153: Steve McGeorge - Exhortation: The Peace Offering

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

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   Welcome to Good Christadelphian Talks. I'm Levi. And I'm Chris. And I'm Brian. Thank you for joining us this week. On this podcast, we select one talk a week to help us get the Bible in our daily news feed. We post a new episode at the start of each week with a short intro beforehand to kind of set the stage for the talk you're about to listen to.

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   And now, let's talk more about this week's talk. Welcome to the Good Christadelphian Talks podcast. This is Brother Brian. This week's talk is an exhortation by Brother Steve McGeorge, which was given at the Brighton Ecclesia in South Australia back in February of the past year. Brother Steve's focus is on breaking down the nuances of all five offerings under the law and how they were meant to point forward to Christ with the main focus being on the peace offering and why that one should be the most relevant to us now as we gather together each Sunday morning.

3. 1:25

   One of my favorite points that Brother Steve brings out early on is how simplified our understanding of the offerings can be since we look back in hindsight already witnessing how Christ was able to fulfill the law and be the greater offering. But how we can gain such a deeper appreciation for the details of each if we put ourselves in the shoes of those who had to bring these offerings based on our circumstances and how all these lessons still apply to Ecclesial life now and especially the order in which they should be followed.

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   I found it to be the kind of talk that made someone like myself who admittedly did not have very much interest in the offerings, you know, thinking of them just as like a relic of the past, to now be very interested in them and to study them for myself. So thank you to Brother Steve.

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   As always, we hope this strengthens your faith and brightens your day. Brother Steve McGeorge, the peace offering. Well, thank you, Brother Matthew, and good morning, my dearly beloved brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's lovely to be in your midst again and to share fellowship together around the emblems of our Lord.

6. 2:51

   It doesn't feel like that we were here that long ago, actually. It's, I think it was August last year, and on that occasion, the readings were 1 Corinthians 13. And we exhorted on the theme of love. Well, guess what today's readings are. It's 1 Corinthians 13 as well. I was tempted to just see if you would remember.

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   But I know that you're good Bible students here and you've got good memories, despite the Welsh contingent part. Or is it because of the Welsh? I'm not sure. I can't work that one out. But this morning we thought we would take our thoughts from the offerings, and in particular, the peace offerings. So our readings today are also Leviticus chapter 3 and 4.

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   And it's a section of Scripture that can sometimes, when it comes to the readings, think it's quite tedious and repetitious. But we want to just delve into some of the fundamental principles that are found here, brothers and sisters, and take them for ourselves, apply them to ourselves, living in 2021 as we are.

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   Under the law of Moses, I think you're all aware, there were five basic altar offerings. And they're recorded in Leviticus chapter 1 to 7. And they were designed to point forward to Jesus Christ and what he would accomplish. And of course, the thinking Israelite, not necessarily every Israelite, but the thinking Israelite would be caused to ponder the various aspects of each offering to see what they could mean.

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    Now, you and I, here in 2021, we have the benefit of looking back. We can see Christ in the Gospels. We can see him in the Epistles. We know what he did, what he accomplished. And we can compare that with the law. We have that benefit. But just think of those who had to look forward in prospect, who didn't have the benefit of the New Testament.

11. 5:01

    They had to paint their own picture of Christ and the way that he would remove sin and provide the basis of fellowship with God. And the offerings were one way that they could paint this picture. And although we have the New Testament, there is still enormous benefit, brothers and sisters, for us to look back, for us who are looking back, to latch into those who are looking forward and to paint that picture for ourselves.

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    Because I believe that we will come to appreciate even more the work of our Lord. So, five basic altar offerings. All right? And I guess if you were to read, as we are at the moment, in our readings, Leviticus 1 to 7, but you were to do so in one sitting, it wouldn't take too long, you may think that they are essentially all the same.

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    That each one is just a repetition of the previous one. You bring an animal, you kill it, you see the blood get sprinkled around, you watch it get placed on the altar, you watch it burn. But if you were actually the one bringing the offering, and not just reading about it, as we do, you couldn't, you wouldn't help, but notice that there were significant vital differences between the five offerings.

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    Because, you see, each offering was designed to emphasize a specific aspect of the one great sacrifice of the coming Messiah. You see, God was helping them to understand every facet, every minute detail of the work of the Savior that he would provide. Now, he had already given them one great sacrifice prior to the law.

