 Amen. So keep your place there. In Leviticus chapter 7, bookmark that and turn over to Leviticus chapter number 3. So tonight we're going to talk about the peace offering. So I'm not going to go over a lot of the things that we've gone over that are similar about the peace offering as the burnt offering that we went over already. But I'm going to look at some unique things about the peace offering. So the way Leviticus kind of lays out these five main offerings that we're going to look at is it goes through Leviticus chapter 1, 2, and 3, chapter 3 is the peace offering. Course chapter number 1 was the burnt offering. But then Leviticus chapter 7 is kind of the answer key to why you do these certain offerings. And the peace offering does have a unique purpose compared to the offerings that we have already looked at. So look at Leviticus chapter 3 and look at verse number 1. We're talking about the peace offering this evening. Leviticus chapter 3, verse number 1, and you're keeping your place in Leviticus 7 and we'll go there in just a minute. The Bible says, and if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, oblation meaning if this sacrifice that he's bringing, if his intention or oblation meaning if his worship of the Lord is going to be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, whether it be male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the wards. So that's very similar to the burnt offering as well. And he shall lay his hand, of course, the meat offering in Leviticus chapter 2 was not an animal, it was, you know, blessings of the ground, the meat meaning the things that were grown from the ground, the food that was from the ground. He shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering, verse number 2, and kill it at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron's sons the priest shall sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. All this is familiar symbology to Jesus Christ, I'm not going to review that. Verse number 3, and he shall offer the sacrifice of the peace offering, an offering made by fire unto the Lord, that the fat covereth the inwards and the fat that is upon the inwards, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks and the cull above the liver with the kidneys, it shall he take away. And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire, it is an offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord. So we see that this is a very similar thing to the burnt offering, except only a small portion here is burnt upon the altar. That is the main, one of the main differences between the peace offering and the burnt offering in Leviticus chapter 1. And then Leviticus chapter 3, I'm not going to go through the rest of it, it talks about that the peace offering could be also of the flock, meaning it could be a lamb, or it could be a goat, just like it could be a, you know, a male or female of the herd, meaning cattle, okay? So go back to Leviticus chapter 7, what is the purpose? What is the purpose of the peace offering? In order to understand the purpose of the peace offering, we need to go to Leviticus chapter 7 where it kind of explains, kind of gives us the answer key of why we're doing these offerings in Leviticus chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Look at verse number 11 where it starts to talk about the peace offering in Leviticus chapter 7. What is the purpose of the peace offering? The purpose is explained here starting in verse number 11. And there's a couple of different purposes. There's really two main purposes of the peace offering and that's what I'm going to look at this evening. Verse number 11 it says, and this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he shall offer unto the Lord. And in verse number 12 gives us the first reason that someone would make a peace offering. It says, if he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, then it goes into what he's supposed, how he's supposed to actually offer it. But I want to point out something here that is different because obviously the burnt offering and the meat offering were offerings of thanksgiving, of being thankful to the Lord for the labor that you were able to have in your life and the abundance that God gave you. But notice how it says if he offer it for a thanksgiving, meaning specifically you are thankful for something that the Lord has done for you. What we're talking about here with the peace offering is being thankful for an answered prayer, something that you were beseeching the Lord for and the Lord came through for you. This is something that we need to be very diligent with in our Christian lives is that we're not going and doing these sacrifices today. But the philosophy of it, the doctrine of it, I'm sorry I shouldn't have said philosophy, the doctrine of it is just as relevant to us today because this is human nature right here and I will often bring this up on the prayer sheet. Now being the pastor I think maybe I have a better perspective on our church prayer sheet. By the way if you're not utilizing that church prayer sheet you should because many of those prayers are answered exactly how they are asked on the prayer sheet that we have in this church. So I want to just always point out to the church when we go through the Wednesday evening prayer sheet that we always need to be thankful for the prayers that are not on this list anymore because the reason that many of them are not on the list anymore is because God has answered those prayers. God has healed that person. God has taken that problem away. God has delivered that person that we were praying for out of that situation. I'm telling you the vast majority of