burnt offering. So first of all, what is meat? Let's talk about that for a second before we even start. So we talked about the burnt offering, which was a sacrifice that was a live animal that was killed and then burned on the altar. It was that complete offering. The animal was killed in a certain way. You know, the blood was important. We talked about that last week and then how the whole animal was burned and offered unto the Lord. So it was something that was alive that was made dead in that sacrifice to the Lord. In the meat offering, we have a different type of offering here. Meat doesn't mean like beef or steak in the Bible. Meat means like food, like things that are grown from the ground. Basically is what meat means. That's why we see flour, things that come from, you know, wheat from plants and also corn in the meat offering. So meat just means kind of food that is grown from the ground. That's what the word meat in this context in the Bible means. All right, so let's look at Leviticus chapter 2. Let's look down at verse number 1 and let's find out what this meat offering is all about. Let's read through a few verses here together and then we'll look at how these things apply to the foreshadowing of Christ and how these things apply directly to us. Look at verse number 1. It says, And when any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord. So right away we get, you have to kind of get your King James mental, you know, reading going here. It says if any will offer. So this means that this is again something that you can choose to offer or not to offer. Okay, so this is something that is a voluntary offering. Any will offer a meat offering unto the Lord. His offering shall be a fine flour and he shall pour oil upon it. So now it's saying if you're going to offer this meat offering, if you're going to do this, if you choose to do this of your own free will, this is how you do it. So this is what he's going to give now is the directions very specifically about this and put frankincense there on and he shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priest. And he shall take there out his handful of flour thereof and 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. So you're still burning this offering. Okay, it's just not a live animal that was killed. It's offering made by fire and again of a sweet saver to the Lord. Meaning it's an offering up to the Lord through the smoke, the same idea as the incense and it's pleasing to the Lord. The Lord likes it. Look at verse number three. And the remnant, now we get into some differences between the meat offering and the burnt offering. It says in 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. And if thou bring an oblation of meat offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. So now he's saying you can bake it in the oven and bring it as well. And if the oblation by a meat offering be baked in a pan, it shall be a fine flour unleavened mingled with oil. So let's break down verse number three to verse number five there. First of all, the Bible here is saying that you're not going to burn all of it. The priest and his sons get some of it. Okay, we'll talk about that in just a few minutes. But look at verse number four. It's just talking about here how this flour or this bread is to be these cakes, these bread cakes are to be unleavened. They're to be unleavened and they're to be mixed with oil. It just goes into specifics about whether you bake it in an oven or whether you bake it in a pan. But again, it's whether you bake it any, it doesn't matter how you bake it. It has to be unleavened and with oil. Now turn to John chapter six. So let's look at the bread and the oil. What is the significance of this being a bread offering and with oil involved in it? Let's first look at the bread. I mean, this is an easy one, right? Look at John chapter six and look at verse number 35. John chapter six, look at verse number 35. The Bible says we're looking at the significance of why bread, why mixed flour, why make these cakes and we'll get into the unleavened characteristic of it in just a few minutes as well. But in John chapter six, verse 35, Jesus says, and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. This is, of course, Jesus talking about this. You know, he's talking about, you know, if you don't eat of this bread and everyone's like, why are we supposed to eat him? You know, and then, you know, you have the Catholics today that actually literally think they're eating Jesus. I mean, it's stranger than fiction folks, but it's in the Bible and it's happening today as well. They literally think they're eating Jesus at the Lord's Supper. Like literally, they literally think they're eating the flesh of Jesus and they're drinking the blood of Jesus. That's what they believe. That's what the church teaches. Now turn to Matthew chapter four, but Jesus is giving a spiritual application saying, I am the bread of life. He's comparing the manna that Jesus fed everyone in the wilderness with, you know, because what, they had to get that every single day. They had to go out and get it every single day. They couldn't store it up in last three days because it would rot. So they had to go get it every single day. And Jesus says, hey, if you eat of this bread, you will never die. Meaning, you will have eternal salvation. That's what Jesus is saying. He's like, once you trust on me, once you believe on me, you're saved. That's it. No more need for bread in your life. All you need is one time I am the bread of life. It's a spiritual application of a physical thing that happened in the Bible. And this meat offering is showing this foreshadowing of Jesus being that spiritual bread of life. Go to Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four, look at verse number four. Matthew