Leviticus

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So I have a question for you as we begin our review of Leviticus.
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The question is, do we really care about what this book teaches?
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I know we should care, but do we care? How many of you actually read this book recently?
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It's got a lot of details, a lot of details. This week as I was reading through it,
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I was thinking, this is law after law after law after law after law. And most of these laws don't apply to us.
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They apply to another people. It applies to the people of Israel. So the question you're asking yourself is, you know,
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I know this is relevant. This is crucial. It's inspired. Pastor Steve talked this morning, you know, it's not just the red letters.
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It's every single word in the Bible is given for our instruction. And the question for us is, what is it that we ought to take away from this book?
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How ought we to look at it as believers who are not Israelites, who are not in that time period, yet we get to see something crucial that God was delivering to his people 3 ,000 years ago, plus 3 ,000 plus years ago.
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And even today, this communicates that truth. And the question is, what is that truth? My goal this evening is to give you a layout of the book of Leviticus.
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So when you go from here, you should be able to see, ah, I see how this book breaks down. So when
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I study this book, I know where to go to look forward. But also, I hope the theme of the book comes through.
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The theme of the book is we have a holy God. And there is only one way to approach him in order to be holy as God himself is holy.
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So we're going to unpack all of that. And while we are doing that, we're going to see Christ is central.
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One of you asked me this evening, where is Christ in Leviticus? He's everywhere. Every single chapter has something to communicate about the holiness of Christ, of the perfect man who has alone fulfilled all of the law that is required for us in order to meet with God.
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So if you want to think of the grand narrative, we've seen Genesis and Exodus. We've seen some of the ways it lays out. We have this theme of redemption that runs from all the way from Genesis to Exodus.
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In Genesis chapter three, you have a promise given to Adam. The seed of the woman shall rescue.
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You have a redemption happening in Noah's time. You have the calling of Abraham and the promise that is given to him that through him, all the nations shall be blessed, pointing to the savior who will come eventually in the line of Abraham.
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And then you get to see Abraham, who has no child, have a family. And then we saw a nation that comes out of it.
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And so that nation has just come out of Egypt and is now going toward the promised land when we have this book of Leviticus.
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Last time I said, in Exodus, we see God bring
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Israel out of Egypt. And in Leviticus, we see God take Egypt out of Israel.
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So there is a heart that needs to be transformed. And God is sanctifying and purifying and making them holy just as he is holy.
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So that's the goal of Leviticus. Now, before I continue further, let me pray.
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Our loving and gracious father, we thank you for this wonderful book. And even as I speak, and even as we meditate,
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I pray that you would be pleased and you would direct my words and our thoughts for your glory.
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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. So a good way to look at this book is if you look at the end of Exodus, turn to the end of Exodus, and you will see in Exodus chapter 40, verse 34, the tabernacle has been built.
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You remember, how does Exodus break down? You have the 10 commandments. You have the 10 plagues, the 10 commandments, and the 10 articles of the tabernacle, three main themes.
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And right at the very end in verse 34, the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
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God is dwelling among his people. But listen carefully in verse 35, Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because of the cloud settled on it and the glory of the
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Lord filled the tabernacle. There is something that even as God dwells there, Moses is unable to have that union or communion with God.
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In fact, in the beginning of Leviticus, what do you see? The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting.
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And the idea that you want to have is, God is there in the holy of holies and Moses is outside, and God is speaking to him from inside to outside.
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And the entire book is this communication of what God is talking to him about the holiness of God and how to make these people holy so that they can actually have that communion with him.
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And so if you just turn to the end of Leviticus, the first chapter of Numbers, you get to see something very interesting.
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Just as how Leviticus begins, Numbers begins in a similar way. But it says there, the
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Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting on the first day.
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You have this idea, the picture of God speaking to Moses from inside the tent to Moses who is outside.
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And then there are things that are set up so that the Israelites not only understand the holiness of God, but there is a way to prepare the people to be holy, to commune with them.
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And then at the end of Leviticus, in the beginning of Numbers, you get to see that there is Moses in the tent speaking with God.
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There is something that is just, I think you want to see what Leviticus accomplishes is it brings holiness to the people of God.
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It separates them from their sin and brings forth a unity, a union with God in holiness.
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Some of the verses that I want you to be thinking of is in chapter 19, verse 2, there is a verse that says, be holy for I am holy.
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This is the verse we think of, but this is a theme that is repeated throughout the book of Leviticus.
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And one of the things God says here is, I am the Lord your God. If you are to worship me, 50 times in this book,
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I am the Lord your God. This is why you are called to this life of holiness because I am holy and you are to be holy in order to have communion with me.
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Now, what does holy mean? Without getting too detailed, the root of that word is separation.
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God is actually different from everything in this world because he is the creator. He is not a part of this creation.
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He is different. In that sense, he is the other. He is totally different from all that we see, but he is also separated from sin and evil and death.
