Los Angeles Conference: 1987
Table of Contents
Christ as the Meat Offering
Address—C. Hendricks
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Philip. His offerings shall be a fine flower.
And he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon.
And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests.
And he shall take there out his handful of the of the flower thereof.
And of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof. And the priests shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord.
And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons.
It is a thing, most holy, of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.
Enough. If thou bring an oblation of a meat offering bacon in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, our unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And if thy oblation be a meat offering bacon in a pan, it shall be a fine flour unleavened mingled with oil.
Thou shalt part it in pieces and pour oil thereon. It is a meat offering.
And if thy oblation.
Meat offering bacon in the frying pan. It shall be made of fine flour 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. It is an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord.
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.
No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord, shall be made with leaven.
For ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey in any offering of the Lord made by fire.
As for the oblation of the first fruits, ye shall offer them unto the Lord, but they shall not be burnt on the altar for the sweet savour.
And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt, neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering.
With all thine offerings, thou shalt offer salt.
And if thou offer a meat offering of thy first fruits unto the Lord, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy first fruits, green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.
And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon. It is a meat offering.
And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof.
It is an offering made by fire.
Unto the Lord in chapter 6.
Verse 14.
And this is the law of the meat offering. The sons of Aaron shall offer it.
Before the Lord, before the altar, and he shall take of it his handful.
Of the flower of the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, even the memorial of it unto the Lord.
And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place, in the court of the Tabernacle of the congregation? They shall eat it.
It shall not be bacon with leaven. I have given it unto them for their portion of my offerings made by fire.
It is most holy.
As is the sin offering and as the trespass offering.
All the males among the children of Israel shall eat of it.
It shall be a statute forever in your generations, concerning the offerings of the Lord made by fire.
Everyone that toucheth them.
Shall be holy.
And then we'll read a verse in John chapter 6.
John, Chapter 6.
Verse 33.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven.
And giveth life unto the world.
Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this spread.
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.
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Verse 48.
I am that bread of life.
Your father's did eat manna in the desert, in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh.
Which I will give for the life of the world.
The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you.
Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man.
And drink his blood. Ye have no life in you.
Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meet and greet deed, and my blood is drink indeed he that eateth my flesh.
And drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him.
As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father.
So he that eateth me.
Even He shall live by me. Well, I read these verses in John 6.
That we might see clearly from the New Testament that the Lord Jesus presents himself as that.
Living bread that came down from heaven.
We were considering Tuesday night the burnt offering.
Christ.
In perfect obedience.
In death accomplishing atonement in the shedding of his blood.
Bearing the judgment of God in the very place of sin.
And the perfection of his obedience, in which perfection you and I are accepted.
We are brought into blessing.
And these last verses I read in John 6 is.
Brings before us the truth of appropriating verse 53 and verse 54. Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. So verse 53 tells us that if there isn't the eating his flesh and the drinking his blood.
That is appropriating in our souls the value of His death for us on the cross.
There's no life.
You have no life in you. And then he says in verse 54, Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood.
Hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. So there you have the very basis for blessing for us.
We come into it by believing in him as the one who went into death.
Gave himself in death.
Shed his precious blood, and now we appropriate that in faith.
We receive him as the one who died for us and who bore the judgment of God for us. So we appropriate his death now, having done that, having come into blessing by virtue of the.
Atonement that he wrought on the cross.
Having become accepted before God in the value of that.
Sweet fragrance, that sweet savour of the burnt offering. Now we are in the position.
As being his to feed upon the meat, offering to be occupied with his holy spotless.
Sinless Life.
The Holy One down here walking through this scene for the glory of the Father.
We read a number of scriptures Tuesday that applied to him not only as the burnt offering but also as the meat offering.
The.
Well, John?
829 as.
The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always.
Those things that please him.
Always the delight of the Father, always living for the glory of the Father.
What we have in the meat offering.
Is that which presents to us the holy humanity of Christ.
You may have noticed that it says in verse 3 it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire.