chapter four, verse number four. Let's take it down another layer deeper here. In Matthew chapter four, and good thing we've already studied through John chapter one where the Bible says, you know, the word became flesh. So, you know, the word, you know, the word of God, you know, the word is God. The Bible says in John chapter one and the word became flesh in verse number 14. The Bible says in Matthew chapter four in verse number four, it says, but he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. So who is the word that proceeds out of the mouth of God? That is Jesus. So here we see this great analogy here of Jesus saying, I am the bread of life. I am that spiritual life comparing himself to bread. And then it's just saying, like, man shall not live just by bread alone, like physical bread, but by literally by the bread of life is what it's saying. It's saying, you know, you will live by Jesus. That's the only way you will live, but you should live your physical life through the word of God as well. There's just so many different depths of that, those two statements right there, which is why it makes it so great, but you know, here's the thing, people are like, oh, you know, man wrote the Bible. I'm like, yeah, Matthew the publican in Matthew chapter four and John the fisherman, they were just genius theologians that studied Leviticus and that's why they could make these just great in-depth connections. It's like, give me a break, right? The Bible proves itself for sure. So Jesus is that bread. So we see that the bread, the cakes is just picturing the bread of life, that spiritual application that Jesus himself compared himself to. Now how about the oil? What about the oil? So we see that, you know, there's two things that are necessary in this sacrifice. There's two things that are necessary, the bread and the oil. In the frankincense, we'll get to that in just a second, but really it's the bread and the oil. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 10. Then there's some things that are not to be included and we'll look at those, but the things that are to be included are bread, the cakes and the oil. Look at 1 Samuel chapter number 10. So what is the deal with the oil? What is that picturing? What is that signifying in the Bible? We can do a lot of different scriptures on this. I'm just going to prove it to you with just a couple, but we're going to look at the anointing of King Saul. So the people wanted a physical king. They wanted to be ruled by a grasshopper as we talked about this morning. They're like, no, we don't want to listen to God. We want a grasshopper to rule over us. This is what God's thinking, right? He's like, all right, I'll give you a grasshopper. He's going to be a little taller than the other grasshoppers, but he's a grasshopper all the same, all right? If you don't know what I'm talking about, refer to the sermon from this morning. 1 Samuel chapter 10, look at verse number one. Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it on his head, talking about Saul and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? When thou art departed from me today, when thou shalt find two men by Rachel sepulcher in the border of Benjamin at Zelsa, and they will say unto thee, the asses which thou went to seek are found, and woe thy father hath let the care of the asses and sorrow for you, saying, what shall I do for my son? So he's thinking, he's telling him what to do after he's anointed him here, verse three. Then shall thou go on forward from thence, and thou shalt come to the plain of Tabor, where they shall meet three men going up to God to Bethel, one carrying three kids and another carrying three loaves of bread and another carrying a bottle of wine. They shall salute thee and give thee two loaves of bread which you shall receive, thou shalt receive of their hands. After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, that there is a garrison of the Philistines, and it shall come to pass when thou art come dither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a sultry, a tabaret, and a pipe and a harp before them, and they shall prophesy. And then look at this in verse number six. And the spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, thou shalt prophesy with them, and shall be turned into another man. So we see here that the oil anointing is connected with the spirit of the Lord coming upon Saul. This is exactly actually turned to Acts chapter 10. This is exactly what Matthew chapter three describes when Jesus is baptized and the Holy Spirit comes down upon Jesus. What does it say? What is the significance of the Holy Spirit coming down upon Jesus? It says, you know, like a dove, meaning it came down in the manner of a dove. It doesn't mean it was a bird. You know, if you've been to Sunday school, you've colored that picture like a hundred times of this dove coming down. It wasn't a dove. It was just signifying how the Holy Spirit came down to Jesus. But it was an anointing. Look at Acts chapter 10, and Paul describes it this way. He says, how God, in verse number 38, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with what? So Saul, I'm sorry, was anointed with oil and that signified the spirit of the Lord coming upon him. And Jesus also was anointed Jesus of Nazareth with what? With the Holy Ghost and with power. Who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil for God was with him. So the oil in the meat offering signifies the presence of the Holy Spirit. It signifies, literally it signifies the anointing of Christ. I mean, it's such a beautiful comparison there. Go back to Leviticus chapter number two. Go back to Leviticus chapter number two. Verse number six, the Bible says, thou shalt part it in pieces and pour oil thereon. It is a meat offering. And if thy oblation be