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There are ways in which God is so radically removed from all the things that we are so used to. And so when we think of God, he is the righteous
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God. He is one who never sins. And in addition to this negative aspect of what he is not, there is also a positive sense in which he is devoted to his glory.
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It's not like he doesn't care about his glory and his holiness. He deeply cares about it.
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And he wants to communicate that goodness with his people who are not in that state. And he is going to bring them up to a place where they can see him as a glorious God.
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They can commune with him with a holiness that is required. And I think the verse you want to be thinking of as we get into the text is
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Hebrews 12, 14. Without holiness, no one will see the
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Lord. And that's the state that the book of Leviticus begins in. And toward the end, you get to see how
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God brings about this communion with his people through the laws that he provides to sanctify his people.
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So with that, let me give you an outline. If you want to think of how the book of Leviticus breaks down. But before that,
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Genesis, more than 2000 years of time. Exodus, more than 80 years of time.
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Leviticus, we kind of shrink it down. It's probably like a month or 40 days at most that we're talking about.
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It's a very narrow period of time where God gives us laws and some things are happening. But the rest of the books, we went through it as a narrative from beginning to end.
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But I think a better way to look at Leviticus is it's structured in a very unique way.
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It's what we call a chiasm. There is a symmetry in the way in which the book is laid out.
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So what I'd like you to do is just open to chapter 16 of Leviticus. And that 16 and 17, if you want to think of a triangle, it's like that peak, it's a peak of the mountain.
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That's a central theme of the book. And it's a day of atonement. We're going to look at the day of atonement.
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And that's the center. And there is something that's leading up to it and something else that comes down from it. But if you want to think of a triangle and draw like three lines, the three lines that you would see, which are on either side of the mountain, leading up and coming down, would be the first one is purity.
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God is communicating the laws about ritual purity as you lead up. So if you look at chapters 11 to 15 before the day of atonement, you get to see what does it mean to be clean?
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What does it mean to be unclean? What is this ritual cleanliness that is needed before you can have communion with God?
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We're going to want to remember this very carefully. Unclean is not necessarily sinful.
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It just means that if you are unclean ritually, you cannot approach
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God in the tabernacle to worship. So there are certain conditions in which you need to meet and before you can come and offer your sacrifices or you participate in some feast.
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And uncleanness is something that happens in... I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, but I'll finish the sentence.
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So uncleanness is something that happens in everyday life. And you want to be thinking in all the aspects of your everyday life of the holiness of God.
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If certain things happen, if I do certain things, then I'm unclean and I need to be purified before I can go into the temple.
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So when you think of purity, the first aspect on this side, you get to see ritual cleanliness and purity.
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And on the other side, from chapters 18 to 20, you get to see the moral purity. You get to see what it means to be sexually pure.
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What does it mean to be charitable? So we get to see a different kind of purity on the side. So that's the first thing, first rung, if you will, of the ladder on either side of the
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Day of Atonement. If you come one rung down on these two sides, you get to see the priests. We get to see the ordination of priests going up in chapters eight to 10.
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And then on the other side, we see the qualification of the priests in chapters 21 to 22. So priests are the ones who actually do the sacrifices, which we're going to see next.
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They are the ones who mediate between the people, the common people of Israel and this thrice holy
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God. So there are certain conditions for the priests, and we're going to see what those conditions are. And then if you go all the way down to the last rung, we get to see sacrifices and festivals.
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So the way I like to think of it is practice. There are some sacrifices and offerings, chapters one to seven, that we're going to begin with.
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And then you get to see on this side, the festivals, the ways in which you want to be worshipping
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God on certain days that are designated to remember, and we'll see why that is given. So if you want to think of the rung again, right in the middle, chapters 16 to 17, you have
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Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. And then you have the purity on either side, the ritual and the moral.
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Then you have the priests, how they are ordained, what are the conditions, why these are given, and what are their qualifications.
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And then finally, we're going to see the sacrifices and offering and the festivals. But then to wrap all this up, you have at the very end in chapters 26 and 27, there is the affirmation of this law.
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And this will give you a strong sense of what the Mosaic law is. What does it mean to have a conditional covenant?
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And how are the blessings and the curses given to the people of God in obeying these laws or disobeying these laws?
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So those are the things I'd like you to keep in mind. So outline, center is the Day of Atonement, and you have the purity, the priests, and the practice.
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So that's one way to remember this book. Now, with that said, we're going to begin with the bottom up.
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So I'm going to start by looking at the first seven chapters and its counterpart on the other side, which is the festivals.
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So we're going to look at the practice of the Israelites for holiness. Then we'll move up one rung at a time until we come to the
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Day of Atonement. So the first section is the practice. And for that, we're going to first look at the sacrifices.
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So there are five sacrifices that you see in chapters one through seven.