Most holy.
Verse 10. It is a thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord.
Made by fire and again in chapter chapter 6.
It says.
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Verse 17.
It is most holy.
As is the sin offering and as the trespass offering.
They were not generally considered Sweet Saver offerings. The sin and the trespass offering.
As were the burnt offering and the meat offering and the peace offering.
But they're all called Most Holy.
So that we are guarded.
From the thought that has been advanced and entertained and even taught in Christian circles, that the Lord Jesus could have sinned, or that He was something less than pleasing to God, even when bearing the judgment of God on the cross. Never was His obedience more perfect. Never was He more the delight of God the Father than when He was in that position as the sin offering.
But that delight could not then be expressed because he was abandoned. He was alone. He accomplished the burnt offering, the will of God in the face of His wrath against sin. Well, the meat offering presents him in a different position. There really are two positions the Lord's been in. He's been in the position in His life represented by the meat offering, which is.
Is in perfect communion with the Father all the way through and enjoying that sweet.
Favor we sing in our hymn, now that we're saved, the Father's face.
Of radiant grace shines now in light on me, and it always did.
With the blessed Lord the Father's face shining in delight upon Him, well on the cross.
The the judgment of God, the wrath of God. It was God in his nature.
As holy, dealing with sin.
And though that delight could not then be expressed, it was certainly true, never more true. Never was He more infinitely pleasing to God, to the Father, than when He had to forsake him, when God had to forsake him as God.
Now let's consider him.
As the meat offering.
But anyone will offer a meat offering unto the Lord. His offering shall be a fine flower.
And he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon. We have three things mentioned in that verse.
You have the fine flower.
The perfect smoothness, the evenness, the perfect consistency.
If you run your fingers through fine flour, you'll find no inconsistency, no lumps, no hardness, no particles that can be discerned. It's all perfect. It's all smoothness, it's all perfection. As we look around, you can look at your brethren, you can look at your sisters in Christ.
If you're in a family, you can look at your brothers and sisters in the flesh and you'll find certain.
Predominating characteristics with each one of us.
One may have a great measure of patience. One may be quick witted, one may be.
Excel in kindness. One may be short tempered but very generous at the same time. Each one of us has our shortcomings and each one of us has our assets, our assets and our liabilities and we can more or less as we think of one another, we can more or less categorize.
Say, well, that brother, his strong point is here and he's a little bit weak in this area, and thus and so for sister so and so and so on. But you can't do that with the Lord Jesus. That's not possible. You cannot point out any predominating feature.
Anything in which he excelled in a certain characteristic more than another. And we'll see that as we trace him a little bit in the Gospels. But there was perfect evenness, perfect consistency of character. There wasn't any. Anything that predominated more than another. You can say, well, he was full of grace.
Yes, he was, and he was full of truth. You can say it was his gentleness, his meekness, his lowliness, and yes, all true. But then he could overturn the tables of the money changers, He could drive them out of the temple. Take these things hence. Make not my father's house a House of merchandise. The zeal of the House of God had beaten him up. You can see him speaking.
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Very scathingly to those self-righteous, hypocritical Pharisees, Ye hypocrites, ye generation of Vipers, how shall ye escape the damnation of hell? And yet you can hear, you can read of him a bruised Reed. Would he not break smoking flax? Will he not quench the very one that spoke so sternly to those hypocrites, those Pharisees, those religious bigots? He said to that.
Condemned that sinful woman who had been taken in a very act of adultery.
As no man condemned thee.
No, man, Lord, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more as soon as you try to.
Classify him and and pin a predominating characteristic upon him. Someone can cite another passage where that is negative. There is no one predominating feature. He was that perfect fine flower. There was no unevenness in him. There was no inconsistency with him. It was only perfection. Now that's his.
Holy humanity conceived in the womb of the Virgin, and the power of the Holy Spirit anointed of the Spirit, represented here by the oil.
The oil is spoken of in these passages as being poured upon the meat offering or mingled with it.