a meat offering, bacon in the frying pan, it shall be made a fine flour again with oil. And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the Lord. And when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar. And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof and shall burn it upon the altar. So it's saying he shall take a part of it and burn it upon the altar. It is an offering made by fire again of a sweet saver unto the Lord. But verse number 10 is this is what differs from the burnt offering. It says, And that which is left of the meat offering shall be errands and his sons. It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. So the point is, is that this offering is not a complete offering like the burnt offering was. Part of it was literally to sustain or to be for errand and the priest. So just all that to say this, God provides, you know, He provides sustenance. He provides things for the priest, for the man of God. And that's what he's doing here. Look at verse number 11. Look at verse number 11. Now we get into a little bit of a obscure part of the thing that I want to take a few minutes and explore. But now we know what the meat offering has. But in the frankincense, I'm not going to get too much into the frankincense. But obviously that was one of the gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus. So that again signifies Christ. It signifies the royalty, the kingship of Jesus as He was given this spice at His birth. Or at His, not at His birth, I'm sorry, at His youth or whatever you want to call it. You know, when He was just a year or two old. Look at verse number 11. Now we get into some details about what is not to be included in the meat offering. And I want to explore that just a little bit. It says 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. So the leaven is a little easier one. We're going to go there in a minute. But I want to just look at, you know, this idea of why, why not burn honey? Why not have honey with this? It's basically saying don't bring honey to this meat offering. And really what I want to kind of explain to you tonight is, and you know, this might be partly my opinion, my study, what I think this means. The Bible's not super clear on this. You kind of have to look up, you know, what the instances of honey in the Bible, what it means and all that. But this is a good example of why to really stay away from commentaries on the Bible. Because there's some really stupid stuff that's out there preached on, or not preached, but written on like, why, you know, why there's not to be honey? And it's really, when you read stuff like that, it's really people trying to sound smart and sound like, well, the culture of the day is that, you know, honey, you know, was sacrificed to the gods and, you know, Diana or whatever. And it's like, well, the Bible doesn't tell us that. You know, if this is a doctrine, I mean, this is a doctrine is what we're talking about here. Leviticus chapter two is literally a doctrine for the children of Israel to follow during this offering. So if it's a doctrine, I have to believe that the Bible would be a little bit more clear about that, and like, we don't have to take the culture of the day, you know, into the Bible should be able to answer for us why there's no honey in this offering. So first of all, go to, let me show you a couple things about honey. So honey is in the Bible and it's always, it's pretty much always used in the same type of context. Let me give you a few examples and then I'll tell you why I think that honey was not to be in this offering. Okay, so first of all, turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 32 and look at verse number 14. Look at verse number 14 of Deuteronomy chapter 32. Actually, I think I wrote this down wrong, but the point is, okay, go to Psalm chapter 119. Psalm chapter 119. The point is, is that the Bible describes the promised land as a land flowing with milk and honey. Okay, so honey is, is, when God was going to give the promised land as great blessing to the children of Israel, honey was one of the ways to describe how good that blessing was. That it was flowing with milk and what? Honey, that it was just, it was, it was the goodness of that blessing is one of the ways that it was described. Now the Bible says in Deuteronomy, I thought it was 32, I think it is but I'll find it in a minute, that the manna that was given by God from heaven tasted like honey. All right, now I thought it was Deuteronomy chapter 32, but I guess I could be wrong there. I thought it was Deuteronomy 32. Anyway, so God brings, the people complain they don't have enough to eat, so God gives this, this bread from heaven, this manna from heaven to the people and it literally tastes like honey. It's kind of like when I think of it, it's like that honeycomb, you know, cereal or whatever. It's like bread that tastes like honey. It's like a sugar cereal. That's kind of what it sounds like, it tastes like, that's what the Bible talks about. So it is something that is sweet, it is something that is a blessing given from God to the people again, just like the promised land and it's described as being good by the word honey. The manna is described as being good by the word honey. It's sweet, people like honey, it's a good thing. Now I'm going to Psalm chapter 119. Did you go to Psalm chapter 119? Look at verse, in Psalm chapter 119, look at verse number, let me go there myself. Look at verse number 103 of Psalm chapter 119, where the Bible describes something else with the word honey. In Psalm chapter 119, you already know where I'm going with this, is a chapter in the Bible, it's the longest chapter in the Bible and all it is talking about is God's word and the love for God's word. Okay, so look at verse 103 of Psalm chapter 19. It