You should have in the bulletin this morning a sermon notes page. You'll notice there the passage is Leviticus. So turn in our Bibles to the book of Leviticus, the third book of the Bible. It's the third book of the Pentateuch, the first five books, the books of Moses, sometimes called the Law. And if you're visiting, we began a little series, I shouldn't say little, but we began a series going through the whole Bible. We've gone through the book of Genesis in one fell swoop. We went through Exodus last Sunday. Don't remind me how long it went, but we went through Exodus last Sunday. And now Leviticus, so just 27 chapters, that's all. The outline gives you some details and you can use that for yourself as you read through Leviticus, I hope. I can't go through everything and so it's going to be somewhat limited in terms of what we go through. I'll highlight some important themes and some important passages and explain them, make some application for us. But I want us to read the word. And so whether you read Leviticus this week, ahead of time or whether you're, I hope, going to go back and read through it this week. And the same for next week. We'll come to the book of Numbers and whether you're reading ahead of time or reading after, that's up to you. But I want us to get into the Word and to know the contents of the Scriptures. All 66 books, we will go through them mostly one book at a time. So we come this morning to Leviticus. And you have the little notes pages I mentioned there, some little highlights for you. Well, if you've ever had a light go off in your car, which is probably all of us, some kind of indicator light, or if you just need to know how to replace something, you have reached into the glove box and you've pulled out that manual, haven't you? And we all know how enthralling that is, to read that manual. Pretty exciting stuff, isn't it? One of our favorite novels, probably, on our bookshelf is our car manual. Well, as we go through Leviticus, this is the book that everyone's Bible reading plan gets bogged down in. Genesis, exciting stuff, creation, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Exodus, we have Moses, we have the Israelites, we have the Pharaoh, we have his chariots, we have the Red Sea, we have the manna from heaven, we have the water that came out of a rock, we have quail that came out of heaven, we have the pillar of cloud and fire, the tabernacle, the glory of God, all the wonderful stuff. We come to Leviticus, and it's like reading a manual. It's like reading a manual. Commandments, laws, Regulations, how to this for the priests, how to that for the people. Yeah, one commentator said this, Leviticus used to be the first book that Jewish children studied in the synagogue. In the modern church, it tends to be the last part of the Bible anyone looks at seriously. Anybody have ever gone through the book of Leviticus in a sermon series? If you've been in this church long enough, you have. We've gone through Genesis, we've gone through Exodus, we've gone through Leviticus, and you can go back and find those on our sermon audio page. We've gone through Leviticus this morning just as a quick summary of it. Notice, first of all, the title of it, just to kind of bring us into it. The title of the Jewish scriptures are typically the first word, or sometimes the first two words, in Hebrew. So, Vayikra, which means, and he called. Vayikra, Yahweh. and the Lord called. Rabbis later on called this book Torah Kohanim. Torah Kohanim, which means instructions either for the priests, but it could also be translated as instructions by the priest. So it's the Lord's instructing the priest in certain things, we'll see, and then it also could be taken as the priest's instructions to the people. Later on it was translated into Greek, from Hebrew into Greek, and it was given the title Leviticone, which comes into Latin as Leviticus, as we know it. And that's the reason why, is because it's related to the Hebrew term for Levi, the tribe of the priest. So this is the Priestly Manual. This is a book about the priests, the priesthood, their duties, and the duties of the people towards the priests as well. Just as a quick outline, and we're going to follow that outline in our sermon notes there you see, that rabbinical title, the rabbis, the Jewish teachers, gave it the title Torah Kohanim. And that gives us some kind of an insight into possibly how the book is outlined. Chapters 1 through 16 are the Lord's instructions for the priests. How are they to sacrifice? How are they to divide the meat? What parts do they burn? What parts do they eat? What parts do the people eat? And so forth. And it's all about these holy priests offering up holy sacrifices in the holy tabernacle and keeping the camp of the Israelites holy too. And then there are their instructions, the priests' instructions towards the people and their holiness. There's instructions about the holy sacrifices because