Dirty High Places

Let's pray. We'll get started. Blessed Lord, You have caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, inwardly digest them, so that by patience and comfort from Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast to the blessed hope of everlasting life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Alright, were there any questions that came up, percolated up in your mind as a result of the sermon?

Yes sir.

I have to criticize you on something you said. You said in the New World there'd be fishing in the Dead Sea.

Yeah.

But there's no death in the New World.

So they have to rename the Dead Sea.

Catch and release.

I'm just telling you what Ezekiel said.

Take it up with him.

These are pictures of what's coming. But the picture then of the river that flows from the Temple of God and the Dead Sea no longer is the Dead Sea. It's fishing as described in it. And the Dead Sea comes to life, teeming with new life.

So, yeah. Right now it's the Dead Sea. Let me see. The Sea of Galilee, I think elevation wise, it's the lowest freshwater lake on planet Earth. And so the Dead Sea runs lower than that. And there's just no out for that thing.

All right.

Any other questions, comments? Please email all criticisms to barb at...

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Leviticus 17 and the Problem of High Places

I was telling Don earlier today that this week has promise. And the reason why this week has so much promise is because looking at my schedule, it looks like a normal week. It looks normal. So we are going to dive back into our study of Leviticus.

Last time we were in Leviticus, we took a look at the Day of Atonement. And that's in Leviticus 16. And so let's continue working our way through the book of Leviticus. We are up to chapter 17. And you'll note again, we're dealing with the ceremonial laws pertaining to the Mosaic Covenant.

And it's always good to remind you that the book of Hebrews makes it very clear that these sacrifices and the things that are described in here are the types and shadows which find their fulfillment in the death of Christ, or his vicarious death for our sins and his resurrection from the grave.

So one of the problems, and you'll see this in the Old Testament as you're reading the historical narratives, that the children of Israel would have is that they wouldn't obey God's command regarding where the sacrifices were to be sacrificed.

So when you read in the Old Testament, the people of Israel, they would go to the tabernacle and offer their sacrifices there. And then the next generation, they would set up what were called high places.

So what ended up happening is that people would set up places of sacrifice that were away from the tabernacle, their own high places. And you'll notice that God was a little bit lax in enforcing some of the laws regarding that.

But that being the case, the point was the sacrifices were supposed to be made at the tabernacle, and then eventually the temple. And then what oftentimes happened is that as Israel slipped into idolatry, places that they had set up as high places where they would sacrifice rather than making the trek to wherever the tabernacle was, oftentimes those would be co-opted and then become high places of sacrifice to false gods.

And so the general idea, kind of go back to the Tower of Babel, which we'll hear about next week, funny enough, Tower of Babel, is that there's this idea that God meets with us up on the mountaintop, the high places you're closer to God.

Or in paganism, you'd say closer to the gods. And so with the Tower of Babel, they wanted to build this large tower to reach to the heaven, and in a sense, kind of climb their way up to God. Now, high towers have a different meaning in our society.

The countries that have those really, really tall skyscrapers, they are a symbol of the power and the magnitude or the wealth of a particular nation. And so back in the day, United States always held the record for the tallest skyscrapers, but now you have competing countries.

And the current reigning champion of the skyscraper competition is Dubai. And that's quite the skyscraper. I mean, it's an amazing architectural feat. But the idea then, back in the ancient days, you'd climb a mountain and you'd be closer to God.

And you'll note that this is somewhat reinforced then in scripture. When God meets with the children of Israel, they're at Mount Sinai. And Moses ascends up to the top of Mount Sinai, and God meets with him there.

And then you think about the fact that Christ himself, he's transfigured on the Mount of Transfiguration. They go up to the top of the mountain. And so there's this idea then that spatially, the scripture reinforces the idea that our Father who art in heaven and where to look up.

That's the idea, that God's abode is, well, he's up there. And so we've noted then the two proper ways of prayer for Christians is either on your knees or with your hands and raised toward heaven. This is also a legitimate way of praying that is taught in scripture.

So keep that in mind, face towards God. So Yahweh spoke to Moses, Leviticus 17, saying, speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the people of Israel. Say to them, this is the thing that Yahweh has commanded.

If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp or kills it outside the camp and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it as a gift to Yahweh in front of the tabernacle of Yahweh, blood guilt shall be imputed to that man.

He has shed blood and that man shall be cut off from among the people. In this particular case, this has to do with offerings, not for the slaughtering of animals for the purpose of consuming them, but in sacrifice.

