Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] It's good to see everybody today. Today we're going to somewhat. Some would say it's an impossible task to accomplish what we're going to do here.
[00:00:12] Many will start out reading the Bible through in a year program.
[00:00:18] And they get through Genesis and they say, well, that was pretty good.
[00:00:22] I can handle that.
[00:00:24] Then they go on to Exodus, and by the way, this is what you're doing. You're reading the Bible through.
[00:00:29] They go on to Exodus, say, well, that wasn't bad either. A little bit of excitement there.
[00:00:34] And then they reach Leviticus and that's the end of the Read through the Bible program.
[00:00:43] I've been there a few times in my life myself.
[00:00:47] Now, I hope that won't happen to you as you read through Leviticus in the next couple weeks. That's your assigned reading right now.
[00:00:55] And I hope that what we do today I'll be able to help. Give you some help. Give you help. Give you some help actually with.
[00:01:04] As we study it together.
[00:01:07] I've spent almost a year teaching Leviticus in our Sunday school class over in the Trinity Room. Today we entered into the final chapter and I thought, yeah, I think it's great, and we will finish it next week.
[00:01:24] So I thought, what was it? A couple weeks ago, the class wanted to know what we would study the next in line, what will be our next study? And I just told him, I don't think we really got it. So we're going to try it again, go through. And I have the same reaction. Okay, so we want to go into Leviticus.
[00:01:46] I got to give you some introduction here, because if you don't get this Leviticus, you just don't get it. It's a very hard book to understand unless you know what's going on. But actually, if you know what it's about, it's quite easy.
[00:01:59] I'm going to say easy, but it becomes interesting at that point. So at the close of the book of Exodus, which Pastor Duba led last Sunday study, it's recorded that the building of the tabernacle had been completed.
[00:02:16] And he had a really neat picture of the tabernacle there. And God descends on the tabernacle in a cloud.
[00:02:24] And it's called at that point the tent of Meeting.
[00:02:28] And it's called the tent of Meeting because that is where God would meet and speak with men.
[00:02:35] And at this point, one man, that was Moses, and he was not allowed yet to go inside. Now, there are three implications from this. As we move into Leviticus, Israel could now leave Mount Sinai and head towards Canaan. And God would go with them. And they would always know that his presence was with them. It's comforting to know they would have this visual of that from here on the cloud by day, fire by night.
[00:03:05] The second is that Moses would not have to walk or climb up that mountain anymore. And that was, I'm sure he was saying amen to that.
[00:03:14] Mount Sinai. Because they would now meet at the tent of Meeting.
[00:03:20] Now Exodus also closes with the very proper clothing of the priest.
[00:03:28] And it was being created. And it's all detailed out as to what it looked like. And it's like the priests were there.
[00:03:36] And I can imagine them saying, well, we got these pretty new clothes.
[00:03:41] We got the, we're dressed right, we got the building, we got the place. Now what in the world are we supposed to do?
[00:03:49] Because they didn't know it all had to be dictated to them from God. And that's why Moses goes to the entrance of the tent of Meeting. He doesn't go inside, just to the entrance and talks with God.
[00:04:03] And God dictated to Moses at that point in that place, an instruction manual for the priest.
[00:04:12] And you find it changing here and there, not really changing additions to it, like that's why you have. It seems like something's being repeated twice. Well, the priest just didn't get it.
[00:04:22] Or they had questions, what about this? What about that? And Moses said, okay, I'll go ask God.
[00:04:28] So he'd go and talk to God. It's interesting.
[00:04:32] He gave it to Moses.
[00:04:35] Moses shared with Aaron, his brother, who was the high priest, and four other priests.
[00:04:42] The priests were very small group. They only is Aaron and his four sons. Later on that expanded. But at this point. And what happens to two of them before they leave Sinai?
[00:04:53] They're dead.
[00:04:55] God kills them because they didn't do it right.
[00:04:58] They didn't follow the manual, and they wish they had, I'm sure.
