Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message. Here's Adrian Rogers. The key to understanding the Bible is the Lord Jesus Christ. All of the Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ, not just the New Testament.
All of it. is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. He's there in prophecy. He is there in type.
He is there in illustration somewhere, somehow. Standing in the shadows, you'll find Jesus. Jesus is the hero of the Bible. It is about Him. This is a hymn book.
It's about the Lord Jesus Christ. If you read the Bible and you don't see the message of Jesus, you need to reread the Bible.
Now, that is true about the Levitical offering, especially. And today we're going to talk about the meal offering.
Now, the meal offering, Is called here the meat offering, but it doesn't mean flesh, it just simply means food or food offering. And notice here in verse 11. No meat offering which ye shall bring unto the Lord shall be made with leaven. This is Leviticus 2, verse 11. It shall not be made with leaven.
Underscore that. For ye shall burn no leaven. nor any honey in any offering of the Lord made by fire. No leaven. And no.
Honey. Just underscore it.
Now notice in verse 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. In no offering shall there be leavened. In no offering shall there be honey.
But in every offering there must be salt. That's what God said.
Now, this is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, what is God telling us here through the Holy Spirit. When God says there shall be no leaven, He's saying that Jesus is to be presented in His purity. For you see in the Bible, leaven is always an emblem, a symbol of sin. Leaven, ladies, is yeast.
and it speaks of that fermentation and corruption. It speaks of that which puffs up and inflates. And it is used in the Bible as an emblem and a symbol of sin. And so what he is saying is that Jesus Christ is to be presented, when we present the Lord Jesus as believer priests, we are to present the Lord Jesus, number one, with no leaven. He is to be presented in his purity.
Well, what about honey? Why does he say that there's to be no honey? Honey speaks of excessive and external sweetness. It speaks of natural sweetness, external sweetness, excessive sweetness. And what he's saying there is that when we present the Lord Jesus Christ, not only are we to present him.
in purity. but we are to present him with integrity. He doesn't need to be artificially sweetened. He doesn't need excessive and external sweetness. We need to present him just like he is.
And then he says that we are to present the Lord Jesus with much salt.
Now salt in the Bible speaks of life. The life of the Lord Jesus. The Bible says, have salt within yourselves. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, you are the salt of the earth. And salt speaks of the saving, purifying, sanctifying life of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It speaks of vitality. And so what we find here is that we're to present the Lord Jesus Christ, number one, in purity. Number two, with integrity, and number three, with vitality. First of all, therefore, we're to present Christ without leaven. We are to present Christ in purity.
Now 11 I've already told you is that which corrupts. It is that which puffs up. But Levin works very quietly. Very stealthily. Almost undetected at first, and ladies and gentlemen, it works best in lukewarm conditions.
and leaven permeates the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus warned us about three kinds of leaven. In the Bible, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 16, verses 11 and 12, He said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. and of the Sadducees. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
and of the Sadducees. And then in Mark chapter 8 and verse 15, He said, beware of the leaven of Herod. Three kinds of leaven that Jesus said to look out for. The leaven of the Pharisees? the leaven of the Sadducees and the leaven of Herod.
And as we present the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll present him without that kind of leaven.
Now let's think first of all about the 11 of the Pharisees. What was the leaven of the Pharisees? Who were the Pharisees?
Well, the Pharisees were a religious sect in Jesus' time. And they were very religious. The leaven of the Pharisees is legalism. The Pharisees were legalists. If you would ask a Pharisee, do you believe the Bible is the Word of God?
He would say yes. If you were to ask him, do you believe in the inerrancy of the Bible? If he understood the meaning of the word, he would say yes. The Pharisees believed all of the Bible. But they didn't go to heaven, they went to hell.
They had heads full of scripture. But they had hearts full of sin. They had religion. But they didn't have reality. They had laws.
But they didn't have life.
Well, they were careful all right. They would dot every I and cross every T, but they couldn't spell the word love. They did not know the meaning of Christ. They did not have the love of the Lord Jesus Christ in their heart. They were the most pitiful of all people because.
