Numbers 18, Pitfalls to the Promised Land: Boundaries

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Numbers 18 Pitfalls to the Promised Land: Boundaries

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Numbers chapter 18 be reading the whole chapter Starting verse 1 here the Word of the Lord So the
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Lord said to Aaron you and your sons in your father's house with you shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary and you and your sons with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood and with you and With you bring your brothers also the tribe of Levi the tribe of your father that they may join you and minister to you
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While you and your sons with you are before the tent of the testimony They shall keep guard over you and over the whole tent
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But shall not come near to the vessels of the sanctuary or to the altar lest they and you die
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They shall join you and keep guard over the tent of the meeting of for all the service of the tent and no
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No outsider shall come near you and you shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar that there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel and Behold, I have taken your brothers the
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Levites from among the people of Israel they are a gift to you given to the Lord to do the service of the tent of meeting and You and your sons with you shall guard your priesthood for all the concerns
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All that concerns the altar and that is within the veil and you shall serve.
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I Give your priesthood as a gift and any outsider who comes near shall be put to death
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Then the Lord spoke to Aaron behold I have given you charge of the contributions made to me all the consecrated things of the people of Israel I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual due
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This shall be yours of the most holy things reserved from the fire every offering of theirs every grain offering of theirs and every sin offering of theirs and every guilt offering of theirs which they render to Me shall be most holy to you and to your sons in a most holy place
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Shall you eat it every male may eat it? It is holy to you This also is yours the contribution of their gift all the wave offerings of the people of Israel I have given them to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual due
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Everyone who was clean in your house may eat it all the best of the oil and the best of the wine and of the
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Grain the first fruits of what they give To the Lord I give to you the first ripe fruits of all that is in their land
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Which they bring to the Lord shall be yours everyone who is clean in your house may eat it
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Every devoted thing in Israel shall be yours everything that opens the womb of all flesh
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Whether man or beast which they offer to the Lord shall be yours Nevertheless the firstborn of man you shall redeem and the firstborn of unclean animals
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You shall redeem and their redemption price at a month old. You shall redeem them You shall fix at five shekels in silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary, which is 20 giras
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But the firstborn of a cow or the firstborn of a sheep or the firstborn of a goat you shall not redeem They are holy
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You shall sprinkle their blood on the altar and shall burn their fat as a food offering with a pleasant aroma to the
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Lord But their flesh shall be yours as the beat is the breast is waved and as a right thigh are yours
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All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you and to your sons and daughters with you as a perpetual
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Do it is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you and the
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Lord said to Aaron You shall have no inheritance in their land. Neither. Shall you have any portion among them?
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I Am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel to the
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Levites I give I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance in Return for their service that they do their service in the tent of meeting
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So that the people of Israel do not come near the tent of meeting lest they bear a sin and die But the
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Levites shall do the service of the tent of meeting and they shall bear their iniquity It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations and among the people of Israel They shall have no inheritance for the tithe of the people of Israel, which they present as a contribution to the
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Lord I have given to the Levites for an inheritance therefore, I have said of them that they shall have no inheritance among the people of Israel and The Lord spoke to Moses saying moreover.
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You shall speak and say to the Levites when you Take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance
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Then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord a tithe of the tithe and your contribution shall be counted to you as Though it were the grain offering of the threshing floor and as the fullness of the winepress
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So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes Which you receive from the people of Israel and from it you shall give
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To the Lord's contribution to Aaron the priest out of all the gifts to you
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You shall present every contribution due to the Lord from each its best part is to be dedicated
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Therefore you shall say to them when you have offered from it the best of it then the rest shall be counted to the
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Levites as produce of the threshing floor and as produce of the winepress and you
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May eat in eat it in any place you and your households For it is your reward in return for your service in the tent of meeting and you shall bear no sin by reason of it when you have
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Contributed the best of it, but you shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel Lest you die
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If the Lord had his blessings the reading of his word How do you like numbers 18?