[00:05:03] So we have this at least 38 times in Leviticus we read and the Lord spoke to Moses 38 times. There's only 27 chapters. Okay, 38 times. And what Moses wrote down is, is called Leviticus.
[00:05:25] A priest never had to wonder what he was supposed to do.
[00:05:29] And he did not need to create something and make it up. And when they tried, terrible, disastrous things happened.
[00:05:36] And all the instructions are given in this handbook that we have here. And it's called basically Leviticus. Now the entire book of Leviticus is stating in, in the.
[00:05:48] In 2734.
[00:05:51] And it says these are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the Sons of Israel out at Mount Sinai. So let me give you a little bit more information about Leviticus. It was never really directly intended for us.
[00:06:08] You notice I said directly it was written in the 15th century BC and God wrote it to the Jews in particularly a small group. Most of it they were called the priests who had been appointed by God.
[00:06:26] And the title in Hebrews means of or pertaining to the Levites. You hear that? Leviticus. Levite. It's in there.
[00:06:35] And Levi was one of the twelve tribes of Israel which Moses and his brother Aaron were part of.
[00:06:43] However, it's strange that in the book of Leviticus very little is said about talked about Levites.
[00:06:49] You don't even. The term is rarely used. As a matter of fact it only appears four times in the entire book of Leviticus and that's only in two verses. And that's where it's talking about well the Levi's land purchase. That's it. So it's not really written to the. How it got the title, I don't know. Did you know that the another, the later rabbis they renamed it and called it the book of the Priest because that's what it's really about and who they're written to.
[00:07:23] So we have here that you may have heard it said and you've heard this statement before that all priests are Levites but not all Levites are priests.
[00:07:36] Now you think about it, you want to hear it again?
[00:07:39] All priests are Levites but not all Levites are priests. That's because priests could only be descended from who Aaron the brother of Moses and who was from.
[00:07:53] And they also had to be from the tribe of Levi.
[00:07:56] Aaron was from the tribe of Levi.
[00:07:59] So God started with only five priests, Aaron and his four sons. And by the time they left Sinai it was Aaron and his two sons because two had been killed by God because they did not take their job seriously and they disobeyed God in front of the people. That's in chapter 10.
[00:08:19] So we're going to look here at the basics in your outline in your bulletin. And first of all, the author would be who?
[00:08:28] God through Moses. Moses was. It was dictated to Moses. Moses wrote it down. That's not really debated that much anymore. And the timeline here would be about 1446 B.C. and that's the same timeline as the Exodus took place. We're not much longer after that time frame and I accept that. If you want to know why, give me a call and I can give you the request run through in the scriptures. It's a biblical Formula you have, the location is Mount Sinai. Don't need to show you where that's at. Pastor Duba did that very clearly showed you maps, and I don't have any maps, so it's really clear. So we need not go there.
[00:09:11] But there at Sinai, God gave Israel three things.
[00:09:16] First of all, he gave them the law of God.
[00:09:20] To Moses, he gave them his word.
[00:09:25] It's a blueprint for a.
[00:09:29] He gave them a blueprint for a place to worship. It was called a tabernacle. Very clearly laid out in Exodus as to how that was to be accomplished. It was in this tent of meeting. It's another name for the tabernacle, because that's where they met. That God met with his people through Moses and Aaron and the priest.
[00:09:47] And there also instructions were given for how the Israelites were to worship their God. They didn't know how.
[00:09:56] They had been stuck in Egypt all those years, and nobody ever told them how to worship their God. They had all these false gods.
[00:10:05] They had all these false gods. Egypt had a God for everything.
[00:10:09] And they were confused about this. So now it's being very clear, and that's why it's so very detailed, as you see in Leviticus. Now, it's important also to note that Leviticus and the New Testament book of Hebrews are very closely linked. And I will be referring in the next few minutes to Hebrews a lot.
[00:10:31] If you do not study Leviticus, you don't really understand Hebrews.