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And if you want to group those sacrifices, there are two groups in which these sacrifices fall. The first one is sacrifices of gratitude, of thanksgiving, of gratefulness.
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So there are two sacrifices that fall in that category. One of them is the grain offering, and the other one is the fellowship offering.
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So the grain offering is a sense in which you bring a dedication to the Lord. You dedicate this to the
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Lord. Fellowship offering is one that is called a sweet aroma. It is restoring fellowship between the people and God.
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Now, when you think of these two things, in the person of Christ, we have Christ, who is the one who alone is fully dedicated to the
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Father, perfectly dedicated. And we have Christ, through whom you and I will have fellowship with the
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Spirit. So these are the ways in which the Spirit of... the person of Christ will fulfill what is symbolized.
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And I think that's what you want to be remembering. These sacrifices are symbols that point to something that Christ will eventually do.
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And in the life of Christ, we get to see how he accomplishes these. But at this point in time, the Israelites trust in God.
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They say, this is what God said would accomplish. Fellowship. This is what would accomplish.
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We will see the other types, which is atonement for sin. And they will do these things, not yet knowing how these symbols point to the fulfillment in the person of Jesus Christ.
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So there are many details here. I'm just going to give you a little bit. So for the grain offering, you can give grain or flour, oil or incense, and a portion of it is burnt and the priests keep the rest.
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So there's a lot of details. They have to be done exactly right, because if it is not offered correctly or if the priests don't eat or not eat something, that sacrifice becomes void.
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God has a very specific way in which these sacrifices need to be done in order for its purpose to be accomplished.
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And we're going to see in one case when it is not done, what happens. So the first group of sacrifices are those sacrifices of gratitude.
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And then you have the other group, which is really a way for the people to repent of their sin and show that they want forgiveness from God.
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So the other three offerings are the burnt offering, the sin offering, and the guilt offering.
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So burnt offering, you put the whole thing and it's completely burnt. There is really nothing that comes out of the altar.
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It's all fully consumed in the fire. And the idea is all of this is for the Lord. And it is a propitiation.
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It is the anger of the Lord is propitiated in the burnt offering. And of course, when we think of this, we remember how
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Christ is our propitiation, 1 John 2, 2. And then you have the sin offering. And the sin offering is slightly different.
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It is talking about the cleansing of our sin that is accomplished. So while in the burnt offering, you have a bull or a sheep or a goat or doves or pigeons, you have the same animals that you can bring for the sin offering.
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But this offering is actually partly consumed by the priest. And the fat is what is burnt to the
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Lord. There is ways in which these are done. The purpose with which you bring these sacrifices and what it is that it does.
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One is propitiation. The other one is cleansing for sin. And of course, when we think of Jesus Christ, it is his blood that cleanses us from all sin.
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Once again, 1 John 1, 9. And then you have the third offering here, which is called the guilt offering.
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And this is the idea of your debt that you owe. There is a guilt that you accrue on the basis of your sin, and that is paid for by this animal.
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In this particular case, it's a ram. And that ram, once again, is sacrificed in order to take our guilt away.
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And once again, we have Jesus Christ who pays our debt on the cross and takes away our guilt.
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In fact, 1 John 1, 9, that's the primary focus. When he cleanses from all unrighteousness, he takes away the stain of guilt from us on the cross.
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And again, so what I want you to do is when you look at chapters 1 through 7, you want to think of those two types of sacrifices and all these details which sometimes overwhelm us.
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Talk about the extent to which God cares about his holiness and the specific means by which redemption is accomplished.
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So when the people came in day in and day out, whether the morning or the evening, every time something went well or something went wrong, when they sinned or when
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God blessed them, they were constantly reminded of the price of sin as blood was shed and as that animal was burnt, they were reminded that sin is costly and it separates them from God and God can be reached when they trust in him and they approach him by the way he has provided.
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And for them at that point, it was these sacrifices. And today we look and see how these sacrifices are merely symbols that were accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ.
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In fact, turn with me quickly to Hebrews 10 and there is a couple of verses
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I just want to quickly point out to you. We won't spend time here. In fact, Hebrews from 6 through 10 are crucial for us to understand how
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Jesus fulfills all of these laws. These are just symbols that point to the reality of what
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Christ does for us. Hebrews 10 one, for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
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Isn't that interesting? This is how the people drew near to God, but these were just shadows.
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The reason he gives you in the next verse, otherwise they would not have ceased. Would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshiper, once having been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin.
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But in fact, in these sacrifices, that is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.
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And consequently, Christ comes into the world and he says, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me.
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In burnt offering and sin offerings, you have no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, oh
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God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. I don't have time to read all the references in Hebrews, but I would urge you to look at this because this talks about the fullness, the fulfillment of all that Christ does that we are going to be seeing in the rest of this book.
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So our entry point into Leviticus is this means by which there is an approach to God, and that is the offerings and sacrifices.