This is to the end that the people of Israel may bring their sacrifices that they sacrifice in the open field, that they may bring them to Yahweh, to the priests at the entrance of the tent of meeting and sacrifice them as sacrifices of peace offerings to Yahweh.

Now, there's some aspect to this when you consider just how large the magnitude and the multitude is of the people of Israel that when you have families offering sacrifices and they're all bringing them at the same time, there's a pretty long queue.

And so, I don't know if you've noticed, but it's just maybe me, but every time I go to the grocery store, which is a very rare occasion, by the way, there are sightings of me at Walmart and people photographed me, but they're blurry just like the Sasquatch.

So if you ever see me at Walmart and you take a photo to prove it, I guarantee the photo will come out blurry. It's the weirdest phenomenon. But on those rare occasions that I go to Walmart and I look, I'm looking for the shortest line.

I am not looking for a long line. And if it just so happens that there are 20 people trying to check out and there are two checkers, which seems to be my fate in life, I roll my eyes and I behave like an infant.

I behave like a child. It's like, meh, this is just a terrible thing. But the point is that when you're having a lot of people queue up for their sacrifices, human nature being what human nature is, you're just saying, I know what the solution is.

I'm not gonna wait for the priest to do it. I'll go do it out in the open field. I'll sacrifice itself and I'll bring the dead animal myself to save some time. And that's what's happening. So the Lord is saying, so if you're gonna do that, actually finish the task.

Don't just sacrifice and say, I'm done. Sacrifice, now bring the animal and get back in the queue. You know, that's kind of the idea behind this.

Is that their version of a self-checkout line?

Yes, their version of self-checkout, right. And notice no computers were involved too. Anyway, so the priest shall throw the blood on the altar of Yahweh at the entrance of the tent of meeting. So they still have to queue up, bring the animal and have everything brought to the tabernacle.

So they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons. Now this is the other part of it then, is that there were some who under the pretense of I don't wanna queue up, I'm gonna go and offer my sacrifice to Yahweh out here.

What they were in fact doing then, this is the other piece of this, what they were in fact doing was not worshiping Yahweh, not offering a sacrifice to Yahweh. They were believing in goat demons and sacrificing their animals to them.

And so you'll note then by God requiring, if you wanna go and sacrifice out there, that's fine, bring your animal, queue up and we'll take the blood and put it on the altar. But if you don't, you're gonna be guilty of blood guiltiness, but actually what they're really guilty of then is not being impatient, what they're really being guilty of is idolatry.

And so God is putting an end to this practice. And by allowing them to sacrifice out there but still have to queue up and bring your animal to the priest. So this shall be a statute forever then for them throughout their generations.

And you shall say to them, anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice and does not bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting to offer it to Yahweh, that man shall be cut off from his people.

Now a little bit of a note here, let me back up into seven, I wanna show something. And this is another theme of the Old Testament and one that is not flattering and one that is quite stark in its verbiage.

And that is that, a good way to put it is that when somebody breaks the first commandment, they're an idolater. And there is a sense then even with the children of Israel, that God has talked about being a husband to Israel.

And this is the type and shadow that gives way when we recognize in the New Testament that those who are believers in God and trusting in Him for the forgiveness of their sins because of what Christ has done, that the church collectively is the bride of Christ.

And so what ends up happening then is that to commit the sin of idolatry, if you are married to God, God uses language that invokes sexual immorality. So that the person who has sacrificed an animal to a goat demon, it uses the word, so they shall no more sacrifice their sacrifices to goat demons after whom they whore, whore.

So and you'll see this theme throughout the Old Testament. Idolaters are likened to adulterers. People who worship false gods are described as whoring after them. And there's some very, very graphic depictions throughout the prophets.

I would even think of the prophet Ezekiel where the language is so over the top. It's almost like not safe for work. You know, talking about, you know, you're like a whore who spreads her legs for everybody.

I mean, this is how the Bible talks about idolaters. So I mean, and you sit there and go, wow, that is strong, that is harsh, and that's kind of the point. And so idolatry and adultery are just smashed together as themes within the scriptures.

And so, you know, when we see language like this, this is to get your attention, to pay attention to just how serious idolatry really is. All right, verse 10. Now if anyone of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I'll set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among the people.

For the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Now, this is an interesting prohibition.

And this prohibition doesn't exist today. I mean, I'm thankful for this because otherwise our steaks would be really dry. You know, so when you go to Texas Roadhouse and you order yourself a steak, you'll notice that it's nice and moist and juicy and hot and, ah, right?

