Romans 12:1 - Present your bodies; the meal offering

Now turn with me, please, to the book of Leviticus, chapter 2, and we'll read at verse 1. Leviticus 2 and verse 1. Leviticus 2, verse 1. And when any will offer a meal offering or a food offering unto the Lord, his offering shall be a fine flour, and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon. He shall bring it to Aaron's sons, the priests. He shall take there out his handful of the flour thereof, and the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof, and the priest shall burn the memorial of it upon the altar, to be an offering made by fire, a sweet savor unto the Lord.

Verse 4, and if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering onto the, excuse me, baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour, mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil. And if the oblation be a meat offering, bacon, and a pan, it shall be a fine flour, unleavened, mingled with oil. Thou shall part it in pieces, and pour thereon, pour oil thereon.

It is a meat offering. And if the oblation be a meal offering baked in the frying pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil. And thou shall 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.

Verse 10 says, and that which is left of the meal offering shall be Aaron's and his son's. It is a thing most holy, note that, most holy of the offerings of the Lord made by fire. Now, we're going to go to the New Testament, to the book of Romans, chapter 12, verse 1. For as we have many members in one body, and all members of not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Having then gifts differing according to the gifts of the Lord, according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy, according to the proportion of faith, or ministry, let us wait on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity or liberally, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, let love be without dissimulation, abhor them, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Verse 17, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, Vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.

Now that's all we need to read at this time, and we trust that God will bless the reading of this precious word. Now the reason I got up was to follow what Brother Smith just finished with. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God did you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Now, some have wondered, what sacrifice is the Apostle speaking about in Romans chapter 12? A lot of times I've heard people say, well, it must be the the burnt offering. That's an offering where all was for God, although all really wasn't for God. It was made for an atonement, and as well as that, the skin of the animal was given to the offering priest.

And I tried to emphasize the meal offering that said it's most holy. That is never said of the burnt offering, but here it's holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. So I think, if you disagree, that's okay.

I think that the Apostle had the meal offering in his mind when he was telling, because the meal offering, of course, speaks of the Lord Jesus. It doesn't speak of his death, but it really speaks of his life, although it was always offered with a blood offering on the altar. But it's a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, I don't know what those Old Testament saints knew about it, or if they would appreciate that it was the Lord. Some likely would. Men like Moses and Abraham had a tremendous knowledge, although I'm not saying Abraham was alive at that time.

You know, I know a little bit better than that, maybe not much. But anyhow, I don't know what they really thought, but I know this. For we who have all the Bible, we can look back, and we can see it's a beautiful picture of the life of the Lord Jesus.

We could read of it. We read about it being mingled with oil. I think we read that verse, and that speaks of the birth of the Lord Jesus.

Anointed with oil would speak of the Spirit of God descending upon him. And you have the fine flour. We've been reminded that we never knew anyone like the Lord Jesus.

Everything in perfect harmony. Nothing harsh, nothing. He had no strong points because he had no weak points.

And we think of the Lord Jesus as a fine flour. We think of the oil, again, the Spirit of God, the frankincense. His life was a life that ascended to God in every facet of his life, in his speech, in his works, and even in his thoughts.

It was all a sweet-smelling savor unto God. My, wouldn't it be wonderful if we could be something like that. We'll never attain to the stature of the Lord Jesus.

But you know, our life, as you can see, it's talking about worship, and our life should be a life of worship. That's what we've been reminded of in the meeting. Worship is an overflowing of the heart.

Not something you get out of the prayer book or something like that, although maybe there would come some good prayers in the prayer book, but that's not what God's looking for, as we've been told, already reminded. It's the overflowing of the heart. There's something wrong if we can't worship the heart.

Something wrong with the heart if we can't worship. But then we read, as well, of different ways that this offering could be prepared. It's prepared in the house.

We've already been reminded of that. We prepare for the breaking of bread, and I don't think it's a fact maybe that I take even half an hour or two hours on a Saturday. I think it should be throughout the whole week.

Everything we read should be engaging our minds with the Lord Jesus, so that there's something we can offer. And maybe another brother gets up in worship, and what he says or the hymn that's given out would remind us of something, and then the heart overflows in worship to God. But it could be baked in an oven.