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    One great sacrifice that demonstrated all the principles at once. And, of course, that was the Passover. The Passover. The Passover sacrifice, brothers and sisters, had it all. It had atonement, it had deliverance, it had salvation, but it also had commitment, consecration, observation, but it also had participation and sharing and fellowship. Everything was combined in this one great Passover sacrifice.

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    And what God did was he took that one great sacrifice of the Passover, and he said, let me show you that in a simplified way. So he spread it out and broke it down into its aspects. And he focused each aspect individually so that you, the offerer, wouldn't miss anything. And then along comes our Lord Jesus Christ, who Paul describes as our Passover.

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    Passover, the one great sacrifice of the Passover. So that's what Leviticus 1-7 is doing. It's taking that Passover sacrifice, it's breaking it down into aspects so that when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we can see it all fit as the one great sacrifice as our Passover. And the thinking Israelite would look at him and say, I get it.

18. 8:27

    I understand. I can see all the facets of what he did. Now, of course, this morning we don't have time to go into much detail. And, of course, we're going through this at the moment. But essentially, we have five basic altar offerings, beginning in Leviticus 1 with the burnt. I just want to pick up the noticeable feature of each one so that you can see what it is to look out for.

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    And with the burnt offering, the noticeable feature is that everything was burnt on the altar. God received it all. Everything was dedicated to him. That's what the burnt offering represented. Dedicating your life to God, holding nothing back. That's what you would see when you brought a burnt offering. Leviticus 2 is the meat offering.

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    It's not the best word because there's no meat, as we understand it today, involved. Meat today simply means flesh, animal flesh. But meat back then described all food. So it was a food offering, particularly a grain offering. Barley grain, wheat grain. And you would bring your gift to God made up of a grain offering.

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    And the noticeable feature about this offering was that you got to choose how you would present it. If you were a fantastic cook, you had all these options of baking it or boiling it, making the dough, bringing this bread, bringing this meal offering to God. If you weren't a terrific cook, you could just bring the grain, lightly roasted, and present that.

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    It didn't matter. It spoke about what you did with your hands. The consecration of your labours. If you're going to dedicate your life to God in the burnt offering, and then do nothing about it, what's the point? You had to dedicate your labour as well. And then, of course, we're going to go into this a bit more in Leviticus 3.

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    The peace offering. Where you spontaneously wanted to show your gratitude and thanksgiving to God for all that he has done. And the noticeable feature about this was that this was the only offering that the offerer was allowed to eat and participate in, in a meal, with the priests and with the altar. I want you to remember that.

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    Okay? They were in fellowship together. And that's what it spoke of. Fellowship and unity with the great creator and provider of the universe. Imagine that. Sharing that together. So, they're the voluntary offerings. One, two, three. Three voluntary. You didn't have to, but you could. But there were two compulsory offerings. Leviticus 4 is the sin offering.

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    And this was for sins that you committed in ignorance, rashness or hastiness. And it required a sin offering. Where you acknowledged you'd fallen short of God's glory. And you were seeking his forgiveness. Now, the noticeable feature about this offering, brothers and sisters, was how the blood was used. How it was sprinkled. In multiple ways, depending on the size of the animal, of course, but multiple ways.

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    Demonstrating that the shedding of blood was the basis of sins being forgiven. So, it spoke of atonement. It spoke of reconciliation to God. And then finally, in Leviticus 5 and into a little bit of chapter 6, we have the trespass offering. This is where you violated somebody else's rights. Okay? You might have stolen their goods, for example.

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    And it demanded a trespass offering. And the noticeable feature about this offering was that the value of the animal that you brought had to correspond to the gravity of the trespass. So, it was teaching you responsibility to make amends. And the more damage you caused, the more there was to pay in consequence.

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    And you also had to repair that damage. By giving back what had been stolen, plus a fifth extra. So, it spoke of restoration and repairing the damage caused with your brother or your sister. Now, that's how they're recorded in Leviticus 1 to 5. It begins with the burnt offering. Then the meal offering, peace offering, sin offering, trespass offering.

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    And I'm going to suggest that clearly implies that God regarded the burnt offering as the most important and desirable offering of all. It went first. Dedication to him comes first. He saw that as the most important. But it's not actually the way that they were offered.

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    Because as the offerer, you wouldn't start with the burnt offering. You couldn't. You'd have to start with a sin offering. And if your sin included hurting somebody else, you had to then also bring a trespass offering. It was compulsory to start with that. Then you could, if you desire, go on and rededicate yourself in a burnt offering.