the prayers that we pray for on that prayer list, look I'm not bragging up our church. I'm not bragging up anything. I'm bragging up God here because God is faithful and he comes through on things and that is one of the reasons for a peace offering is a thanksgiving. So that's just all that to say this, be thankful for the prayers. Make sure you are keeping track of the prayers that you pray. When you're praying for things in your life you should be keeping track of those things, writing those things down even in your personal prayer time. You're like, what prayer time exactly? That's another sermon in itself. You should have prayer time and God wants you to ask him for things. Don't feel bad asking God for things. He wants you to ask him for things. As he is your heavenly Father, he wants you to ask. So ask but keep track of the things and when those things just go away in your life, those problems just go away. Don't just forget about it. Make sure that you bring a peace offering and just say thanks. Have a thanksgiving in your heart to the Lord for those things. So this is so important to God that he literally had a sacrifice for it in the Old Testament. So it's for a thanksgiving. Now he gets into some detail here. I'm talking about a specific thank you to the Lord, a prayer that's been answered. He shall offer it with the sacrifice of thanksgiving, unleavened cakes. And so we know why we use unleavened cakes. We understand that. We understand leaven. We went through that in the last couple of weeks. Mingled with oil. We looked at the oil. And unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And cakes mingled with oil of fine flour fried. Verse 13, besides the cakes, he shall offer his offering leavened bread. You're like, what? What in the world? Here's leavened bread. Like real bread. With the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings. So when you start to look at the list of things that are sacrificed here, when you start to look at, you know, we're talking about, we've got literal, like an animal being killed and not everything is burned about the animal. We start to get the answer here. Then you look at, we've got unleavened cakes mingled with oil and all these things. The unleavened stuff is what's going to be burned. But then it says, besides the cakes, you know, we've got the oil. We've got fine flour, fried fine flour. And then we've got offering of leavened bread, too, like real actual bread. Now the point of this is, we're talking about a whole meal here. We're talking about, you know, all kinds of, you know, food here that is being laid out in this peace offering, but it is not all offered to God. And that is one of the things that sets the peace offering apart from the other offerings. The leaven would never go on the altar. So the leaven would never be burned on the altar, but you had actual bread, because this was for consumption by the thankful person in this case. So this is an actual meal, this peace offering, yes, part of it is burned, part of it is given to, you know, Aaron and the priests, the breasts, and that's why it's called the wave offering. It's way before the Lord. So the wave offering, people are like, what's a wave offering? It's just a part of the peace offering that the priest gets. That's all that is, just the breast of the animal or whatever. Now the leaven would never go on the altar. The leaven was for the meal that was to be eaten. It turned to Amos chapter 4. And not only that, but this is important as well. The peace offering was not to be, you know, consumed just by the person offering it, but it was to be consumed by all of those around. Look at Amos chapter 4 and look at verse number 5. I'm not going to get into the context of this verse, but I just want to show you something from Amos chapter 4, verse number 5, talking about the peace offerings. And it says, and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving. This is what we're talking about here, this peace offering. It's a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven. So we're talking about a peace offering in Amos chapter 4 and verse number 5. And proclaim and publish the free offerings. For this, like if you, oh, children of Israel, sayeth the Lord God. So it makes a lot of sense, actually, that you would have the Lord do something for you. Thus you are to bring this offering and do something for other people. That's kind of what this peace offering is symbolizing. Look, it's just, you're going to make a meal, provide a meal to what? To bless other people. Why? Because they're specifically thankful to God. It's kind of like what they would call today, paying it forward. You know, the secular silly statement or whatever. It's just offering, a peace offering, being thankful and thus giving to other people. Go back to Leviticus chapter 7, Leviticus chapter 7. So you're to eat this meal, you're to bless others with this meal. There's unleavened symbolism that goes on to the altar. And then there's just this regular meal with protein and bread and everything. And you're to bless other people. And it makes perfect sense because if you're thankful, if you're truly thankful, you should want to be a blessing to other people. Look at verse number 14 of Leviticus chapter 7. And he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priests that sprinkled with the blood of the peace offerings, and the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be, this is the difference right here, shall be eaten. I kind of got ahead of myself there. But you're to eat this offering. Part of it is to be the priests, part of it is to be burnt, but it is to be a meal that is eaten by the person that is thankful. Now