[00:10:37] And if you do not study Hebrews, you don't know much about Leviticus. So if you want a better understanding of Leviticus, you've got to refer to Hebrews, because that's the New Testament commentary written primarily to Jews who had been dispersed around the world and they Jewish Christians, that is Jews who had claimed the one true God found through Jesus Christ. And now they're learning as well. And they had been stuck in Leviticus most of their life, and now they're saying, what about Leviticus? And Hebrews comes back and says, this is where Jesus comes in.
[00:11:16] So it's important to understand that. Now the outline, we can go directly into that.
[00:11:22] I think we have the first. Yeah, the first. Next slide. The outline is pretty clear what I've done. I've taken a lot of this from a pastor, another pastor.
[00:11:33] I don't want to be accused of taking something that's not mine, but I reworded it a lot. That's what all pastors do.
[00:11:42] Nothing new is ever preached. It's been preached. Even though you say, wow, I got this idea. Then you look back 100 years, somebody already had it. And this pastor is Juan Sanchez in Austin, Texas Little Baptist Church. A Baptist church. And his outline is broken down into five statements showing the five divisions of the book. Now, the first seven chapters of Leviticus compose the first understanding and first thought. And you see what it does, it helps us to understand the grace of God and the cost of our sin. And this deals again with chapters one through seven. And what chapters one through seven does, it spells out in detail a series of sacrifices.
[00:12:26] And those sacrifices that God required of the people.
[00:12:30] And he gave it to them. And it was required because if they wanted their sin to be forgiven or covered over, at least for the time being, so judgment would not come upon them then and there.
[00:12:42] And to have and maintain a fellowship and a relationship with God, these sacrifices need to take place. And why are these sacrifices there? It doesn't give us the why.
[00:12:55] Why did God want it this way?
[00:12:57] Only that it looked forward to the greater sacrifice that would be coming in the future. And that was the sacrifice of Jesus Christ when he went to the cross. And until then, they sacrificed animals. So we look at chapter one, and it talks there about the burnt offering. The burnt offering was taken from a herd or a flock, meaning cattle or sheep or goats. And an animal is chosen to represent the person who had sinned.
[00:13:23] And it had to be clean, it had to be healthy, it had to be spotless.
[00:13:28] Hard to find that type of an animal, but they did. And the person would lay his hands on the head of that animal. And it doesn't say what he said or what he did, but the idea is that he was somehow transferring in his mind and thought, saying, sorry, animal, but my sin's coming upon you, and. And you're gonna have to die. Then the person himself, in the beginning killed these. Later on, priests did the slaughter of the animals, but the person would put that lamb or whatever, sheep or goat to death in a prescribed manner. It's very clear.
[00:14:05] The blood would be distributed at the proper locations around the altar that had been dedicated to God. And then the body would be totally consumed in fire and smoke.
[00:14:17] Why?
[00:14:18] It was reminder or a shadow or a type or even a symbol I look upon. I like the word shadow.
[00:14:27] Like, I don't know if I got a shadow. Yeah, my shadow's there. I am, but that's not me.
[00:14:35] Okay, but what is conveying that shadow is me.
[00:14:39] So this is the same thing you have when the Bible talks about.
[00:14:44] Scholars talk about type and antitype. The Type is the shadow. The antitype is the reality. Jesus is the reality of these shadows, of these animals being sacrificed and their blood being shed. And it was all preparing the people for what would happen in the future for them. That is the coming of the one Redeemer, whose name is Jesus. And no human could offer themselves because no one was without sin.
[00:15:14] That's why an animal was chosen to die instead of the person. That's why his hands were laid on the head of the animal as if to say, you received my sin to bear it for me, because there's no human available and I cannot bear it myself. And by faith, they were looking forward.
[00:15:30] And they believed that God would someday in the future send one who would be able to bear their sin. They looked forward to a Redeemer to come. And he's the same one that we look back at with faith and proclaim, he has come.
[00:15:47] His name is Jesus.
[00:15:50] We need to know and remember that.