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Well, have you ever stepped over a line, you know cross the boundary that you weren't supposed to cross
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Um trespassed been offsides in football, maybe well just a couple just a couple of weeks ago when we were on a vacation
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We stayed overnight at Newport News Y 'all know that area very well there and I went running that morning at looking for a park the
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Newport News Park But totally unfamiliar with the area and as usual as I was running
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I was running I run against the traffic which means I'm on the side of the road. The cars are coming toward me
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I'm running down this there's this wide Ford Lane Road. I believe it was called
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Fort Eustace Boulevard. Is that right? Yeah, and I believe it's called and I I see on the other side of this wide road.
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There's this checkpoint Stopping cars for some reason. I don't know why And but I'm you know
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I keep running past where the checkpoint was and soon a police like looking car comes around It looked like a police car but it's actually from the
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MPs coming from the checkpoint and they came around to me and they rolled down their window and They told me that I was going the wrong way
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That I was running on to a military base. I was trespassing and So I asked them for directions and and I turned around now.
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Thankfully they were very polite and professional But I'm sure if I had continued trespassing
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I just ignored their warnings that they could have gotten very stern and probably physical very quickly
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Well, maybe you've stepped out of line Been offsides done something. There's not your right to do
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Spoken maybe when you're supposed to stay quiet Now that the school year is back. I remember at least
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Not quite back for some of you, but it's close I remember but I remember my time substitute teaching which the main job is to tell kids to be quiet, right?
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Basically, that's what it is because they they think it's their time to talk but it's not they're supposed to be listening
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But it's as though they believe that whatever silly little thing they have to say It's much more important than whatever they're supposed to be listening to but they don't know their place
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And so they're often stepping out of it problems come when people step out of their place now we
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Americans don't understand this because our heads are filled with this kind of egalitarian philosophy that Anyone can be anything that they want to be there's no boundaries.
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There's nothing holding you back And this has now reached the point where we can ignore we're told we can even ignore
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Biological realities can norm our own chromosomes our own anatomy like our sexual identities
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There are no boundaries. We're told now even between men and women anymore Well in Confucian philosophy great emphasis is put on on boundaries
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Know your place in the family your husband father wife the mother or a child
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That pretty much determines what you do. The father takes care of the external things You know providing protecting the mother is the secretary of the interior so to speak ruling the roost and Often dealing with a spirit world to ensure peace at home
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It may be taking care of the kitchen God or the ancestors or the feng shui To arrange the best and flow of things in the home the children honor and assist
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Even if they're adult children They they help financially disruption happens
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Problems occur when wonder one doesn't know One's place when steps out of line
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Confucius said to go beyond is as wrong as to fall short You know, we probably quote
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Confucius more than any other the church in this area I bet anyway Some traditional churches have very strict rules about who can do what?
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In sum one must be officially ordained in order to give the Lord's Supper or even just to speak in church
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Come come stand behind the pulpit others go to the other extreme, you know, there are no boundaries
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We're just we're all priests. There's the priesthood of all believers to put great emphasis and so anyone can do anything at any time and so, you know when they and they'll allow people to preach that just They because they feel like it
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Itty man almost and the quality of preaching will often show that the Bible does teach though The church like Israel is a royal priesthood.
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That is between We got people of God are between God and the world, but that doesn't mean that in the church
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There there are no boundaries Though there's did not any different roles for different people
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We saw in first Timothy that God created elders or overseers and and deacons and he did that for a reason didn't he?
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If we ignore those reasons, we're stepping over boundaries Israel has just gone through suffering for many of their leaders getting out of their place 250 leading men thought that they could offer incense at the tabernacle, you know, they were they were all
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Levites I think it's not even just Levi. So just any God will accept me. I'm a chief of the
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Israel I can do it because I feel like it and two others were so defiant They wouldn't even come to the tabernacle when
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Moses told them to you know, they thought he'd stepped out of line They kept telling each other you you're out of place but the ground opened up and swallowed them and The 250 others who thought they could burn incense were were burned themselves
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There are boundaries Not knowing where those boundaries are is a pitfall if you think you can go anywhere you want to go
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You're mistaken Sometimes the MPs will come along and politely or not
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Tell you that you're trespassing Teachers will tell you to be quiet because your place now is to listen not talk
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Here on the way to the promised land we're given a lesson on Boundaries to avoid the pitfall of stepping over them
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We better be quiet and listen First in verses 1 to 7
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There is a boundary There's a very sharp boundary of around who
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Can do what? Who is to do what and what is who to do?