You'll get a little of the shrimp to go with it and the garlic bread, ah, anyway, sorry, my apologies. Okay, yeah, yeah, oh, and the honey buns, oh, oh, yeah. All right, anyway, so we're thankful because we're not required to drain the blood out of the beast and so we still, you know, whenever you're having a steak today, unless it is kosher, you know, it's been slaughtered according to Jewish tradition, which would require them to bleed out the dead animal after it had been killed, then you have nice, juicy steak.

So, you know, we eat blood all the time. But the prohibition here is actually quite fascinating because you're gonna see this recurring theme in scripture. The life is in the blood. The life is in the blood.

Do not eat the blood of these animals.

Why, God?

Because the life is in the blood. The life is in the blood, right? Over and over and over again. And then note here what it says. The life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Now, that's the type in shadow. Whose blood is the one that makes atonement by his life?

Christ's.

And so you'll note then that coming into the New Testament, something stark happens. And that is on the night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to the disciples, and he said, take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you.

And you'll note this is perfectly consistent with the Old Testament sacrifices because they were to consume them. And then the thing that really stands out. Take, drink, this cup is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins.

And so now you can see a Jew just sitting there going, what, what, what? In fact, we even have a biblical text where they go, what, when it comes to Christ proclaiming eating his flesh and drinking his blood?

We'll take a look at that in a second. But now you'll notice here, you don't eat animal blood, you don't eat animal blood, you don't eat animal blood, and they're the only nation forbidden from eating animal blood.

And why? Because the life is in the blood, the life is in the blood. Now, Jesus says, take, drink, this is my blood. Okay, this seems like a complete reversal, Jesus. Yeah, the life is in the blood. And so you'll note then, that Christ doesn't want you eating, you know, drinking the blood of animals.

Instead, he wants you to drink something quite different, which takes us to the New Testament. John chapter six, and after the feeding of the 5 ,000, John records for us this fascinating dialogue. And the dialogue has to do with the people who were there for the miracle, they want to make Jesus king by force, because they perceived that he was the one prophesied in the Old Testament.

So it says this in John chapter six, verse 25, and watch how the typology gives way to the substance, which is Christ. So when they found Jesus on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here?

Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

For on him, God the Father has set his seal. Now, what you're gonna note here, so they want to make him forced, Jesus heads over to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, they find him, how did you get here?

He actually walked on the water that night. That's how he got to the other side. And so notice Jesus is saying here, listen, you're here not because you saw the signs. The signs would have pointed to me and told me who I am, and that you are to believe in me.

But instead, the issue was they missed the point. The sign was to point you to the fact that they were being fed miraculously in the wilderness, like the children of Israel, like their fathers before them had been miraculously fed in the wilderness by manna, and that would point you to the fact of who Jesus is.

So the issue is they missed the whole point of the sign, and rather than seeing Jesus for who he is, it's like, whoa, this is a guy who can solve our poverty issue and make it so that we never have to be hungry again.

If he can multiply loaves and fishes, imagine the grocery store chain that we could set up with Jesus at the central distribution point. That's kind of the point of what's going on here. So Jesus rebukes them, and then he says this, do not work for food that perishes.

Work for the food that endures to eternal life. And what food is that? This is the food which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, God the Father has set his seal. So then, best question in all the scripture, they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

It's a really good question. It just needs to be tweaked a little bit. Jesus' answer to them, this is the work, singular, of God, not works, work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, well, what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

Good night. What work do you perform? Now, Jesus performed the quintessential miracle that would have pointed them to who he was already. He did it the day before. So they want another sign. What work do you perform?

And now they recognize that what he did yesterday in this text had something to do with what happened to their fathers. Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

All right?

So the bread from heaven that they were given to eat, that's the type and the shadow. That's the symbol. The substance is found in Christ. So watch now, Christ takes the Old Testament account of how the children of Israel in the wilderness were fed bread from heaven.

And he points now to what the fulfillment of that is. And he says, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

So they said to him, sir, give us this bread. And Jesus is all, okay. I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger. Whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet you do not believe.

All that the father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

This is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, I am the bread that came down from heaven.

They said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? So Jesus answered, do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. Not that anyone has seen the father, except he who is from God, he has seen the father.

So truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. So now, again, Jesus making it very clear. That manna in the wilderness was always pointing to me. I am the bread of life.