That was one way. And then we read in a pan, really the thought is a flat plate. And then we have a frying pan, and they tell us that's a cauldron.

And if we apply those things to the life of the Lord Jesus, I think in the oven, I know it maybe speaks of heat and so on, but I have thought of it now as something unseen. And in a way that would remind us of the life of the Lord Jesus before the Spirit of God descended upon him for his service. Now, I'm not saying his life was unseen, but as far as we're concerned, there's not very many things that are told us about that time.

Oh, we can go back to the Psalms and the prophets, and when he was a boy going up to the temple, we can learn things like that. But generally speaking, it was a life lived before God. A perfect life.

When we think of the flat pan, we think of his life that he lived among the disciples, and the life after he was anointed by the Spirit, a life that was seen. It was right out in the open, and others could see the life. And then when we come to the end in a cauldron, surely, we must think of the trials and leading right up to the cross.

He was still alive on the cross, I suppose. I think that would be part of this as well. And when everything, when the enemies were all closing in against him, you see the Lord Jesus.

That's when the fragrance would ascend all of them, the greater. The fragrance would send, gives a greater aroma when it comes in contact with the fire. I tell you, that'd be something for us, wouldn't it? When you're on the spot and people are against you, and it's a sweeter aroma that it sends to God.

Now we come to Romans 12. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God. What are the mercies of God? Well, I think you would naturally go back to the start of the book of Romans, for instance.

You can get a lot of other mercies, but go back to the book of Romans. And the apostle Paul is going right back to basics. He'd never been to Rome.

And now he's going to write to them and tell them the basic truths of the gospel. And he's going to show them, as it were, the obstacles that are in the way of a person being a good Christian. And he's going to show them how to overcome those obstacles.

He's going to show us that our sins are all taken care of. That's a marvelous thing. That's where it all begins, isn't it? And then, you know, he's going to show us that not only have our sins been dealt with, but we ourselves have been dealt with.

God's sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and there's a sacrifice for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. So not only did he pay the great price for my sins, but what I am was dealt with on the cross at Calvary. And you can go on, and you can see the difficulties with Jew and Gentile.

We've been studying those in our Bible reading there in Stout, but they're all able to be overcome. And that's what he brings them, and to overcome all the obstacles. And then he brings us here, and he says, now you think of all that the Lord has done for you.

Amazing. When our brother was reading in Ephesians 2, I thought what materials God had to work with. Liking it to the best robe and knowing my mind works, I thought, well, that's what you have with a prodigal, dead and alive.

Isn't that the book of Ephesians? Lost and found would be what we have here in Romans. And he said, this is the only reasonable thing you can do. That's what he's saying.

I beseech you, by all that the Lord has done for you, that you offer your body. A living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice. That's why I'm referring it to the meal offering.

But he said it's holy. The sin offering was holy. Amazing.

The burnt offering was never said to be holy, but holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. I suppose if you wanted another Old Testament illustration, you could think of the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in a fiery furnace. They offered their bodies a living sacrifice.

They wouldn't bow down to any idol. And thank God the Lord was with them in the fire. But then he said, don't let the world press you into its mold.

Be not conformed to this world. Well, we've been reminded we're a testimony for God. We're a heavenly people.

And yet the world is crushing in, and we're occupied with it likely far more than we should. But he said, don't be conformed to this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And there again, our brother was emphasizing the mind. It's not acting holy for God. Not acting humble.

We can all act humble, I'm sure. Pretend to be humble. But if it's in the mind, it's real humility.

The Lord Jesus was humble. Wasn't acting in a humble way, but he was humble. Imagine the Lord in his greatness.

And yet he humbled himself. Became obedient to the Father to the extent of death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted him.

Shouldn't be too difficult for you or for me to humble ourselves. After all, what have we got to boast about? Examine your own heart. We've been encouraged to do that as well.

Good thing, the self-examination. And I tell you, if we examined ourselves more, we wouldn't examine others maybe as much as we do. I have to be honest.

God knows all about us. So we need to be honest. But then, I think we have the, in these two verses, we have the oven.

Present your bodies a living sacrifice. It's nothing to do with anybody else. It's not so that they will see anything.

But it's just to be alone with God. I wonder how much time we spend alone with God. The apostle in Acts 20, he sent the disciples on by ship and he walked.