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The Lord speaks directly to Aaron the priest and tells him that tells him what is the role of the priest?
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The priest are the who they and they only can do what must be done bearing iniquity bearing bearing iniquity is
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The what now what needs to be done is in verse 1 that iniquity or sin or guilt?
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Must be dealt with it alienates us from God. It gives a holy
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Just God anger. It must be punished so I pause or should we just have like a
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The children are gonna go through now while they go to the restroom is maybe we have Joshua come up and play another verse
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Whatever is this going to the bathroom. It's no big deal. Anyway, I got the point
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Nick what the Bible calls it I never used the word iniquity except when I'm quoting the Bible and I looked up iniquity in there
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My Hebrew dictionary this week and you know what it means. It means sin means iniquity
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I don't you know didn't help me it didn't help me a bit sin iniquity are pretty much synonyms, I guess but Sin gives a holy just God anger is so it must be punished
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So it must be born by someone and God says who? Who is to bear it you
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Aaron and your descendants you shall bear? Iniquity that's what the priesthood exists for there is sin
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It it's the major problem that we have It's the problem that brings all our other problems
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Okay, it's the problem if it's solved everything else is small potatoes It's the big thing.
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It makes God angry at us and rightly, so Dealing with that sin problem is the most important thing that could be done for us
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So God instituted a priesthood to do that to bear the iniquity of the people so they could be right with him
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They would take the blood of the sacrifices spill that blood on the altar for the sins of the people
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Showing that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness So two major things two major warnings that we we can get from this to avoid the pitfalls one
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It is absolutely essential as I've already been emphasizing. It is our greatest need and second
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Not just anyone can bear iniquity Okay, you know if you just could you feel like doing it does it mean you can do it?
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It requires the special one who the Lord has selected
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Right, there are Boundaries around him. He has to be the right one. So first notice in verse 1 you
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Aaron. Okay, this is it is essential You shall bear iniquity connected with the sanctuary and you and your son shall with you shall bear iniquity connected with your priesthood
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In other words this elaborate tabernacle, which is just basically basically a big portable
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And beautiful is well done but is a portable temple It exists for the purpose of bearing away iniquity for dealing with the sin of God's people
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Aaron your priesthood exists To do that.
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It doesn't exist to give you a cushy job Doesn't exist to help give the nation. Good luck, you know so that they can win their battles or have good harvest
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It doesn't exist so you can give seminars on successful parenting how to raise obedient children or How to get out of debt
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It's not what exists for it exists to take care of this enormous sin problem
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That's what's necessary now sometimes churches churches forget that bearing iniquity dealing with that sin problem is
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The most important thing to be done for people and the result, you know when they get distracted when they forget that they get
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You know, they start emphasizing any other thing that they can they look for ways to draw in the crowds and they'll think well
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We'll be a center for helping people achieve success here and now and so we're always going to be talking about, you know healthy relationships harmonious families money management
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Whatever or maybe they get distracted by what people are fascinated with now politics foreblood moons and eclipse in time speculations fads maybe maybe they make the church a
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Center for social action to organize for whatever change they want to make in society around them
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Or maybe for socialization It's the church didn't become sort of a sanctified youth or maybe senior center
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Maybe it's to simply host Chinese social groups. So you get around and drink tea and eat whatever y 'all eat or maybe to host basketball games keep the kids off the streets, you don't you know and Even keep them out of trouble
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Even if you don't tell them the gospel now, those aren't bad things all those things are listed.