there's a little bit of difference here between the thanksgiving and the next part of it, but it says, if it's for thanksgiving, and I believe this is to just mark the difference of the type of offering that it is, if it's a thanksgiving peace offering, you have to eat everything the same day it is offered, he shall not leave any of it until the morning. Look at verse number 16. So if you bring it, you bring all this food. You sacrifice an animal. You bring bread, some unleavened for the altar, some leavened just for the meal, and you are to actually eat this meal and share it with people that are around, whether they be where you're at, the temple, wherever, and part of it, the priest, again, just like the meat offering, the priest gets a portion of it. Look at verse number 16. The Bible says, but if the sacrifice, now we see a different reason for a peace offering here. If the sacrifice of his offering be a vow or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offered his sacrifice. And on the moral also, the remainder of it shall be eaten. But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire. So here we see the second, I mean really there's a third reason here, just like you could just do this of your own free will, but it's saying if it marks a vow. It marks a vow. So this peace offering can be used for a specific thanksgiving or it could mark a vow. It could mark, you know, that you've completed a vow. Now or it could just be a voluntary offering. But it says if it's to mark a vow, there's a different thing that needs to be done here. It says in that case you have, basically you have two days to eat it. It has to be eaten in less than three days, all right? You say, why is that? Well let's first of all, let's look at the vow portion of this. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 1 because there is some peace offerings in the Bible. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 1 and look at verse number 9. So of course this is a very famous vow taken in the Bible by Samuel's mother. Her name is Hannah and she is praying. She is, I mean it's a vow and she's thankful. So it kind of fits both of the criteria for a peace offering. But this woman, she cannot have a child, so she is praying to God to allow her to have a child and she vows a vow to God. Look at verse number 9. It says, so Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Okay, after they drank liquid, not they got drunk, okay? You know, okay, American every time they see drunk they're like, oh they all got drunk. Like a word that is used to, you know, past tense that you drank something, all right? And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. So she's very sad. She's very distressed. And she vowed a vow and said, oh Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look upon the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thine handmaid but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. That's quite a vow right there. She literally says like, Lord if you will let me have a son I will give him to you. I mean she's basically saying that I will give him to the service of the priesthood. I mean this is Samuel that we're talking about. She literally did this. She did this. And there should be no razor come upon his head. Look at verse number 20. It says, wherefore it came to pass, so she makes this great vow, wherefore it came to pass when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, she bear a son. So God answered this prayer. And she called his name Samuel saying, because I've asked him of the Lord. And the man Elkina and all his house, you know, her husband went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. I believe that means and his peace offering, all right. But Hannah went not up. So she didn't go with her husband. He went not up for she said unto her husband I will not go up until the child be weaned and then I will bring him. So what is she saying? She's saying I am not going to go until I can fulfill my vow. So what she's saying is I'm not going to go until I can make good on this promise that I made to God, which is what? The promise is to hand her child over to the Lord. And she doesn't want to go until he's weaned, meaning you know until he's older than two years old I would imagine. But you know he's not because she wants to make good on this. She wants to give the child to the Lord. She wants to finish and complete this vow. Hannah went not up and said I will not go up until the child be weaned and then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and there abide forever. So she wants to make good on this. And Elkina, her husband said unto her do what Seymeth the good. Terry and Tell Thou have weaned him. Only the Lord established his word. So the woman abode and gave her son suck until she weaned him. So he's breastfeeding off his mother until he is old enough to be weaned, meaning weaning you know just not breastfeeding anymore. That's what that means. Verse 24, and when she had weaned him I remember when we would wean the lands it was terrible. We would wean just not to derail this, but we would wean 180 lands and then we would take them off of their mother when they were of a certain age, I think it was five months I'm starting to forget these things. But we weaned them and all night long it was like a bunch of screaming babies all night long. I mean that's what lambs sound like, just like 180 screaming babies, you know 100 yards from your bedroom window. I mean have a good time trying to get to sleep, you know and just meh meh meh meh meh. So she wants to make good on this vow, that has nothing to do with peace offerings. But she wants to make good on this vow