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Now, when you look at the other end of the rung as it were, we get to see these festivals.
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Now you think what significance does festivals have? So these are chapters 23 to 27.
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So I'm kind of jumping from the beginning to the end, but you see there is that same theme of ritual offerings that are mandated for the people to have communion with God.
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So there are several sacrifices that are mentioned here. And the crux of what you want to be thinking of is if one to seven talk about a daily life, what are the things that I run into on a daily basis?
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And how do I have communion with the Holy God? This is something that is reflective. It pulls the people back and says, what has
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God done in our redemptive history? How do I think of the providential hand of God in our nation's life, in our life as a people of God that I can give thanks to God and worship him acceptably.
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So there are seven festivals that are given here in chapters 23 to 27.
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And it begins in chapter 23 with the Sabbath, the day of Sabbath and the day of rest.
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That's not part of the festival, but that's a periodic event every seven days. They are going to be observing this day of rest as they think about God and how he rested on the seventh day.
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But then you have these festivals and you can broadly break them up into two groups. You have those festivals that happen in the springtime and then you have festivals that happen in the fall time.
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So the first four festivals happen in the spring and they begin with the Passover. Once again, thinking of Exodus, this is that central event where you have the 10th plague, all male firstborns to die.
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And yet there is a way of redemption through the blood of the lamb that is to be applied on the dopo.
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So when the people think of this annual festival, the Passover is a key festival that they will remember because they see how they were redeemed and rescued by the blood of the lamb.
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And once again, when we think of the blood of the lamb and the Passover, Jesus celebrates the last Passover just before he goes on the cross and he is the lamb whose blood is shed on our behalf.
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And in fact, if you want to think of these festivals, first Corinthians five is a great place. In fact, you don't have to turn there. I'll just read it for you.
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First Corinthians five, seven. Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
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In fact, let me, I'll come back to first Corinthians in a moment. So that first festival is Passover. The second festival is the festival of unleavened bread.
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In fact, you remember as they celebrate the Passover, they had to eat the unleavened bread. And now year after year, they are going to not just remember the
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Passover, but they're going to have this period where they no longer have leaven in their homes.
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And they're going to remember that Exodus, the redemption that God accomplished in bringing them out of Egypt. And this unleavened leaven actually stands for sin.
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And in fact, this is where I'm going to read first Corinthians five for you. If you want, you can turn there. First Corinthians five, six to eight give you this picture of in a believer's life.
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What does this Passover and the leaven of unleavened bread mean? In verse six, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
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You know, talking about just the bread and the leaven that you put in it, but it's picturizing the sin in the life of a believer and the consequences of it.
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Now cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump as you really are unleavened.
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This is talking about the justification when sin is taken out from us. For Christ, our Passover lamb has been sacrificed.
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And verse eight, let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
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And so here again, the New Testament explicates through the person of Jesus Christ, how we live out this truth that is symbolized in the
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Passover lamb that is sacrificed and the unleavened bread that is eaten by the Israelites as they commemorate and as they remember the hand of God that brought them and rescued them out of Egypt.
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So we've seen two festivals. The next festival is the first fruits. And this is again, part of the spring festival.
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And as they harvest, the first harvest that comes out is what they give to the
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Lord. And historically, this hasn't happened yet. But when they enter the promised land, they will celebrate as they get the first harvest from the land and see what
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God has provided. And every year when they see the provision of God, they're going to be thanking God for what has happened.
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And for this, you need to go to 1 Corinthians 15, 23. And there you get to see how Christ is the first fruit.
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I'm just going to read that 1 Corinthians 15, 23 says, Christ, let me begin with 22.
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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order,
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Christ, the first fruits, then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Just because 1
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Corinthians 15 is central to understanding the resurrection of Christ, Jesus is the first to resurrect from the dead.
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He's the one who enters heaven as man, and he opens heaven so all of us can one day go.
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Because of the resurrection of Christ, we now have a glorious hope that we will one day enter heaven. And the fourth festival is the festival of Pentecost.
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And this is again in the Old Testament. Pentecost just means 50 days. So Passover begins and for 50 days, you have all these festivals that go on and culminates with the festival of the
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Pentecost. And traditionally people associated that with the giving of the law. And that's what happened 50 days hence.
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And for us, of course, we have the giving of the Holy Spirit. It is because of the finished work of Christ that he ascends to the
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Father and then he sends the Spirit to us that we have the ability. Acts 2, 4 talks to that. So that's the first four festivals.
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The next three festivals, these happen in the fall and they are all tied in. You have the
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Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles. The Feast of Trumpets is what actually begins these three festivals.
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So it's like a day of... These trumpets announce these festivals that are to be celebrated and the
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Day of Atonement, as I said, that's the central point of this whole book. But the trumpets is announcing these festival of Day of Atonement and Tabernacles.