the priest would read a part of the manual then they would teach the people so there are regulations here for the people to know about the holy sacrifices they're having holy families following the holy laws of God marking their time with holy days and a holy calendar and and even more so that's chapter 17 through So in those chapters, as I'm describing them quickly, and even as you look at the sermon notes page, what are you picking up on as the overall theme of the book of Leviticus? Holiness. Holiness. The Lord is holy. And Israel was to be holy as well. The Lord is holy. and his people were to be holy as well. Let's look at a couple of texts that point that out. We'll just kind of scan through. Look at chapter number 11 briefly, verses 44 and 45. The Lord is holy and so too are his people to be holy. Leviticus 11, verses 44 and 5. For I am the Lord your God. What does that sound like from the Bible? What does that little opening line sound like from somewhere else in the Bible? For I am the Lord your God. Exodus 20, right? The Ten Commandments. So you'll see that throughout Leviticus. If you read it, the Lord is always identifying himself. I am the Lord's. So he says here, for I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, meaning set yourselves apart. Be sanctified, be holy. Therefore, be holy, for I am holy. Notice, they are to consecrate themselves and be holy because God is holy. Again, he says this in verse 45. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. So again, notice this theme. The Lord is holy, his people are to be holy. The Lord is holy, his people are to be holy. Look at chapter number 19. 19 verse number two. This is a chapter that deals with the law and it sounds a lot like the Ten Commandments. It should sound like that if you're familiar with the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20. So chapter 19, verse 2, where we read this, the Lord is saying to Moses, Why? For I, the Lord your God, am holy. Just look over one more chapter, chapter 20, verse number 26. You shall be holy to me. Notice that. So the idea of holiness is not just that God is holy and we've got to really, really strive to be holy like him. Notice there's a relational aspect to it as well. We are to be holy, notice, or the Israelites are to be holy to me, the Lord, in relation to him. Why? For I, the Lord, am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be, what? Mine. that you should be mindful of that saving aspect to it, that relational aspect to it. And finally, look at chapter 22, verse 32 and verse 33. Chapter 22, verses 32 and 33. And you shall not profane my holy name, there's that word again, that I may be sanctified or that I might be holy among the people of Israel. I am the Lord's. Who what? who sanctifies you. Notice now, the action is the Lord's. Who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord. So these passages, putting them all together, the Lord is holy. And I'll explain more of that in just a bit. But the Lord is holy. And he has separated Israel out from all the nations to be his special people. That was in Exodus 19 last Sunday. You are to be a holy priesthood, a kingdom of priests to me, he said. The apple of my eye, my own peculiar people. So the Lord is holy, and he separated Israel out from the nations to be his, and he is the one who is sanctifying them, making them holy, therefore they are to be holy. Notice that. God is the one doing the action. I'm the one who sanctifies you to be mine, he says. Therefore, be holy. That sounds like a contradiction, doesn't it? But if you know your Bible fairly well, that sounds a lot like Christian sanctification, doesn't it? I'm gonna read you this passage, and you tell me where it comes from in the Bible. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure." Who wrote that? Rabbi Saul, as I like to call him, right? The Apostle Paul, Rabbi Saul. You are to work out your own salvation. Notice, not work for your salvation. You are to work out the salvation that you already have. What does that look like? Because God is at work in you. to willing to work for His good pleasure. Because God is holy, because God is one who sanctifies, because God is one who is active, therefore you too, believer, are to work out your salvation with fear, with trembling, with reverence, and with awe towards God. That's what Christian sanctification is. People ask me, Pastor, is sanctification synergistic or monogistic? What's the answer to that one? Yes. The answer is yes. Yes, God is at work in you to will and to do his own good pleasure. God works in sanctification. But Christian, you are to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. I'm the one who sanctifies you to be mine, Leviticus says. Therefore, consecrate yourself. In other words, God is the one who not only justifies us, he also sanctifies us. But unlike our justification, which is wholly the work of Christ alone in us, sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit where he enlivens us and he enables us to begin to serve him and to love him and to serve and love our neighbor as ourself. So, the theme of Leviticus is holiness. Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy. Let's look at some of these passages together. The Lord, first of all, in chapters 1 to 16, again, these are His instructions for the priests. This is their manual for how they were to do their holy work. And the sacrifices are found in chapters 1 through 7. And as I mentioned, this is the book that we typically get bogged down in because It starts off just with a list of rules and regulations about sacrifices, and there's five different kinds of sacrifices, different actions, different people, different animals, depending on your socioeconomic status, different kinds of animals, whether it was a bull or a ram or a turtle dove, depending on how well off you were. There are all these rules and all these regulations. And these are for the priests so that they might offer these offerings or sacrifices at the tabernacle. There are five of them. First of all, there's the burnt offering, that's chapter one. This is the offering, the Hebrew term is olah, it's an ascension, is what it is, an ascension to God. This was a sacrifice of substitution. This is the most important sacrifice, the whole burnt offering, as it's sometimes called. This is the one that makes atonement for the sinner, for the worshipper. And the worshipper, you imagine yourself as an Israelite, you would come to the opening of the tabernacle. There would be this little door that would open up, or a curtain, a little opening in the curtain. You would bring your animal, your bull, your ram, your sheep, your turtle, whatever it was, and you would lay your hands on that animal's head, first of all, as a way of identifying you with the sacrifice. as a way of, we'll see in chapter 16, putting your sins on that animal. So you would bring the animal, you would lay your hands upon its head, you would no doubt confess your sins, and you would identify, this animal is me. And I give it to the priest. The priest slays it and flays it. He sacrifices it and he cuts it up. But the whole thing is burnt up on the altar. That's the thing to notice. It's what's sometimes called the whole burnt offering. But it symbolizes the taking upon itself of the worshiper's sins and sacrifice on their behalf, and the whole thing is consumed, as verse 9 says, as the smoke would arise with a pleasing aroma. to the Lord. That phrase is again and again and again throughout these chapters. So that's the whole burnt offering. Then there's this grain offering. Mincha is the Hebrew term. It's a gift that you would offer to God of grain, some kind of cake, a gift or a tribute to God acknowledging his lordship, that he is the Lord. And again, chapter 2, verse 2 says, with a pleasing aroma So you would bring your grain, you would bake it into some kind of a cake, and you would bring it to the priest. The priest would burn half of it on the altar as a tribute or a gift to God. Does God need these sacrifices, by the way? Does God actually eat these things like Zeus and all the gods of the ancient world? No. We'll come to this, but it's symbolic of something great. So, the Lord takes his part and the priests would then have a portion of it for themselves. This is how they would eat. This is how they would provide for themselves. Then comes in chapter 3 what's called the peace offering, zevach shalomim. This peace offering, and that word shalomim is related to the Hebrew term shalom. If you probably know one Hebrew word, you know shalom. What is shalom all about? Peace or well-being. It can just be translated as well-being, but peace, typically, as we understand. And again, the offerer, you would bring your animal to the gate, as it were, the opening of the tabernacle. You would lay your hands on its head to do what again? to identify that animal as you. It's a substitute. It's in your place. And you would lay your hands to give your sins to it. That's what we call in New Testament terms, imputation. The sins of... your sins aren't literally... they don't drain out of your fingers into this animal. They're just reckoned as the animals on your behalf. And so this offering would then be brought and hands laid. It was sacrificed. The fat parts, the best parts were burnt with again, verse 5 says, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Later on in chapter number 7 we read that the other parts of it were then eaten by the priests. and the offerer. This is the only offering in which the person bringing the offering gets to actually eat some of it. Because it was a way of showing that you would eat it in the holy place, you would eat it in the precincts of the tabernacle. God is eating, the priests are eating, and you are eating. What does eating together symbolize in Scripture? It symbolizes communion. There's peace