Jesus said they cross heaven and earth to make a proselyte, and when they do, he's twicefold a child of hell. Legalism. Legalism, my dear friend, is not the answer to the dilemma that we're in. I want you to know that I am a conservative Bible-believing Christian. I believe all of the Bible.
I make no apology for believing in the inerrancy of Holy Scripture. I believe the Bible is inerrant, infallible, impeccable. I believe it is absolutely true. I believe that God gave it from cover to cover. I believe that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
And biblically, I am conservative, but I am not a legalist. I pray God that He will save me and save you from the loveless leaven of legalism. Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. The leaven of the Pharisees was legalism. And legalism is not what our world needs today.
The Bible is a wonderful sword, but it is a terrible club.
Now you say, well, you sound to me like you're against illegalism rather than liberalism. Friend, I'm against both of them. I want you to know that legalism and liberalism are heads and tails of the same sin. The same coin. It's just a perversion of the gospel of Christ.
And so Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. But he also said, Beware of the leaven of the Sadducees.
Now who were the Sadducees?
Well, there was another group, another, quote, denomination of that day, if we could call them a denomination, a political sect of that day. The Sadducees were the liberals of that day.
Well, let me tell you how the Bible describes the Sadducees, and then you'll understand why I call them liberals, in Acts chapter 23 and verse 8. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection. Neither angel nor spirit. But the Pharisees confess both. The Pharisees were very orthodox.
They said there's a resurrection, angels, spirits, all of this. The Sadducees said, we don't believe any of that. The Sadducees were so sophisticated. Oh, they didn't believe in the supernatural elements of the Bible. They didn't believe in the resurrection from the dead and all of that.
They were classic liberals. In a confrontation with the Sadducees, Jesus said this to them, and it's a key verse. Matthew chapter 23, verse 29, Jesus answered and said unto them, You do err. That is, you make a great mistake. not knowing the scriptures.
nor the power of God.
Now folks, if you want a recipe for a liberal, there it is right there. You urge, Jesus said, number one, because you don't know the scriptures. Number two, you don't know the power of God. You see, the Pharisees believed the Bible, but they didn't obey the Bible. But the Sadducees did not obey the Bible because they did not believe the Bible.
Jesus said, you err, you don't understand the scriptures. and you don't understand the power of God. Every liberal has difficulty with two things, number one, the word of God and the power of God.
Now they call themselves theologians, these liberals. But they don't know God. They don't know God. I'm talking about a classic liberal. He doesn't know God.
You see, theology means, theos means God, ology or logos means the word. The word logos and theos put them together. You have theology, God and word, the God of the word and the word of that God. But they deny the God of the Word and they deny the Word of the God, so why do they call themselves theologians? They're like grape nuts, neither grapes nor nuts.
They have no right to call themselves theologians. And Jesus said, you are. You don't know the scriptures. And you don't know the power of God. People have difficulty with miracles like the resurrection.
Friend, if you can get past Genesis 1:1, the rest of it is all right. Just in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. After that, it's all downhill. If you just accept the fact of God, I mean, you're not going to have any difficulty with any kind of miracle. But you see, Jesus said, beware of the leaven of these Sadducees.
Oh, liberalism has left us a terrible legacy. Dr. J. Sedlow Baxter said, and I quote, in the space of a century, Liberalism has turned Protestant Christianity into a graveyard. A graveyard of former glad certainties.
and soul-saving verities of expired beliefs. and perished hopes. of lost faith and vanished assurance. buried ideals and murdered morals. That's the legacy of liberalism.
Now, Jesus warned against the loveless leaven of legalism and Jesus also warned against the leaven of liberalism and then he warned against the leaven of Herod. What was the leaven of Herod?
Well, Herod was a worldly pleasure mad king, and the leaven of Herod is not legalism nor liberalism, but plain old licentiousness, worldliness. And this is another problem among Christians of all denominations. We hear much today about the separation of church and state. I believe we need to hear a little more about the separation of church and world. We need to understand that the Bible says, come out from among them and be ye separate.