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And for us, we are looking to the second coming of Christ when the trumpet will sound and he will return.
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The Day of Atonement, it talks about... We're going to see that in detail. It is the substitution that happens each year for the entire nation.
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And Jesus has not just provided that substitution, but one day he's going to come back and restore all of creation as the result of that atonement that he accomplished on the cross.
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And for the Tabernacles, once again, the Israelite, as they were celebrating, they were remembering how they lived in tents as they came out of Egypt before they entered the promised land.
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And this was the sojourning, this hand of God in their lives. And they are waiting for that promised land that they are going to enter one day.
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And for us as believers, we are looking forward to that culmination, to that reunion, to that time when we will inherit the new creation that God has provided for us.
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And for that, you have Zechariah 14 that talks about this.
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So anyway, we've seen the first rung so far, and I need to pick up my pace, but we've seen on the one hand, the sacrifices, and on the other hand, those festivals.
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And these two together just symbolize in beauty. And for us as Christians, we can just see our eyes open up how they accomplished holiness in the person of Jesus Christ.
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So with that, let's move to the next rung, which is the priests. Now in priests, you have two sections.
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In the first section, you have chapters eight to 10, which talks about the ordination of the priests. And then in the second section in 21 to 22, we have the qualification of the priests.
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Now in this section, let me back up a bit. When we talked about the sacrifices and the festivals, we saw how
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Christ is the fulfillment of them all. That's why we don't need to do them anymore. We have holiness accomplished by Christ, and through Christ, we just enter the presence of God freely because of the righteousness that is given to us.
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And so all these symbols are fulfilled. Now, when we come to the section on priesthood, we get to see that there needed to be a mediator between God and his people.
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These people, the priests were from the line of Aaron. Aaron was called from the tribe of Levites.
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So although this book is called Leviticus, which is Latin talking about that which pertains to Levites, the bulk of this book is actually concerned about the
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Aaronites. The priests would be a subset of that group that were called to minister. So these are the ones who have very specific requirements in order to fulfill that role of mediator.
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It's not just like anyone can just decide to go up there and say, okay, I'm going to mediate between God and man today.
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They needed to come from the line of Aaron and they had to have certain things done in order to be qualified and not incinerated when they come before the presence of God.
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So in order to just get that mental picture, I'm going to just go through chapter 8 for you and highlight a few things that happen.
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And so you get to see a priest is not just someone, you know, a priest cannot just trifle with what he's called to before he goes before the presence of God.
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And chapter 8 in verses 1 through 4, you get to see the people who are gathered before the tent of meeting as the priests are ordained.
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The first thing in verses 5 and 6, you see the washing. There is a cleansing of these priests that needs to symbolically occur before they can even begin to do anything else.
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And then they have these priestly garments in verses 7 to 8. So not just the cleansing, but also the righteousness that is symbolized for us in the clothes that are put on.
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These priests had to have a very specific garment that they need to wear before they can come into the tabernacle.
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Then they are anointed with oil. And once again, for us, even in the Old Testament, the oil was symbolizing the
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Holy Spirit. This is not just something that is done by the arm of flesh, but it is done by the Spirit of God, what they needed to do the priestly work of mediation.
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And then they had to first offer sin offerings for themselves. Verses 14 through 17, they cannot bring their sin into the sanctuary.
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And so the first thing they need to do is atone for their sin. So they bring a sin offering that takes care of that. And then they have the burnt offering in verses 18 through 21.
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And this atones, remember there's a cleansing and an atonement that happens. So then they have to do a burnt offering verses 18 to 21.
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Then they bring a fellowship offering verses 22 to 29, so that they have fellowship with the
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Lord. The priest has fellowship with the Lord. And then once again, you have anointing with the oil in verse 30, talking about their need for the
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Holy Spirit. And then they have seven days of preparation as they begin this work.
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So you can just see the details that are involved with the priest and preparing themselves before they can mediate for the people, before they can bring the sacrifices of people to the
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Holy God. So that these people who come in with their sin can have their sins atoned for and they can have fellowship with the
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Holy God that they seek to commune with. So there is a high calling for the priest before they can accomplish what
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God has called them to. Now the priest day in and day out will offer these sacrifices.
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But we're going to be seeing on the day of atonement, there is a high priest and he alone can go into the
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Holy of Holies. Now I read in Hebrews 10 talking about the role of the sacrifices and the atonement and the priests that have to do this day in and day out.
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In fact, let me just read this for you very briefly. In Hebrews 7 verses 11 through 28, you have a big section, but I'm just going to read a few verses for you.
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In Hebrews 7, 11, that should be easy to remember.
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Now, if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, what further need would have there been for another priest to rise according to the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron.
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For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. You remember, Leviticus is all about the laws are pertaining to sacrifices and priesthood and atonement.
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And for the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar.