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    Dedicate your labours. The work of your hands from now on will be dedicated to God, not hurting my brother or sister or sinning against him. And it's at that point that God is prepared to accept our desire to have fellowship with him. So from our point of view, the peace offering is the climax.

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    It's the part that we're aiming for. And we want to look at the peace offering this morning, brothers and sisters. It's the ultimate aim, is it not? I mean, why have you come here this morning? If not to seek fellowship with the Father and the Son, our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, centred around these emblems of what is, in essence, a sacrificial meal of bread and wine.

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    This is a feast that we will share a little bit later on. And we come seeking forgiveness that we might have that inner peace and rest from sin. Isn't that why you're here this morning, brothers and sisters? So that then we can rejoice in the presence of the Father as we have in the opening hymns that we've already sung, with the Father and his Son, without guilt.

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    And shame that normally is tearing at our hearts. Isn't that how you sometimes feel during the week? Isn't this the ultimate aim of your life, to reach this point, to have fellowship with the creator of the universe? You see, without the peace offering, brothers and sisters, the other offerings have no real purpose at all, do they?

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    This is the climax of all the sacrificial code. So we just want to take a couple of features of the peace offering from Leviticus 3, and then we want to go into the New Testament and see some examples of the peace offering put into practice through the words of the Apostle Paul and the words of the Apostle Peter.

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    Now you may, this is just a little bit of breaking up of Leviticus 1 to 7, just to show you that we said Leviticus 1 was the burnt, 2 was the meal, 3 was the peace, 4 was the sin, and 5 and a little bit of 6 is the trespass. Ah, I thought you said Leviticus 1 to 7.

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    Well it is. Leviticus 1 to 7 split into two parts. Okay, just come back to chapter 1. You'll see here, Yahweh called unto Moses, verse 1, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel. So these are the general rules for all the common Israelite about how to bring their offering.

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    Okay, it goes from Leviticus 1 to Leviticus 6, verse 7. And then in Leviticus 6, verse 8, we get a second part. And it's a repetition of sorts. It goes through all the offerings again. But this time, in chapter 6, verse 8, Yahweh spake unto Moses, saying, Command Aaron and his sons. So he's going to go back over all of these offerings, but he's going to give some priestly rules that were relevant for them.

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    Okay, and it's not in any particular order. And sometimes some get repeated twice. The peace offering comes up twice in chapter 7. So come back to chapter 3.

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    We read in verse 1, And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering. The word peace is related to the idea of rest and peace and unity and fellowship. If his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering, if he offer it of the herd, and here's the first point, whether it be a male or female, that's quite significant.

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    This is the only offering, brothers and sisters, that you could choose to bring a male or a female. Can't do that with any other offering. There were times when you could only offer a male, and there were times when you could only offer a female. For example, a female lamb for a commoner for the sin offering.

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    You couldn't offer a male lamb. There's only one male lamb, our Lord Jesus Christ. So you offered a female lamb. But every other sin offering had to be a male, because that'd be a kid or a bullock, not a lamb. But this one could be a choice.

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    You see, what this is sharing with us, brothers and sisters, what this is demonstrating to us, is that fellowship is equal between males and females in God's family. There's no hierarchy when it comes to fellowship with God.

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    There's no distinction. There's no segregation between men and women who are baptised into Jesus Christ. When they come together, they can mix and fellowship together.

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    I don't know if any of you have been to Israel, been to the Western Wall, and you watch them in their worship and their fellowship, and there is a distinct line between the women's section and the men's section. Every synagogue on the planet has the women's section and the men's section. And they call themselves the people of God.

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    God says, I never put a distinction between brothers and sisters when it comes to fellowship with me. And you're all here. Husbands are sitting next to wives, sitting next to children. Families are together. This is what fellowship with God is all about. You may like to just jot next to Leviticus 3, Galatians 3 verse 28.

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    Isn't that the classic verse to put next to that? There's neither male nor female. There's neither bond nor free. There's neither Jew nor Greek. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. This is the only offering that highlighted that. God never intended it, that they be separated. So he put that in the peace offering.

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    It then goes on to say, he shall offer it without blemish. Without blemish. Why? What's this idea of without blemish? Well, the concept behind this, which isn't so clear here, we'll go to the New Testament in a moment, and we'll see exactly what without blemish represents. But here, the animal had to be physically perfect.

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    No noticeable blemishes, whether physical or mental. You know, if it walked around like this, but it had every aspect of it perfect, you still couldn't offer it. And we'll see that a little bit later on. A mad cow, or a mad lamb, or a mad, you know, ram, you couldn't offer them as much as you couldn't offer one that was bleeding, or had broken limbs, or was bruised.