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I think are fine things They just aren't necessary What is necessary is that our sin be dealt with and the tabernacle was about showing how sin was going to be dealt with and the church now is about showing that it has been dealt with our essential role on earth as the church as the sanctuary of the
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Lord as the royal priest is To show the world that iniquity has been past tense born
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Now who did it? You know not us we didn't do it we can't do it
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But our one great high priest we saw last week who brought life from death after being crucified on a piece of wood
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Isaiah 53 says that the servant he calls him the servant Jesus was crushed for our iniquities.
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There's that word iniquity again. He's the one who did the what?
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Who bore our sins? Now the point of this passage numbers 18 is is that there is a boundary around him here only the priest could bear iniquity
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Only they could take care of sins some of the Levites just before this we saw last week thought that they could do it, but the
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Lord burned them all up and Demonstrated with Aaron's rod budding and then producing almonds producing life overnight that only the one that the
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Lord selected Could do it there was a sharp boundary around the one who could bear iniquity the
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Levites were to help and They were to guard that but they themselves didn't even do it notice verse 4 the
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Levites were to keep guard so that no outsider Can come near someone that's not supposed to be offering sacrifices the
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Levites are there sort of there's a royal guard sort of like MPs, right? That they were like those
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MPs at the checkpoint in Newport News they keep out the trespassers like me They were to make sure that only those authorized to come into the temple to the tabernacle could do so Aaron and the priests in verse 5
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Themselves had the responsibility of guarding with called the holy place or it calls it the sanctuary Which is sort of this inner part inside the tabernacle only the priests could go
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Not only and somebody's got to make sure that only the priests go in there the priests themselves did that they guarded it in verse 7 they guard the priesthood by not letting in just anyone
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Do the role of the priest and not just anyone could do priestly things everything that is says within the veil
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Right in that what's called the sanctuary that holy place. It's sort of a little buildings tent inside the tabernacle inside there was a veiled off curtain off area called the
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Holy of Holies and Inside that veil only the high priest was supposed to go and only once a year that the veil was a boundary
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Within the veil was something so holy only a Very few men could go in there the and the holy the high priest would go in there offer the blood of the
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Atonement was placed on the Ark of the Covenant and that blood covered the sins of the people and that bore away the sins or At least it looked forward to when it would really be born away now within the veil
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Was our salvation Only the right priest was to enter Within the veil and to provide for our salvation.
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So if any outsider crosses the line to the sanctuary to do priestly things
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He is to be put to death In 2nd Chronicle chapter 26
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King Uzziah of Judah says he became strong. He was a good king. He helped Build up Judah God blessed him for a while, but he grew strong and what happens when people come successful prosperous strong says he
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Second Chronicle says he grew proud to his destruction Now he thought his king
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There were no boundaries not for him He could do whatever he wanted and like the kings of other nations that he could even do the roles of a priest
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And so he entered the temple to burn incense on the altar and you might think well, how pious is he? You know when they had so much problems with idolatry, what's wrong with a king wanting to offer incense to the
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Lord? What's the big deal? He was crossing the line. He wasn't supposed to cross You know, he thought he could like those 250 men in number 16
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He could burn the incense like they thought and of course Uzziah was a king He wasn't just the chief of wasn't one of just one of the chiefs of a tribe
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He was the king of the whole nation, but not even he could do it, but he's gonna tell him he's trespassing Who's gonna he's gonna tell the king you can't come in Well as the
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Raya the high priest did exactly that it was his job is he probably knew numbers 18
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It was his job to guard the sanctuary in the temple from intruders even from Kings So he took 80 other priests with him
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Whom the Chronicles calls men of valor They're men of valor because they're brave enough to tell like even a king you've stepped over the line
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There's a boundary you not even you as a king You can't cross it and they withstood the king and they told him it is not for you use
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I had a burn incense to the Lord But for the priest their sons of Aaron who are consecrated to burn incense
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Go out of the sanctuary for you have done wrong and it will bring you no honor from the
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Lord God Think of the courage that takes to tell a king get out of here But he did it and that made you
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Zaya angry. He's a king He's not used to anyone telling him. No, and he had a censure in his hand and was getting angry at the priest
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I'm probably was about to tell them off When suddenly leprosy broke out on his forehead and they started to rush him out and he panicked and he started run out himself
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Knowing that the Lord had struck him from then on The king had to live in a separate house all quarantined by himself
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Excluded from ever entering even the normal part of the temple He couldn't enter the house of the
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Lord again the penalty for crossing that boundary is death So the
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Lord struck him who had been a good king up until then with the slow disgraceful death of leprosy
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Christ has dealt with our sins No one else can and we must strictly guard the uniqueness of what
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Jesus has done Hebrews chapter 10 verse 12 says that Jesus our priest offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins
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There's only one he offered it. It is totally unique and like the Levites here.
