Leviticus 7:12-14 "If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with a sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.
Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings.
And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings"
Notice very carefully.
In verse 12, the cakes and wafers were to be unleavened.
In verse 13, the bread was to be leavened.
This seems strange.
Why should this be when leaven is a principle of evil?
It is because in verse 12 it shows us that Christ is our peace offering and He is without sin, without leaven.
In verse 13 it is the offerer who gives thanks for his participation in the peace offering.
His sins have been forgiven and he has peace with God but there is still sin in him; leaven is still present.
Peace with God does not depend on the believer attaining sinless perfection. Leaven is still there.
It is important to realize this!
1 John 1:8 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us"
As true believers we are to confess our sin, the Holy Spirit within us, convicts us of our sin, and He brings godly sorrow into our hearts and lives. Then when we agree with God that we have indeed sinned against Him, He is faithful and just to forgiven us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our fellowship is restored and we are able to walk in newness of life by the power of the Holy Spirit.
We are identified with Christ, joined to Him and we have been raised with Him in newness of life - this means that this very day He wants to live His life, out through us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
May I ask as kindly as I possibly can as there are many Christians who claim to be in Christ yet they are living in lies and deceitfulness, how can Christ Jesus live His life out through us, when we are practicing sin, we have told lies about another believer and we have given false witness about them?
"For sin shall not have dominion over you …" (Romans 6:14).
The leavened bread was a heave offering.
It was to be elevated toward heaven.
In the same way, our hearts are to be opened to God for Him to search us and know us and to lead us in the way everlasting, the way of truth, for Christ is the truth
Psalm 139:23–24) "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
We need to confess our sin to the Lord and be cleansed. We are washed by the Word of God. We put our feet into His hands, which means that we are completely yielded to Him. This places us in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. Dear reader, do not let a single day go by without this fellowship. Please do not let sin come in to break your fellowship with Him.
Leviticus 7:15:18 "And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning. But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:
But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall he burnt with fire. And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity."
The peace offering was to be eaten at once.
There was to be no delay.
Thus, we are to be constantly abiding in Christ for peace of mind and for power over temptation.
Philippians 2:5 "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
Isaiah 26:3 "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Thee.
Christ Jesus alone gives us real peace of mind.
He gives peace to those who are His own, to those who have entered into this glorious, fellowship with Him.
When you find that Christ is adequate and wonderful, the peace of God
"that passeth all understanding" will enter into our hearts and lives.
What a picture these sacrifices are of the Lord Jesus!
Here is another
Leviticus 7:19–20 "And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof. But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people."
An unclean person who ate of the peace offering was excommunicated.
Today, there must be confession of sin on the part of the believer if he is to enter into fellowship with God.
Leviticus 7:22–23, 26–27 "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat. Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings. Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people."
This is to remind us that man is redeemed by blood and that is the basis of our being accepted in the Beloved.
They were forbidden to eat the fat because the fat belonged to the Lord.
Peace Offering. This sacrificial offering was also called a heave offering and a wave offering. This was a bloody offering presented to God (Leviticus 3:1; fellowship offering, NIV). Part of the offering was eaten by the priest (representing God’s acceptance) and part was eaten by worshipers and their guests (nonofficiating priests or Levites and the poor, Deut. 12:18; 16:11). Thus, God hosted the meal, communing with the worshiper and other participants. This sacrifice celebrated covering of sin, forgiveness by God, and the restoration of a right and meaningful relationship with God and with life itself (Judges 20:26; 21:4). Nelsons Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
There were 3 kinds of peace offerings:
(1) Thank offerings in response to an unsolicited special divine blessing;
(2) Votive (vowed) offerings in pursuit of making a request or pledge to God;
(3) Freewill offerings spontaneously presented in worship and praise.
Have you been to Jesus
for the cleansing power?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you walking
daily by the Saviour's side?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Do you rest each moment in the Crucified?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
When the
Bridegroom cometh will your robes be white?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Will your soul be ready for the mansions bright,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Lay aside the
garments that are stained with sin,
And be washed in the blood of the Lamb;
There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean,
O be washed in the blood of the Lamb!
Thanks: homewithgod.com
Amen!
If you have come to the Lord Jesus and asked Him to come into your heart, and to be your personal Saviour from your sin, then you have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and the righteousness of Christ has been imputed to you. You are a born-again child of God.