says, How sweet are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to the mouth, comparing the goodness of God's word to what? To honey. So honey, what am I going with all this? Honey is a representation of blessings from God and how good they are. That is how honey is used in the Bible. So what is, we have to kind of ask ourselves, what is the meat offering? What is the point of the meat offering? So the point of the meat offering is it's a free will offering of the fruit of your labor, of what you've grown, what you've produced and just basically the blessing that God has bestowed on you for the fruit of your labor. And I believe that God put no, you know, said don't put honey in there because just because you are sacrificing some of the fruit of your labor, it doesn't mean that the fruit of your labor is not sweet and not good. So God is saying keep the goodness. He's saying keep the goodness, you know, don't, you don't have to give the goodness back to me. So I mean, what's the application of this? The application of this is you can be thankful and you can give offerings to the Lord and still enjoy blessings from the Lord and still enjoy the goodness of those things. God doesn't want the goodness. He's like keep the goodness, but he wants to know that we are willing to offer, you know, the fruit of our labor to him, the first fruits of our labor to him in everything. So God has blessed us with much goodness in our lives and he wants us to keep the goodness. He wants us to have that goodness, but we should be willing to offer to the Lord, the fruits of our labor. All right, that's what I think it means. Honey is basically talking about everywhere in the Bible, it's everything that is good from a man's wife to the blessings coming down from heaven to God, you know, and where does your wife come from? Well, God gave her to you. It's all things that God has given you and honey is used to describe how good those things are. So don't put honey in the meat offering, don't put honey in the sacrifice that goes up to the Lord. God's like keep the good, keep the good for yourself. I want you to have good, but I want you to be able to willingly sacrifice to me. That's what I think it means. You know, I don't need to go read some stupid, you know, history of the Jews or whatever to figure out, you know, what the Bible actually says that honey is all about. Honey is just, is picturing the goodness of God's blessings and God is saying, you know, you don't have to give the goodness back. Just, I want to know that you'll sacrifice to me. You keep the goodness. What about Levin? What about Levin? Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5. So don't burn the honey. I mean, it's practical too. You can't burn a bunch of honey and it's going to be a mess and it's going to smell bad. So there's practicality there as well. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse number 6. Again, the No Levin is picturing Christ. This is exactly like, you know, you're supposed to have an animal with no blemish. This is the Passover, the Lord's Supper, the unleavened bread. Why? Because Levin pictures sin in the Bible. This is another one that commentaries will just lead you terribly astray. Levin pictures sin in the Bible. That's, I mean, I don't know how people miss that. But Levin pictures sin. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse number 6. Where we're talking about somebody who is in fornication in the church is to be put out of the church. In verse number 6, the Bible says your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little Levin, Levineth the whole lump. He's talking about sin here. In this specific case, he's talking about the sin of fornication in the church. But he's saying you can't have them in verse number 11. He gets into specific sins that can't be in the church. But he's talking about sins in the church. And he's saying, why can't, well, why not? We just tolerate everything. He's like, the reason you can't tolerate anything is two reasons. First of all, you want people to get right. Second of all, we can't have people in the church that are in fornication and then try to preach against fornication. It's not going to work because everybody will go into these sins. Because everybody will just, the sin will spread throughout God's people. A little Levin, Levineth the whole lump. Just like yeast, you know, it's spread. Levin is yeast. It's what makes the bread rise. So there is no Levin in this offering, meaning it should be a pure offering. And of course, Jesus was without sin. Jesus being the bread of life that this pictures in Leviticus chapter two is without Levin. He's literally without sin. That's why it has to have no Levin in it because it pictures Jesus Christ. I don't know how people miss that. And again, just like the water to wine, like Jesus is going to make a bunch of wine with Levin in it or yeast in it. It just makes no sense. It just shows that people don't understand how pure the Bible is in all its doctrine as it goes down to the last detail. Go to Leviticus chapter two and look at verse number 12. Look at Leviticus chapter two and look at verse number 12. It doesn't picture corruption. It doesn't picture sin in the Bible. It's clear and simple. That's what Levin refers to. And Jesus was without sin. He's that bread of life. So this offering of bread and oil of Jesus Christ anointed with the Holy Spirit is without sin. No Levin. Look at verse number 12. The Bible says, As for the oblation of the first fruits, He shall offer them unto the Lord, they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savor. And every oblation of thy meat offering, thou shalt season with salt. So again, He's talking about, you know, if you bring the first fruits, we're not going to burn those on the altar. Again, just showing