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Leviticus and Hebrews (Part 2)
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.
Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.
Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. That was an abrupt halt to last week�s show, last show, yesterday�s show, seemed like just about 10 minutes ago. Talking about Leviticus 8 and then moving into chapter 9 and why it�s important for the book of Hebrews.
By the way, enough of the Hebrews cups, coffee cups, okay, gotcha. You know, I�ll be preaching through Hebrews and somebody will say at the door, you know, usually like an older visitor, something or other about Hebrews, talking about coffee, crazy, crazy days.
1 -800-HEBREWS, for those of you that want to call the donation line. We do have quite a few people who are giving at Patreon at nocompromiseradio .com. Thank you for that. I appreciate that. We�re trying to figure out next steps for the conglomeration and syndication of the show across the world.
Right now, after 2 ,000 shows and ratings that are spectacularly high, we have not been asked to be on one other syndicated show. Well, we�ve been asked, but we�ve had to pay. You have to pay for that.
Oh, brother. I guess more people listen than the bandwidth goes up. What else do I have here in front of me? All right, here�s something. Has nothing to do with today�s show, but it is interesting. I come from a world of evangelicalism where we were taught the Bible, maybe more on the biblicism side of things, and I live in a world of evangelicalism now where I like to study systematic theologies, confessions, creeds, maybe from biblicism to confessionalism is probably what�s happened to me as I think about scriptures and hermeneutical issues, et cetera.
But I was talking to some students the other day. I guess I can tell you which seminary. Okay, I won�t. I won�t say to protect the guilty. This particular group of seminary students from a Reformed seminary, not a biblicism one, but Reformed, they said to me, �Well, Pastor Mike, we know Calvin well.
We know Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, Dort. I�d like to go to Dort College. I think that�s in Iowa, isn�t it? There are probably lots of them. �We know those things. We know creeds, confessions.
We know Westminster Confession of Faith, but we don�t know our Bibles as well. We don�t know where these confessions and creeds, how they were derived from the particular text. I mean, backing up, they said, �Well, those of us who came from kind of a biblicist, biblicism background, we know our Bibles better.
And then we have now guardrails with the confessions that help us think through these issues. They were happy for their Bible background. I don�t think you have to go from biblicism to confessionalism in that order so you�re the best prepared.
I think even with confessional thoughts and hermeneutical principles and theology, you can still know your Bible. But I was happy that I came out of an environment a long, long time ago that really taught the Bible, and I said, �I think the solution has to be verse-by-verse teaching.
Right? I think that�s really the solution to this. And here�s what I meant by that. When I teach the Bible and I quote something, why do I quote something? Well, ideally when you quote something, and maybe this is you when you�re teaching your Bible studies, you quote something to say, �This person who wrote this can say it better than I do.
It was really said well. That�s a good reason to quote. Maybe it�s a Spurgeon quote or something. Casting aspersions on Spurgeon. But mainly, I think I quote other people because they affirm what I�m saying.
It�s not just me and the Bible, and it�s not just something I made up. It�s not I�m, you know, not within the stream of orthodoxy. And therefore, I do the same thing with the confessions and creeds. I was talking about the deity of Jesus last week at Bethlehem Bible Church, and I was talking about our quantitative descriptions of the deity of Christ.
True Nature�s one person from that Scott Clark article, our Scott Clark, and instead I wanted to talk more qualitatively. In other words, instead of saying Jesus was 100 God and 100 human, or He was fully God and fully man, the Athanasius Creed and I think Nicaea also said something like, at least Athanasius, He was perfectly God and perfectly man.
That�s more quality than quantity, you know, filling up 25%, 100%, etc. And similarly, Nicaea said truly, truly God, truly man, truly deity, truly humanity, or something like that. Truly, truly, perfectly, perfectly, instead of fully, fully, and 100-y, 100-ly.
So, I quote people to then affirm what I�m saying is something that the Church has taught, right? I�m not new in 2018 coming up with this idea. And I said, I think that�s really the solution to this. I want to know what the Church has taught.
I�d like to know confessions and creeds and why in the Netherlands and Belgium and England and New Hampshire and all these different places, you know, the creeds are pretty much, purdy, p-u-r-d-y, pretty much the same.
From Baptists to Presbyterians, we�re pretty much saying the same thing. I know there�s some differences, but, you know, they have to be secondary. Verse-by-verse exposition. And then bringing along some of the systems found, the guardrails.
Remember when you took the kids to the bowling alley and they�d throw gutter balls the whole time, so they had those little gutter protectors. The gutta protectus wants to save to the uttermost those who are in the gutter most.
It�s not a bowling verse, by the way. I think that has to be. I think that if Presbyterians, and I know some that think this way, you know, oh, that�s kind of a Baptistic way of preaching. The way you preach is Baptistic.