Why did he walk? Wanted to be alone with God. He was going to speak to the elders of the church, the assembly at Ephesus. He wanted to have the right words for them.

How can he do that? He had to get into the presence of God. So, I would take it that in what I am bringing before you here, we have something between myself and God. And then we don't tell God what we want him to have us do.

We all have our own minds made up. Maybe you want to be sent to India or somewhere else or most are flocking to Mexico these days. And there's a great need there, but there's lots of other need.

And I'm not speaking just particularly about committing myself to God for service in that way. That would be included. But there's something comes first.

And it's simply being in God's presence. Learning God. If God's going to use us, we need to learn them.

We need to read our Bibles. And we need to be instructed and not just take what others tell us. I know we have books that we read and we need textbooks.

When you go to school, you didn't try to figure it all out yourself. When I went, they taught us to count on the beads. So I'm really... And we wrote on slates.

So don't be like somebody. Somebody came to me one day and he said, are you really 90 years of age? No, no, I'm not 90. I'm heading there, but I'm not 90.

But anyhow, he's saying it's just simply something between yourself and God. Get into the word of God. Get it into you.

No matter how God is going to use you or me. And there's not one thing more important than the other. Whatever God has for you to do, that's where you're going to be happy.

And we don't have to aspire to be what somebody else is. We just need to be ourselves. And ask God to use me.

Don't tell him where or when or how. But first of all, we say, Lord, use even me. And I'm willing to do anything.

I'm willing to go anywhere. I'm willing to stay right where I am. We need good people in the assemblies as well as those in the Lord's work.

And by the way, we need young men in the Lord's work. And if you have any thoughts about it, there's brethren here, older brethren, and they'll encourage you and they'll help you. I took a few people with me before they went full time in the Lord's work.

But anyhow, it's good. We'll help you all we can. But make sure you know that's what the Lord has for you to do.

Because if it's not, you'll not have a very enjoyable life. So we have the oven. Now, what about the flat plate? Well, I thought, first of all, when it comes to the flat plate, we think of the local assembly.

Every gift is exercised in conjunction, I believe, with the local assembly, whether it's even going out as an evangelist, it's still with the assembly behind you. You know that. And he brings in certain gifts here.

And I would think that, first of all, after we present ourselves to God, to the Lord, then we're going to see what he has for us in the local assembly, what gift he has for us. Now, all the gifts aren't here, but the first one we read was about prophecy. Verse six.

Having gifts differing according to the grace is a diversity of gifts, is a unity, and they're going to work in harmony. Let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith. Now, we know there are no prophets today.

Some people have claimed to be prophets, and they've been proved to be altogether wrong. But there were prophets in those days. A prophet was a man that God used, and he used prophetesses by the way as well, but he used them before the word of God was complete.

So, we have a prophet, was a man that spent time in the Lord's presence. I repeat it often, John the Baptist. There was a man sent by God? No.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He spent time in the Lord's presence. He came out with a message.

And while there are no prophets, the principle applies today, doesn't it? For all of us who minister the word of God, surely we should spend time in the Lord's presence and try to get a word that would be applicable and helpful to the company that there is. Then there's ministry. Now, when we come to ministry in verse number seven, let us wait on our ministering.

What does that mean, ministry? What we're doing now? That's not what he has in mind. He's just saying, looking for opportunities to serve. So, that's something that should characterize every one of us.

Always looking for opportunities to serve, whether it's in the local assembly. Thank God for the sisters who are serving us at this time. We appreciate them.

And there's brethren that are serving too. And are we looking for opportunities how we can help others? How we can serve the Lord. And then he goes on to say teaching.

That would be explaining and applying the word of God. We need to explain the word of God, the best of our ability. And then we need to apply it.

No good maybe teaching if we don't apply it. We need to apply it to each other. And we're hearing teaching at this conference.

How are we going to apply it in our lives? In the book of Malachi, they hearkened and they heard, but they didn't lay it to heart. So, that's what we need to do. We need to lay it to heart and put it into practice in our lives.

And then exhortation. Do we need exhortation? What is that stirring up the saints? You ever need to be stirred up? I'll tell you a great thing when someone could stand. Often we speak about old Mr. Stewart.