They both represent truths with respect to His holy humanity.
I might just say that humanity has been in three, has existed in three distinct states.
Innocent humanity in the garden has come from the hand of the Creator.
Adam and Eve were created in innocence, sinless.
Without sin.
There was number no propensity to evil within them. They were created perfect from the hand of God. God saw all that He had created. He said it was very good, very good. He was delighted in it. No taint of sin there.
If sin was going to enter into that, into that human pair, it had to come from without. And it did.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, and Satan came in that form, and he tempted. Yeah, if God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the garden.
No, God hadn't said that they shouldn't eat of every tree. He had given them the run of the garden, in fact. But he pointed out one tree in the center, and he said don't eat of it.
And he?
Brought into the reasoning of Eve.
The thought that God was withholding something good, but the temptation came from without.
There was number sin in their nature. Until they disobeyed God, they were under a law.
And that is, thou shalt not eat of that tree, that one tree. That was the only restriction.
That was the only command that they were under, and if they broke that command, if they disobeyed, then sin came into the world. Well, we know it was Eve that did it first, and then she gave to her husband Adam. But the word of God says by one man sin entered into the world, death by sin. And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
So he holds the man whom he had established as head of that earthly creation.
Responsible for the entrance of sin. Now once they disobeyed. Once man disobeyed God.
Then humanity acquired A sinful nature. That's the second state of humanity, and that's what we partake of when we're born into the world in sin. I was conceived in sin and shaping in iniquity, the psalmist says Born in sin, the sinful nature that was acquired by our earthly parents has been handed down to all.
Generations.
So there you have two states of humanity. Innocent has come from the hand of God, but capable of sinning.
Innocence is not holiness. Innocence is was sinless.
Has come from the hand of the Creator. But then the temptation came from without. They heeded the voice of the tempter. They disobeyed God, and sin entered into the world, and a sinful nature was acquired by our earthly parents. And then they had children, and that was passed on to all subsequent generations. But when Christ was born, He did not partake of sinful humanity, nor did He partake of innocent humanity.
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That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
He carried his eternal sonship into time and as born in time.
He was called that holy thing, and so Christ's humanity is holy.
He could say the Prince of this world cometh and in me he hath nothing. There was nothing in him that Satan could address and and tempt and bring in a suggestion. It isn't simply that it wasn't there, but there was there was a power to resist it. His humanity was holy, incapable of sinning. Now if if those that have denied the impeccability of Christ's nature and.
By that expression means that he is incapable. He was incapable of sinning. When he was tempted, it was not to see if he would sin, but to prove that he was the Holy One of God and absolutely aborted the very suggestion to him to holiness, to sin, to do other than the will of God was painful and abhorrent to that Holy One.
So we've had.
Innocent humanity. We've had sinful humanity.
And we've now in Christ we partake of holy humanity. He was that holy one.
And He has communicated to us now the new nature that He's given to us, the very nature that He had. So now we can feed upon Him as He was here below in His life. Having become partakers of the benefits of His death, we are now in the position of feeding upon Him in His holy, spotless, sinless life down here. So we have the fine flower, the perfect.
Evenness, and we have the oil upon it.
And frankincense thereon. What is the frankincense? The part that had the frankincense on the meat offering.
That part was placed upon the altar, and it was consumed by the flames and went up to God.
As a sweet savour, the frankincense was all for God. It was that which speaks of that which only God could appreciate, only God could evaluate, only God could enjoy. It was something beyond man's comprehension. And this is what we have in the frankincense. All the perfections of that blessed One, all His movements, and the desire of his heart.
To please the Father, the frankincense, that sweetness of incense that went up to God the Father was all for him.
And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests, and shall take there out his handful of the flower thereof, and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof. And the priests shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savour unto the Lord. And then the the rest, 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, when you have Aaron and his sons.
Mentioned here.
It's referring to the priestly family. It refers to us.