The ways of the world have invaded the sanctuary. We look around in Christendom and we see that the laxness of our morals and the breakup of the home and the worldliness of our people is tragic. The leaven of Herod has secularized us. Mal. Jesus, when He was speaking to the Herodians, said this, Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's.
and unto God that which is God's. The Herodians somehow had tried to commingle that which belonged to Caesar and that which belonged to God.
Sometimes we who are conservatives are accused of not believing in the separation of church and state. But I want you to know that you're listening to one preacher who believes it with all of the unction, function, and emotion of his soul. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot, must not be identified with any political party. The church needs to be free to tell the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Independents to repent. and get right with God.
All others. The church must never ever use the power of the government for spiritual goals. Listen to me. The government may protect us. but it cannot improve us morally or spiritually.
And the government must be left free to do what it alone can do, so the church is free to do what she alone can do and must do. And God forbid that we get identified with the leaven of Herod. Always remember the difference between the church and the state. The church is here to minister God's grace. The state is here to minister God's justice.
The church is to expose evil. The state is to restrain evil. The church is to carry out the great commission. The state, when it is working properly, allows us to live in peace and freedom that we might carry out the Great Commission. The church in her scope is international and eternal.
The state in her scope is national and temporal. And we are to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, and unto God that which is God's.
Now, We need to tell the Democrats and we need to tell the Republicans if they want our vote, they need to understand that we're not going to vote party, we're not going to vote pocketbook, we're not going to vote personality, we're going to vote principle, and we're going to find our principle in the Word of God. And we are here to tell the herods of this world that Herod is not king, that Jesus Christ is king. And while we believe in the separation of church and state, we also believe in the right of every freeborn American to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's. And our Caesar is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Therefore, we will participate, but while we participate, we will belong to Jesus Christ.
And let me say while I'm in the neighborhood that because we believe in our religious freedom and inalienable rights given us by God, we believe in the right to pray in the church, in the home. in the place of business. and also in the public. Schools.
Now you listen to me. I do not believe, and I am against with all of my heart and soul, any kind of a state-written, state-mandated prayer for anybody. I'm against that. But at the same time, I'm in favor for every freeborn American to pray anytime, any place he wants, and not only silently, but vocally. These people say, well, you can pray silently, friend.
You can do that in a Russian concentration camp. We are not to have our freedom of speech abridged. We are here to say we're free to pray, and we are here to say that no one should be coerced or forced to pray. I believe that with all of my heart.
Now, we are to purge out the leaven of Herod, which is licentiousness. And so we're to present the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to present the Lord Jesus Christ, A, in purity, no leaven. B, we're to present. We're to present the Lord Jesus Christ not only in purity, but we are to present the Lord Jesus Christ in integrity.
No honey.
Now what is honey? Honey is excessive. and external sweetness.
Now we have the prophets of the honey god among us. Those who just think That there are no real problems. And if we'll just take enough honey. and just ladle that honey over our problems, they will all go away. These are the prophets of sweetness and light.
They have confectionery convictions. They preach a can be Christ. They preach a religion that does not want to face the facts. They want everything to be sweetened up. These are the people always talking about love, love, love.
Now God is love. Oh, don't miss me. Don't anybody say that I didn't say that God is love. The Bible says that God is love. God is infinite love, inexpressible love, eternal love, unfathomable love.
Thank God for the love of God. He is love. But that's not all of the truth. He's also a God of justice. He's also a God of truth.
And when you say God is love and that's all you say, that's only part of the truth. And when you take part of the truth and make part of the truth, all of the truth, that part of the truth becomes an untruth. Do you understand what I'm saying? If you just simply make part of the truth the total truth, then you get a skewed idea of truth. And you see, God is also a God of justice, He's a God of truth.
Now people say, now don't take a stand for doctrine, just be full of love, be full of love. Yes, be full of love, but what does the Bible say? The Bible says Speak. The truth In love. There's never any competition between truth and love.
Speak the truth in love. There are two dangers. Number one is loveless truth. The other is truthless love. Speak.