and when she goes to make good on the vow look what she does. And when she had weaned him she took him up with her with three bullocks and what? One ephah of flower that means a measurement of flower and a bottle of wine and brought him under the house of the Lord in Shiloh and the child was young and they slew the bullock and brought the child to Eli. So look she brings all this stuff, she brings the bullock, she brings the flower, she brings all that. What's she doing? She's making a meal, she's bringing her peace offering. You know I mean she's probably bringing a burnt offering and but part of it is her peace offering that she has fulfilled this vow and she's going to make this peace offering. Go back to Leviticus chapter number seven. Leviticus chapter number seven, let me show you one other thing about the peace offering. Look at verse number 18. Verse number 18 the Bible says, and if any flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day it shall not be accepted. So you can eat it the first day, you can eat it the second day but you cannot eat it the third day and then it just goes into this great detail about uncleanness and all these things. It shall be an abomination, the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity. Look at verse 19. And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten, it shall be burnt with fire as for the flesh all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offerings that pertaineth unto the Lord having his uncleanness upon him even that soul shall be cut off from his people. Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing as the uncleanness of man or unclean beast or abominable unclean thing and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of the peace offerings which pertaineth to the Lord even that soul shall be cut off from his people. So if you eat this thing beyond three days like you're kicked out of the nation. The three days is pretty important here and of course what is it referencing? It's referencing that Jesus was three days and three nights in the tomb. But it's also showing us because what does the Bible say in Acts chapter two in verse number 31 that Jesus' soul, his flesh did not see corruption. The Bible says his soul was not left in hell neither did his flesh see corruption because what happens when an animal or if you just leave food out, like meat out for three days. It begins to rot in three days. And you know what? I can tell you, as somebody that grew up in the country, grew up raising animals, it's about three days. That something starts still like that third day, you're like, oh, we got to get rid of that. You know, an animal dies. You better get rid of it within that three-day window because it starts to get corrupted. This is a clear reference to Jesus in the tomb, but it is also a clear reference of health safety for people. You have to understand that the rules in the Old Testament, many of them are symbolic of Christ. Many of them are symbolic of things that are promises to come, of prophecies, all these things. But all these commandments, they are good for us. That's what this is. This just has that dual application. God's commandments. I mean, you go out and you talk to people about, you know, everyone's a sinner and we've all sinned and there's none good and all these things. Everybody is a sinner. Everybody knows they're a sinner. But every time you break one of God's commandments is a sin. It's a transgression of the law, is a sin. And people think, oh, the Ten Commandments, that's hundreds of commandments in the Bible. There's hundreds of places in the Bible where God's like, do this, don't do that. And we think, man, this is such a restrictive, and that's what people will think about a Baptist who is saved, who loves the Lord, and just tries to live according to the hundreds of commandments in the Bible, the way that God wants them to live. People will look at somebody that just actually, I don't know, like believes the Bible and is saved and tries to live their life that way and they'll look at him like, you're legalist, you're legalist, you're just, you know, doing that because, you know, you think that, well, first of all, we're not legalists. I think that I could go forth and break every commandment in the Bible for the rest of my life and I would still go to heaven. That's what I think. But just because, and this other, this idea that because I'm saved freely, because I'm saved only by trusting on Jesus, and Jesus did all the work, and I did none of the work, this idea that that would suddenly make me want to break God's commandments, that is weird. It's strange. It's strange doctrine, but that's what people will say. You can't tell people that it's free. You can't tell people, I mean, first of all, these people obviously don't care what the Bible says. Because it is free. It is a gift. We did nothing. Jesus did it all. But the idea that because it's free, I mean, look, that's what makes me want to obey more. That's what makes me love God the most is that he did everything for me while we were yet sinners as we talked about this morning. But the point is God's commands, it's not this legalistic book of God just wanting to control us. His commandments in the Bible, these hundreds of commandments are good for you. These things, and this is just one example, talking about not, don't leave meat out for four days and then eat it, because you're going to die. How about the unclean and the clean animals? Yes, there's symbolism there and there's important doctrine there, but a lot of that had direct health effects. You know, it's just, you know, shellfish, it was unclean. You know, when we go out, we catch crabs and we