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    And when it came to the burnt offering, it had to be even physically perfect inside as well as outside. But the other animals, you would feel around and check that nothing was broken. You couldn't tell if there was internal bleeding or anything like that, but I guess it might come out the mouth and things like that.

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    So you had to do a thorough check that this animal was physically perfect. What was God trying to teach you? Well, he was teaching, brothers and sisters, that the physical condition of that animal should represent the moral condition of what the offerer should have been. You see, animals, you know, don't have moral characters.

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    So they can't demonstrate moral perfection. So God took something that was physically perfect and said, see that? That's what you should be morally. I want perfection. God demands that we have a perfect character. So our whole aim in life, brothers and sisters, our whole aim in the truth is to aim for perfection.

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    We must employ whatever means it takes to aim for it. Now, of course, we will never achieve it. That's why we're here. But that doesn't mean we lower the aim. We don't bring the aim down because we can't achieve it. Some say, well, let's just bring it down a bit and then we can aim for something lower, something in reach.

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    God's saying that's not good enough. You can't lower the standard. Let's just, I don't know, let's just take an exaggerated example to demonstrate the point. Let's say, for example, you know, I say, I'm not going to go to the pub with my sort of workmates to drink myself silly because it won't help me aim for perfection.

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    I won't do that and therefore I've got a better chance of being perfect. Have you? You're never going to be perfect. All right? So, the saying, the thinking that I'm more likely to be perfect if I don't go drinking heavily and smashing myself, some might say, well, if it doesn't help me aim for perfection, what's the matter whether I go or whether I don't?

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    Oh, well, I'll just go and do it. I'm never going to be perfect anyway. And then, you know, you go and move on to whatever else goes on, the bingo hall, the pokies lounge and just move on. I'm just giving one illustration, exaggerated one, put it into your own life, your own context.

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    You see, what God is saying is that I don't want you to lower the aim at all. I want you to aim for perfection. So don't give yourself the things that won't help you. Aim for it even though you don't make it. I've made provisions for you so that you will get there but still aim for perfection.

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    Now, what does this idea of without spot and blemish represent? Well, we're going to come here a little bit later in Peter but come over to 1 Peter. The apostle gives us an idea when he says this in his first epistle and in his second epistle.

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    Chapter 1, first of all, verse 18. For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation, your vain behaviour, your previous behaviour. Behaviour is moral, isn't it? Your moral standing before God. Well, prior to the Lord Jesus Christ, it was vain.

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    But you've been redeemed from that moral behaviour. But not by corruptible things like silver and gold, tangible things, verse 19, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. There it is there. Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, which represents his life, was without spot and without blemish.

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    Perhaps it still doesn't quite clearly demonstrate what without spot and without blemish means. So come over to 2 Peter. We'll be coming to chapter 2 a little bit later. So let's go to the one in chapter 3. Verse 13. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, look for a new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.

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    Wherefore, beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace. Note that. It's the peace offering that's being referred to here. Without spot and blameless. Ah. 1 Peter said without spot and without blemish. Peter says that idea is blamelessness, guiltlessness. your moral character having been redeemed.

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    Okay, so this is the aim. This is what God is wanting each one of us when we come before him to aim for. Perfection. Come back to Leviticus chapter 3. One further point here.

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    It says in verse 2, and he shall lay his hand upon the head of his offering. Now, I used to wonder about this, what on earth is going on? Why would you need to lay your hand on the head of the animal? And I was told invariably that it means that you had to identify with the animal.

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    And I said, yeah, that's fine. What does, to identify? Well, it's your representative. Oh, that's fine too. What does that mean? Because I tell you what I used to understand, and I grew up understanding it like this, never being told as such, but you read the story and this is how it seems to read.

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    That the offerer would bring this little lamb to place it on the altar. And he would recognise that he was a sinner. He was bringing this animal because he recognised he was a sinner.

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    And of course, the offerer got to walk away, didn't he? And the animal stayed behind. I used to think that it probably went something like this, that the offerer would say, well, you know, it should be me on that altar. I'm the one that sinned, but it's not. But it really should be.

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    I'm the sinner, the animal's innocent. I should be the one on the altar, but it's actually not. But it should be. But thanks be to God that he has accepted this animal. And of course, the next few words naturally have to go that God has accepted this animal instead of me. Now, of course, when I looked at it like that, after many years, I thought, that's wrong.