between the Lord and His people. So this is a beautiful offering. There's also the sin offering, chatat, the sin offering, sometimes called the purification offering, and you'll read there in chapter 5. or chapter four, excuse me, this elaborate ritual of taking the bloods and sprinkling it seven times inside the tent. It was a way to purify all the furniture, but also a way of showing that all the sins of Israel that are sort of dirtying up, as it were, the tent of God, the house of God, those things were purified. They were washed away. Again, notice the language of what does that. It's the blood, right? It's the blood. that does this purification for sin. We can already see there's things all pointing us forward to Jesus Christ, the Lord. And there's finally the guilt offering. Asham is the Hebrew term for that. The guilt offering. This was a restitution offering for all the wrongs that you've committed against the Lord. all the sins against them, whether intentional or unintentional, you would make an asham, you would bring this guilt offering for yourself to the Lord. So these are the five offerings that the priests had to know how to offer. Now later on in our Bibles, in Hebrews chapter number nine, I'll just read some verses there, but you can turn there. In Hebrews chapter number nine, we read this, that the priests, they would go regularly into the first part of the tabernacle, the temple. That's called the holy place. Then there's the second part. What's that part called? The holy of holies, right? So you have the tabernacle, you have the first room, the holy place, the second room, the holy of holies. The writer of the Hebrews tells us in chapter number nine, verse six, that the priests would go regularly into that first part, the holy place, and perform their ritual duties, like taking the sin offering and taking the blood and sprinkling it seven times in all the parts of the furniture as a way of purifying. Then Hebrews goes on to say this, while into the second part of the temple, the Holy of Holies, only the high priest goes, and he but once a year. I mentioned this last Sunday a little bit, all the priests would go into the first part, only the high priest would go into the second part. They went in there all the time, it was a daily thing, a daily ritual. The high priest went into the Holy of Holies one day a year, the Day of Atonement, that's Shepherd 16. And he only went in there one time. That's it. Very restricted, very limited. And these gifts and these sacrifices, Hebrews 9 says, that were offered, they cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper, but they only deal with regulations of the body. imposed into the time of Reformation, speaking of some great day to come. So all these sacrifices, they were a way to teach the Israelites the holiness of God, their own sinfulness, and the way to peace with God is through substitution, through sacrifice, through purification, etc., etc. But there was a time to come, Hebrews calls it the time of Reformation. in which these things would cease. Hebrews 9.11, But when Christ the Messiah appeared as High Priest of the good things, then through the greater and more perfect tent He entered once for all into the holy places, meaning the holy of holies, not by means of the blood of goats and bulls and calves, but by means of His own blood, securing eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, the Messiah, is the one who fulfills all these sacrifices. Every single one of them. Jesus came to do and to fulfill, how many times? Once. How many times? Once for all. Once and for all. So that as Hebrews 9.14 says, you might be sanctified and purified from dead works so that you might serve the living gods. The only way to serve God rightly is through Jesus Christ, His Son. And all these sacrifices point us to that. Now, to worship this holy God rightly, these holy sacrifices of chapters 1-7 had to be offered up by holy priests. That's chapters 8-10. And in these chapters, they chronicle the actual consecration ceremony of the priests. Back in Exodus 28 and 29, Moses was given the law of God, and Moses set up this certain law and these regulations for the consecration of Aaron and his sons. But in Leviticus 8, 9, and 10, that's when it actually happens. So, Exodus 28 and 29 actually happens in Leviticus 8, 9, and 10. There was a seven-day period of ordination. Every day for seven days, there would be all these sacrifices offered. all these rituals, all these regulations. And on the eighth day, we read, notice in chapter number nine of Leviticus at verse one, it was on the eighth day, so seven days of consecration, seven days of ordination, but on the eighth day, Aaron and his four sons, they offered up all the sacrifices of chapters one through five that we just looked at, and they did it for all the people of Israel. Then we are told they offered up sacrifices for themselves. For themselves. Notice in chapter 9, verse 