Who is who are the priestly family feeding upon the same, the same perfect precious life, the holy human life and humanity of Christ and all His blessed pathway? As He walked through this scene, what a joy it is to turn back and to read the Gospels and to feed upon Him in all the perfections of His humanity, of His person.
Down here, as he went through all the vicissitudes of life and all the trials and the.
Sufferings and the sorrows that He endured, and we can feed upon Him, we can take comfort.
In the realization that he went through all that and we have part.
In meditating upon him there, it's one of the most, it's one of the sweetest contemplations that a Christian can be engaged in, is to feed upon Christ as he was down here, that which was from the beginning.
That which we've heard, John says, which we have seen with their eyes, which we've contemplated in our hands, have handled the word of life. For the life was manifested. We have seen it, and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that she also may have fellowship with us here. We can have fellowship with the very apostles in feeding upon Christ. Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Think of it. We're brought into a position as priests.
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Upon the same perfect, holy, sinless, spotless sun down here as a man that the Father feeds on the 1. He was delighted in the one he opened the heavens to, and said, This is my beloved Son, and whom I have found my delight here. Him now we're given to be brought into that place of nearness and intimacy by virtue of the burnt offering, and now we can feed upon Christ as He was down here, for the glory of the Father.
John 17, he said, Father, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee.
Before the world was. Can you think of anything more precious for you and me to do than to be able to feed?
On Christ and to nurture on the blessed.
The fatted calf and let us eat and drink and be married, we feed on the same Blessed 1. The fatted calf we feed on the same one.
That the father feeds on. Well, we can feed on him in death.
That's the peace offering, not the burnt offering. The burnt offering was all for God.
It was all for God except the skin that was for the priests. We saw that Tuesday. But the meat offering part of it, the part with the frankincense, which was only what God himself could appreciate in the life of Christ. It all went up to heaven. It all went up to God. But the rest we can feed on as the priestly family, Aaron and his sons.
And it's a thing most holy Oh, if these men, if these men that have taught the blasphemous teaching and it seems to be that more and more are taking it up that the Lord, though he didn't sin, he could have sinned. That really denies his holy humanity, his holy humanity. They're actually saying that that the Lord Jesus humanity is no different than Adams was in innocence because he could sin and he did.
But the Lord Jesus, humanity is not innocent, it is holy.
When I say not innocent, I'm talking about his state of humanity. I'm not talking about the fact.
That he was innocent of the charges that they laid against him. Of course he was. I'm talking about the state of his humanity.
Three states, innocent humanity, sinful humanity, holy humanity. And in Christ we partake of holy humanity, and we cannot say. And he that is born of God cannot sin, for his seed divided in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. So as born of God we have a nature which is holy, a very nature, and life of Christ incapable of sinning.
It is not enough to say he didn't sin. Paul says he knew no sin. John says in him was no sin or is no sin.
And this is what we have taught here.
Now let's go on and look at a few more details. If thou bring an oblation of a meat offering. Verse 4 Bacon in the oven.
It shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. The oil speaks of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He was anointed of the Spirit at the river Jordan. He was sealed at the Spirit. He received the Holy Ghost as the power of testimony. And then it says he was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. But also it says that the meat offering was mingled with oil.
And I believe that refers to the conception of His holy humanity. That holy thing which shall be born of these shall be called the Son of God.
His humanity was holy. It was conceived in the womb of the Virgin.
By the power of the Holy Ghost, the oil mingled with the meat offering.
And also anointed with oil for power of testimony and.
Wonderful to realize that we too have received the Spirit of God to also be a witness for Him down here.
That this speaks of the meat offering bacon in the oven.
And in verse 5, if I oblation be a meat offering bacon in a pan, it shall be a fine flour unleavened mingled with oil unleavened, always unleavened. The meat offering that represents Christ was always unleavened leavened speaks of evil always speaks of evil in Scripture. There are those that would teach that it speaks of evil usually, but in one instance and they refer to a passage in the Gospels, it speaks of the spread of good and it doesn't it really is consistently.