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For it is evident that our Lord, Jesus Christ was descended from Judah. And in connection to that tribe,
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Moses said nothing about priests. And this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest, not on the basis of the legal, the law requirements concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.
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For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. So we get to see,
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I mean, Jesus is both prophet, priest and king. He comes in the kingly line of Judah, but he is of an order that transcends the
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Mosaic law. So the Mosaic law is actually given much later after the Abrahamic covenant. And it has an expiration date, as you, if you will, the law will end and Christ now comes and fulfills the symbol that all these
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Aaronic priests were fulfilling. But according to a completely different order, the order of Melchizedek, and that's an eternal order that Hebrews goes on to talk about.
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Let me just read one more verse. In verse 24, Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
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Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood, not his own.
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For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the earth. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
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Now, when we think of the priest, the second rung that we talked about, the qualifications, what they needed to do, how they were to atone for their sin and then bring the people's offering before God.
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We get to see something very tragic that happens here. So if you look in chapter 10, in chapter nine, you get to see this wonderful thing where Aaron obeys
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God and God accepts the sacrifice. But then in chapter 10, you get to see something terrifying where Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, who are descendants of Aaron and rightly priests, according to the
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Aaronic line, who bring profane offerings.
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And here is this initiation of this system, this sacrificial system that God has ordained for these priests to be mediators.
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And right there, the first two sons of Aaron decide that they kind of know what needs to be done and they do something different than what
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God has ordained. And when they did that, God destroys them. He kills them for their profanity that they brought right into the tabernacle.
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And so there is something that happens. And in fact, we're going to see this when we look at the Day of Atonement. Here is
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Aaron. You know, this is this grand ceremony with the presence of God dwelling among the people. We can approach him, but we can approach him on his terms and not our own.
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And so there are only two events that you will see, narrative events that you will see in this book.
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One of them is this. It has to do with death as people approach God on their terms and not
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God's terms. And the other one is, we'll look in moral purity where someone blasphemes and he is put to death because of ignoring the moral requirement of the name of God and what that entails.
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So this is only two narratives. Everything else here is dealing with the laws. But the point of the second rung is here is how
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God ordained and it has to be done exactly as God has prescribed. You cannot approach God, the holy
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God on your terms, but on his terms. And we have only one person who did this once and for all.
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And that is Jesus Christ, our great high priest. Because of what he has done, you do not have the morning and evening sacrifices day in and day out every single time.
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And because he has done this, he has done the perfect sacrifice and he has done it as the great high priest, not just in the pictures of what we see here on earth, but rather in heaven itself.
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He has done the reality of all that these symbols were pointing to. So that's the second rung that we have seen.
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And so now let's come to the third rung. And these are the laws of purity. So when we're coming up the ladder, chapters 11 through 15, talk about the ritual purity, what
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I was talking about as clean and unclean. And then you have on the other side, chapters 18 through 20, the laws about moral purity.
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So we'll just take them apart and work through them. So here the operative term is you shall be holy as I, the
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Lord, am holy. In fact, when you think about the sacrificial system, sometimes, you know, we don't read this carefully. We might think, oh, the
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Israelite, you know, he could just kind of do whatever he wants. Whenever it's time for taking care of the sin that he's committed, he just goes into the temple, pays the, you know, the goat or the sheep or the bull.
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And then he's all set. He can go back to his life of sin. That's not the picture
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Leviticus will give you. These are unintentional sins, sins that you stumble into because of your nature here as an unglorified person.
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It is not talking about those things where you willfully commit. There is a inner trust in God and an inner transformation that is just as vital in the life of the believer in the
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Old Testament times as it is in the New Testament times. And so this cleanliness and these moral laws kind of give the character of God and what it is that God expects of his people as he enables them to live the life of purity, not just the atonement that is essential even for those who would live a life of holiness.
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So with that in mind, you want to be thinking of clean and unclean. So you're here in chapter 11, you have the kosher laws.
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You have all the food that you can eat and not eat. So some of these and people try to wrestle with why these food and not others, you know, is this healthier?
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I'm sure there are some diets that people have come up with. You know, these foods must, whatever the behind the scenes story that God has for it.
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One thing is very clear. The people of God were to eat differently. They were to dress differently.
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They were to live differently. There is. And when you think of the meaning of holiness set apart, this is operative in understanding what it means for the people of God to be different from the people of the world.
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So here are the people who are pulled out, separated from Egypt. And they are now going to go into the land of Canaan.
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If you thought Egypt was horrible with all the murdering of the of the Hebrew babies of all the enslavement that was happening and all these gods that they were worshipping.
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Think twice before you think of Canaan. The very reason that God was taking the people from Egypt to Canaan was it the time was up for the
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Canaanites. They had filled the land with their unrighteousness that the land was spewing them out.
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That end of the story for these people. Now, the Israelites as they were coming from one place where they needed to get
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Egypt cleansed out of them. When they go here, they needed to bring the righteousness of God as a set apart people, not just once again, doing the kind of things that the people in Canaan were going to be doing.