have to literally boil the crabs while they're alive or they could kill you when you eat them. I mean, it's dangerous if you don't know all these things. And obviously we can, you know, the meat, strengths and diverse washing, there is no clean and unclean animal. The Bible tells us that in the New Testament. But the point I'm getting you to understand is these had, you know, God's commands are good for you. God's commands were good for the people. It's good to not eat things after they're laying out without refrigeration for three days. You know, like catfish, like I still can't believe people eat catfish. It's unclean. It literally just eats garbage. It just goes along the bottom and eats mud and disgusting things from ducks and whatever. It's gross. It's a delicacy. People love it. But the point is all these things, many of them have, you know, God doesn't just put all these commandments in the Bible just because he wants to just control us and command us. He gives us all these commandments, how to raise children, how to have a marriage, all these things. They're good for you. They're good for your marriage. They're good for your children. They're good for anyone who has ever lived. They're good for any family that has ever existed in any period of history in any country, anywhere in the world. All these commandments that people think are so restrictive is exactly what we need to actually to be successful in this Christian life. See, sin promises that it can deliver for you. You know, this is what in Acts chapter one is called the reward of iniquity. They called, you know, what Judas did. He got the reward of iniquity. He got paid, right? What ended up happening to him? He ended up with joy in his life. He went and he committed suicide and he went to hell. So sin gives us this immediate reward of iniquity, but it's really only listening to God's commandments that will give us that true joy as Christians in our lives. All right, so we see that the peace offering is something that we actually, it's a meal we make. It's a meal that we eat. It's a meal that they would share with those around them, either for a thankful specific thing that they were thankful to God about or to mark a vow as Hannah did. I mean, it's kind of like, this is just my thought on it. It's kind of like a reverse fast. It's kind of like the reverse of a fast. If you think about it that way, it turned to Psalm 69. You think about why do you fast? You know, fasting is something that's, it's a good thing to do, by the way. Why would you fast? So obviously fasting is denying yourself food. And this is the reverse of that, like peace offering is, you know, eating food. But during a fast, you are literally asking people fast when they are in the process of praying to God and beseeching the Lord for things. What's one of the main reasons that people fast? Look at Psalm 69. Look at verse number 10. You think, should I fast? Yeah, you should fast. Fasting is a, is a good thing to do. You say, why should I fast? Look at Psalm 69, verse number 10. The Bible says, when I wept, when I wept and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. Fasting is meant to humble yourself before God. Turn to Isaiah chapter 58. It's to show God when you're asking for something. Say you're asking for a specific thing, something that would end up with you doing a peace offering in the Old Testament. You're asking for something specific. It would be a good idea to be fasting while you are asking for that thing. When David was beseeching the Lord that his son wouldn't die, what was he doing? He was fasting. That's one of the things that he was doing. You're showing God, I'm humble. God, I'm committed to this thing. You don't want to be that person that is just asking for something, but you're not willing to give anything. You're asking for something from the Lord, and you're like, but as long as a Lord, I want this, but as long as it doesn't cost me any kind of inconvenience. Please do this for me. Fasting is showing that I'm willing to inconvenience myself. I'm willing to lower myself before the Lord and just show God that I am, I'm committed to Him while I'm asking Him for something. That's a good idea. It's a good idea to, when you're going to ask your dad for something, to be humble before your dad. You go and ask your dad for the keys to the car, whatever it is. And you go up to him and you're just like, I deserve that, give that to me. You're not going to get any response from that. It's when you come to your parents, you come to your father, you come to your heavenly father with a humble heart. That is when you have the best chance of being successful in that ask. God is your heavenly father, folks. Here's how not to do it. Look at Isaiah chapter 58. We're looking at fasting, which is kind of the, it's just, it's kind of like the negative of the peace offering. Look at verse number three. It says, wherefore have you fasted, say they, and thou seeest not. Wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takeest no knowledge. Behold, in the day of your fast, you find pleasure in exact all your labor. So these people were, they were outwardly fasting, or at least saying they were fasting, but they were just like, they were not really fasting. They were just still getting all the pleasures of everything that they normally do. They just wanted to appear that they were humbling themselves. They just wanted to appear that they were, you know, afflicting their soul. Meaning, meaning what? What do I mean by that? Just like bringing myself low. Afflicting myself, my soul is to, you know, the opposite of lifting myself up in pride. Look at Matthew chapter six. Jesus, you know, rebuked the