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    That can't be right. You can't use the word instead because that's substitution. That's clearly not teaching substitution. Ah, so how did the offerer get off free and the animal died? And that's why the churches say that Jesus cried, died instead of me. I get to go free, Jesus cried, died and paid the penalty.

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    Just like the offerings. We know that's wrong from Paul in Romans 6 and other places. Okay? How do we explain this then? What does it mean? Well, you see, I think it has to do with the idea of the word lay. He shall lay his hand. This word lay means to press down heavily.

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    And those of you who have been on a farm and seen the slaughter of a little lamb, okay, I've only seen it a couple of times but blood goes everywhere and before long the lamb's on the ground. If you were to slit its throat, be on the ground. If you've got your hand on the animal's head, wouldn't that mean you're on the ground too?

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    I mean, if you're going to press heavily, you'll end up on the ground too. You see, you are at one with the animal. That's what it's teaching. You and the animal are one. You've planted your hand. Paul in Romans says that we are planted together with Jesus Christ. The same principle. We don't stand back at the cross and say it should be me up on that cross, but it's not, but it should be, but thanks be to God, Jesus Christ died instead of me.

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    We don't say that, do we? At baptism, we say, no, no, we're going to come out of the crowd, we're going to join him on the cross and be planted together, buried with him. crucified with him. This is the principle here in Leviticus 3.

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    The offerer in type was one with the offering. The offerer was, as it were, being offered on the altar as well. The two were combined. Okay, so it's an important principle to remember because we might say we don't believe in substitution, brothers and sisters, but I wonder whether you've ever thought like this, whether you've ever lived it.

75. 31:41

    What's the practical application that might come out of this? Well, I should be at the meeting on Sunday, but I'm not going to be there. But I really should go, but I'm not going to be there. But I really should be at the meeting in fellowship with my brothers and sisters, but I'm not going to go there.

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    But thankfully, others will be there instead of me. Ah, that thinking is wrong. And it's the same wrong thinking that we might sometimes attribute to this idea of laying on of hands. This is about involvement, being involved in the animal's death. And a collegial life is about involvement, being here, being involved, being planted together as brother and sister in fellowship with Jesus Christ, which happens when we take the bread and the wine.

77. 32:37

    It's a powerful point, isn't it? Well, a couple of other points that come out of the peace offering are found in chapter 7. We're not going to have time to go through this too much, but what we find is that in verse 11, we read, this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings.

78. 33:05

    And it goes down to verse 21. And what it says is that in essence, the peace offering was split into three, three groups. The thanksgiving, the vow, and the voluntary. And of those three, the thanksgiving was the most important. Because we've already deduced that you could share in the peace offerings by eating it with the priest.

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    You could share it with your family and you could share it in fellowship with the priest and with the altar, with God. But there were conditions about how long you could hold on to the food. With the thanksgiving, it had to be eaten that day. It was so important. It had to be eaten that day.

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    You couldn't leave any over to tomorrow. But with the vow and the voluntary, you could. You could share it on the second day as well. So God saw the thanksgiving offering, that spontaneous desire to come and share gratitude for everything that God has provided and give him thanks. He prized that as the most important of all the peace offerings.

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    Is that how you've come this morning, brothers and sisters? Out of gratitude and thankfulness for what God has done for you during the past week and what he will do for you in the week ahead? Or has it been a tough job getting out of bed, a bit grouchy because all the kids weren't behaving properly, Sunday school didn't go quite as well as expected, and you've come here not with that thankful attitude?

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    You see, God desires thankfulness first. But the vow and the voluntary were also offerings that you could choose to do. You could make a vow and say, I desire to be a Nazarite for three weeks and be like the high priest, and at the end of that, bring a vow offering. When you completed your vow, pay your vow.

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    And the voluntary offering was just for any moment, when you just sort of spontaneously said, there's no reason, I'm not sort of bringing in the harvest, I want to thank God for that, it's just spontaneous.

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    The wonderful thing about the voluntary offering, brothers and sisters, is that the offering. In Leviticus 22, verse 23, we won't turn there, you might like to just jot that down, this was an offering where there was some blemish allowed. I don't know if you've ever noticed that before. Not blemish as in bruises or cuts, but blemishes in the sense of disproportions, where maybe one limb was longer than the others, or where it was slightly out of size.

