March 4, 2007
Scripture:
Can we go back to Leviticus for a moment and look at another little treasure. Our brother had us in the sin offering; I want to look at the law of the peace offering, in chapter 7. When we get these sacrifices in Leviticus, some have sub-sacrifices, or appendices. In this case, that of the peace offering (or communion offering), we find special portions of the offering were for Aaron and his sons; they made the wave offering and the heave offering. “His own hands shall bring the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the LORD. And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’. And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings” (vv. 30 & 32). What we find is that parts of the peace offering, the breast and the right shoulder, were to be reserved for the priests. The breast speaks of love, and the right shoulder speaks of strength and power. But these are not burnt; the priests would take the shoulder and move it up and down; and they would take the breast and wave it back and forth. How precious it is to God when His people are enjoying the Lord so much that they present Him to God. Have we done that this morning? I hope so. But the reason I wanted to turn here is because we sang “Lord of life, to death once subject.” That speaks of Calvary. Though the peace offering was burnt, these parts were presented to God. The right shoulder, the heave offering, speaks of the strength in His resurrection. He rose from the dead and now lives. The right shoulder can remind us of His resurrection, when He was thrust up before God. Then the breast reminds us of His glorification, in Heaven above. Oh, can we see the way in which the One who came down to the depths of death is now at the right hand of God? And we can present this risen, glorified One to God; that is how we partake of it—so precious! “Lord of life, to death once subject.” Now He lives; He lives above. He lives within our hearts.
EG Hymn 321 – And is it as I am told, Prayer • Last time we started by writing “God is” and finished by saying, “the Creator.” We said that God is the only Creator, and we looked at the Macrocosm and the Microcosm. Today, I want to look a bit more at the Microcosm. Let’s start by reading Genesis 1:25. So God made all the creeping things. I want to mention some things even smaller than those we looked at last week, some microscopic things. There are bacteria called bacillus, tiny rod-shaped organisms, and coccus, round organisms. Both of these bacteria can make you sick; some cocci actually cause strep throat. Then, even smaller than bacteria are viruses. Viruses are the cause of the common cold. When you get a cold, your body builds immunities to it; but then why would you get another cold? There are over 100 different viruses that cause a cold, so you would have to live a long time to become immune to all of them. Talking about all this sickness might bring up the question, why does God let us get sick? I have listed a few reasons:
A test of faith. Let’s close by reading Revelation 4:11. When we look at all of creation—from the macrocosm to the microcosm—we can only look to heaven and say, “Thou art worthy, O Lord.”
Hebrews 3:11–16 • Last week we were talking about v. 13: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp.” We saw that the camp is an earthly religious system; the heavenly order we now have came in the book of Acts. (For more on the camp read “Reading Meeting at Edinburgh”.) Interestingly, the camp and the world’s ideas and philosophies have changed over time; yet the truth never changes. Philosophies, such as atheism, have lowered the morality and worth of people over many years. How thankful we can be that we have what we do. And notice that v. 13 says, “Unto Him.” We are leaving all this—the camp and the world—and we can go to the Lord Himself. There is no doubt that Christian faithfulness today brings reproach. The overwhelming numbers of people who subscribe to atheistic thinking can be intimidating to a Christian. There is a man who writes a column in a local Toronto paper; he believes that God exists and is the Creator. But whenever he mentions anything like that in his articles, there are sure to be letters ridiculing him in the next issue. These kinds of people never try to defend their points; they only cut up whoever is speaking. People won’t usually try to persuade you to go into the camp; they only make you bear the reproach. In the time Hebrews was written, Jerusalem was the camp. Yet Jerusalem was no longer the place God was. Within a few years of Lord’s death, it was totally destroyed. So where is the Lord now? As v. 14 tells us, we seek a city to come; that will be God’s dwelling. Abraham looked for a city whose builder was God; but that has not come yet. Read Revelation 21:10. This is Holy Jerusalem, the place we will be with the Lord during the Millennium. Yet at the end of the Millennium, there will be a new Heaven and earth (see vv. 1 & 2). Both these cities are actually people. This is what Abraham was looking for; this is what we are looking for. EG Hymn 96 – If I gained the world, but lost the Saviour, Prayer