This is the truth and we can take God's Word for it.
Trust Him, He is our Saviour.
We are as saved now as we ever will be a million years from now.
We are made complete in Christ.
God is satisfied with what Christ did for us on the cross of Calvary.
Question is are you satisfied?
The day the Holy Spirit made this most delightful truth real to my heart, I will cherish for all eternity.
It has truly filled me with an unexplainable joy.
God is satisfied with Christ and my " life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).
My life is hid with Christ in God.
I have been taken out of the old Adam by baptism; that is, by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I have been taken out of Adam and placed in Christ. I am now in Christ. Now that I am in Christ, I should live out His life and let His fullness be lived out through me.
"When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory" (Colossians 3:4).
Dear reader, have you accepted the Lord Jesus as your personal Saviour? You can ask Him right now, to come into your heart, just where you are?
The very moment the Lord Jesus comes to dwell in us, He not only saves us from a lost eternity, He also imputes His righteousness to us.
How can anyone ever possibly explain the goodness of our God?
How can we ever understand the love of God that caused Him to give up heavens glory to come to this world to redeem sinful mankind?
How could sinful man ever have a relationship with a Holy God, a God who controls this entire universe, who created every single thing in this universe. It is mind boggling - we can never hope to understand the grace and mercy of such a Creator.
He is the Alpha and the Omega of all things.
That this all powerful God seeks to have fellowship with sinners, like myself, is just beyond my own understanding and it is just as the verse says,
Philippians 4:7 "And the peace of God which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."
Only the Holy Spirit can make this truth real to the born-again believer.
And the only explanation that I can ever give is that we are to just simply believe it.
We are to believe God and take Him at His Word.
The very moment that we believe, He will open the eyes of our understanding - And as we read and study His Word our faith will begin to grow because the only way that faith can grow is through hearing the Word of God.
Luke 24:45-47 "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, And said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day; And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
Redemption! Oh, wonderful story -
Glad message for you and for me:
That Jesus has purchased our pardon,
And paid all the debt on the tree.
Chorus.
Believe it, O sinner believe it,
Receive the glad message - Tis true,
Trust now in the crucified Saviour,
Salvation He offers to you.
From death unto life He hath brought us
And made us by grace sons of God;
A fountain is opened for sinners:
Oh, wash and be cleansed in the blood.
No longer shall sin have dominion,
Though present to tempt and destroy.
For Christ, in His blessed redemption,
The power of sin shall destroy.
Accept now God's offer of mercy;
To Jesus O hasten today;
For He will receive him that cometh,
And never will turn him away.
Amen!
This hymn is uplifting and we can praise our Lord Jesus for all the believers who have so valiantly gone before us.
Hebrews 1:1 "God who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds."
The "fathers" are the elders.
These Old Testament fathers - believed God.
Their faith rested upon evidence.
Noah built an ark, he build the ark by faith.
Throughout the years that Noah walked with God, the Word of God tells us, that God gave Noah an abundance of evidence.
Genesis 6:9 "Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God."
The trouble with many of us today is that when a crises comes we do not have enough evidence to rest in God. We are not able to lay hold of Him because we have not gotten to know Him in His Word.
When we get to know Him in His Word, we learn to trust Him when the sun is shining and then when there are dark clouds surrounding us in one of life's storms, we are able to just rest in Christ and trust Him, that whatever trial has come to us, He will see us through and that it will work out for our good, according to His divine purpose, when we love Him.
I've
had many tears and sorrows
I've had questions for tomorrow
There've been times I didn't know right from wrong
But in every situation God gave blessed consolation
That my trials only come to make me strong.
Chorus.
Through
it all, through it all
Through it all, through it all
I've learned to trust in Jesus
I've learned to trust in God
Through it all, through it all
Through it all, through it all
I've learned to depend upon His Word.
I've been
a lot of places
And I've seen so many faces
But there've been times I've felt so all alone
But in that lonely hour, in that precious, lonely hour
Jesus let me know I was His own.
So I thank
God for the mountains
And I thank Him for the valleys
I thank Him for the storms He's brought me through
'cause if I never had a problem
I wouldn't know that He could solve them
I wouldn't know what faith in His Word could do.
Amen!
The elders obtained a good report.
Was it because they were wonderful people?
NO,
It was because they believed God.