Now, you can just sit there, you can see their Jewish wheels spinning, because he's not really saying what I think he's saying. Is he saying that? No, he can't be saying that, all right? And you watch how Jesus doubles down.

He says, your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness.

They died.

This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. So notice, Jesus here says, you can see they're going, ah, and he says, I'm the bread that came down from heaven that anyone who eats of it, Jesus pointing to himself, may live and not die.

And they're going, no, no, what, what? He can't mean that. It doesn't mean that. It can't mean that. So, if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever, and the bread that I give for the life of the world is my flesh.

Now they're incensed, okay? So note, Jesus here's making this really clear, okay? And so, the Jews disputed among themselves, saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Now, note what Jesus doesn't say next.

Oh, that's gruff.

No, I didn't mean that.

That's not what he does. He doesn't sit there and go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you misunderstood me. I wasn't really talking about, you know, you eating my flesh and stuff.

That's really weird.

That's not what he does. Watch what he does. How can this man give us his flesh to eat? So Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and, what? Drink his blood, you have no life in you.

What?

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life. I will raise him up on the last day. And here's the reason why. For my flesh is true food. My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in them.

As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died.

Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever. Does that seem pretty clear to you? That's about as clear as it gets, right?

And they have

That's why we need to take the...

Yeah, you'll notice. It's gift.

It's all gift.

It's all gospel.

Total gospel.

And so you'll note then that this... You have abide with me, fast comes the even tide. We've heard those sermons over and again about the importance of abiding in Christ. Well, notice here that when we have the Lord's Supper, we are abiding in Christ and he is abiding in us.

Yes, sir.

I can't remember who was who, but didn't like... Was it the Pharisees that believed? They believed in life ever after and the Sadducees didn't?

Yeah, that's correct. That's the reason why they were sad, you see.

So then how much of the Jewish population believed in life after death?

The majority, the majority. Yeah, yeah, right. The Sadducees were really kind of a minority in their thinking. They were kind of more like the liberal skeptics of their day, denying the resurrection, things like this.

They were a lot more cynical when it came to the scriptures, although they were quite adamant in their belief in them. They found funny ways around them. The Pharisees were, they were heretics because they were adding to the texts, but they were very fervent in their conservatism as far as believing that the Bible was the word of God, that the Torah was the word of God.

However, as part of their theology, was this belief that God had given them the authority to interpret the scriptures and that not even God himself had the authority to interpret scriptures. So it was purely up to them to do so and that was their prerogative and so they came up with some pretty fancy interpretations.

So then did the Jewish people, it was obedience and works that they felt. And then how did they know they were saved or was it like they weren't sure?

Okay, good question. So a little bit of, little extra biblical history in this sense. So at the time of the rise of the Pharisees, there was a counter movement against them. That counter movement exists to this day and it's in the group of Jews called the Karaites.

And the Karaites are the Sola Scriptura Jews who were fighting against the Pharisees. We don't read about them here, but history tells us about this group. The Karaites always saw the Pharisees as usurpers, as people who had no calling to be teachers in the synagogue and saw that they were adding to the scriptures and had this pious mythology that they put around it.

And so here's the thing, is that scripture is clear and here when we go into, for instance, the book of Romans and in the book of Galatians, both of them make it painfully clear that the law was never given for the purpose of saving anybody.

And that every patriarch in the Old Testament who was saved from Adam all the way to Malachi, that everybody was saved by faith in the promises regarding the Messiah that would be fulfilled in Christ.

So they trusted in God and the promises and they believed his word and they weren't saving themselves by their works, they were saved by grace through faith. Abraham saved by grace through faith, David saved by grace through faith.

The Pharisees came along and said it was salvation by works by keeping the law and then they added a whole bunch of other stuff to it. And so within Judaism, there was a reaction against this and there's always been historically a group of people within Judaism who believed that salvation was by faith, not by works and that works were then the visible evidence of a living faith.

But it wasn't developed, here's the thing, those words, that's a very developed view that you only get in the New Testament. But they have a proto view of that and an understanding that you're saved by believing in the promises of God.

David himself makes that very clear in like Psalm 51 after he receives the absolution from Nathan the prophet. And so there's many, many passages that bear that out. But in the New Testament, the ones that clearly explicitly teach it, you go into Romans 3, 4, 5.

Those are gonna be your core texts on this. Galatians itself, the entire book, but specifically kind of keying in at the tail end of chapter two and on into three. I mean, it's so explicit. Where the Apostle Paul says that if a law had been given by which people could be saved, then Christ died for nothing.