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We need to guard that Not let people think that they can add their own little sacrifice to it that you know maybe they'll feel only if they'll if they'll sacrifice chocolate during Lent or maybe sacrifice some of their money or Whatever they sacrifice then they'll that kind of adds on to Christ sacrifice if that helps it make it really effective for them
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No Don't let people think that Jesus is maybe well, maybe he's our sacrifice here in America But if you're in China Then you follow the
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Buddhist way or maybe you sacrifice to the ancestors there and that will take care of you find enough No There's no substitute.
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There's no equivalent for what Christ did Not for you. It's for all people one sacrifice.
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Does it matter your religion or your culture or your nation One utterly unique sacrifice that must be guarded.
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That's why we take the Lord's Supper To remember what he and he alone
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Did that's why I often pray before we take it that we remember that we never need to look for any other cure for our sins other than what he provided we guard the boundary around the sacrifice of Christ by Insisting that only in what he did is our sin
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Born away Only in what he did is it taken care of? Only what
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Jesus did is the wrath of God satisfied No other way
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Then the tabernacle or then later the temple Portrayed that it's what it portrayed and it portrayed that in sacrifice after sacrifice
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But it never but never did those sacrifices actually take away sins. They just portrayed that it was coming
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That's why they they had to be done The sacrifices had to be done again and again for generations for centuries now, but once sin was effectively taken away
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Once our iniquity was born Then the veil in the temple was torn that that boundary here remember
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It's within the veil you only you can go Aaron But when Jesus took care of our sins, then the veil is torn
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So that we can see that the way to God Wasn't through offering animals or money or depriving ourselves of treats or maybe go into church
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Whatever you think it is that you you can get to him, but it was through Christ Alone the tabernacle portrayed that and now the church is to proclaim it now in 1st
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Corinthians chapter 3 verse 17 says that God's holy temple That's you that means
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God's actually says God's temple is holy. It means it's set apart It has boundary markers.
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Something is holy means it's marked off from everything else The church is holy it's marked off and you plural y 'all all of y 'all are that temple
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There's a boundary line around you. That's why we have meaningful membership That's just so we would know who is in the church and who is not we need boundaries
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Then that then in those days that the temple was maintained with the contributions of of Israel the the ties
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In verse 8 he from verse 8 on here The Lord speaks to Aaron to tell him about the contributions given to the
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Lord Aaron has charge over everything. It says given to the Lord Now Paul says in 1st
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Corinthians chapter 9 that the same principles that ruled in Aaron's country Israel's contributions
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In their contributions and their offerings those same principles now in the same way He says rule in the church here in numbers 18.
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We see eight principles For our giving to the Lord eight. Okay, and we'll try to go very fast, but there's only there's eight of them ultimacy continuity variety sanctity quality universality
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Necessity and finally glory got them all to rhyme Noah. You should feel good for first the ultimacy
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Who is the ultimate one? That we give to Well here in verse 8 the contributions are made notice.
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The Lord is speaking. He says the contributions made to me They are ultimately given to the priest
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They aren't just practical donations, you know to keep the institution afloat, right? You got to give money some of the non
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What do you call it? Nonprofit organization it depends on giving so you got to if you want it to exist you got to give to it
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This is sort of practical it Here Israel, it's something more something beyond just that It's given to the
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Lord notice for us, you know when we just started and Everything was kind of up for reinvention and change we can do anything
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We want I considered not having an offering during the service just a donation box at the back You know is and but but that would suggest that the money given is just to pay the bills you know to keep the lights on and Provide my salary, but here what is given is ultimately given to God notice.