The truth in love. You can't just simply take honey and ladle some honey over a situation and say, therefore, everything is all right. We are going to have to face the situation as it is. We have these modern day honey prophets who minimize sin, humanize man, and glorify rebellion against God. A tendency toward universalism that would try to air condition hell and explain away the devil.
Tell us that eventually everybody's going to heaven. We're all un-American if we don't put our arms around everybody else and say your religion is just as good as mine. I've said before, I believe we have some in America if they could vote on it. Without law, hell is cruel and unusual punishment. God's un-American.
He has no right to do that. I want God's people to be together. I believe we ought to be together. But Jesus Did not put the highest priority on unity, though he did put a priority on unity. He said, I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Now you think about it. Jesus not only is the great unifier of those who believe in Him, but He's also the great divider of those who don't believe in Him. He's the one who separates the sheep from the goats. He said, I came to send a sword. I want God's people to be united, but now listen and listen well if you don't hear anything else I say.
I want God's people and the people of this church and the people of our denomination to be united. But listen to me. It is far better that Southern Baptists be divided by truth than be united in error. Understand. We can't just simply take honey.
and ladle honey over everything and say it's all is sweet and all is good. The world has lost its respect for preachers who are preaching a saccharine gospel and a church that's dying of diabetes. There's a time when we present the Lord Jesus Christ number one in purity. And number two, we present the Lord Jesus Christ in integrity as he is, as he is. not just ladle honey over the whole situation.
But last of all, We are to present the Lord Jesus Christ in vitality. Much Salt. Much salt. Salt speaks of the saving life of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And what does salt do?
Jesus said, you're the salt of the earth. He was speaking to fishermen who preserve their fish with salt. For one thing, salt decontaminates. There's a purifying element to salt. It is the salty ocean that bathes the shores of this world, that keeps the earth from decaying and putrefying.
If you took the salt out of the ocean, everything would turn to a stench. It is salt that purifies. And friend, I want to tell you we need the decontamination of that salty gospel in our world today. You think of what has happened in 1963. Public prayer was outlawed in our schools.
In 1973, nine black-robed Supreme Court justices declared the pre-born babies as non-beings. little pre-born Americans. sacrificed on the altar. of convenience. Did you know?
That it is now legal. For a doctor? To kill a baby? in his mother's womb. Just hours?
before that mother gives delivery to that baby? Did you know that's legal? All's necessary is for the mother and the doctor to agree that it might cause some kind of a trauma for that baby to be born. We had a little grandbaby born in our family. Adrian Gentry.
Foster. I got to go into the birthing room. And just minutes after that baby was born, and cradle in my arms that little life. Perfectly sculpted, perfectly formed. And I thought, my God.
A few hours before, in America, a doctor could have been paid money. for killing that child. Don't you understand that's wrong? Don't you understand that that is a sin for which God must surely judge America? Don't you understand, my friend, it's time for the salt to work.
It's time for the salt to work. Salt decontaminates. We live in a society that's seen sodomy go from a sin to a sickness to a socially accepted practice. It's time for the salt to work. You listen to me, folks.
Do you know what's wrong in America? You say it's the media, it's not the media. You say it's Hollywood. No, it is not Hollywood. You say it's the liquor dealers.
No, it is not the liquor dealers. You say it's the pornographers. It is not the pornographers. You say, well, it's the liberals. No, it's not the liberals.
You know what the problem is in America? It is saltless saints. That's where the problem is. That's where the problem is. Folks, the problem is in this auditorium and in auditoriums all around.
Salt that has lost its savor and a world that is rotting. Jesus said, you're to be. the salt of the earth. And not only does salt decontaminates salt activates. It is salt that causes flavor to burst.
alive in your mouth. Ask a little boy what salt is. He says, salt is what tastes bad when you don't have it. Salt brings out flavor. The Bible says in Job 6, 6, can that which is unsavory be eaten without salt?