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And so God explicitly commands them here is who I am. I am the
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Lord, your God. You shall be holy as I am holy. And you're going to be very, very different than these people around me.
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You need to be that light on that hill. When people see you, they need to see me. And that's the purpose for which
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I'm even bringing you here into the land. So that's the sense in which you want to think of the third rung when you think of the purity.
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So when you think of cleanness, some of these things are like if you ate something unclean, you would not be able to go into the tabernacle to offer your sacrifice.
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You need to do your cleansing and then you can go. There are various ways in which you can become unclean.
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Some of them have to do with body fluids. Some of them have to do with touching dead bodies.
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Some of them have to do with common things, menstrual cycle. There are things that happen every day in your life.
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And the people are not to be thinking of, oh, you know, this is just one of those things that just happens in my life.
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You want to be thinking of all of those things in relationship to your worship of God. Am I?
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And as I mentioned earlier, being unclean is not being sinful. It just means that you need to be clean before you can come into the temple.
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So there are ways in which and why is this so? And I think the easiest way for us to remember it is when Adam and Eve before the fall, they didn't have to go and do ritual washing, stay outside the tent before they met with God for the walk in the evening in the cool of the day.
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There was no sin. There was really no need for this cleansing. Right after the fall, the consequences of fall impacts all parts of life, even the normal parts of life, not the sinful parts of life.
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And God ordains for certain things where you need to be careful. You want to be constantly thinking of your relationship with God while you go through life so that you are thinking of holiness being set apart, being different and your relationship with God that ought to be central.
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So that's what this cleanliness highlights for us.
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But on the other side of the book after chapter 16, you have the moral laws.
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There are things, if you just walk through it, you'll see in chapter 18, there is a lot of instruction talking about sexual purity.
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This is one of those areas where Canaanites were just notorious and God actually explicitly warns them, do not do these things that the people here do.
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You ought to be a people who are pure in your body and in your relationships. And then in chapter 19, you get a whole bunch of laws that talk about this high standard of calling.
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Like I mentioned last time, the Ten Commandments, they are unpacked for you here in terms of lying and deception, in terms of stealing, in terms of slandering, in terms of dealing with grievances and ultimately in chapter 19, verse 18, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, which
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Jesus would pick and highlight as the central law upon which all the other relational laws of the people hangs on.
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And then in chapter 19, it continues to talk about how you ought to be a gracious people. It is not just about what you don't do.
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You want to treat the other people well, whether it is the slaves or it is the people who are in your midst, the elderly people.
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There needs to be honesty and integrity as you showcase the goodness of God in your lives as well.
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So while we are thinking of the moral purity, clean, unclean, what you should not do and what you ought to do, these all reflect the inner transformation of the believer as we live out this life.
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And once again, as we are thinking of this, you want to be asking yourself, as one who has been justified and being sanctified, is my heart like this?
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You know, I have never had to do these sacrifices. I have never had to approach a priest.
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None of your pastors are quote -unquote priests. We are all a royal priesthood because we all can approach God directly.
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And when it comes to this lifestyle of purity and cleanliness, we don't have the ritual cleanliness that set apart
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Israel as a nation. And yet we have these ways in which we reflect the character of God today, just as those people did to be a light among the nations.
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And is that what throbs in our heart today as we think of who we are?
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Why are we here? And how ought we to worship God? Now with that, let's come to the central part of the book, which is
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Leviticus 16 and 17. And here we look at the Day of Atonement.
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And I'd like you to, I'd like to read out a few things for you here while we unpack this chapter.
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So in the Day of Atonement, you get to see, let me read the first verse.
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The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of his two, after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the
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Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, and then you have the instructions, tell
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Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is in the ark so that he may not die.
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In fact, while Aaron is there and the sons are dead, Aaron cannot do the kind of things that people would normally do to grieve.
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He can't even touch his sons because he is consecrated and holy and he ought to do what he, he must stay in the tabernacle while relatives will carry the bodies of his sons out.
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He cannot grieve the way that people would grieve with letting down his hair and tearing his robes because he is, he is sanctified by having come into the tabernacle and serving as a priest and he must finish his ministry before he can go out.
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There is a high calling to be a priest and to be a high priest. And now here in Leviticus, you get to see, in Leviticus 16, we get to see this, this day of atonement, which pictures this central event in the life of the people.
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So here's what I would like you to take away from this. On a daily basis, people are offering sin, sacrifices for sin and they are continually being restored into a fellowship with God.
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And yet once in, once a year for the entire nation, God ordains for this event, the
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Yom Kippur, which is still celebrated by the Jewish people today, but not with this, with the sacrifices that are prescribed because there no longer is a temple.
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There is no place for the Jewish people to go and offer those sacrifices that are prescribed here as it was done in the life of Israel, not just in the wandering, wilderness wanderings, but also in the promised land.