Abraham was a good man, a very wonderful man, but, we are told in God's Word that it was by faith that Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
God put righteousness to Abraham's account, not because of good works, but because he believed God.
Genesis 15:6 "And Abraham believed in the Lord: and He counted it to him for righteousness."
We are saved through faith in Christ, and we are to walk by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Are you going to work today?
Perhaps you are just going to stay at home today.
Whatever we are to do today - we can do it by faith.
Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are to walk by faith and not by sight.
If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy,
Let Jesus come into your heart.
If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy,
Let Jesus come into your heart.
Your sins He'll take away,
Your night He'll turn to day.
Your heart He'll make over a new,
And then come in to stay.
If you want joy, real joy, wonderful joy,
Let Jesus come into your heart.
Amen.
God saved Abraham by faith alone.
God justified Abraham by faith alone.
God sanctified Abraham by faith alone.
Romans 4:16 "Abraham being not weak in the faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb."
There is no merit in faith itself.
You see there was nothing around Abraham in which he could trust, there was nothing that he could feel, and there was nothing that he could see.
All he did was to believe God.
Hallelujah!
Abraham believed the promise of God in spite of the fact that the circumstances nullified it.
His confidence was in the One who gave the promise and in so doing he worshiped God.
Dear reader, the only way we can ever glorify God is to believe Him - take him at His Word.
We have His Word, the Bible. It is God of very God speaking the truth to our hearts, souls and minds.
The Holy Spirit takes the Word of God and makes it clear to our understanding, and teaches us all about our wonderful Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Please may I beseech you in Christ Jesus my Lord to study the Word of God.
There is no short cut in getting to know our precious Saviour.
He has imputed His righteousness to us - if we have been born-again - and we have been accepted in Him.
Sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit.
"Christ in us" is sanctification.
If we are to bear fruit, we must be "in Christ."
We have to place all our trust in Him who is our Saviour for there is nothing good in us and any goodness that comes from us comes from Christ abiding in us.
He tells us in direct terms that we cannot do anything to produce fruit. The Holy Spirit produces fruit in us.
"As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me."
What He is saying is that when we come to Christ and we trust Him as our Savior, the Spirit of God, in a very vital way, joins us to the living Christ as a branch is joined to the vine.
The apostle Paul said,
Romans 6:11 "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord."
We have to be willing to take our hands off and let God do it, reckoning ourselves to be dead. That makes it easy, for if we are dead, we cannot put our hands on! We ought not to stick our hands in something
God has said is His responsibility.
Just as we can have no part in our salvation so we can have no part in our sanctification.
" .. stand still, and watch the salvation of the Lord," (Exodus 14:13)
Do you want to be saved?
Then, stop trying to do the "right" things and come to the Lord Jesus, He is the Way.
Do you long for sanctification?
Are you constantly being defeated?
Are you tired of struggling?
David recognized his error when he tried to do the right thing in his own way.
What did he do about it?
He turned to God and did it God’s way.
You can also turn your Christian life over to Christ and trust Him with the same faith you exercised when you accepted Him as your Saviour.
Romans 4:6 "Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness, apart from works."
In other words, joyful is the man whose sin the Lord will not put to his account.
Dear friend, this is too wonderful for words?
2 Samuel 12:13 "The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die."
David's guilt was not put on his account, because Another - the Lord Jesus Christ - bore it for him.
That is why David was joyful.
Are you joyful - I mean in your heart, not necessarily a smile on your face, but the deep joy of Christ Jesus abiding in you - because He has taken all your guilt away.
Romans 8:1 "There is, therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
We are given a stern warning in the Word of God.
Romans 10:3-4 "For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth."
This was true of Israel and it is true of many church members today.
There is no greater sadness than people who lack spiritual discernment concerning the truth.
Many folk read the Bible and fail to see its essential teaching. Its personal application for believers.
They have no real discernment of what it means to be saved.
To become joint heirs with Christ Jesus.
Christ is the end of the Law.
Matthew 9 16 "No man puteth a piece of new cloth on an old garment;"
The Lord Jesus came into this world to save sinners.
To those who receive Him, He imputes His righteousness.
He went to the cross not only to die for our sins but also to give us a new robe - His righteousness.
The law was not given to save us, but to show us that we need a Saviour.
Galatians 5:4 "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace."