You see, folks. There ought to be a zest about us. There ought to be a flavor about us. There ought to be a life about us that brings flavor to life. Do you know why many people don't go to Sunday school and why they don't go to churches across America?
They don't want to be bored to tears. Do you know why preachers preach boring sermons? Because the preachers themselves are bored. It's the bland leading the bland. Jesus said, ye are the salt of the earth.
We need a burning, blazing, passionate, emotional love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only does salt decontaminate and not only does salt activate, my dear friend, salt medicates. Salt heels. There's a healing property in salt. And I can show you instances in the Bible where God used salt to heal.
And friend, our world is sick, sick, sick, and what it needs is the antiseptic of the gospel to heal. And to bind up the broken. I wish I had more time to talk about that, but I want to tell you not only to salt and medicate. Salt irritates. Mark 9 verse 49, Jesus said, ye shall be salted with fire.
Salt burns. And you're going to find out that when a preacher of the gospel preaches the salty gospel of Jesus Christ, it will sting, it will burn when the gospel is rubbed into the open and bleeding wounds of society. There are people who do not like the kind of preaching I do. I know that full well. But I can't make myself sick in order to make them well.
I'm going to keep on preaching it. No offense, no effect. People want a saltless gospel. But salt will burn. One man was beaten up by another man.
And um The next scene is in court. And the judge is saying to the man who had been brutally beaten, He said, would you describe your assailant? He said, no, sir, that's what I was doing when he jumped on me. And this world will do the same thing to us when we take this book and describe it. Salt irritates.
It burns. We need to stop trying to win popularity contests. I'll tell you what else, salt does, salt penetrates. You take a pinch of salt and put it in a jug of water, and it permeates all of that jug of water. You know what's wrong with us?
We've not allowed the salt to penetrate. We come to church every Sunday and sit in a big salt cellar and salt the salt. But you don't put the fish in one barrel and the salt in another. Jesus said, ye are the salt of the earth. Not the salt of the church.
But the salt. of the earth. But I want to say And it breaks my heart to say it. But not only does salt penetrate, but salt may dissipate. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 that salt can lose its savor.
It can lose its bite. It can lose its pungency. It can lose its vitality. And Jesus said, when the salt has lost its savor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. The salt in Bible times was extremely valuable, pure salt.
As a matter of fact, it was in some societies more valuable than gold. Men were paid with salt. Have you ever heard the expression, that man's not worth his salt? Our word salary literally means salt money. That's where we get our word salary from.
But they had salt that they would get from the Dead Sea. And they would put it out on the ground, the water would evaporate out, they would take that salt, but in that salt were a number of other minerals. That salt is not as pure as the salt we have today, and left on the ground or left in right conditions, after a while, when the rain would fall on it and so forth, the salt would blanch out. and bleed away, leaving noxious minerals. Salt.
That was not salty. Salt that lost its savor. What could you do with it? If you put it in a well, it would poison the water. If you put it in the field, it would kill the crops.
put it on the food, it would poison the eater. What could you do with it? Just one thing. Put it on the highways. On the highways, it would pack down, absorb moisture, it would kill grass and weeds.
It was a wonderful thing for men to walk on. Jesus said, if salt loses its savor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden underfoot of men. Never before in history, at least in my ministry, have I ever seen Christians held up to more open ridicule than they're held up in this day, in this age in which we live. Isn't that true? The favorite sport today is Christian bashing in the media and everywhere else.
And do you know why? Primarily, dear friend, because of a Society of Saltless Saints. Salt that's lost its savor and is now being trampled and walked underfoot because we have failed to present the Lord Jesus Christ in His. Purity. in his integrity.
and with his vitality. And I want to call you, as brothers and sisters in this church, to say, God helping us. God helping us. We're going to be salty saints. And we're going to preach a salty gospel.
this day and age. in which we live. Father. I pray that you would help me to see if there is salt in my life. Lord, if my life is the kind of a life that decontaminates, that activates, that medicates, that penetrates.
rather than dissipates. Father, I pray for our church. That we might be that kind of a New Testament church. In Jesus' holy name. Amen.
If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org. or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.