[00:15:54] First Peter 1:18, 19. I'm going to read these verses. I'm not going to put them on the screen. There's too many, and I'm not that good at doing that sort of thing. So first Peter 1:18 and 19 says this. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold and you could even say animals, that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. That's why John the Baptist, he saw his cousin Jesus coming towards him. He knew who Jesus was. Probably been on several family functions, potlucks and things like that.
[00:16:35] And he knew him. They probably played together. And yet one day it just dawned on him.
[00:16:41] Wow.
[00:16:42] He saw Jesus come and said, behold the Lamb of God.
[00:16:49] Now that had to shake him up. And it did.
[00:16:53] And he said, he takes away the sin of the world. And he was seeing in this one that he knew the one who could make a difference. So one of the purposes then of the burnt offering, you know, they'd burn it afterwards, it says, was to offer a pleasing or sweet aroma to God.
[00:17:09] And Paul says in the New Testament, in Ephesians 5:2, Ephesians 5:2, that Christ loved us and gave loved us and gave himself up for us as an offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant, sweet aroma. Now, Jesus wasn't burned like the animal was.
[00:17:33] The connection there, they'd have to explain that. I don't know it, but what he did on the cross, God Says, I'm pleased with that. It's what I desired. Now, chapter two, by the way, I'm gonna move real quick through these things. If you have questions or disagreements, don't blurt them out here. Please give me a call, give me an email and I will be happy to talk about these things with you in detail.
[00:18:00] You may get bored with the detail, but I'll be happy to do it. So don't leave disgusted or frustrated. Now, chapter two describes the details of the grain offering that was offered or the meal offering. This was an offering to give thanks to God. It was a sacrifice of the first fruits of the harvest in thanksgiving. Looking forward to more to come from God. And then chapter three details the peace offering.
[00:18:26] It appears to have been a joyous occasion which celebrated this joyous communion and relationship and fellowship between God and man. And they celebrated this through a sacrifice. Chapter 4 and 5 details the sin offering and guilt offerings. And these chapters and offerings remind us that all people sin.
[00:18:47] I thought this was significant in these chapters because even the priests sinned.
[00:18:54] They needed a sacrifice too. Everyone sins. That reinforces what Paul says, for all have sinned in Romans, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All he is doing is reinforcing what was taught in the book of Leviticus. Sin does not distinguish between class or, or race or wealth.
[00:19:15] It also reminds us that sin needs to be dealt with and God has done that.
[00:19:21] The New Testament book of Hebrews again, chapter 9, verse 22, 9, 22. It summarizes the purpose of the sin offering. It says, all things are cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
[00:19:37] In chapter 5, verse 17 of Leviticus, that's it says now if a person sins and does any of the things which the Lord has commanded not to be done, though he was even unaware of the sin, it may have been a mistake, it may have been an accident. And yet later on he says, man, I wish I wouldn't have done that.
[00:19:59] You ever done that?
[00:20:01] You taken a wrong action? You say, why didn't I listen?
[00:20:06] Oh, he says, you're guilty.
[00:20:08] And she is still guilty and shall bear his punishment. Now chapters six and seven are just more details that emphasize again that everybody sins. Even the priests need an answer for their sin. And before they could go through the process of aiding in the sacrifices for others, they had to understand that they needed to take care of their own sin first.
[00:20:32] They could not help others.
[00:20:34] It wasn't right. Give you one more scripture here. Hebrews, chapter 10 verses 11 through 14 says, Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins covered, but not take away He.
[00:20:55] But he having offered one sacrifice to for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God. Meaning it was completely done and finished. And he was waiting from that time forward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. The coming return of Christ.
[00:21:12] For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.
[00:21:19] One time Jesus came. He came for all people. He made the sacrifice to cover us all and he'll never do it again.
[00:21:28] We're all under the same sacrifice. I don't have to go out and find me a lamb somewhere.