The Law is not a means of righteousness.
Righteousness, is for everyone who simply by faith believes in Christ Jesus - believes that He bore their sin in His own body on the tree of Calvary.
My Saviour died.
Pierced by those cruel nails,
Was crucified.
Lord Jesus, Thou hast done,
ALL THIS FOR ME,
Henceforward I would live only for Thee.
Thanks: Losinda.
Amen!
God in His great mercy not only saves us by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus when we come to Him for salvation, He imputes the righteousness of Christ to us - He subtracts our sin - and enables us to live for Him. He gives us a standing before God, that standing is in Christ Jesus.
We are accepted in the Beloved!
When I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, came to Him as a sinner He received mw and He put over me His robe of His righteousness because I could not ever stand sufficient in myself. He became my righteousness. He not only subtracted all my sin, He regenerated me and made me a child of God, and I received a new nature, the nature of our Heavenly Father which made it possible for me to live on a much higher plane.
"But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him" (1 John 2:27).
Not even the teachers, nor all the wealth of material from the past can enlighten us, unless the Holy Spirit of God is our teacher.
We are able to live our lives through Christ Jesus abiding in us.
He is willing to live His life in us and through us when we yield to Him.
"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh"
" ... sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace" (Romans 6:14).
"We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not (1 John 5:1).
The true child of God cannot live in sin - two-facedness, insincerity.
The only thing we are to do is
" ... by the mercies of God, present (yield) your bodies (that is, your total personalities) a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (AV. Romans 12:1).
The mark of the believer is to walk in truth. Truth is that which is dominant. The summum bonum for the Christian is whether or not he is walking in the truth and walking in the light. It isn’t how we walk but where we walk that is important.
Are we walking in the truth?
Walking in the truth also means walking in the right conduct or walking in love of the brethren.
"For I rejoiced greatly, when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth (3 John 3).
We are to surrender, yield - our lives to God.
We on the other hand want to try by ourselves, we want to get our hands in it.
We want to do what we want to do for God.
But God says,
"Take your hands off! You can’t do it.
Let Me do it in you."
We cannot get anywhere by trying to live by the Law.
And that is not what God is asking us to do.
God knows, that within our flesh, there is not even a desire to do His will, because
" ... the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:7–8).
But there is something we can do:
We can turn our lives over to Him.
I learned this song when I used to attend the Crawford Gospel Hall Sunday School..
That nailed Him to the tree
To die in agony
For all my sin.
For my own guilt and blame
The Great Redeemer came,
Willing to bear the shame
Of all my sin.
Oh, what a Savior is mine!
In Him God's mercies combine;
His love can never decline,
And He loves me.
To Calvary's hill one day
The Lord was led away;
None else the price could pay
For all my sin.
He on the cross was slain,
Yielding His life in pain,
He felt the bitter strain
For all my sin.
Oh, what a Savior is mine!
In Him God's mercies combine;
His love can never
decline,
And He loves me.
Was ever love so strong?
Was ever crime so wrong
When Jesus suffered long
For all my sin?
He saw my greatest need,
Became my Friend indeed;
Through Him I have been freed
Of all my sin.
Oh, what a Savior is mine!
In Him God's mercies combine;
His love can never
decline,
And He loves me.
Amen!
Dear reader may I ask you, Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Do you praise and thank Him without ceasing for what He has done for you?
That He not only saved you, but that He imputed His righteousness to you, so that you are now in Him, able to live the Christ life - " ... the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).
Yield
not to temptation,
For yielding is sin;
Each
victory will help you
Some other to win;
Fight manfully onward;
Dark passions
subdue;
Look ever to Jesus,
He will carry you through.
Chorus:
Ask the
Saviour to help you,
Comfort, strengthen, and keep you;
He is willing to aid you,
He will carry you through.
Shun evil companions;
Bad language disdain;
God's name hold in
reverence,
Nor take it in vain;
Be thoughtful and
earnest,
Kindhearted and true;
Look ever to Jesus,
He will carry you through.
To him that
o'ercometh
God giveth a crown;
Through faith we
shall conquer,
Though often cast down;
He who is the Saviour
Our strength will renew;
Look ever to Jesus,
He will carry you through.
Original Trinity Hymnal, #658
Amen!
Reply to Caryl@cherith.co.za.
THIS PAGE UPDATED: 14-10-2009.