that God doesn't want your leftovers. You know, God wants the first fruits of everything that you do bring to Him. But verse number 13 introduces something different. And this is very important to us today. And every oblation of thy meat offering shall thou season with salt. Neither shall offer the, shall 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. So now we see something else needs to be put onto the meat offering. And that is this idea of salt. Go to Colossians chapter four. So the idea of salt in the Bible is very important in Leviticus chapter two and verse number 13. And it applies directly to us. Look at what the Bible says in Colossians chapter four and verse number six. The Bible says this in Colossians four and verse number six. It says, let your speech be always with grace. And then look at this. Seasoned with salt, that ye may know how you ought to answer every man. So now we see that not only is this meat offering to the Lord to have salt put on it, which clearly pictures something. So let's figure out what that is. But we see that the New Testament is telling us in the letter to the Colossians that our speech the way we talk should be, should have salt in it, should be seasoned with salt. So I mean just, let's just apply that. You know, I mean, what is salt? You know, what is salt? Salt, not only is it good for taste, not only is it good for taste, we probably take it for granted. You know, in the United States, the value of salt, you know, since everything that we have is refrigerated and, you know, we don't have to preserve anything. But salt is super valuable. Look, wars have been fought over salt. And it's so valuable because it has a preserving power for food. I mean, you literally put salt. I mean, I brought an example for you here. One of the things that I like, you can literally go and you can buy like meat, actual meat, I mean like animal meat in a gas station that is not refrigerated and you're like, how is this possible? It's not refrigerated and it will last is what I like. I like the Jack Link's beef and cheeses here. And it literally will not expire for a year and a half. You say, how is that possible? I'm not saying this is good for you. But how is it possible? It's possible because of salt. That's why when you eat jerky and you eat meats that are at room temperature, they're very salty. Because even today, the only way to stop that meat from rotting from decaying is to season it with salt. So the point is salt has a preserving power. And that's what it is picturing in this offering. It is literally talking about the preserving power of this offering. It stops the rotting. All right, now, what did Jesus do? Turn to Matthew chapter five. Turn to Matthew chapter five. Literally, Jesus stops the rotting of mankind. You can look at it that way. Jesus literally preserves us through passing us from death to life. And we're preserved what? We're preserved forever. You're preserved if you're saved tonight. You're not preserved for a year or for two years. You're preserved forever through Jesus Christ. So that's why that salt, that's what that salt pictures as the coming Jesus. Now, the salt also pictures something for us as well as we saw in Colossians chapter four. Jesus himself also told us that we need to be salty. Look at Matthew chapter five and look at verse number 13. So mainly this salt pictures this preserving power. And look, salt, because of that, salt has a lot of value. Could there be, with this being said, let's read this verse and then let me just ask you a question that I don't want you to answer, but I just want to get you to think about something. The Bible says either the salt, but if the salt has lost his saver, wherewith shall it be salted? It is then for good for nothing, but to be cast out and to be troddened under the foot of men. So the Bible here is saying that the Christian, he's talking to the disciples of which you should be, by the way. He's saying you're the salt of the earth. So what are we to salt? We're supposed to have speech that is salty, but what am I to salt? Well, what salt of? You're the salt of the earth. What this means is that it is the disciples. It is the followers of Christ. It is the saved believers that are there that they have the job of preserving the earth. That's what Jesus is saying. And he's saying, he's like, that's what you're supposed to be doing. Look, that is the valuable thing. So could there really be a Christian out there that is depressed and thinks that they're worthless? I mean, I suppose there could be, but would that be right? That would be completely wrong because Jesus is saying you as a saved believer are literally the salt of the earth. You are literally the one that is in charge, that is charged with preserving the people of the earth. He's saying if you're not doing that, he's like then, you know, you don't have value as a Christian, but why wouldn't you do that? So like, there literally should be no Christian that is ever like, oh, you know, I just, I'm so depressed, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do with my life and, you know, and just kind of down. And look, that's for people in the world. That's not for us. Why? Because we're the salt of the earth. That's why. What are you supposed to do? You're supposed to go out and preserve the earth. You're supposed to go out just as Jesus preserves people by passing people from death to eternal life. We are supposed to go out with our salty words and show people how to receive that free gift of eternal life, which preserves them forever. There's no reason that any Christian could say I'm worthless or I'm not valuable or whatever. It is the preserving, we have the preserving power of everlasting life. This is, it's a lasting promise. That's whenever you see this phrase in the Bible, a covenant of salt, it means it's a lasting promise. It means it is a promise that will never pass away. Go back to Leviticus chapter two. Leviticus chapter two, look at verse number 14. Leviticus chapter two, look at verse number 14. The Bible says, If thou offer a meat offering of the first fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy first fruits green years of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 26. Deuteronomy chapter 26. And let's look at a couple verses here talking about these voluntary first fruits because I want to get into this a little bit more in a few minutes. But look at Deuteronomy chapter 26. Look, there's a lot here and I feel like I'm skipping over a few things. But I mean, there's a lot of detail here. All right, look at verse number one. Of Deuteronomy chapter 26. Just talking about this idea of these first fruits. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 26 one, And it shall be when thou art come into the land which the Lord God giveth thee for an inheritance and possesseth it and dwelleth therein that thou shalt take of all the first of all thy fruit of the earth. This is that meat offering which thou shalt bring of thy land that the Lord God giveth thee and shall put it in a basket and shall go unto the place which the Lord God shall choose to place his name there. Look down at verse number eight. So we're talking about bringing the first fruits. What are the first fruits? That's the first stuff. That's the first harvest. That's the good stuff. Okay, that's not the leftovers. That's not the gleaning. It's the first fruits. And the Lord, I mean, again, picturing Jesus, I won't repriege this sermon, but Jesus, God gave us the first fruits. Jesus is the first fruits. He's the first resurrection, you know, guaranteeing that we will have a resurrection. Verse number eight. And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, with an outstretched arm, with great terribleness, with signs and with wonders. And he had brought us into this place and had given us this land, even a land that floweth with milk and honey. There's that milk and honey. And now behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land which thou, the Lord, have given me and thou shalt set it before the Lord thy God and worship before the Lord thy God. And why? Why? And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing. So there's that land of milk and honey, you know, picturing what? That it's good, that it's good from the Lord. There's that connection with that honey and the good thing which the Lord God has given unto thee. So the point is here is that God doesn't want the leftovers. He wants the first fruits of the blessings that he's given you. And you know what? You're still going to have plenty of blessings left over that are going to be good for you. That's why I know honey, okay? And look at verse number 16 of verse number of Leviticus chapter 2. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it and the part of the beat in the corn thereof and the part of the oil thereof and the frankincense thereof. It is an offering made by fire to the Lord. And of course the frankincense was one of the gifts, again picturing Jesus and his kingship. But overall the meat offering folks is, it's a willing offering. It's, you know, it's to be your first fruits. You know, first fruits are always best but it's a meat offering picturing Christ with the bread and the oil. It helps sustain the priest because it wasn't a complete offering. So God always looks out for the man of God. He always looks out for the priest. But it also foreshadows, it also foreshadows the believer's role in the spread of the gospel by the seasoning of salt. Now I'm going to prove to you how important that our speech is seasoned with salt. I really want to just dig deeper into this for just a few minutes. I want to prove how important that is to you by kind of doing the opposite and seeing does anybody have, you know, do you have any, you know, we all I think know people that we know people that they don't want to talk religion. That we know these people and maybe we've given these people the gospel once or twice, maybe even more than that. But at this point with the relationship with these people in our lives, they don't want to talk about the Bible. They don't want to hear about Jesus. They don't want to talk about anything religious. So let me just like do the negative, do the opposite of what, you know, speech seasoned with salt is. So when you are with those people, when you are, you know, speaking and having conversations with those people who are beyond religion, beyond the Bible, beyond the gospel, they're offended by the Bible and maybe you're making those, you're keeping those connections because maybe you're hoping one day they will want to know the truth. But now is the question I'm asking you. What are those conversations like? Are they salty? It's the opposite of salt. Those conversations are going to be conversations like, well, you know, how's the weather over there or they're going to be these very shallow conversations. These very shallow surface level conversations about nothing really. Sports. I mean, I don't want to, I love baseball. I'm not going to beat up on baseball up here, but I don't watch baseball. I mean, I love playing baseball. Like there's just nothing like, you know, there's nothing like, like hitting that ball just right and you just don't even have to look. You know it's gone, right? There's nothing like that feeling, but that's playing the game. I don't want to sit around and eat Cheetos and talk about the draft picks or whatever or watching on TV. I mean, what in the world? I mean, I don't know why they play a home run four times. Like, yeah, it went over the fence there, Bob. I was with Jacob the other day and we went