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God says that they've given it to me Not just to the tabernacle to the priest. That's why the offering is an act of worship
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It's not just a practical fundraising gimmick second Continuity the
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Lord begins these instructions on the contributions in verse 8 saying that they are given to Aaron as quote a perpetual
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Continually eternally ongoing or perpetual do do means they're owed
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It's their right to have them He uses that phrase once again and then uses it a final third time at the very end of verse 19 again saying it is there perpetual do and then a very interesting phrase it is a covenant of salt
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Before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you covenant of salt
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But I left out a word tonight. It's a covenant of salt forever But a covenant of salt means it lasts it like salt preserves.
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God keeps his covenants You know if it just said covenant that would be enough, but he said covenant of salt it preserves and it's covenant of salt forever
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He's really intent. We understand this is ongoing isn't it? He is sure to keep this covenant in 1st
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Corinthians chapter 19 verse 4 Paul said that the same principles transfer to those preaching the gospel in the same way
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He says as the contribution to the temple went to the priest. So now there is a continuity There's a covenant of salt to ensure that those who proclaim the gospel get their living by doing it
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Third there is a variety notice verse 9 Every offering of their
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Israel all kinds of different offerings. I don't I don't even know them all I couldn't list them off the top of my head. But here many of them are listed their grain offerings
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They're sin offerings their guilt offerings something called a wave offering I think guess they waved it before the Lord and but later in verse 12 the best wine the best the first fruits in verse 13 the the right fruits in verse 14 what it's called the devoted things
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Which are those things that are they they got from their enemies when the enemy was quote, you know devoted to destruction
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It was devoted to the Lord like in Joshua chapter 7 where Achan saw in the ruins of Jericho a
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Beautiful cloak from Babylon and some silver and gold and he took them for himself when they were supposed to be devoted to the
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Lord which means they were supposed to be given to the tabernacle and thus for the priest and There is a boundary around some things that these are devoted to the
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Lord Make sure you give them For that sin for because of Achan it is one man wouldn't didn't give
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Israel suffered defeat and had to destroy Achan and his family because they wouldn't give all kinds of different gifts
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Like the redemption price for the firstborn children in verse 16, but not only money To buy things but also, you know, maybe today things the church needs your time your attention
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Help for VBS for another year of Jim jr. Coming the Lord asked you
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To give your whole life Right and in the New Testament the percentage doesn't go down it goes up.
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It's not 10 % as 100 Give your life as a living sacrifice And give all the variety of things that you do in our to him fourth
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There is sanctity To our giving the contributions are called consecrated things
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You know set apart in other words. There's a boundary around those things in verse 8 There are holy things in verse 9 when the when the edible things are eaten by the priests
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They are to regard them as as holy at the very end of verse 9 in verse 32. They are worn not to profane
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Always the contributions. Don't treat them as common. Don't just treat it. Well, it's our money.
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It's our things we can do as we want Israel is warned don't do that Don't treat the things that are long to the
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Lord is it's common and he says threat lest you die Now there's this kind of Gnostic otherworldly really pseudo spiritual part of us
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That's tempted to regard our money the things we have You know, even if we give them to the
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Lord Regard the offering as it's just something that's common. It's just cash.
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It's just stuff God isn't really concerned with that doesn't care what you do with your with your money or your property.
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You can be spiritual something Without bothering with something is it's carnal as practical as money.
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It's giving But the Lord Jesus tells us there's a direct connection between our heart and our checkbook
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Jesus tells us that where our money our treasure is there will our heart be also if our heart is with him
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We are really seeking first the kingdom of God that our money our checkbook will show that and That makes our money holy
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Fifth is Quality that the people were required to give their best all the best of the oil and the best of the wine in verse 12
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You know, don't give that cheap wine -in -a -box stuff. Don't do that. Don't give that to the Lord No one wants your wine -in -a -box
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You give the finest vintage you have all right, you're gonna give wine You give the best wine in verse 29.