Pharisees for this very thing that we just read in Isaiah chapter 58. People that just wanted to appear to who? To men that they were fasting. They wanted to appear to people on the outside that they were fasting, that they were afflicting their souls. You know what they're trying to do in Isaiah 58? They're trying to just look like they were super spiritual, is what they were trying to do. Look at Matthew chapter six. You're like, who in the world would do that? Lots of people. Matthew chapter six, look at verse 16. The Pharisees did that. He says, moreover, when ye fast, now who is he talking to here? Ye is a bunch of people. He's talking to a plural group of people. He says, when ye fast, so it's like when ye fast, like I'm talking to the church here, says when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance for they disfigure their faces that they may appear. What is the key to Isaiah chapter 58 and Matthew chapter six? That they may appear to men to fast. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. Their fast means nothing is what Jesus is saying. What the Bible here is saying is that you're fast. A fast that you do. You're like, who are you beseeching by the way? Who are you beseeching? You're not beseeching brother Trevor. You're not beseeching me. You're asking God. The fast is between you and God. You are showing God. You're like, you know what? I'm not gonna eat until midnight tonight or I'm gonna deny myself. Look, a fast can be in any possible way. I'm gonna deny myself. I'm gonna eat once a day for the next five days. That's probably good for most people to do anyway. But the point is you could just define your fast however you want, but you should keep your fast because first of all it's a vow unto the Lord. We'll get there in a second. But you're beseeching the Lord as something you're doing between you and God. For you to try to make that into something you wanna be seen of men by is completely wrong. And that's what Jesus is saying. He's like, that's not gonna work. Isaiah 58's talking about that. That's what Jesus is talking about in Matthew chapter six. These Pharisees are going around and they're just like, look at how spiritual we are. Sorry, I can't eat that brother. I'm fasting. I can't eat at the potluck tonight because I'm fasting. You know what you're saying? Like, I'm more spiritual than you. The minute somebody does that, like they have the reward. You're done. Like your fast means nothing. You might as well eat up. Might as well have some food. But the Bible is just, you know, the Bible is just saying that the fast is between you and God. So look, fast. If you have something to ask for, you should fast. You know, it's a good thing to do. But don't like walk into the church and be like, ugh, ugh, what's wrong brother? Oh, sorry, thank you for asking, I'm fasting. You know, don't be that guy. Nobody I've seen be that guy. But, you know, it's just this person trying to over-spiritualize themselves, trying to be super spiritual, trying to be holier than thou. They have the reward. It does nothing between them and God. They're wasting their time. Look at Matthew chapter five. Look at Matthew chapter five. So the peace offering is kind of like the front end. I mean, it's kind of the back end of a fast. I mean, you could think of it that way. You know, if I wanted to ask the Lord for something specific, I could fast and beseech the Lord and humble my soul and afflict myself before the Lord. And then God answers that thing. And then I would give a peace offering where I have a meal at the end of that and I share that meal with other people. So that's kind of how this would look in the Old Testament. But the second reason I want to talk about specifically here is about keeping vows. Look at Matthew chapter five and look at verse number 33. So we saw Hannah had a vow. You know, should we be making vows, you know, to the Lord? Should you be, you know, making vows like Hannah did to the Lord? I mean, first of all, you can, but look at verse 33. Jesus addresses this as well. And then I want to kind of drill into this one a little bit. So the two reasons, the two main reasons for the peace offering is being specifically thankful and fulfilling a vow. But look what Jesus says about vows or oaths in this case is what he says. Again, you've heard that it has been said of them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself but shall perform unto the Lord thy notes. This is talking about somebody like Hannah that made a promise to God. Okay, it says you should follow through on those things. But I say unto you, swear not at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither thou shalt swear by thy head because thou can't make one hair white or black. Let your communication be yay, yay, nay, nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Now you just say, what is Jesus doing? Is he changing the Bible here? What's going on? See, that's what people will think. People will say that a lot about the words that Jesus said, like whether he's talking about adultery, whether he's talking about this case here. He's like, oh, Jesus like he negated that. Jesus, you know, negated that in the New Testament. He's like, no, he's backing up. He's backing up exactly that he's fulfilling everything. He's just backing up many times making it more strict. What is he saying here? He's saying, he's addressing people that are swearing by things. He's saying, swear not at all. What is, I mean, you ever heard people use the phrase? Like people just flippantly throw this phrase out there. They'll say, I swear to God. And they'll use it almost as like a curse word or a curse phrase. But you know what they're