[00:21:34] I don't know what that would be like. But Christ, in His perfect nature, he offered the once and for all sin offering to God. And he came as the spotless lamb. He took away the sin of the world. And once he came, he never had to come again for that. He came once as a savior, as a sacrifice for our sin. When he comes again, he's coming in judgment, okay? He's not coming to save us again. That's been done.
[00:22:02] I was.
[00:22:03] This is kind of complicated. I know. I was at a beach ministry. Believe it or not, I was age 19 once.
[00:22:10] I had hair, muscular.
[00:22:14] I went to the beach. At a beach ministry in Orlando? No, it was Daytona Beach, Florida. When I was 19, I just started studying a lot more in the Bible. And the idea there on the beach, mess. We were trained. Then we'd go out two by twos and talk to people on the beach. Biggest mistake I ever made in my life. The beach is not the place to go and talk about Jesus. But we did.
[00:22:37] But anyhow, I went and in our training, we were gathered in small groups and we were told, now you need to share your testimony of how a person can be saved. If you. In three minutes I said, wow. I'd just been studying Leviticus a little bit. And so I went through and it was my turn. I said, now here's what happened. Man was sinful. And God first provided sacrifice for sins through sacrifices on altars in the tabernacle. And I was explaining this whole thing. Everybody's just staring at me.
[00:23:08] And I said, finally I was interrupted. He said, your time's up. And I said, okay. And apparently I learned that it should be. It's not intended to be complicated. Leviticus is complicated. The message of Jesus Christ is not.
[00:23:25] You don't have to go through all those Rules, those regulations.
[00:23:31] You just trust that what Jesus did was right and permanent and perfect.
[00:23:38] No more sacrifices. That's why God simplified it for us in the New Testament.
[00:23:44] No more sacrifices. There's no more priests as a mediator. We're all priests now. We all have the way to God.
[00:23:52] I talked with a guy this week about that who had a tough time. He's scratching his head on that one.
[00:23:58] No more tabernacle or altar.
[00:24:02] There's no more blood.
[00:24:04] No more shedding of blood. No more.
[00:24:08] Because it's all accomplished in Jesus.
[00:24:12] Now. All these are unnecessary because of Jesus. Work on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension. Better get to point B. I don't know how far we're going to get, but I'm going to let you out on time. Don't worry.
[00:24:23] I know that there's a certain sports event today.
[00:24:32] Some of you may have plans for a party or something, I don't know. So you say, man, when's he gonna let me out? The game is at what, 3, 30 or something like that? Who cares? But we will get out. Now, if you go to the point B.
[00:24:45] And that's. It reveals God's grace in providing a mediator. And that's from chapters 8, 10.
[00:24:56] Now, the information about priests is given here in these chapters. He tells him what to wear, where to live, how to conduct their lives, where to be where and what they were to do when they got there, and to do everything they did, right down to the details of even how they cleansed themselves, their own personal hygiene to the letter.
[00:25:22] So that's because the mediator was going to be a very special. A mediator is a person who makes the link between God and man. And that's what the priests would do. They were intermediaries. They mediated between the sinful person and the lamb that was slaughtered. And when they went into the presence of God later on, they would spread the blood and it was at certain locations and points.
[00:25:47] Get to the day. Atonement in a minute. But the idea was they were the ones that did it for you.
[00:25:53] Now, we're going to see here that they had to conduct their lives in a very special way. Chapter 8 describes the ordination of the priesthood. If you want to see how that works, go ahead and read it. You will. Chapter nine records the first sacrifices made by Aaron. He was the guy. I can imagine Aaron, he. He's got all the. He's reading his manual, says, I'm supposed to do this. And Moses says, come on, Aaron, let's do it together.
[00:26:20] And we see that happening, and he goes through. And finally success.
[00:26:24] He accomplished it. Chapter 10. We learn, though, what happens when the priests don't do what they're supposed to do and they don't obey the words and instructions of God. The first attempts did not go well for those sons of Aaron. Two of them, Nadab and Abihu, they. This is one of them.