22, it describes something very beautiful that we're going to see in Numbers chapter 6, next Lord's Day, where Aaron goes up this altar of burnt offering. It was outside in the tabernacle court and you would have to ascend up to it and offer up sacrifices to God. It was sort of a mini mountain there for them to offer up sacrifices in the presence of God. Aaron then makes all these sacrifices for all the people and for himself and his sons and we are told then that he turns to the people and he lifts up his hands, no doubt bloodied hands, and he blesses the people. What did he say? What did he say when he lifted his hands up and he blessed the people? Number six. He blesses them. Now, for homework, go read Luke's Gospel 24. After the resurrection, Jesus then after, in that period of 40 days, is teaching his disciples. And as he then goes up and ascends back into heaven, we're told that they go out of Jerusalem and all the disciples are following Jesus there. And he turns to them and he ascends to heaven. And he looks down upon them. What does he do? We're told that he lifted up his hands and he blessed the people. Go read Luke 24. Jesus did this. He fulfilled all of this. For us. And when that happened, verse 24 says of Leviticus 9, fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering. And when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. You bet they did. How many times so far have we seen fire in our story of Genesis and Exodus? We saw fire with Abraham. He fell into a deep sleep and God passed through the animal sacrifices as a flame of fire. Where else have we seen fire? The burning bush. When the bush was on fire but yet the bush was not consumed, what was Moses' response to the presence of God? What was his response, loved ones? Take off thy sandals from thy feet, for the place thou worshiped is what? Holy ground. He fell on his face and he worshiped the Lord. The pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. Exodus 40, when the tabernacle was actually constructed, what came down into the temple of the tabernacle? The cloud and fire. That's why Moses couldn't go inside anymore. It was covered and engulfed in the glory and the presence of God. When the people saw this fire come out from before the Lord and consume the burnt offering, they shouted and fell on their faces. That's worship. That's worship. And then comes the most dramatic story of all, Leviticus 10. Nadab and Abihu, verse 1, we're told, the sons of Aaron. So there's Aaron the high priest and he has four sons. Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, Ithamar. There's one high priest and there's four priests that are offering up sacrifices. So Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, they each took a censer, this metal plate, and they put fire in it and laid incense on it and they offered, they made an offering. Verse 1. So after what we've just read in chapters 1 through 5, all the sacrifices, and in the previous scene of chapter number 9, in the 8th day of the ordination ceremony, Aaron and his sons, notice that, Aaron and his sons in chapter 9 verse 1, they make all these offerings for all the people and for themselves. So they've just done exactly as God commanded them to do. And they've learned the regulations. So this scene seems like it As we begin to read it, it feels like it's kind of like on autoplay or just on repeat. Like father, like sons. The father, Aaron, has just made all these sacrifices and he's blessed the people. The fire has come down and consumed. Everyone is in awe and wonder of God. And now these two priests, they themselves make an offering, but what? Nadab and Abihu, verse 1, 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. What was unauthorized about it? Which he, the Lord, had not commanded them. Now there is one thing that is similar about these two stories of chapter 9 and chapter 10. Again, chapter number 9 tells us that the fire came down out of heaven, consumed the burnt offering. People shouted, they fell on their faces. And we read here in chapter 10, verse 2. Fire came out from before the Lord and consumed... What? I can't hear you. Consumed what? Them! Who's them? Nadab and Abihu. The Lord did not consume the offering. He consumed them. We should say to that, wow. And look at Moses' response. He tells Aaron in verse 3, This is what the Lord has said among those who are near me. The priests especially, but all the people. I will be sanctified. I will be made holy. Regarded as holy. And before all the people, I will be glorified. How did Aaron respond? How did the father of Nadab and Abihu, whose sons are dead, they are consumed and burnt to a crisp. Aaron held his peace. When offerings are offered as God commands, God accepts, and people fall on their face and they shout out to God. When offerings are offered that God has not commanded, that God does not accept, there's silence. God is serious, you see. God is serious about offering to