1. And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon:
2. And he shall bring it to Aaron's sons the priests: and he shall take thereout his handful of the flour thereof, and of 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, of a sweet savour unto the LORD:
3. And the remnant of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
4. And if thou bring an oblation of a meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
5. And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in a pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.
6. Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon: it is a meat offering.
7. And if thy oblation be a meat offering baken in the frying pan, it shall be made of fine flour with oil.
8. And thou shalt bring the meat offering that is made of these things unto the LORD: and when it is presented unto the priest, he shall bring it unto the altar.
9. And the priest shall take from the meat offering a memorial thereof, and shall burn it upon the altar: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
10. And that which is left of the meat offering shall be Aaron's and his sons': it is a thing most holy of the offerings of the LORD made by fire.
11. No meat offering, which ye shall bring unto the LORD, shall be made with leaven: for ye shall burn no leaven, nor any honey, in any offering of the LORD made by fire.
12. As for the oblation of the firstfruits, ye shall offer them unto the LORD: but they shall not be burnt on the altar for a sweet savour.
13. And every oblation of thy meat offering shalt thou season with salt; neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat offering: with all thine offerings thou shalt offer salt.
14. And if thou offer a meat offering of thy firstfruits unto the LORD, thou shalt offer for the meat offering of thy firstfruits green ears of corn dried by the fire, even corn beaten out of full ears.
15. And thou shalt put oil upon it, and lay frankincense thereon: it is a meat offering.
16. And the priest shall burn the memorial of it, part of the beaten corn thereof, and part of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof: it is an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

Introduction:

The other man noticed his former friend’s (now his bitter enemy) great danger. He managed to maneuver into position through freefall, and tied himself to the other man’s tangled canopy. Then he opened his own chute.

The two of them came down together and landed safely. Now, here’s the amazing, shocking thing. --- After they had hit the ground, the man who had been rescued got up and walked away without even thanking the one who saved him.

That was, of course, just a movie, totally fictitious. However, Luke 17 describes a real life event very much like it. Ten lepers, on their way home from a meeting with Christ, suddenly realized that He had healed them of their dreadful disease. He had saved their lives. But only one, a Samaritan, returned to the Lord to say, "Thank you."

Nine were cleansed, but only one returned to give thanks. Why? Why did only one cleansed leper return to thank the Master? The one returned to give thanks because he knew he owed his life to the Savior. The others did not, because they obviously did not consider themselves such debtors to mercy. Perhaps…

• One waited to see if the cure was real.
• One waited to see if it would last.
• One said he would see Jesus later.
• One decided that he had never had leprosy.
• One said he would have gotten well anyway.
• One gave the glory to the priests.
• One said, "O well, Jesus didn’t really do anything."
• One said, "Just any rabbi could have done it."
• One said, "I was already much improved."

It is a sad, sad commentary on our society that few have the manners and common decency to say "Thank you" when someone has done something for them or given something to them, or even been courteous to them. But it is an indescribably greater evil that you and I need to be reminded to say, "Thank you" to God our Savior for his wondrous grace so richly bestowed upon us. Yet, we do need to be reminded, in everything to give thanks.

Proposition: Only the thankful worship and serve him.

[John 17:1-5] "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee: [2] As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. [3] And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. [4] I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. [5] And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."

Though our Lord’s obedience in life, weaving out a garment of righteousness for us, was performed during his earthly life as a perfect man, as Jehovah’s perfect, righteous Servant, it could not be imputed to us until his obedience in death had put away our sins. Hence, the burnt offering is first made, then the meat offering by which we celebrate full redemption, complete forgiveness, and perfect justification. What reason we have for thanksgiving to our God!

1. The meat offering was a bloodless offering.

There is nothing in the meat offering that even hints of sin. Our sins were dealt with in the burnt offering, in the sin-atoning sacrifice of Christ, and were thereby completely and forever put away. The meat offering portrays sinners perfect in the sight of God, accepted by the merits of Christ’s blood.

It was not a bloody sacrifice, but consisted of fine flour, bolted and thoroughly sifted. It had no bran at all in it. There was nothing rough or uneven in it.

This speaks of both the perfect, holiness and righteousness of our Savior, and of our perfect righteousness before God in him. That which is true of him is true of his church. We are accepted in him.