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The Lord says that the best part is to be dedicated For us that means that we don't give us an afterthought, you know
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Can we after we spend on ourselves on our cars our TV packages our vacations our meals out then, you know
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We have something left over and we the Lord can get some scraps. No We give the best the first of what we have
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And then budget the rest six is the universality of giving notice that the
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Levites First they are given the tithe That's how they're supported in verses 21 to 32 the long passage there about the
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Levites getting the tithes The tithe was collected from all of Israel to support the
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Levites So they could then do their role of helping the priest now you might think then well if they get the tithe
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Levites then they're exempt from having to give the tithe, aren't they? You might think why give to a fund that goes to them
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But the Lord tells Moses beginning in verse 25 that the Levites are to make sure they tie to They get the tithe
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Coming in that's where their income comes from and then they tithe back That is they give a tithe of the tithe in verse 26
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That is they get the best of everything from Israel the best sheep and figs and whatever else
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And then they give from that the best of the best back to the priest in verse 29 so the point is
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Everyone is giving No one's exempt from giving everyone is taking part in giving now today
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Unfortunately have some pastors or preachers or teachers Apparently think that because maybe they think because they get their money from the offering or maybe because they think that they're giving sermons or giving
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Lessons, they're giving teaching that they don't need to give an offering themselves. That's why
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I do that. It's coming back to me anyway, right? Or maybe it maybe just they think their service is all the offering they need to give as though they're as Though they're in it.
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They think they're in a different class than other Christians They're kind of a rank above though The rules that apply to everyone else all the rest of you don't apply to me
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They think and really they live a horrible example, especially when people find out that they aren't really giving
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They promote that infection of hypocrisy It's a disease of hypocrisy that it tells other people you people you need to give but I don't really have to do it myself
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Here the principle is that giving is for everyone Seventh is the necessity of giving the
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Lord made it absolutely necessary For the priests the Levites because they had no land They aren't given any land what the
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Lord here calls in inheritance in verse in verses 20 for the priest in verses 23 and 24 For the
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Levites. In other words, they are not going to be allotted any farmland like the rest of Israel And that's where that's in farmland farming is how the vast majority of people in that day got their food
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You got made their living how they survived. So that means that the priest the Levites they will need they will need the contributions from Israel to survive
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They're not gonna have any food Otherwise, the Lord says to the priest in verse 20 that I am your portion and your inheritance
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Now some today again, this is that kind of Gnostic otherworldly pseudo spiritual attitude someone some today would interpret
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That means well if the Lord's their portion, they don't need any Income, right?
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Just let them quote live by faith Right not demanding the income any sacrifices from anybody, but that's not what the
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Lord here means By saying that he is their portion that he is their inheritance.
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The Lord was their inheritance. And so that means The priests get the contributions and the
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Levites get the tithes Right understand the Lord makes that absolutely necessary By not giving them land
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So now they absolutely they depend on the offerings to live today Some think that the one who proclaims the gospel should do it do it for free basically and just moonlight
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They'll even have nice little terms for that. He's a tent maker or maybe he's Bivocational is a just a very fancy word for having two jobs with all the income of coming from the secular job a
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Couple of problems with that first Surely you all know you get what you pay for right?
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Now guess what kind of preaching you're gonna get if you don't pay anything for it to Here the principle is that they are going to be provided for out of contributions.
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They shouldn't have to be moonlighters They're not even given the opportunity to support themselves
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So they have to depend on the kind of the offerings so in the same way Paul says those principles continue today
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Finally there's the purpose of giving it. That's the glory of it in verse 17
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Phrase you may just pass over because you read it many times and it has to do with these cows and these sheep and these Unclean animals and clean animals the cows and the sheep and the goats aren't to be exchanged for money redeemed all this redemption money
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What in the world is all about you wonder? Well, the that those things are not to be redeemed there to be sacrificed instead and so the priests with their families they can eat their meat for dinner, but the part of it has sacrificed which is the
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Burned fat the part that's actually burned up the fat that is in that phrase repeated over and over again in chapter 15
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But that it creates a what happens to fat on a barbecue. I Creates a pleasing aroma not only pleasing to us.