Him authorized, commanded worship. He's serious about this, isn't He? He's illustrating that in a very painful way, but he's showing Israel and us God takes serious what we do and how we do it when we assemble together to offer to God worship. Worship must be authorized, it must be commanded, it must be given to us. How do we as creatures know how to worship a creator? Especially now that there's this boundary between us and him because of our sins and our minds are skewed and our bodies are used for ungodliness and we crawl about as the book of Acts says, groping about in the dark as human beings. How do we know how to worship God? Because God tells us how. God tells us how. What does he tell us? In his words. in His Word. I'll come to that in just a second, but hold that thought. But the point is that God takes very, very seriously loved ones. What we do when we gather. And that's why in the historic Christian church, and for us as a Reformation church, that's why what we do looks boring to people. That's why it looks strange. That's why it looks different. That's why it looks quote-unquote traditional. That's why it looks dead to people. Because we care about what God says, and we only want to do what those things that God says to do. God says, read the Word, we read the Word. God says, preach the Word, we preach the Word. God says, baptize, we baptize. God says, have the Lord's Supper, we have the Lord's Supper. God says, pray, we pray. God says, sing, we sing. God says, give offerings, we give offerings. There's not a whole lot of things that we're commanded to do, but we do those things. And we do only those things that He's commanded. He takes it serious. He takes it serious. Now, all this seems very harsh and strange. Reading these chapters, again it might be kind of tedious like a manual, but sort of switching the metaphor, reading these chapters all the way up to chapter 10, it feels like watching a medieval movie, a movie about medieval life. Say for example, medieval life in the 11th century in rural England, and all of its harsh brutality. If you've ever seen a movie about the Vikings or the invasions or just about medieval life in France or somewhere else in Europe, life is harsh. Life has a brutality to it. It has a simplicity too, but a very harsh brutality to it. So reading these chapters seems very harsh to us. Seems very strange to us. Seems very medieval to us. We have to always ask ourselves reading stories like these. What is this story saying about the Lord? What are these, what is this story? What is it saying about the Lord? He's holy. He's holy. Holiness is the fact that God is set apart from Israel. He's set apart from them. They are sinful. He's not. Holiness has a sense of separation or an idea of separation from it. But it's more than that. It's more than just that He's holy and they're sinful. It's that the Lord and His holiness is set apart. He's exalted. He is transcendent. He is majestic. He's not like us. He's God's and we are not. That's holiness. There's a very strict, as we say in theological terms, a very strict separation and division between creator and creature. And we can't bridge that gap. It takes God to come down to us in the form of his son. For us to go to him, but still as creatures. There's a creator-creature distinction here. God's holy. God is holy. So, when we come to these other chapters, I put there in chapters 11 through 15 on the outline, duties of purification. Again, it seems so harsh. It seems so harsh. But let me just illustrate it by going back to the garden where we were at a few weeks ago. God gave Adam a task in the garden. Genesis 2 verse 15 tells us his task was to work the ground and to keep it. Work it and keep it. Now that second word translated as keep it, it's a particular Hebrew word, shamar, which is normally associated with guarding something. Adam's task was to work the ground, to cultivate the earth, but also to guard. To guard. Shamar, the garden. Adam was the holy god's representative to guard the sanctity of the garden. And that helps us make some more sense of what was going on in the garden when the serpent slithered in to begin to tempt Eve. Now, when the serpent said to Eve, has God said, where was Adam? Right there next to her. As soon as that serpent spoke, and yes, we believe the serpent actually spoke, has God actually said, what should Adam have done? You should have crushed the serpent's head, just as God said to Eve after the fall, after all this tragedy happened, one day you're going to have a son, and that son's heel is going to crush the head of the serpent's seed. Adam should have done that already in the garden. He was to guard it. He was to protect it. It was a holy place, a sanctified place. He was to crush that serpent's head, but he didn't. Now, fast forward to Leviticus, and we'll get into the numbers, Lord willing, next Sunday. One of the jobs of the priests, which we think of priests as