to get an oil change in between church services. And, you know, whenever people, you know, just meet me or I start a new job or something like that, inevitably people always come up to me like, oh, what sports teams and all this. And you know what I do? Right away, right out of the gate, I'm just like, oh man, sports, football. I don't even have a TV. And that just like stops it right there. They're probably like, loser. But I'm like, loser. And I don't know who's right, you know, well, I know. But the point is Jacob and I are at this oil change place and there's the TV there and we're stuck. We're stuck there. They're changing the oil in my car. There's a football game on. And look, I never watched sports. I like to play sports. I never watched sports. It's not a problem I ever had. If it's one that you have, I'm sorry. You should try to get over that. But we're watching this football game. And I was just reminded. I was just reminded of the stupidity of this. I mean, we were watching this football game and it was right where they went into the halftime break. And it wasn't like the Super Bowl so there wasn't anything inappropriate or anything. But it went into the halftime break and it's like these four guys sitting at this. I mean, they must have been ex-football players or something, they're all sitting around in their suits at this table and they're all like, you know, going over the plays or whatever. And one guy's like, well, Joe, I think what he should have done there instead of dropping the ball, he should have caught the ball. You know, the other guy was like, yeah, you know, you know, Bill, well, here's the thing, you know, and he draws like on the board, you know, and some crayon or whatever. And he's like, yeah, the thing is, you know, right here, right where the ball came and he dropped it, he should have not dropped it right there. And I'm just like, I'm telling Jacob, like, can you feel yourself getting stupider? I mean, it's maddening. But here's the point I'm trying to get. It's the opposite of salt. To sit around discussing this would make me literally insane. You could just feel your brain cells melting away. It's the most temporal of things maybe on planet Earth. Probably not, but it's up there, all right? So the point is, this is the conversations that you will have that are available to you if you're not going to talk about things that matter. All you're going to be able to talk about is temporal things. That's it. It's the opposite of salt. This is why Jesus is saying, no, you need to be salty. No, you need to be salty because literally, literally, did you know that theoretically, theoretically, actually turn to Isaiah chapter 55, did you know theoretically, if we just think this thing through logically, Christianity could die? It could die. I mean, the Bible tells us that it won't and I'm going to show you that in just a minute so you don't panic. But the thing is, theoretically, if it takes Christians being salty to preserve the next generation of Christians, if everybody just stopped being salty, Christianity could die on the vine. This is how important it is that we stay salty. Now of course, the Bible says that will never happen in Isaiah chapter 55. Look at verse number 11 of Isaiah chapter 55. It says, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, it shall not return unto me void, and it shall accomplish that which I please. And it shall prosper in the thing where too I sent it. So the Bible here is saying is that we go out and we spread the word. We go out and we preach the gospel. It will not return void. And here's the thing, you're going to go out and I believe that this is not just talking about, you know, the gospel and salvation. This is talking about, you know, the commands that God gives, say believer to actually go out and preach the gospel. Jesus is saying, if I give the commands in the Bible for people to go out and preach the gospel, there will always be somebody that does it. There will always be some profit from that. But even us going out and preaching the gospel, I'm telling you, you go out and preach the gospel, you are seeing only a fraction of the return of that word that you are preaching to people. You never, you don't ever forget that. Don't ever forget that when you go out and you preach the gospel to people and you plant some seeds, maybe you give a few verses or have a short conversation with somebody. Look, I will sit down and I will talk to somebody about the Bible, if they are willing to listen and they're willing to have an open mind. Even if I know for sure, they're not going to get saved at that moment. Why? Because the word of God will never return void. God promises that. So it's important that we're always salty because the more salty we are, the more this promise in Isaiah chapter 55 is going to come to fruition because we need to just keep spreading that salt out there and God will take care of the rest. Look, you're going to get to heaven and you are going to see an exponential result of your saltiness. You don't see every single person that heard you preach the gospel or that they showed the video that you gave them to. You're not going to see all that. You're not going to see all the results of even the seeds that you planted. So it's great to get somebody saved. I'm not downplaying that at all. That is awesome. But don't ever go two weeks or three weeks or four weeks without getting somebody saved and being like, oh man, there's just no fruit here. No, no, no. You just don't see all the fruit. But God sees it all. God sees it all. And look, even if you're not getting those salvation at the door, you know, that's still what you're still spreading the salt. And just remember, Isaiah chapter 55, as long as the salt is out there, God will make sure that it doesn't return void. It's our job to spread the salt. If it wasn't for this promise, if every Christian stopped preaching the gospel, stopped being salty, Christianity could die on the vine. It won't because of this promise, but this just shows the value of us as Christians. That's the value of salt. It's the value of being salty. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter number six. 1 Timothy chapter number six. Look at verse number 17. I'm going to land the plane right here. What is the whole point of the meat offering? So we see that there's plenty of foreshadowing of Jesus. There's plenty of foreshadowing for us, for our purpose. There should be no Christian that is ever depressed, that ever feels like they don't have a purpose in life. If you're a Christian, if you're saved, if you've trusted on Jesus, and you feel like you don't have a purpose in life, you need to start listening to preaching from the Bible. You need to start reading the Bible yourself and realize that, you know, hundreds, yay, thousands of people's eternal destiny depends on you being salty and you doing what you are supposed to do. So don't sit there and just be vain and focused on yourself. Get out there and do what you're supposed to do and you will get great joy from that. Look, this is the thing that people are looking for today. What is the meaning of life? What am I supposed to do? People are 70, 80 years old. They think they wasted their whole life and most of them are right. Whereas us, we know. We know what we're supposed to do. All we have to do is do it. You know what? We can die when we're 80. We can die when we're 90. We can die when we're 50 and be like, you know what? I did what God wanted me to do. And we can just die and just can't wait to meet Him and hopefully have Him say, you know, well done. Thou good and faithful servant. But what is the point of the offering? The point of the offering is to show thankfulness for the fruit of your labor. Look at verse number 17. The Bible says this in verse number 17. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who give us richly all things to enjoy. Now there's some things that you need to look at there. Look at it and it says, charge them. These people are rich right here. They're rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches. So these people are rich but they're not to trust in those riches. So there's nothing wrong with doing well and having blessings in your life. Look, there's a lot of hard-working men and a lot of hard-working women in this church. And that is a very good thing. That is a very good example for people that maybe are starting out in life. Maybe are like, how do I prosecute this life? How do I do things? But the temptation for somebody that is hard-working and is doing well and enjoying blessings from God in this life is that they get high-minded and that they start trusting in those things. They literally start, I mean it seems counter-intuitive but it happens all the time. They literally stop trusting in the Lord and instead trust in the blessings from the Lord. So we need to be very careful as we follow the commandments of God as we follow the Bible as God puts blessings upon us that we remain, look at the last part of the verse. It says, but in the living God who give us richly all things to enjoy. So where did this rich man get his blessings? We need to be careful that we don't go out and work hard as God told us to work and just kill it out there and support our families how we're supposed to and then don't give those blessings to God. You say, well, I got up in the morning. I'm the one that showed up early and stayed late. No, everything that you have is from the Lord. Everything. I've known some very hardworking men in my life who I had a lot of respect for. One in particular when I was growing up an extremely hardworking man who told me God doesn't put food on my table. I do. It was one of the hardest working people that I've ever met in my life and maybe I ever will. But that's a fatal mistake. We need to always remember that as we go out and we work hard and we support our families and we teach our children and we do things that are harder than the world because that's what the devil's trying to do. He's trying to make your life easier. Hey, I'll take care of those kids. Hey, I'll do this. You don't have to work that hard. Let's go to 30 hours a week, whatever. You know, all these different things we need to make sure that even though we work hard it is God that allows us to go out there and work hard. And we need to always be willing to acknowledge that no matter how great we're doing everything that we have that is good is from God. And that is what the meat offering symbolizes for us. Is somebody that is they're doing it, they have those good blessings, they have that honey and you know what? They're giving the credit to the Lord. What does somebody need to do to get saved? It's got direct salvation implications too. What does somebody need to get saved? You know what they need to do? They need to be able to give all the credit for them going to heaven to the Lord. It's not like you get that brand new house that somebody gives you as a gift and you get to go up and pound a nail in it and say, look what we did together. God wants all the credit for everything that is good. That's what it takes to be saved. And that's what it also takes to be thankful in our lives. Don't ever get this idea that we are doing things and that we are successful. We are only successful because first of all, like it's God that told us what to do. It's God that told us how to do it. And by us executing the word of God, yes, God wants you to have good things. He wants us to be blessed with those things. But we always need to give him all the credit no matter what. Let's bow our heads and have a word for it.