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But people recognize the weight of this because this is crucial for the sin of the nation, not just the individual sins, but the entire nation to be atoned for.
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And there you once again have Aaron who has to sacrifice for himself a bull and he has to purify himself before he can come and accomplish that sacrifice for the nation.
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And the sacrifice of the nation involves two goats. You have two goats, one of, so once Aaron finishes his atonement for himself, he comes and casts a lot for these two goats.
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The lot falls on one. The one is chosen to be sacrificed and the other one is called the scapegoat.
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The sacrifice one will be a sin offering for the people.
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It will die on behalf of the people in order that the people do not have to die.
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And this is an annual offering. Once a year, the high priest goes into the Holy of Holies and he takes the blood of this goat and sprinkles right in the presence of God in the
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Holy of Holies in the ark in the mercy seat. And there is a very specific way in which he needs to do this in order to cleanse the people.
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You know, the people of Canaan, they had been committing sin and their sin had filled up and the land was spewing them out.
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And here is the means by which God says, I will cleanse and purify you annually. It's like an erasure of all these sins when you can approach my
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Holy of Holies and your sin is paid for. And the second goat, the scapegoat, you keep your hand upon the goat symbolizing the transference of your sin.
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It's carrying your sin and it goes outside the camp. It goes away. It takes and it pictures the people watch this goat leaving the camp and going out into the wilderness.
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Wilderness, once again, talking about, you know, this is not the place of flourishing. It is a place of desert. And this goat takes my sin out of sight and away from me.
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And once again, which of these goats represents Jesus Christ? Both.
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You have Jesus both as our sin bearer who pays the penalty for our sin and assuages the wrath of God because he dies on our behalf.
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And he is also the one who goes outside the camp and takes our sin far away from us as far as the east is from the west.
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So when you come to the Day of Atonement and we just want to say thank you to Jesus Christ who died on our behalf.
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Now, as we close, and once again, if you want to read more on this, Hebrews 7 has much more to add to this.
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But I just want to conclude with this last chapter 26.
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In chapter 26, you have this, you know, the Levitical law is given and then there is a warning because the
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Mosaic law is a conditional covenant. It's not just, you know, like an
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Abrahamic covenant, which is unconditional. There is a requirement for the people. And so God actually warns them just like Hebrews would do for us as believers.
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Don't take lightly the work of Jesus Christ. You know, just because you're justified, don't say, I can just go live sin freely.
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And God is a God who chastises and blesses. So in verses, chapter 26 verses 3 to 5, you get to see how
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God promises plentiful harvest. You're going to go to a new land that you own and I will bless you as you obey these laws and you are in a right fellowship with me.
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I'll give you peace verses 6 through 10. There will not be war. I'll give you rest in the land that I'm taking you and chief of all verses 11 through 13,
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I will walk among you. What is the greatest blessing you can hope for? Presence of God dwelling among you and living among you and governing you as your king.
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Those are the blessings that he provides. He promises as people would follow what
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God gives us in Leviticus. And then he talks about disobedience and there are five sections here. There's a overview of punishments in verses 14 through 17.
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These are warnings as God promises to his children. I will chastise you with the intent of drawing you back.
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The first one is bad harvest was 18 through 20. This land is not just going to be the work of just your arm producing this fruit.
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I will bring the water. I will cause the grain to grow and I can stop them if you would not obey.
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I will bring wild animals into your midst 21 to 22 and they will overrun you.
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Then verses 23 to 26. These are the opposites of the blessings. I will bring war. I will bring famine and then and these are all meant to draw you back.
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And if you would still not repent the most the culmination of all this is in verses 27 to 39 where this war will no longer just be a famine but it will cause anarchy.
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There will no longer be governance but ultimately will go into exile. You will be separated from the presence of God dwelling among you.
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And so when we just stop and think for a moment we're right here in the third book of the Old Testament.
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When you come to the 39th book of the Old Testament what is it that happens in the life of Israel? You get to see this these times of plenty when the people follow
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God and are richly blessed and get to experience the presence of God and then there are times when they walk away from him and God sends his prophets sends his calamities and the people sometimes turn back and other times go away and we do see the exile both of Israel and Judah which we will see in later books.
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So I began with the question should we care about the book of Leviticus? And I hope as we study this book we just remember we have this great high priest this perfect sacrifice that he has done once for all entering into heaven opening tearing the veil into from top to bottom that we can approach the throne of grace freely anytime not once a year we've gotten to see the character of God revealed not just in the laws but in the very person of Jesus Christ we get to enjoy
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God dwelling among us God dwelling in us as we have the Holy Spirit and the presence of Christ in our midst.
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So when we read the book of Leviticus I hope it encourages you to think of the character of God as a holy and the need for us in every moment of our lives to live out this high calling that we have in Christ.