doing? They're like, what they'll do is they'll say that phrase and they'll say, you know, I swear to God. I mean, but think about what they just said right there. They're force swearing as Hannah did to the Lord. But then they say something that's not serious. They say they attach something that is sarcastic or some extreme thing or whatever. If you do that, you know, I mean, God forbid anyone would ever say this to their children. But I'm sure people do all the time. If you do that, I, you know, swear to God, I'm going to, you know, do this or whatever. And then they never do that thing. But think about what they just said. You know, this is people that, you know, I swear by my mother's eyeball or you know, on my father's life or they make these extreme statements. And look, an oath was a serious thing in the Old Testament. And oath is a serious thing. And Jesus is saying, he's not saying don't keep your oaths. He's saying, quit swearing by these things that you have no control over. God's like, please quit using my name to swear by things you're never going to do. Quit swearing by people's lives that you have no control over. Quit saying these extreme statements. And then he says, just in verse number 37, he's like, let your yay be yay in your Navy name. He's like, just do what you say you're going to do. And quit using all these extreme things. I mean, Jesus is like, my goodness, stop it. Stop swearing by my father's name, my name, heaven, earth, all these things that you have zero control over. He's like, just stop it. Just do what you say you're going to do. Let your yes be yes, and your no be no. That's it. It's like Jephthah. What did Jephthah do? What did Jephthah do in Judges 11? He swore to who? He swore a vow to who? He swore to the Lord. It's who he swore to. Let's just go ahead and turn there. Let's go ahead and turn there. Let's just look at what he did. In verse number 30 of Judges chapter 11, just look at what he did. And God, here's a vow like this. And God is just like, stop. And Jephthah took the vow so seriously because he swore to the Lord that he followed through on it. He says in verse number 30, Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, if thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into my hands, then it shall be that whatsoever comeeth forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I shall return in peace and the children of Ammon shall surely be the Lord's. And I will offer it up for a burnt offering. So he swears a vow that he will sacrifice in a burnt offering. First of all, does God want, I mean, we just looked at the burnt offering a couple of weeks ago. Does God want anything? Does God want your black lab that comes out of your house as a burnt offering? Was that on the list in Leviticus chapter one? No, this was an incredibly foolish vow right here. And of course, who comes out of the house? His daughter comes out of the house and he ends up actually sacrificing his daughter. It's a terrible story. Jesus is like, please just stop swearing to me. I mean, obviously what would have been the right thing? I mean, everybody looks at this story especially, it's one of the most messed up stories. Well, maybe not. There's a lot of messed up stories, especially in Judges. But a lot of people look at these stories in the Bible and they say, oh man, you know, I don't understand that part of the Bible. Look, this is just what people did. This is just what people did. This isn't what God thought was right. You know, God didn't think, oh, you know, I think that murder is better than just going back on that silly vow. Jephthah should just got down on his knees and just asked for forgiveness for swearing a foolish vow unto the Lord and just moved on with his family. And not take this extreme case of sacrificing his own daughter, right? But you know what? What does it say in Judges they did? Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And that's why these things happen in the Bible. This is just history, folks. So look, Jesus just says in Matthew chapter five, don't swear. He's not talking about profanity. He's like, don't swear, just do what you want to do. You're due what you say you're going to do. And don't do what, and you know what? If you become the kind of person that just everything that I commit to doing, I just do, everything that I say I'm gonna do, I do, you will vow less if you just decide to do that. That doesn't mean you should never say you're gonna do something or never say you're gonna help somebody. But if you just commit to deliver on your words, you will just have less words. I mean, we all know people like that. They don't just say, I'll do that, I'll help you with that, I'll do this, I'll help you move and all this. And then they're just never there. I mean, there's people like that. And Jesus is saying don't be that person. I mean, he's talking about, you know, Jesus talked to the Pharisees about this. He said, you know what they become? They become what Jesus talked to the Pharisees about. They're just words that mean nothing, idle words. You don't wanna be somebody that is just like you say things and everyone's just kinda like, yeah, whatever. Because you wanna have idle words. Jesus is saying just do what you say you're going to do. So here's the last thing I wanna show you. Turn to Proverbs chapter 13. Turn to Proverbs chapter 13 and look at verse number 20. So you see the peace offering has two specific, really two specific reasons for it. It's a specific thankfulness to God. The priest, again, the priest gets part of, you know, the offering as well. That's the wave and the heave offering that the priest gets. But there's two specific things that