sacrificing and maybe praying, but one of their jobs and responsibility was to guard the sanctity of the tabernacle, and the same word is used, shamar. They were to guard the sanctity of the tabernacle. I'm just going to mention a couple of verses here. But in Numbers chapter 1, for example, the Levites shall keep guard, shamar, over the tabernacle. They are to guard the tabernacle. The Levites, chapter 3 of Numbers, say, were to keep guard over Aaron as the high priest and the whole congregation. as well as guarding the furnishings of the tent of meeting, keeping guard over the people of Israel as they minister at the tabernacle. Why? Why are they to guard the high priest, to guard the furnishings, and to guard the people? Numbers 18 tells us. You shall keep guard over the sanctuary and over the altar. That's where all the sacrifices were burnt. Why? That there may never again be wrath on the people of Israel. Where did wrath just appear in our story? Who did not guard the sanctity of sacrifice and offering? Nadab and Abihu. Do you want to know why their task was to guard the sanctity of the people and all the stuff? Because if they didn't, Judgment, fire out of heaven would come. That's, again, how serious God's holiness was. And we might think, well, that's the Old Testament. The God of wrath, we have the God of love. For God so loved the world. Same God. Same God. Our God's a consuming fire, Hebrews 12 tells us. So as we turn to Leviticus 11 and stories like it in our Bible reading plans, we hear about things like holy diets. The Israelites were to have a holy diet. Why? God's holy. Why did mothers and children need to be purified after giving birth, after a mother gave birth in chapter 12? God is holy. Notice it's not birthing persons, I might add. Mothers give birth to children. That's what the Bible says. That's what God says. Why all these laws about skin ailments and discharges in chapters 13, 14, 15? God is holy. What does mildew on a wall have to actually do with God's holiness? Why would having mildew in your wall be nothing more than, well, you know, some water got in and I didn't do a good job of sort of scrubbing the wall and keeping it clean. What does that have to do with God's holiness? Well, Paul tells us later on that all these laws were meant to be like a tutor teaching Israel like a child, leading them through the ABCs and the 123s of the laws of God's holiness, of their sinfulness, so that they might be led to the Messiah. All these laws were meant to teach them that God is holy, that they are sinful, that He is holy, holy, holy, that they need a sacrifice and a substitute in their place, that God is the one who sets the terms of how we approach Him. He's holy, we're not. And in these laws, in what seems to be to us exacting ridiculousness and irrelevance, these were all meant to teach them about God and about themselves. In Leviticus 15, verse 31, we read this about bodily discharges. Thus, you shall keep the people of Israel separate from their uncleanness. So if you had an unclean bodily discharge, like blood coming out of your body, you were to be separated. You were unclean, the rest of the people of God were to be separated from you, lest they die in their uncleanness. Why? By defiling my tabernacle. Again, it's the holiness of God. But is God really saying in these chapters, we might think? Are genetic defects that we might have after the fall? Are infectious diseases? Are life-altering injuries that we might have experienced actually heinous to God? Does God actually refuse us as human beings who have some genetic defect, some infectious disease, or some life-altering injury? Does He actually refuse us entrance into His family, into His presence, because of those things? The answer is no. The answer is no. Again, these were just to teach them the principles of who God was and who they were. Turn to Mark's Gospel, chapter 5. Mark's Gospel, chapter 5. These laws were temporary. These laws were just meant to be pictures, like crayon drawings to our children. These were like connect the dots for our kids. To learn basic rudimentary principles of who God is and what sin is and how we are to find redemption. And we read in the Gospel of Mark chapter 5, one such instance, verse 25 and following, this story, this tragic, heartfelt, painful story of a woman who had an issue of blood, a flow of blood. She was bleeding for 12 years and she couldn't stop bleeding. We assume and we infer that she had some menstrual cycle that would not end. And she spent all of her money, the story says, on doctors and they've made the problem worse, we read there. So she is unclean according to Levitical law. She cannot go to the temple, she could not bring a sacrifice, she could not offer anything to God. She was unclean and she had to live outside the camp. She had to literally live out in the desert. lest she defile everybody else and their sacrifices could not be offered and therefore no