In this message we need to consider how to have Christ increased that we may offer Him in the meeting as so many different offerings. According to Leviticus chapters one, two, and six the first offering among the five basic offerings is the burnt offering. Then comes the meal offering and the peace offering. The last two are the sin offering and the trespass offering. So the sequence in these chapters is firstly the burnt offering, and then lastly the two offerings for sin and the trespass. This is the sequence of the record of all the offerings. But in our experience the burnt offering does not come first. In our experience the first offering is the trespass offering. Following the trespass offering is the sin offering. Then in our experience we have the peace offering. After this we enjoy Christ as our food, as the meal offering. Then we experience the burnt offering. In this message we have to follow the sequence not in the holy record but in our experience. In our experience we enjoy Christ firstly as the trespass offering.
Deuteronomy 12:6 gives us what we call the groceries with which we prepare the offerings for God. It says that you have to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes, and the firstlings of your herds and of your flocks. The tithe here indicates the ten percent of all the produce of the things from the field, including the wheat, the oil, and the wine. Verse 6 does not give us the details; it just gives us the title, the tithes. More details are in Deuteronomy 14:22-23. In those verses we are told that the children of Israel had to tithe all the produce of their seed. That means all the produce of the wheat and the oil and the wine. So those verses give us the details of the tithes of the vegetables.
In Deuteronomy 12:6 there is a clear word concerning the groceries from the animal kingdom—the herds and the flocks. We have to realize that the tithes of the vegetables are not good for burnt offerings or for sin offerings or for trespass offerings. They are only good for the meal offering, for the drink offering, and for a small part of the peace offering. The main part of the peace offering is still of the animal kingdom. In all the offerings the main groceries come from the animal kingdom. The main dishes of the divine feast are cooked with the groceries from the animal kingdom. Then from the vegetable kingdom, the groceries are good for the meal offering, for the last part of the peace offering, and for the drink offering.
For us today Christ is firstly the life of the animal kingdom. This is why John 1:29 speaks of the Lamb of God. This is the life of the animal kingdom. He is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. The groceries from the animal kingdom are more basic than the groceries from the vegetable kingdom. This is why in sequence we cover firstly the animal kingdom and then the vegetable kingdom. We want to cover how to have Christ increased in the kingdom of the animal life. According to our experience this is good firstly for the trespass offering and then for the sin offering. It is also good for the first part, the leading part, of the peace offering. After we finish this, we will go on from the animal kingdom to the vegetable kingdom, to see how Christ is also the vegetable life, good for the last part of the peace offering. He is also good for the entire part of the meal offering and the entire part of the wine offering for God’s satisfaction and our satisfaction too. This is to feed God and to feed ourselves.
According to our experience Christ is firstly our trespass offering and then our sin offering. Even for the real practice of the offerings such as the sanctification of the priests, they firstly had to offer the sin offering. Then they offered the burnt offering. With some of the sin offerings there was nothing to eat for the priest or for the people who offered the offerings. It was altogether burnt with two kinds of burnings. The first burning was the burning on the altar of the fat and the inward parts of the offering for God’s satisfaction to meet God’s requirements. Then the body of the offering was burned, not on the altar, but outside the camp. The burning outside the camp was not a burning to send a sweet odor up to God but a burning of judgment, a burning of abandonment. So mainly what we can enjoy in the trespass offering and the sin offering is just to see the blood. The blood of Christ is shed for us. When we see the blood we have peace. When we see the blood we are released from the condemnation. That is mainly what we can enjoy. That is not for our eating. That is just for a kind of settlement of our problem.
This is somewhat like the way we begin our day. When we rise up in the morning we begin our day by washing. It is so good to begin every day with a shower to get yourself fully washed from head to toe. We also need such a thing in our spiritual life. We have to begin our spiritual life with a shower. How do you take a spiritual shower? By applying the sin offering. Every morning you offer Christ to God as your sin offering. That is like taking a spiritual shower. Don’t think that you are not dirty, that you are quite clean. As long as you are living you need a sin offering to wash your being!