it's for. It's for thanksgiving. It's for the completion of a vow. But really, what I wanna show you is that the peace offering really demonstrates that the main thing that it demonstrates for us, if you look down at Proverbs chapter 13 and you look at verse number 20. The Bible says this. It says, he that walketh with wise men will be wise but the companion of fools shall be destroyed. It shows you, it shows you the peace offering shows you that while sin affects others, sin affects others. No matter what you wanna say about your sins that, you know, oh, this sin is in secret or whatever, your sin will affect other people. Your sin will always affect more people than yourself. Even fornication we talked about this morning, yes, it's a sin against your own body but it doesn't say your own body is the only thing that is hurt by it or the only person that is hurt by it. So all sin affects other people. But what the peace offering is showing us is that faithfulness also is to affect other people. So just as sin affects other people in a bad way, just as Proverbs 13.20 is saying, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. The peace offering is showing us that, look, being faithful, being thankful to God, fulfilling a vow will have a great benefit to other people. And that's just a, it's a physical example of this. It's a physical example of just how our faithfulness benefits other people. And look, just as sin will hurt other people, your faithfulness, I think we forget about this sometimes, your faithfulness will really benefit other people. I mean, obviously soul winning is a perfect direct example of this on how your faithfulness to preaching the gospel will affect many other people. I mean, it's easy to see that but you know what? Everything else in your life will affect other people. Everything else that you are faithful with that the Bible says you should be faithful with will affect those around you. This is what James chapter two is talking about. Why should you have works? Why should I actually do what the Bible says? Why should I not want to head towards this spectrum of dead faith and why should I head towards this spectrum of perfect faith through my works? And that's how my faith gets perfect by the way by actually following what the Bible says by the things that I do. The peace offering is something that you do. It is something that you take in. It is a sign of obedience. You are actually sitting down having this meal, giving this meal to other people. It is something that you're doing. It's a show of commitment. Just as baptism or any other thing that's not obviously attached to salvation but any other commandment, any other thing in the Bible that you would get right in your life will have a major benefit to other people. You just think about today. Think about today when I told my wife, I was like I'm super excited to go to church today and I can't wait to go see everybody at church and I'm just super excited about it. That's what I said in my house before I got in the car and I left for church. I'm always excited for church but I was just, I don't know, I was just really excited today for some reason. But guess why? Did you know that when you come to church, when you decide to come to church or not come to church, you know when you come to church, it makes people happy to see you? I mean, I don't know. It makes people happy. It makes me happy to see you at church. It makes, I mean, so you think well, I'm gonna make this decision, like should I go to church or not to church? But here's the thing, if you decide not to come to church, that you're taking that away from somebody because people actually like to see you. You have an effect on other people. People are encouraged by seeing you at church. I mean, yes, you made the decision to come to church. I mean, first of all, I mean, don't get me started, it shouldn't even be a decision. I mean, everything in your, I mean, that's how you solve everything in your Christian life. You just see something in the Bible, it says do this, and you're like, that's not a decision for me, that's just what I do now. And that's how you solve, you know, this instability of the Christian life. But the point is, is that it benefits other people the more things you get right. Just as this peace offering, the more commitment that you show, the more you will benefit other people. That's the whole point of James chapter two. Not some stupid false doctrine about how you have to have works to be saved or works to stay saved or whatever, even when the Bible says it's not of works. Obviously you're misinterpreting something there, but it is just talking about how you can be what? Profitable to other people. And the more commitment you can show, the more faithfulness you can show in your Christian life, the more you will benefit other people. Not only just people you don't know, but your brothers and sisters in Christ, the people that love you the most, the people you are close enough to, you know, the closest to, the people that are your what? Are your real true friends in this life, which I showed you this morning is an extremely rare thing. So we should all like, obviously, I wanna follow the Bible because I love God, like God saved me, I didn't deserve any of this. I didn't deserve to be saved. I deserve to go to hell just like everybody else that's gotten saved. But you know what? It's a nice plus to be able to benefit other people in this Christian life. It's a nice little, I mean, the commandments are always good for us. And they're not only good for us, they're good for everybody that's connected to us. So that's the peace offering. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.