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It's pleasing. It says right there to the Lord now of all the senses the sense of smell is the one most connected with our
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Feelings in most triggers our memories and emotions. You remember a perfume you remember a smell it just brings back the part of the brain that processes incoming smells has a direct connection to the parts of the brain involved in in memory and Emotion feeling so here the
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Lord is saying that just like that Wonderful. I love the smell
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Not of napalm in the morning No, I don't like that smell but the fragrance of barbecue might bring back fond memories and pleasure.
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So so giving to him brings pleasure thoughts of pleasure to the
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Lord of the good of the good sacrifice It brings to his mind that true sacrifice of Christ that satisfies him
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But our giving brings to his mind that pleasing sacrifice
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That's why Paul says he loves God loves a cheerful Giver gives him pleasure
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You want to give God pleasure? Give that's why we do it here, you know
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Worship service is about giving God Pleasure, you know always hear our praises
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He wants to see our giving and if we understand that our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever
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How you were gonna enjoy God Probably he's enjoying if he's being enjoyable.
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He's enjoying you If you understand that our chief in is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.
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We'll give because that glorifies him and that makes him enjoy us and when he's
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Enjoying us We'll be enjoying him Our role is to give and if we've been stingy
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We've stepped out of line. We've been trespassing If we've been indulged spending indulgently on ourselves, you know
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Every luxury you want the finest new cars the expensive vacations the newest gadgets consistently Spending like that and then been tight with our giving
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We've stepped out of line the Corinthians Stepped out of line some of them like Cora and his men back in number 16
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You know some of the Corinthians said the same thing you Paul you've gone too far who do you think you are
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He's only in it for himself. Don't you know someone was accused him. And so Paul sacrificed his right to be supported by them and Sacrificed that and instead worked
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Making tents so we could have money and took donations from other churches like Macedonia while he worked in the
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Church of Corinth He gave to them But they still weren't giving
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They probably had their theological reasons, you know, the church members of Corinth man, those guys could debate theology.
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They love to talk They were great. They boasted of their knowledge. They could probably quote verses back to you
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Maybe they would you know, whatever the theology they would say we're free. All things are lawful for us
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They might say and so maybe they argued that since they didn't have to tithe that they could they then use that as an excuse
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For hardly giving at all for being just stingy and so Paul knew it was time though By the time he wrote second
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Corinthians, it's time for you Corinthians for you to learn to give But so that they wouldn't accuse him
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He asked them to give to the needy brothers and sisters in Christ in Jerusalem to someone else and he wrote to them in second
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Corinthians appealing to them to give to this and Of course really to change their whole attitude
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The Macedonians Their neighbors just to the north of Corinth that they were they were begging
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Paul says for the favor of giving beyond their means Paul says be like them but then more importantly be like the
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Lord Jesus Christ who was who was rich who had all the treasures of heaven but became poor for your sake
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Who gave it all up for you? So that you might become rich Jesus gave his life so that our sin problem could be dealt with that that enormous
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Problem we had our iniquity so they could be born so that the debt of our sin could be paid off He was the priest now the high priest forever from the order of Melchizedek He was that priest who took the blood within the veil
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Would beyond that boundary to bear away our sins and doing what only he could do his offering
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His offering was a donations given by others He offered his own life when he came into the world.
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He said in Hebrews chapter 10 Sacrifices and offerings you father you've not desired those those were never
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To bear away our iniquity to take away our sins because the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away human sins
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But Jesus said but a body you have prepared for me. That's what his body was for It was the body of Jesus that was the offering for our sins in burnt offerings
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Jesus says in burnt offerings and sin offerings you father Have taken no pleasure
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Where does he get his pleasure from? Instead Jesus came to do the Father's will to offer his own body
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That's where his wrath is satisfied, that's the pleasing aroma that comes to him that once and for all sacrifice behind the veil
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Past the boundaries we could not cross Offering the final sacrifice the one that really pleased him the one that we could not provide and then
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He sat down Finished Jesus gave his all
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So that we can now like him give our all a living sacrifice