one can offer. She was ostracized. She was put off. She was put out. Is it because God doesn't like people who have these kinds of ailments and injuries? No, that's not the point. The point is to teach them something greater. And so it was she heard about Jesus. And you probably know the story. She snuck up behind him one day, as he was in a crowd, and she just touched his cloak. She just touched the hem of his garment. Why? She's heard of him. She's heard of this man who is being described as the Messiah, who's healing people and doing all the signs and wonders of the prophets. And she reasoned to herself, even if I just touch his garments, I will be made well. Verse 28. What happened? Immediately, the flow of blood dried up. She felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, of course, asks, who touched me? She fell upon her face in fear and trembling and she confessed the truth of what happened. She fell on her face. Didn't we just read that in Leviticus? They fell on their faces. Now Leviticus 15 verse 29 says that when you became clean from, say, a blood issue or whatever it might be, some disease, some defect, when you became clean, the first thing that you were to do was what? You were to go to the tabernacle, later on the temple, and you were to present yourself before the Lord. She's healed immediately. And what does she do again? What happens? Jesus says, who touched me? What does she do? She falls at his feet and confesses what she had done. When you become clean, Leviticus 15.29 says you go to the tabernacle of the temple and you present yourself before the Lord. What is she doing? She's doing that. She presents herself before the Lord, the one who is the glory of God, the fire, the cloud, the one who is there in the Holy of Holies, who is reigning and ruling over the very ark of the covenant itself. He is the God of glory. Now in human flesh. And in response, Jesus says, daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Be healed. Jesus fulfills every single one of these passages and these stories. And just to conclude, let me point you to this. As I mentioned earlier, when we come to passages like Leviticus chapter number 19, we read these laws, we read these rules, we read all these regulations now for the people. The priests instructed the people. And in chapter 19, verse 2, we read again, I mentioned earlier, Didn't we just read that in 1 Peter 1? At the beginning of our service this morning? Be holy. For I, the Lord, am holy. These passages, these laws, yes, some of them are temporary. Some of them are, they seem very legalistic to us. Some of them are for a time and for a place. Some of them were ceremonial and they pass, like the woman who had an issue of blood. Other laws, like the holy times and so forth, we don't necessarily follow those particular times, but our time is to be set apart to God. All these laws were their response to the God who is holy, the God who has claimed them for himself, the God who is sanctifying them, and who's now calling them to consecrate themselves. This was their response. And so the Lord has redeemed us, he's saying. He redeemed us as his people. And he promises to sanctify us. He promises to conform us more and more into the image of his Son, our Lord Jesus. And in response, God was saying to the Israelites and to us, let us devote ourselves to this Lord who is holy, holy, holy with our time, our talent, our treasure, with how we use our lips, our eyes, our hands and feet. in seeking to resist the temptations of the world, our sinful flesh, and the devil. In wanting to serve God from our hearts, with our minds, and how we use our bodies every single day. As you read Leviticus, again, different time, different place, different audience, but pray, Lord, sanctify us as your people. And as he sanctifies us, Let us seek that holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Amen? Let's pray. Our merciful God, we pray that you would open our eyes to your wonderful holiness. Cause us, Lord, to cry out to you, our holy God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And what a wonderful thing it is, Lord, that you, the holy God, the transcendent God, the creator, stooped down so low to us in your Son, Jesus. Even as we hear this wonderful truth today, we come to the Lord's Supper, in which our Lord Jesus Christ has given to us this little symbolic meal that that points us to that great, great meal to come, that wedding feast of the Lamb, where we will see you face-to-face, Lord Jesus, and be welcomed into your presence. All of our sins have been wiped away, all of our tears wiped from our eyes, all of our pain and suffering, and there's no more death in that place. And so we pray, Lord, as You, the Holy God, meet with us here in this table. Would You sanctify us? Would You fill our hearts with humble gratitude for Your amazing mercies in Jesus Christ? And we ask all this in His name and all of God's people say, Amen.