[00:26:46] By the way, in Leviticus, there are only two, what is called narrative passages. That means actual story.
[00:26:54] So if you want to read a story about what happens, actual events, you have two, and this is one of them.
[00:27:00] So it's in verses 10, chapter 10, verses 1 through 3. And they attempted to offer a sacrifice without obeying the rules. We don't know exactly what they did wrong. The inference there is that they got drunk first and then they got fire from the wrong place. They went inside where they probably wasn't supposed to go, and they got it all wrong. And God sent fire from inside and consumed them.
[00:27:25] Said, you can't do that.
[00:27:28] Just follow the instructions.
[00:27:31] In Hebrews 7:2128, we learn that Jesus, on the other hand, is the perfect, eternal, sinless, obedient mediator for all the people.
[00:27:45] And I'll advise you to read that one yourself. That's a lot of verses. But Hebrews 4:14, it summarizes this. We're saying a high priest like those guys is no longer needed because Jesus now serves in that role for us. We don't have to trust another human being to do it right.
[00:28:08] I don't have to make my confession to another human being to get it right. Now, some of you were raised on that, and it was harder for you to break through on that. But this is what the Bible says. Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we possess.
[00:28:31] Jesus is our high priest today. We don't have to worry about who does it right. He did it right.
[00:28:38] It's accomplished. It's completed. Now, third thing. See, let's go to the next outline. Might have something there, a picture or two. I don't know. You don't have to go to that. That's those costumes that they had.
[00:28:51] You can see costumes. They. The dress that God wanted them to wear. The one in the blue is the high priest. The one in the white would be the priest. And I could again, I could see them saying, well, boy, this is really neat.
[00:29:05] I got this wonderful attire on.
[00:29:07] And then what am I supposed to do? And then they took advantage of that. And said we can do what we want to do.
[00:29:15] And that wasn't going to work. Go to the next one. God requires something. And Leviticus explains what God requires in worship. And you find that in chapters 11 through 15. And I'll move quickly through this. In these chapters, we move away from tabernacle to everyday life of the individual. It's talking about the personal lives of people and the priest as well. Chapter 11 deals with the issue of separation between clean and unclean foods, those which may be eaten and those which may not.
[00:29:50] Again, these are rules for the Israelites at this time frame. And I don't abide by these rules, and I don't know anybody that does totally. Chapter 12 deals with cleanliness following childbirth.
[00:30:06] I don't worry about that. And chapter 13 and 14 is long discussion of infections and skin diseases of which I would have been guilty of and would have had to offer a sacrifice and go to the priest and be checked out every now and then. Many times in my life now I go to a dermatologist, they cut it off and it's done, okay?
[00:30:32] Oh, what can I say?
[00:30:35] And we learn in these chapters that the priests were also the closest thing to a doctor that was available in those days. And you'll see where they treated the patients. I mean, the people who were confession. And they'd say, oh, well, go, take, do this, do that, come back in two weeks. That's basically it. Hebrews 19, 9, 13, 14 is a good passage, and it says this. For the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh.
[00:31:07] How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. See, this is what worship is all about.
[00:31:24] You may be clean and look good outwardly, but God is not concerned about that.
[00:31:32] He's concerned with what you like inwardly. He knows you. He knows your conscience better than you know yourself. He gave us a conscience.
[00:31:40] And now we see that worship here is intended to impact your life with positive change in a more godly direction. We cannot go into worship, just go through the motions and expect to please God. God knows the level of our inner sincerity and worship is both inward and it's outward. One without the other is useless. So worship takes preparation. First Peter 1, 14, 16 says, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust which was yours in your ignorance. But like the Holy one, who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior. Because it is written, and this is taken From Leviticus, chapter 11, you shall be holy, for I am holy. Now what are we getting out of that?
[00:32:33] We know that in Romans 12:1 2. It's a good way to summarize this part of the passage. Here he says, therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service. Of what worship?