I don�t know if I�m talking about Baptism, yes, but I don�t think that�s the case. By the way, I was talking to all these students last week in person, and they thought I was a PCA pastor. Now, here�s the funny part.
I wasn�t wearing Dockers. I wasn�t smoking cigarettes and cigars and drinking scotch or anything like that. I wasn�t doing any of those stereotypical things. So I was kind of happy that I was talking their lingo, their Presbyterian lingo.
Because if I would have said I was a Baptist, they would have immediately had no respect for me. It�s like, you know, you just have to talk about three forms of unity to people, you know, and they don�t think you�re a Presbyterian, then they think, you know, you�re some other kind of United Reformed person.
Anyway, back to the point. I was mad they didn�t think I was OPC. So let�s, how about let�s teach the Bible verse by verse. If you think that�s Baptistic, let�s teach it verse by verse, and let�s show where it fits within the Christian canon, i .e., the Bible, Old Testament and New Testament.
And as we�re teaching, let�s give people categories so they can understand things. Let�s not do it in a Biblicist way, Biblicism where there�s no tradition at all. Bad tradition, let�s jettison. Good tradition, i .e., what the Church has taught throughout the centuries, you know, let�s keep that.
And I think that�s the solution. So we need to know our Bibles, and we need to know where the gutter ball shouldn�t go. Does that make sense? I think that makes perfect sense to me. Now, whether I explained it well or not, I don�t know.
My son said to me, he�s 21 now, he said, �Dad, I�m glad, you know, you�ve kind of figured this stuff out now at 58, so I didn�t have to go through all of this and not believe the right thing until I was 58.
My problem is this. I know I have other areas in my theology that are all whacked out. It�s going to take me another 30 years. But here�s the best news, to learn and grow and understand God better, and to try to explain Him in a better fashion, more biblical.
That�s a real joy, to continue to learn and grow in the middle of all this. And I will still, even though I�m informed a lot by my Reformed friends, truly Reformed TRs, I will continue to teach the Bible pretty slowly in a verse-by-verse fashion.
I�m going slower than I thought I would in Hebrews, but I�m teaching tons of Old Testament passages as I go. So, I have to teach Psalm 2, Psalm 110, Psalm 102, Psalm 89, Psalm 45, and some other passages as well.
So, there you have it. That�s Bethlehem Bible Church, bbcchurch .org. If you don�t usually listen to the sermons, no true Scotsman would say that, the fallacy of the no true Scotsman. Well, Scotsman, no true Scotsman, puts sugar on his porch.
In the book of Hebrews, we are looking at the ordination. Strike that. We�re looking at the supremacy of Jesus, the high priest. In Leviticus 8, we are looking at the ordination of the Aaronic priesthood.
Right? And we are up to 830, �Then Moses took some of the anointed oil and the blood that was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments, and also on his sons and his sons� garments. And so he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and his sons� garments with him.
I mean, there�s blood everywhere. Pretty much because there�s sin everywhere, right? �And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, Leviticus 8, 31, boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it.
And what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up with fire, and you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for it will take seven days to ordain you.
As had been done today, the Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you. At the entrance of the tent of meeting, you shall remain day and night for seven days, performing what the Lord has charged so that you do not die.
That�s amazing. �For so I have been commanded. And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord commanded by Moses. Jesus, the high priest, to understand him better, we go back to the book of priests, that is, the book of Leviticus.
And we move now from Moses� exhortation to Aaron, Aaron and his sons. They make offerings for themselves, for the sins of the people, to prepare themselves to meet God, as it were. Listen to Leviticus chapter 9.
�On the eighth day Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel, and he said to Aaron, �Take for yourself a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without blemish, and offer them before the Lord.
And say to the people of Israel, �Take a male goat for a sin offering and a calf and a lamb, both a year old without blemish, for a burnt offering, and an ox and a ram for peace offerings to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with oil, for today the Lord will appear to you.
Yikes. �And they brought what Moses commanded in front of the tent of meeting, and all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. And Moses said, �This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.
Here�s how God commands things. This is going to be very important for our discussion and for the progression of thought in Leviticus. This is what God commands you to do. You�d like to approach God?
Do you come on His terms or yours? That�s the thing, approaching God. Who decides how you approach God, when you can approach God, what you have to do to approach God? �Then Moses said to Aaron, �Draw near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people, and bring the offering of the people and make atonement for them as the Lord commanded.
There�s that theme again, �as the Lord commanded. �So Aaron drew near to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. And the sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar.
But the fat in the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering he burned on the altar as the Lord commanded Moses. The flesh and the skin he burned up with fire outside the camp. �Then he killed the burnt offering, and Aaron�s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar.
They handed him the burnt offering to him, piece by piece, and the head, and he burned them on the altar. And he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar. Then he presented the people�s offering and took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people, and killed it and offered it as a sin offering, like the first one.