85. 35:51

    It still functioned properly, everything was perfect in that regard, but it was a little bit lopsided. God was saying that he recognises that even though we do come to have fellowship with him, we still have our problems. He understands that, but he's still looking for you to just voluntarily, spontaneously say thank you to him.

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    Just while you're driving along and you're looking at all the beautiful things with nature around you and you think, I just want to say a thankful prayer to God. It doesn't matter if you're on the bus or at work or in the kitchen or you're outside, you just want to spontaneously say thank you.

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    With all your warts and problems, God says I'll accept that. So he allowed just this one occasion some disproportion to the animal in order to be able to make a peace offering.

88. 36:48

    So as you go through Leviticus 1-7, just look out for the differences, it's fantastic, it's wonderful, share it with your kids, show them those differences. They are powerful, demonstrating all the aspects of the one great Passover. But peace with God, fellowship with God, what does that really look like in ecclesial life? We just want to share a couple of ideas from the New Testament.

89. 37:13

    First of all, from the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10. Just come over here for a moment. It's all nice to read about it in Leviticus 3 and Leviticus 7 and Leviticus 22, the aspects of the peace offering. What does it look like in your ecclesia and in mine, in your family and in mine?

90. 37:37

    How do you teach this principle to your children, to your Sunday school scholars, to your youth group? Well, this section of 1 Corinthians 8 to 10, brothers and sisters, is where the Apostle deals with a particular problem in the Corinthian ecclesia around matters of conscience. And of course, the context back in chapter 8 is about meat offered to idols.

91. 38:07

    Chapter 8, verse 1, now as touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have knowledge, but knowledge can puff up. Down in verse 7, how be it there is not in everyone that knowledge. For some with conscience of the idol, unto this hour, eat it as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled.

92. 38:32

    So it's identifying what's this idol all about. Some know that the idol is nothing. So it doesn't matter about eating that meat. The idol is nothing. There's only one God. There's not multiple gods. So what they're doing is just nonsense. The meat's still just meat. Nothing's happened to it. It hasn't changed in any way.

93. 38:53

    It's just meat. You can eat that meat. The idol is nothing. So it doesn't matter. And that's true to a point. meat. Because you see, in Corinth, brothers and sisters, some thought that they could eat that meat even if they were up the top in the temple of Aphrodite. All right? So overlooking the city of Corinth was the great goddess of love herself, Aphrodite.

94. 39:25

    Up there. And the meat was being offered to her. And some say, well, it doesn't matter. I can go up there and go up with work colleagues up to that temple where there was purported to be, you know, a thousand prostitutes. It's obvious what their god was up there.

95. 39:45

    And the brother or sister who had the knowledge that the idol was nothing thought, well, it's nothing. The meat is fine to eat. I'm being given it and sharing it. And I don't believe in the idol. I don't believe all the rubbish that they're doing. Well, Paul in chapter 10 says, well, don't get too cocky with your knowledge.

96. 40:11

    Just have a look at verse 12. Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. You might think you're okay with this idea, but other temptations could come in that could just knock you flat over. There hath no temptation taken taken you, verse 13, but such as is common to man.

97. 40:33

    But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. Now, we sometimes use that to talk about all temptations. But verse 14 tells you what the specific temptation he's referring to is.

98. 40:49

    Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. temptation is idol worship, whether knowingly or unknowingly. So, how does he explain this? How does he teach the principle of the distinction between these two ideas? Verse 16. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? Now, in this little section from verse 16 down to verse 22, he's going to use two words for the idea of fellowship.

99. 41:25

    Alright? Fellowship becomes the crux of this section. The first one is this word, communion. It's the Greek word, konea. It's in verse 16, twice. You see the word communion there, twice. It's in verse 18. It's the word partakers in verse 18. And it's in verse 20. It's the word fellowship.

100. 41:49

     It's the aspect of fellowship dealing with having something in common. And we all have something in common, don't we? That's why we're here. We're not all tradies, that's not why we're here, you know, work-related at all. We're not all sort of suffering from the same health condition, we're not here, sort of like what some might, you know, go to Alcoholics Anonymous, that's what keeps them in common together.

101. 42:15

     We have in common the truth, the emblems, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we share in common. This is what this word here means.

102. 42:27

     The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the fellowship of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the fellowship of the body of Christ? And of course we're about to partake of this very same bread and wine. What does it do when you partake of the bread and the wine, brothers and sisters?

103. 42:46

     As we will do in a moment. Verse 17, for we being many are one bread and one body, for we are all partakers of that one bread. Now this word partakers is the other word, the Greek word matiko. It's in verse 17, it's in verse 21 as the word partakers, and it's in verse 30.