I'm sorry, some of you never even heard him. How he could stir us up. I tell you, when you left.

He said, you know, you don't, when you go to a conference and you minister, you don't just pull up Lord's people down. He said, sometimes you can do it. But he said, if you do it, he said, pick them up and dust them off before you send them home.

So, we need to be exhorted. And we need to be stirred up. And that's one thing that really comes from a conference.

And then there's giving. He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity. What's giving? It's being aware of needs and helping.

Have you helped somebody lately? For a while there, a lot of brethren didn't have jobs. You ever help any of them? You don't just need to help the preaching brethren. We can help one another.

That's a gift that God would give. And sisters can really end that. And then there's those that rule, that's shepherds.

My, that's something to be a real shepherd, to have a real shepherd's heart. I wonder, would God put that into your heart? Maybe there's a young man here that's aspiring to a work. It's not easy.

You need to give an account, an ongoing account of your work to God. But I'll tell you, we need shepherds. A sister could have a shepherd's heart too.

She wouldn't be meeting with the brethren, of course, you know that. But you can still, we all really should have a shepherd's heart. And what was a shepherd occupied with? Well, first of all, the lambs.

Are we occupied with the lambs that we try and encourage the young people? We see something that's right in their lives, do we encourage them? Or are we looking for something that we can complain about? Well, hopefully not. Shepherd took care of the old sheep too. I'm not asking her to take care of me, but I'm getting to be one of the oldest sheep, not old, older sheep.

It's good to have a heart. Some people that are older, there are a lot of difficulties, health-wise and so on. And I'll tell you, there's ways you can help them.

Think of them. Even an old neighbor we have, and Linda and I try to stay away from desserts. But you know, when you have company, you make desserts and you have some over, you can always give it out to the neighbors.

Watch them grow big and fat while you're slimmed down. So it's good. There's different ways you can really help.

And then there's showing mercy. What is showing mercy? Aiding those that are in distress. And I tell you, there are saints that are in distress.

So anyhow, that's the way I would apply that. But then it gives a motive, doesn't it? Be kindly affectioned one to another with a brotherly love and honor preferring one another. That might not be too easy for some of us.

But do you really love the Lord's people? You know, people like the Lord's people. Just think about it. And you'll know if you ever lose a loved one.

I tell you, if someone's really ill, they'll rally around. There's no people. So we should be doing that too.

It's not a matter of just receiving, but it's saying in honor preferring one another. Have this mind in you, which also was in Christ Jesus. Think of him being in the form of God.

Thought it not a thing to be robbed of the vehicle of God. Took upon him the form of a servant being found in fashion as a man. I tell you, that's humility, isn't it? He took a far lower place.

I would think that humility for you or me would be maybe just taking the place that God has given us. So how are we as far as we spent time in his presence in the oven? How are we for our testimony that others can see day by day? Do they see the Lord Jesus? That we would show forth the virtues of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light. Now, what about the cauldron? Recompense to know one evil for evil.

Provide things honest in the sight of all men. I tell you, conduct toward sinners is very important. Conduct toward the saints is important.

But if we're enjoying the Lord as we have in the oven, if we use that expression, then I tell you, we'll get along with the saints. If we're out of fellowship with the saints, we're out of fellowship with God. We need to be in fellowship with the Lord.

Then we'll get along with the saints. Every gift will be for the good of others. Helping others.

Whatever little gift God has given us. And what about the unsaved? Avenge not yourselves. I never hear people say, I'm going to get even.

It's not a very scriptural thing, is it? To be like that. It's not what the Lord would say. But he says, avenge not yourselves.

Rather give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine. There are so many times we can leave things in the Lord's hand.

We're so quick to take them into our own hands. The Lord can sort things out that we can't sort out. But he said, I'll take care of those.

That first Peter shows the saints suffering. Second Peter shows how God's going to take care of those that are making them suffer. And just in closing, he said, be not overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.

Don't let evil prevail by retaliation. But triumph over evil by good deeds. So may the Lord help us to be like the Lord.

Be a meal offering, wholly acceptable unto God. May the Lord encourage our hearts with what we have heard before. And when we leave the conference, God grant that we might be more like the Lord Jesus.

We become more like him by being occupied with him.