And he presented the burnt offering and according�sorry�and offered it according to the rule. You get that? According to the rule. �And he presented the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burnt it on the altar besides the burnt offering of the morning.
Verse 18 of Leviticus 18. �Then he killed the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings for the people, and Aaron�s sons handed him the blood, and he threw it against the sides of the altar. But the fat pieces of the ox and of the ram, the fat tail, and that which covers the entrails and the kidneys and the long lobe of their liver, they put the fat pieces on the breasts, and he burned the fat pieces on the altar.
But the breasts in the right thigh of Aaron waved for a wave offering before the Lord as Moses commanded. We�re getting close to the end of chapter 9 of Leviticus. �Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, came down from offering the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings.
And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. And when they came out, they blessed the people. And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of the fat on the altar.
And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Aaron�s going to be the one from Moses to Aaron. �That the glory of the Lord may appear to you. That was back in verse 6, remember?
They shouted, they fell on their faces. When you understand 8 and 9, then it prepares you for chapter 10. When you study chapter 10 of Leviticus, you should be saying, �Isn�t there a better priest? Can�t there be a better priest?
Than Aaron�s sons. This is failure at the beginning. I mean, this is like launching a ship with a hole in it. What are you going to do? How are you going to stand before God as a sinful priest? This is going to tell you there�s an imperfection in this priesthood, built-in imperfection.
That is to say, there�s someone better coming, provisional. Right? When you have a sinner as a high priest, what are you going to do? Nadab and Abihu. I remember Bob Deffenbaugh used to say, �Have you ever watched someone doing something really dangerous
And you�re kind of glad that, yeah, they get paid a lot to do it, but also you�re glad it�s not you. Maybe you have to paint the Golden Gate Bridge, or maybe you have to climb into submarine torpedo tubes, or, I don�t know, twin towers when they were up and you had to wash the windows outside.
These two men are going to get close to God, and it�s going to be dangerous. Getting close to God, is there a price to pay if you�re not pure? Do these mediators, in fact, need a mediator? Is this all provisional?
Now, Nadab, Leviticus chapter 10, verse 1, �And Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them.
Remember that theme in chapter 8 and chapter 9? �As Moses commanded, as Moses commanded, as the Lord commanded. Nadab and Abihu, this is crazy. What do we know about this sin of these two men? They offered strange fire, something that God didn�t command, some kind of, we don�t know precisely, we�re just told generally, disobedience.
God had exact, precise things that He wanted, and they didn�t do it. They must have agreed, right, because they did the exact same thing. Some think there�s some type of conspiracy here. Disobedience is going to cause what?
Approaching God in a flippant fashion, careless fashion, thoughtless approach? They did something not right. Exodus 30, it says, �You shall not offer strange incense on it, or a burnt offering, or a grain offering, nor shall you pour a drink offering on it.
And at the end of chapter 9, the fire comes down from heaven, consuming what was left of the people�s sacrifice, and now it comes down and consumes two of Israel�s priests. That is dangerous. You should get paid a lot to do that job.
Verse 2, �Fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Later in the history of the Bible, Ananias and Sapphira, Moses said to Aaron, �This is what the Lord has said, �Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.
And Aaron held his peace. God�s standard must be met. Exodus 19, �Let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves. And what did these boys do? What did these men do? They did it their own way.
Strange fire. Who wrote this song? �I have lived a life that�s full. I�ve traveled each and every highway, but much, much more than this, I did it my way. That could be Nadab and Abihu, but actually Paul Anka wrote that song.
Violating the holiness of God? God�s priests must be holy. God�s priesthood must be holy. The priests that represent you need to be holy. Do you see how this is provisional, pointing to you need a greater priest, one who�s going to honor the Father in every way, shape, and form, taking sin offerings very seriously, taking the proximity of God very seriously?
Profane means something less than holy. It comes from profanus. The English word comes from the Latin profanus, which means outside the temple. Something�s not purified or something�s not consecrated, and God kills him for that.
You say, �That�s cruel and unusual punishment. I mean, couldn�t God just say, �Don�t do that again But remember what it says in Exodus 19, �Go down and warn the people lest they break through, to the Lord to look, and many of them perish.
Also let the priests who come near to the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. You break God�s holy law, you�re dead. I will be glorified. Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified.
That�s what God says. And here Aaron knows God�s holy. I can�t say anything back. I can�t talk about that. Moses called Mishael and Elzaphon, the sons of Uziel, the uncle of Aaron, and he said, �Come near.
Carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp. So they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp. I think God�s holy. I think the only way to approach God is through a pure mediator, somebody who�s better than Aaron, somebody who�s better than Moses, somebody who�s better than Nadab, somebody who�s better than Abihu.
Why go back to your old religious system when you have the priest? God is still serious about sin, so don�t go back. The inferiority of the Aaronic priesthood should be the argument to not go back, but to trust in Christ Jesus.
Do you?
We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.