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Of evil. And when the leaven is put into the meat, offering the meals, 3 measures of meal, and it's all leavened, there are those that would teach that that means that the gospel will permeate everything. Actually, it teaches the opposite. It teaches that evil will spread through the mass until all of Christendom will be leavened, will be leavened with evil, and then the Lord will come in judgment.
So 11 Consistently speaks of evil. 1 Corinthians 5.
The not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And again, Matthew 16. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The leaven of the Pharisees is ritualism, and the leaven of the Sadducees is rationalism, And the leaven of Herod was the political.
Evil that was brought in those Jews that you might say sold out.
Political power.
Well.
Here we have the meat offering bacon in a pan.
Then it says in verse 6 Thou shalt part it in pieces and pour oil thereon. It is a meat offering.
Every.
No matter how they parted, that meat offering broke it into little pieces, it only manifested the perfection of the the One of whom the meat offering was a type. It was fine flour, perfect evenness, no inconsistency, nothing that was contrary to the mind and thought of God. All perfect evenness, all perfection.
Parted in pieces and then the oil was poured upon it.
No matter what aspect of the life of Christ, you can consider whether it was his home life.
Whether it was his public life, whether it was more his private life alone, it was all anointed by the oil of the Spirit of God. It was all under the power and direction of the Holy Ghost. How many times we play the hypocrite by pretending to be. Maybe it's not even intentional, but when we come to meeting.
We are maybe different than we are when we enter the workplace on Monday morning.
Maybe when we're out shopping we are not as.
Pious or godly as we appear to be.
When we are among Christians, Maybe When we are with the world.
We will laugh with them at their line of talk or their jokes.
Or the defiling things of the world. But when we are with Christians, we take on a different color.
But when this meat offering was parted in pieces, no matter whether he was in this situation or with this group of people, Whether he was with Republicans and sinners, or whether he was with the Pharisees, or whether he was with the lawyers, Or whether he was with the doctors of the law, Or whether he was home with his family, with his brothers and sisters, with his disciples, with the crowds and the multitudes, and with the sick and the afflicted and the diseased.
And the.
The Gentiles, even wherever he was.
No matter how you broke that meat offering up, it was all anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit.
He was always under the power of the Spirit of God, always a sweet savour to God, always perfection before God. That's Christ, that's your Savior, that's my Savior. Oh, what a joy it is, what a delight it is to feed upon him. They, they were sent, the officers sent them to take, to take the Lord and they came back.
And the officers came back with the message and the Pharisee said, why have you not brought him?
Never man, never man spake like this man.
Oh, there was a difference. And then they said to him, Tell us, by what authority do that Doest thou these things? And who gave thee this authority?
Imagine.
Needing authority to do miracles. Needing authority to raise the dead, to give sight to the blind, to cleanse the lepers. Where did you get that authority? Tell us. Well, I'll ask you a question. The baptism of John, Was it of heaven or of men? Tell me.
And they reasoned among themselves, say, Well, if we say of heaven, then they'll say, Why didn't you believe him?
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We say of men, the people will stone us, but they all held John to be a prophet. We cannot tell.
Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things. All the blessed Savior, how precious to to meditate, to feed upon, to dwell upon him. Do we do that, beloved? Do we read the Gospels? Just sit down and say, Lord, I just want to enjoy thee. I want to have thee before my soul. I want to be in the enjoyment of thyself, in all thy perfections, in all thy moral loveliness, in all the various.
Of life he was nothing but perfection, and the trials came. The temptations came from without, never from within with him.
Can you imagine what it was like for him? He was 40 days and 40 nights tempted of the devil and at the end of that time we read of only three, only three that are mentioned to us, but he was 40 days and 40 nights with the wild beasts out there.
And tempted of Satan, we have no idea.
Of what he went through during that time. But during that time he met all the temptations of the adversary. He bound the strong man, and then he went about in his public ministry and spoiled his goods, spoiled his goods. He gave sight to the blind, He raised the dead, he cleansed the lepers, he unstopped the deaf ears, he loosed the stammering tongues, and he preached the gospel to the poor. And he could say to John the Baptist, whose faith failed for a little while.
Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.
Ought to be occupied with him.
Defeat upon him.
Well, then, there's one other thing that's mentioned in verse 7. And if thy oblation be a meat offering bacon in the frying pan, the new translation renders that the cauldron. It shall be made of fine flour with oil.
So you have.
In verse 4, the oven.
You have in verse 5 the pan.
And you have in verse 7 the cauldron.
I believe the pan was.
Would represent the Lord's sufferings that were more outward, that were more public.
That could be more seen by the eye of man.
His physical sufferings, the abuse that he took from his enemies.
The.
Wicked things they said about him say we not well that thou art a Samaritan.
Has the devil.
He didn't disclaim being a Samaritan, he said. And I have not a devil.
I have not a devil.
But he was that Good Samaritan, wasn't he?
He was despised and we esteemed him not. He didn't disown being that which was looked down upon, despised by man because that's the place that he came to take.
He went so low.
And then there's the cauldron.
There were sufferings that he endured.
That.
Were not so easily seen by the eye of men. They were deeper down, deep into that cauldron.
And.
There were many of them.
Let's look at some.
Mark Chapter 7.
Mark Chapter 7, verse 31.
And again departing from the coast of Tyre.
And Sidon he came into the Sea of Galilee through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.
And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech.
And they beseech him to put his hand upon him, and he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears. And he spit and touched his tongue. And he, looking up to heaven, he sighed.
And saith unto him, Epithi.
That is, be opened, and straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
And he charged them that they should tell no man. But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it. And they were beyond measure astonished, saying he had done all things well. He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. But it says in verse 34, Looking up to heaven, he sighed.
He felt in his spirit, but he took away by his power. This was a deep sigh, A groan that came from within his being.
As he saw the havoc that sin had wrought upon man and the misery.
The suffering, the afflictions of sin that had come upon man.
As a result of sin. And he sighed. He felt it deeply. The Cauldron.
And then in chapter 8 verse.
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11.
The Pharisees came forth and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.
And he sighed deeply in his spirit.
And saith, Why does this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.
And he left them.
Oh, how he felt the unbelief, the hard heartedness of those Pharisees.
Sigh deeply. It's a deeper expression. It's more intense when he saw the ravages of sin.
It says he sighed when he felt the effects of unbelief. The religious leaders, those that should have led the people to a belief in the true and living God, they're the very ones that were opposing him, that hated him without a cause, and he felt that.
Oh, he felt it. He was the song of the drunkards. He was in derision. He was mocked.
He was opposed and hated by those that should have received him.
Chapter 9. It was something that he felt even more keenly than this.
Verse 17 One of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my Son, which hath a dumb spirit, and wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him, and he formeth and nasheth, and with his teeth and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples, that they should cast him out, and they could not.
It's not just the unbelief of the Pharisees here, but it's the unbelief of the disciples, the inability of the disciples to heal this man because of their.
Unsuited moral state.
They could not.
And he answereth him.
And say it, O faithless generation.
What does he say about you and me?
How does he feel our lack of faith? How he feels it? He felt it here with his disciples.
Or faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me.
Oh, he felt keenly.
Their inability.
To deal with this evil to.
Remove the affliction that was brought upon this.
This one by the power of Satan.
Let's move on.
Verse 27 Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose, and when he was coming to the house.
His disciples asked him privately, why could not we cast him out?
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. In Matthew he says, Because of your unbelief.
Prayer and fasting, they didn't meet the requirement.
They weren't living a life of self denial and dependence expressed by prayer and fasting.
And so they couldn't.
They couldn't avail themselves of the power that was available to them to cast out the demon. And the Lord felt that when he sees us in our extremities, when he sees us in our difficulties, when he sees us in our assembly problems, and we do not know where to turn and we cry out, why can't we cast out this demon? Why can't we solve this problem? He says, Oh, faithless generation.
The power is available to us.
If we only were in the fit moral condition.