104. 43:11

     This has the idea of sharing things. And of course soon we're going to share in this meal together. And it is a meal, we said that earlier, it's bread and wine, it's food and drink. But Rotherhams in verse 17 puts it like this, I think this is quite interesting, it's quite important. For we being many are made one because we are all partakers of that one life.

105. 43:42

     You see the point? We become in fellowship with each other when we share this meal together. This is quite a fundamental point. And he illustrates this in verse 18 because he says, Israel after the flesh, natural Israel, are not they which eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? Now clearly he's referring to the peace offering because yes, the priests could eat of the sin offering, but not all Israel.

106. 44:10

     This is all Israel. When they ate of the peace offering, they were in fellowship with the altar. See that? They became by default in fellowship with the altar. Well, what then of eating meat offered to an idol? After all, it is just an idol. Verse 19 says, what say I then, that the idol is anything or that which is offered in sacrifice to idols is anything?

107. 44:43

     It's just an idol, so there's no problem. I'm in fellowship with God. I eat the bread and the wine. I'm not in fellowship with anything else. Look at verse 20, brothers and sisters. Note the change. See how Paul does this? Very clever, very important. It establishes a principle. devil. But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to, he doesn't use the word idol, he says to devils.

108. 45:10

     They believe the idol represents a god. So note the change from idol to devil. The idol means everything to them and they are therefore in fellowship with that devil, he says. And I would not that you should have fellowship with devils. See his line of reasoning. It's pretty powerful. You can't be in fellowship with both.

109. 45:33

     You can't eat bread and drink wine here this morning and then go tomorrow morning and share in a meal that celebrates another god, whatever that god might be.

110. 45:42

     Let me just illustrate this from my life. There's something that happened to me and made me think about this. It's pretty powerful for me when I was looking at this. You see I used to work on a building site in the UK. Big complexes, multi-storey. And at lunchtime, it's a long way to go down to your car.

111. 46:01

     You stay on level 7 or level 20 and you just choose one of the rooms and you would eat lunch together. I can tell you that tradie talk, brothers and sisters, on a building site, it's not good. It's not good at the best of times. But when we're all sitting together eating food, if it's not full of double meanings and innuendo, it's downright guttiful filth.

112. 46:28

     And it's pretty obvious what their god is. Their god was the same god as at the top of the temple of Aphrodite. They celebrated, they worshipped that lifestyle, just like the temple of Aphrodite. and I'm sitting here in the circle, eating my meal with them eating their meal, listening to all of this and saying nothing.

113. 46:56

     And everyone there thought I was just like them. Inside, I'd be screaming, I'd be saying, I stand for Jesus Christ. I'm in fellowship with him. But none of them knew that. To them, I was just one of them. They didn't see any difference. So on Sunday, I was in fellowship with Jesus Christ and the altar.

114. 47:19

     But on Monday to Friday, I often found myself in fellowship with the goddess Aphrodite. He's not healthy, says Paul. And it's not possible either. You can't be in fellowship with both. Flee idolatry. That's what he means when he says that. And whatever the God might be, brothers and sisters, we cannot be in fellowship with both.

115. 47:44

     This is the peace offering. And it just sort of happened when we would sit down together to eat a meal. And they thought that I was one of them, one of the Gentiles worshipping their God. And I had to make a decision. And so I'd go and sit in another room on my own, give my own thanks, then take my Bible, read during lunchtime.

116. 48:10

     Or very often, I'd deliberately make the effort to go down and perhaps, you know, ring my wife during lunchtime and have a chat with her. And avoid all of that. That's what Paul is saying here. He's drawing that out of the peace offering. It's pretty powerful. There's just one other in 2 Peter.

117. 48:29

     We mentioned this earlier, so let's just go over to 2 Peter 2. And here, it's not outside, those worshipping on the top of the mountain, the Gentiles out there, and all their gutter filth and gutter talk. These are in the ecclesia here now, brothers and sisters. And Paul, here Peter, is going to take the peace offering to demonstrate the same principle.

118. 48:53

     These are false teachers in 2 Peter chapter 2. And chiefly, verse 10, them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise government. The word government doesn't mean, you know, ScoMo and the authorities and Stephen Marshall. This word government just means authority. These means those in the ecclesia with authority, the Bible students of the ecclesia.

119. 49:22

     They despise that. They despise it. Presumptuous are they, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. They character assassinate. They slay people. They try and bring them down. They're very destructive.