[00:32:57] So what he's talking about and present, the sacrifice that the people was making was preparing them to have a true worship experience with God. And he's carrying this now into our lives and saying, when we present ourselves not as dead sacrifices, but as living sacrifices, meaning we are acceptable to God. And how are we acceptable to God? Through Jesus Christ. Which is your spiritual service? We serve God and worship him by making ourselves available to him as a sacrifice.
[00:33:33] And don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is. It's good.
[00:33:43] It's acceptable. It's perfect. Okay, go to D. The last. The next to the last one. Leviticus looks forward to forgiveness of sin and one sacrifice, and that would be through Jesus Christ.
[00:33:58] Chapter 16 and 17.
[00:34:00] This is the climax of the book of Leviticus.
[00:34:07] Starts to say the book of the priests, but the book of Leviticus, it's describing in these two chapters the day of atonement.
[00:34:15] Once a year, an offering of blood would be made by the high priest for the whole nation, just to catch all those sins they may have missed.
[00:34:28] And sacrifices were made to cleanse the temple, then to atone for the sins of the high priest first, then the people.
[00:34:38] And a scapegoat is described. There a goat was just.
[00:34:42] It's talking about, there's a goat who is guilty and another one who escapes, two goats. And they would sacrifice the one goat for the sins of the individual who laid his hands on it.
[00:34:54] And the other goat, he'd lay his hands. The priest would lay his hands on that goat and he'd turn him loose in the wilderness and he'd go out where nobody would ever find him. And as if to say, your sins, you're forgiven.
[00:35:07] This is a visual that you are forgiven of your sins. So anyhow, a scapegoat was presented as a substitute upon which the sins of the people were symbolically laid. And this scapegoat was then released outside the camp, picturing the departure of Israel's. Sin. Now, God's view of blood is in 1711, where he says, for the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.
[00:35:41] All looking forward to the blood that would ultimately be shed for all of us, no matter where we are, no matter who we are, no matter what we've done.
[00:35:55] And that was the blood of Jesus Christ.
[00:35:58] But even the day of atonement had its limitations. In Hebrews 9, listen to this. Verses 11 through 12 When Christ, it says, but it's talking about the day of atonement, but it says, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. That is to say, he entered through the heavens, is what he said.
[00:36:24] Not of this creation and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood. He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption, never to be done again. It's done. Well, anyhow, let's move to the final point.
[00:36:44] Chapter 18 through 26. Big gap. Not gonna read all those.
[00:36:48] But it details how God's people are to be holy as God is holy.
[00:36:55] Chapters 18 through 20 reminds us that we should not be like. Reminded them that they should not be like the nations around. They should have the moral purity and they should not do those things that the nations did. They were different.
[00:37:09] 21 and 22. The spiritual leaders are not excluded. It talks about the obedience of the priests, as you need to do it too. And just because you're a preacher or a pastor doesn't mean you're excluded from what everybody else is supposed to not be doing and what they should be doing. We all need to call upon our holy God through Jesus Christ and claim the forgiveness of sin. It's 26.
[00:37:33] It gives curses for those who obey well, 23 through 26. These are the promises for those who pursue holiness.
[00:37:45] And then curses for those who do not pursue holiness.
[00:37:49] And it's saying there that God's forgiveness and mercy is for all who repent of their sins. We find that in 26 and the end of chapter 26. We covered that today in Sunday school. And forgiveness is found only through Jesus Christ. I'm going to read something I read today in Sunday school. By the way, if you want a good book for a commentary on Leviticus, I recommend John Currid.
[00:38:16] He's been a pastor. He's a teacher, scholar. He has five different commentaries on the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. I think his Leviticus is excellent, but he also gives application at the end. And in this close of today, he's talking about repentance and restoration and forgiveness. Listen to what he says.
[00:38:38] He closes by saying, what a wonderful message for any person.
[00:38:42] No matter what sin one may have been involved in, no matter how desperate one is, no matter how disobedient one has been, there is yet hope of restoration through God's forgiveness.