And fasting is needed in order to solve some of these problems. It's not going to some theological seminary. It's not getting a course in psychology that's going to do it.
It's prayer and fasting.
That's what we need.
Prayer and fasting.
That's why we can't cast out the demons sometimes.
Now let's turn to John's Gospel, Chapter 11.
Chapter 11 we have Lazarus.
We all know the story.
Verse 32 Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him.
She fell down at his feet.
Saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned in the Spirit.
And was troubled.
He groaned in the spirit.
And was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him?
They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
Oh, how precious.
To see the suffering that the Lord Jesus went through, you'll have to decide in your own mind where these different sufferings fit, whether it's the pan or the cauldron or the oven. I think of the oven as the Lord's suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he anticipated the awfulness of what it would be to be made sin and to be abandoned of God, and to drink the cup of wrath against sin.
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And he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood to the ground.
Crying out, oh father, Oh my father, ABBA father. If it be possible, let this cup pass for me.
The sufferings possibly the oven where the heat directly.
Was upon the meat offering.
If you follow him onto the cross and see him actually suffering on the cross, there you go into the burnt offering. The meat offering takes him up to the cross. The burnt offering presents him in death and his perfection of obedience then, but the meat offering carries him up to that.
And here, as he's in the presence of Lazarus, death had come in. The last hope of man was gone.
Finally, it was final. Death finalizes it. There is absolutely no hope for man after death unless the one who is the resurrection and the life is there. And then he brought him back to life. But he felt it. He felt in his spirit what he took away by his power.
In all their affliction he was afflicted.
So he groans.
He groans.
In the spirit and he was troubled in the 12TH chapter of John.
He says in verse 27, Now is my soul trouble?
He had just referred to the cross in verse 24, corn of wheat falling into the ground and dying without that it would abide alone, but if it died, bring us forth much fruit. And now he says, as he contemplates that cross is he contemplates what it would mean to him to put away sin. His soul was troubled again.
In John 11, his soul was troubled as he saw the effects that sin had brought in. The wages of sin is death, Lazarus under the power of death. The weeping sisters, the weeping Jews. Jesus wept.
Not because he was helpless, not a bit of it, but because he entered in deeply in his soul to the awfulness of sin and the misery that it had brought upon the human race.
But now his soul is troubled as he contemplates the cross, as he anticipates the cross.
Now is my soul troubled? What shall I say, Father? Save me from this hour?
But for this cause came I unto this hour, the hour of the cross.
And then in John 13 we must hurry on. Time is slipping by. In John 13 he is troubled again.
In John 13 he says in verse 18, I speak not of you all, I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled.
He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that when it has come to pass, you may believe that I am He.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looking, looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
He then, lying on Jesus breast, saith unto him, Lord.
Who is it? Who was it that asked that question? That was the disciple whom Jesus loved. He's the only one, I believe.
That when he asked the Lord the question, he didn't say, is it I? The other said, Is it I? John didn't say is it I? He knew it, wasn't he?
He knew it wasn't he.
Instead, he says, Who is it, Lord and Peter the Bold 1? He was afraid to ask.
The Lord. So he nudges John. He says you ask him. And John says, the disciple whom Jesus loves says, Lord, who is it?
Well.
Are precious.
To be one in that position.
But the Lord here was troubled.
One of you shall betray me by no familiar friend, he with whom I, whom I trusted that I did eat bread with. He's lifted up his heel against me. One of you shall betray me. In John 11 he was troubled.
Death of Lazarus.
In John 12, he was troubled as he looked at the awfulness of what it would be to be made sin, to drink the cup, to be forsaken of God. In John 13, he was troubled at one of his own, one that was accompanied with him that was near and dear and precious.
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Apparently.
Just like the rest.
Betrayed him.
It wasn't that he didn't know the Lord Jesus says in John 6. Have not I chosen you? 12 and one of you is a devil?
But when Judas came, the Lord Jesus kissed him.
Judas kissed him, I should say.