1. There nothing coarse, rough, or uneven in the human nature of the Lord Jesus.

Look him over, through the whole course of his humiliation. There is nothing in him but fine flour. Nothing moved him from his purpose. Nothing caused him to even hesitate in his course. Nothing prevented him from his obedience. Nothing kept him from doing good.

In all his character, our blessed God-man Mediator is perfect, even, complete. He is perfectly gracious and perfectly just, -- perfectly holy and perfectly kind, -- perfect in love and yet without compromise. Circumstances had no effect upon him. Company did not alter him. Sorrow did not subject him. Praise did not puff him. Our Lord was always elevated by his very character above all that surrounded him.

2. These things cannot be said of any of his disciples.

Not so with us! Even our very best attempts to live for his glory display in the most glaring way that there is much bran and little evenness in us.

• John who loved him well, and who was perhaps the most humble of all the disciples, desired the highest place in the kingdom for himself.
• Peter, who was willing to die with him, denied him and forsook him.
• Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven, had to live with a constant thorn in his flesh, lest he be exalted above measure.
• How often I have, in preaching the gospel, doing that by which I strive hardest to serve your souls and honor our God, spoken something (Needlessly!) by which you have been hurt or offended and our God has been dishonored!
• In prayer, we often, if not always, find ourselves speaking routinely, making selfish requests, and making meaningless repetitions! – How much more our weaknesses are manifest in lesser matters!

1. This meat offering, the fine flour, speaks of Christ, the Bread of Life.

His flesh is meat indeed. Those who eat this Bread have life in themselves, eternal life! He is the Bread that satisfies God. And he is the Bread that satisfies our souls!

• The covenant of grace is a covenant of salt, secured by God.
• We are useful only by the salt of grace.
• We are secured and kept by the salt of God.

1. Though given to and primarily consumed by man, the meat offering was an offering offered to the Lord.

1. The meat offering was a voluntary thank offering, made by grateful men, according as the Lord had prospered them.
2. The priests in the tabernacle and temple were sustained by the sacrifices of the people.
3. The sacrifices made were considered most holy by the Lord, because they were sacrifices made to him.
4. That which we give to and do for others, in the name of Christ, is accepted of God as a sweet savor before him.

Imagine this scene: You are on the Florida coast, not far from a little town near Jacksonville called Switzerland. The sun is setting like a gigantic orange ball. It's a cool evening on a vacant, isolated stretch of beach. The water is lapping at the shore, the breeze is blowing slightly. There are one or two joggers and a couple of fisherman. Most people have gone home for the day.

You look up and you see an old man with bent shoulders, bushy eyebrows, and bony features hobbling down the beach carrying a bucket. He carries the bucket out onto a pier. He stands there and you notice he is looking up into the sky and all of a sudden you see a mass of dancing dots. You soon recognize that they are seagulls. They are coming out of nowhere. The man takes out of his bucket handfuls of shrimp and begins to throw them on the dock. The seagulls come and land all around him. Some land on his shoulders, some land on his hat, and they eat the shrimp. Long after the shrimp are gone his feathered friends linger. The old man and the birds.

What is going on here? Why is this man feeding seagulls? What could compel him to do this--as he does week after week?

The man in the scene is Eddie Rickenbacher, a famous World War II pilot. His plane, "The Flying Fortress," went down in 1942 and no one thought he would be rescued. Perhaps you have read or heard how he and his eight passengers escaped death by climbing into two rafts for thirty days. They fought thirst, the sun, and sharks. Some of the sharks were nine feet long. The boats were only eight feet long. But what nearly killed them was starvation. Their rations were gone within eight days and they didn't have anything left.

Rickenbacher wrote that even on those rafts, every day they would have a daily afternoon devotional and prayer time. One day after the devotional, Rickenbacher leaned back and put his hat over his eyes and tried to get some sleep. Within a few minutes he felt something on his head. He knew in an instant it was a seagull which had perched on his raft. But he knew that they were hundreds of miles out to sea. Where did this seagull come from? He was also certain that if he didn't get that seagull he would die. Soon all the others on the two boats noticed the seagull. No one spoke, no one moved. Rickenbacher quickly grabbed the seagull and with thanksgiving, they ate the flesh of the bird. They used the intestines for fish bait and survived.

Eddie Rickenbacher never forgot that visitor who came from a foreign place. That sacrificial guest. Every week, he went out on the pier with a bucket of shrimp and said thank you, thank you, thank you.

That's what you and I are called to do in response to God's grace and mercy in Christ.