120. 49:37

     Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord. Even immortalised angels don't talk like that, says Peter. But verse 12, but these as natural brute beasts. You see, they act like animals. They've got animal behaviour, animal traits.

121. 50:01

     Natural brute beasts. The word brute, really interesting, is the Greek word a-logos. You might recognise the word logos from that. Logos, what does logos mean? It means the thinking, the reason, the intelligence, the logic behind things. These are allogos. That's the negative in front. They are unreasonable. They are illogical. These are unreasonable animals in the ecclesia.

122. 50:30

     The word beast there doesn't mean a ferocious lion or tiger, which you might think a beast is. This is any animal, domestic or undomesticated. These are just unruly animals in the ecclesia. They are simply made to be taken and destroyed, captured and destroyed. I probably reckon that you've had in your neighbourhood a dog that's been unruly and it's bit somebody or hurt somebody and it's had to be captured and destroyed, put down.

123. 50:59

     That's what it's talking about here. That's what has to happen to these unruly brethren in the ecclesia. Pretty tough stuff, isn't it? They speak evil of things that they don't understand. They sprout their own voice but they don't understand a word they're saying and shall utterly perish in their own corruption. Now, it's a little difficult sometimes to see what the English is trying to present here in the AV because the word destroyed, the word perish and the word corruption are all the same word.

124. 51:35

     They all have the same meaning. And in fact, Vines says at the end of verse 12 that in their destroying, they themselves shall be destroyed. So these destructive brethren who go around destroying the ecclesia, eventually the ecclesia will be destroyed. They're destroying themselves. If they destroy and have this destructive behaviour, they'll end up destroying the ecclesia.

125. 51:59

     And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes. So he's clearly referring to them as unsuitable animal sacrifices. Okay, they're blemished. They're unruly animals. They can never be offered as a sacrifice. What particular sacrifice in mind? Spots they are and blemishes sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you.

126. 52:31

     So here they come on a Sunday morning, maybe stay for the ecclesial lunch, but even just for the memorial meeting. They think they can be in fellowship with you, yet they've got this destructive, unruly behaviour. They are not suitable peace offerings, says Peter. You cannot use them to conduct peace in the ecclesia.

127. 52:52

     Now, I believe that Peter is taking up an aspect of the law in Exodus 21. We'll just look at this and bring our thoughts to a close as we contemplate the greatest peace offering, the Lord Jesus Christ, when we remember him in the emblems. Have a look at this in Exodus. 21, verse 28.

128. 53:32

     All right. If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, so this is an unreasonable animal, it's pushing itself around and it kills somebody, then the ox shall surely be stoned. So in the ox's destroying of somebody else, the ox itself shall be destroyed. That's the principle that's been taken up by Peter.

129. 53:54

     Isn't it? But just note this. The verse finishes, and his flesh shall not be eaten. I don't know if you've ever thought about that. Why? I mean, the animal's dead. Why can't you just eat the meat? It's a pretty big animal. Last year, a couple of weeks, you should be able to eat that.

130. 54:11

     No. We haven't time to go through this, talk about it afterwards, but Leviticus 17 says that every animal before it could be eaten had to be first offered as a peace sacrifice. This animal was unruly. It was unreasonable. It cannot be offered as a peace offering, so therefore you cannot eat its flesh.

131. 54:36

     See what Peter's done? He's taken that and said, let's apply that to your ecclesia, your ecclesial environment. If you think that you can come in here and be unreasonable, you cannot be a peace offering. You cannot ever be offered on the altar and be in fellowship with Jesus Christ and present your body as a living sacrifice to him.

132. 54:56

     You can't. It doesn't work, says Peter. So, brothers and sisters, as you go through those offerings, don't look at them as just offerings that the Israelites did under the law in the wilderness or in Jerusalem during that period of time that the kingdom of God on earth existed. Think about how it can apply to you now.

133. 55:21

     And as you partake of the bread and the wine, think about how you're sharing that with your brothers and sisters and with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that joins us together and builds us up. It's not about destroying one another because you'll end up being destroyed. It's about trying to save one another because that's how you will be saved.

134. 55:43

     And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did, brothers and sisters. In coming to save others, he himself was being saved. It's completely the opposite, isn't it? So I hope, brothers and sisters, that the time will soon come when our peace offering will be here and the Lord Jesus Christ will set up the kingdom which will be based on righteousness but will then bring true peace.

135. 56:13

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136. 56:43

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137. 57:13

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