So the idea then is that the New Testament makes it very clear that everybody who was saved in the Old was saved by faith, the same way Abraham was. Abraham believed God and was reckoned, it was counted to him as righteousness.

So the Pharisees come and they screw everything up in their complete works, salvation by works schema that they concocted. And that's one of the other reasons why they're flat out heretics and why those who were Pharisees who converted to Christianity, their temptation to, as far as apostasy was, to apostatize in the way of works righteousness and the Judaizing heresy.

It was the Pharisees who were the ones who kind of led the charge on that and received the rebuke from God through the apostles and the anathema of God from the Apostle Paul. Yeah, question?

Right.

In fact, early Christians were accused by the Romans of being cannibals because they heard that they eat the body of Christ and they drink his blood. They were accused of cannibalism by the Romans very early on who didn't really understand what was going on and didn't make careful distinctions along these ways.

So, and you'll note then, this still becomes a stumbling block for everybody. And I love the fact that the type and shadow, and I've said it before here, but it's been a few years since I've said it, but the type and shadow of the bread from heaven in the Old Testament, what was the name of it?

Manna. What does manna mean?

What is it?

What's, it's hilarious to me. Okay, so there's the manna on the ground.

They're all, manna, manna, manna, manna.

Yeah, what is it?

Okay, so, you know, we have the elements today. And I would hold this up after speaking the words of institution. And I were to ask you, manna, what is it?

Right?

Isn't that fascinating? Well, the scriptures say it is bread, wine, body, blood. And this is where we make a distinction, and we get shot at from two different directions as Lutherans, because Rome has this doctrine of transubstantiation, which basically says that using the philosophy of Aristotle regarding accidents and substance, which is a weird philosophical view, but the idea then is that after the words of institution are spoken, that bread and wine cease to exist.

It's been transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ, and funny enough, it was the priest who had the power to do that because of the indelible change that occurred on him when he was ordained.

Okay, forget that for a second. So on the one hand, Rome says it's only the body and blood of Christ. Then you go to the opposite end, okay? From the Age of Reason and the Age of Enlightenment, a group within visible Christianity are gonna be your Calvinists and the Reformed, and they'll sit there and go, it can't be what Rome says it is.

Reason just says that's crazy. And so you think of guys like Zwingli and his contemporaries, Oculumpadius, and even Calvin then as a student of Zwingli and his thoughts, but he deviates from him in many ways.

They basically say, well, here's the deal, all right? So Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God in human flesh, and here's their argument. We know that a body can only be at one place at one time, and Christ is at the right hand of the Father, so it's impossible for Christ's body and blood to be present in, with, under the bread and wine.

And this was the argument that was put forward at the Marburg Colloquy. Luther's answer was to carve into the table, hoc corpus meum, this is my body, right? And this is not a biblical argument. This is an argument from reason.

So then you ask the person who is a true, kind of Zwingli disciple, all right, we know that bodies don't just float through walls, so there's Jesus on the day of the resurrection, and Jesus on the day of the resurrection appears in the upper room, even though the doors and the windows were locked because they were afraid of the Jews.

How did he get in? Answer, and I'm not making this up, he climbed in a window when no one was looking.

Really?

And so here's, and this is where the rub then is, is that their arguments are based upon human reason, what we think is reasonable, but it's not based on what Christ said. Christ says, this is my body, this is my blood, and in John 6, he punctuates the point, doubles and triples down on the fact that his body and his blood are true food, true drink, and he makes it clear that the man in the wilderness was the type in shadow, he's the bread that came down from heaven, and anybody who eats his flesh, drinks his blood, abides in him and has life, period.

And you sit there and scratch your head and go, my brain hurts, all right? So now, on the other side of it, you have evangelicals in the Reform saying, it's only bread and wine, it's just a symbol of Christ's body and blood.

And then the Lutherans come along, and we say, nope, it's not two things, and nope, it's more than two things, it's, and here's our text, I'll show you our text. First Corinthians 11, First Corinthians 11.

So we get shot at by both sides, by the way,.

Which is really funny.

The Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11

First Corinthians 11, and again, I teach on this passage regularly, but it behooves us to actually work through it in its context, so if this is review for you, that's great, but let's work through the text in context so we can see what's going on.

Every church has challenges, I don't know if you've noticed that. That being the case, because we have challenges, oftentimes you have to find correctives. Now, if you think that the church that you attend has had challenges, I would argue that we haven't quite seen anything like this.