The Lord says, Judas, betray us, thou the Son of man, with a kiss.
Well, that that hurt the Lord. He was troubled as he contemplated that. He felt it deeply, keenly. There isn't a sorrow in this world. There's not a sorrow through which you're called to pass, or me or anyone that he hasn't felt, that he hasn't felt perfectly.
Now let's go back to Leviticus 2, just for a few more comments, and then we'll close.
So you have the three kinds of sufferings. Some are more physical, outward.
The pan, and there's the cauldron. Some are deeper, not seen so easily from the out, from without by man. Then there's the oven that's all shut into God, His sufferings before God.
As a man as he walked through this scene.
Think of what a holy, perfectly holy being whose sensibilities have not been dulled by sin. Yours and mine have been dulled by sin. We're so accustomed to sin. We're living in a world where sin is everywhere and we have a nature that responds to that. We have a sinful nature that relates to sin, and so we can easily become accustomed to it. We can become accustomed to the to talk and the ways of the world.
The Lord Jesus never could.
It was always a sorrow to him, it was always suffering to him, the very suggestion.
To do anything contrary to the will of God produced a holy horror and a suffering in His blessed soul.
To say anything else.
To entertain any thought that he could have responded to those things.
Is blasphemy.
Blasphemy.
May God forgive those.
That have advanced.
Such an unholy thought.
About the Holy One of God. May God forgive them.
Verse 10.
And that which is left.
Of the meat offerings shall be Aaron's and his sons.
It is the thing most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire isn't that precious that part of it is for the priestly family that you and me?
And we can feed.
We can feed upon, we can meditate upon him. If there's anyone in this room who has never read The Moral Glory of the Lord Jesus Christ by JG Ballet, please read it. Read it again and again and again. And the corollary to that, the companion volume is The Son of God by JG Bell.
Choice.
Wonderful ministry.
And the person, the holy humanity, and the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 11. No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven absolutely forbidden. No principle of evil there. All of these men had only read this verse and understood what that leaven means. There was no leaven to be in that meat offering. There was no principle of sin there. There was nothing that could respond to the temptations of the enemy. He was holy.
For ye shall burn no leaven or any honey.
In any offering of the Lord made by fire, What's honey? Mere natural sweetness.
Remember in John, in Matthew 12, they came to him, and they said, Thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee.
There's the claims of nature and the Lord Jesus said who is my mother and who are my brethren?
And spread forth his hands. Behold, they that hear the word of God, and do it the same as my mother and brother and sister.
He disowned the natural relationship he had, that which was.
Vital.
The spiritual relationship. No honey.
No, honey.
Woman, what have I to do with thee? By an hour is not yet come.
Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Why hast thou dealt us with us, boy of 12?
Wished he not that I must be about my father's business.
And then he went home and was subject to them.
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Subject to them, but there was number honey there.
It was the father's business.
First recorded utterances of the Lord Jesus wished ye not that I must be about my Father's business as a boy of 12 and on the cross. His last recorded utterance next to the last. It is finished.
I finished my father's business. Accomplished, Father, into thy hands.
I commend my spirit.
No honey, no leaven, then it says in verse.
13 Every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt. Neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering. With all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.
11 was forbidden, the honey was forbidden, but the salt was absolutely an essential ingredient. I remember making a visit recently at a meeting. It was a very delicate visit.
A very delicate visit and we, as we visited this brother and I were very, very careful that we did not.
Tread upon.
Certain areas.
And it was pretty much just a social visit.
And that night we had a little reading.
In another house.
And we were considering Colossians 4. Let your words be always with grace, seasoned with salt. And we dwelt a little upon the salt.
And I said, you know that visit we made this morning.
We failed.
There was no salt.
It was just a social visit.
The Lord Jesus never made just a social visit.
There was always.
The salt of the covenant of God. With him there was always that principle of holiness. With him there was always that which would reach the conscience.
You look at John 4 the.
The Lord's Coming
Confession of Jesus as Lord
Friends, Fiery Furnace