[00:38:59] But the only hope of such forgiveness is by the blood of Jesus Christ, which cleanses his people from sin. And he offers a poem, author unknown.
[00:39:09] As far as the east is removed from the west, My sins are remembered no more.
[00:39:15] Forever my soul is at perfect rest. My sins are remembered no more. Forgiven, forgotten, all cleansed in the blood. My sins are remembered no more.
[00:39:27] Atoned for by Jesus in Calvary's flood.
[00:39:31] My sins are remembered no more.
[00:39:35] First Peter, in chapter nine, we'll close with this verse.
[00:39:40] It's commenting on, well, chapter 27. If you want to know about tithing and all that. These are additional. It's called an appendix. It's an additional thought. Oh, by the way, we need to support the tabernacle, and they're telling them how to do that with their life and tithes and offerings. By the way, if you try to get out of it, they add 20% to it. So, interesting stuff.
[00:40:06] First Peter 2, 9, 12. Listen to this. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. For once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God. You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers, to abstain from fleshly lust which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of their visitation. Now that last be a good example to others.
[00:41:03] And there's a reason for that. It says, the day of visitation. Let me explain that what I think it is.
[00:41:09] There is a time when you are more prone and more open to listen to the word of God than at other times.
[00:41:18] I found that the beach was not the right time.
[00:41:22] People were not open or prone to hear about their Sin.
[00:41:27] And God, the Holy Spirit during that time is very active in others around you and is softening your heart to make you more susceptible. And the circumstances are working as well. God is bringing all these things together.
[00:41:46] And God visits you at times like that and specific times and in various ways. I think that's the day of invitation.
[00:41:55] I think you being here today, for many of you, it's part of God's day of invitation to you to hear about Jesus in a very different way. Maybe so. The day he wants you to believe and he goes out of his way through the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and everything happening in your life at that point. To say, man, now or never, you gotta do it.
[00:42:21] That's why you're being exposed to light more so than at any other time in your life. And the gospel is presented to you, and many of you have been there. You know what I'm talking about, and you believed, and many of you are here now, and you're wondering, what do I do?
[00:42:38] Well, listen to the word of God again. I'm going to Romans, chapter 10, verses 9 through 13.
[00:42:47] And I think this is pretty much what this is talking about.
[00:42:50] If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
[00:42:59] So you say. I believe.
[00:43:02] I've heard it all. I'm open to it.
[00:43:04] Wow.
[00:43:06] I know this is right for me. Oh, God, come into my life, save me through Jesus Christ and what he did for me on the cross. Says, for with the heart, inwardly a person believes, resulting in righteousness with God. You don't hear anything about sacrifice of animals, do you?
[00:43:23] It's Jesus.
[00:43:25] And with the mouth he confesses, resulting in his salvation. So inwardly and outwardly, you're changed. And now you're not afraid to talk about Jesus anymore. And it says, the scripture says whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. There's no distinction between Jew and Greek same. Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. And then finally, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
[00:43:50] When do you do it?
[00:43:52] Now.
[00:43:53] Now is the appointed time. We're gonna have a song of closing.
[00:44:01] And Pastor Duba will be here. I'll be here. Les, you around? If you want to find a spot, there's some people at the door. Where? The lanyards. They'll be there too, to help you and pray. And as we close this service, if you've never confessed Jesus to anybody that he is your Lord and Savior, I think that God, this may be your time of visitation.
[00:44:25] The question is, will you believe it and accept it? Will you take your stand for Christ and you can come up and just say, I need to pray if need to receive Christ, and I also need to confess Christ to you. And you might want to tell the person you're talking to say, would you mind announcing that to the people that I have confessed Christ?
[00:44:46] Lord, bless us.
[00:44:50] We've saw the old, we've read about and experienced the new, and we're thankful that the old is dead and the new has come in. Christ, help us not to cling to the old in any form, not to wait any longer, but to respond to the day of your invitation.
[00:45:14] And praise be unto you, O God, for Jesus, who makes it all possible. It's in his name we pray. Amen.
