Now the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of the meeting, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you should bring your offering of the livestock and of the herd and of the flock. And his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd. Let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord and the priest Aaron's son shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the meeting. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron and the priests shall put fire on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. And then the priest, Aaron's son, shall lay the hearts, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But he shall wash his entrails and his legs with water, and the priest shall burn all the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. If his offering is of the flocks or of the sheep or the goats as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish. He shall kill it on the north side on the altar before the Lord, and the priest, Aaron's son, shall sprinkle its blood all around on the altar. And he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its back, and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But he shall wash the entrails and the legs with water. Then the priest shall bring it and burn it on the altar, and then his burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. And if the burnt sacrifice of his offering to the Lord is a bird, then he shall bring his offering of the turtle dove or young pigeons. The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring it off its head, and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar, and he shall remove its crop within the feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east side into the place for ashes. and he shall split at its wings, but shall not divide it completely. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, and the wood that is on the fire, it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. So, just how many have ever really read through the book of Leviticus before? Studied it out, thought through it, And if you haven't, why not? What are some typical reasons that cause a lot of Christians to avoid studying this book out? What do you think some of those reasons might be? They don't wanna hear the law. They don't wanna feel conviction of the law. All right, that'd be part of it, huh? Yeah, some people read it and say, boy, this is really tough. And they think maybe it's not a riveting read, is it? It doesn't jump out at you. And so a lot of times, well, why do you think that this, when you read through it, just doesn't jump out at you? What do you think the issue is? Yeah, it's very detailed. It's foreign to us because we don't do this anymore, do we? But when you come to the book of Leviticus, this book is really preventing a lot of people from, you know, a lot of people start in January when they're reading through the Bible, right? And they get through Genesis and Exodus and even towards the end of Exodus it might get a little bit difficult with some of the garments of the priest and things like that. But you make it through and then you come to Leviticus. And boy, if you can make it through there, you can pick it back up in Deuteronomy or numbers in Deuteronomy. But, you know, a lot of people, this really ends their reading in the Bible through a year. And the reason why is I don't think we understand the contents of the book. You know, for example, I've never met a leper, so I've never really concerned myself with what to do with them. And this ceremonial aspect of it that talks about a leper, for example, just doesn't seem to be very relevant to me. And so we don't really understand how to apply this. We don't concern ourselves with the color of the hair that's coming out of a sore. But this is what God is instructing His people. And so part of the thing we need to understand is how this applies later on in the scriptures. And I'm going to try to give you something to think about in just a moment. And since we don't understand the contents at times, maybe it makes it difficult early in the morning to get out of bed and jump and start meditating on the book of Leviticus. But let me get you to think about this. When you read Leviticus, put it in the overall scheme and perspective of the flow of redemptive history. Genesis teaches us about the fall and the corruption of man and how God is going to bring about covenantal blessings through a particular family line. Exodus teaches us something about redemption. What Leviticus does is teaches us something about how a redeemed people should live in a manner that is holy and pleasing to God. So Exodus teaches us something about redemption. Leviticus teaches us something about holiness. How should a redeemed people live? And so we're gonna get some principles and concepts out of the book of Leviticus. Some don't necessarily directly apply to us anymore because Christ, as our high priest, a lot of these sacrifices that are being talked about here have been fulfilled in him. And so there's no longer a need for an animal sacrifice. But the principles that are here... Think about the meticulous nature of what Moses has given the people of God. The one principle that we can get out of that is God takes his worship serious, right? And so just because the administration has changed in how we approach God in the New Covenant doesn't mean that God's not concerned about how we approach Him. And so we'll get a glimpse of God's attitude towards worship and how we should approach Him as we look through the book of Leviticus. So be paying attention to some of that as we work through this book. Let me give you something else to think about. Have you ever seen the Statue of Liberty? Does anybody know how tall the Statue of Liberty is? It's about 150 feet tall. Do you know how tall the base or the pedestal that it stands on? Do you know how tall it is? It's about 150 feet tall as well. This illustrates something I think about in the Bible. We always think about the great text that teaches about justification through faith like in Romans 3 as we went through. Or Galatians 2, Paul talks about that. Or we think about the great text that teaches on the sovereignty of God or the love of God. For example, we might think of Philippians 2 where we learn of the condescension and the exaltation of Christ. Great Christological statements. And particularly those of us who understand something of the sovereignty of God would go and say, look at this great text in Romans 9 that helps us understand the nature of God's sovereignty. But the point here is that just as the Statue of Liberty could not stand up without this foundation, these texts don't stand up without the foundation that's found in the book of Leviticus. And the more we can understand the foundation, the better we can appreciate the doctrine of justification by faith. How could God do this? You see, if we don't understand the God of Leviticus, we just think he's a God that just kind of winks at sin and, you know, it's all by God's grace and he doesn't really care about sin. Well, the book of Leviticus, when you properly study it, is going to recalibrate your thinking about God's holy nature. And His holiness has not been abandoned when we get to the New Testament. So, when we study out Leviticus, it's going to make these other doctrines, the love of God, the doctrine of justification by faith, all these statements are going to stand out even more clearer to you, and you'll have a greater appreciation of what what it costs God to secure the salvation of sinners. When we come to the book of Leviticus, There are over 60 references or allusions to the book of Leviticus in the New Testament. So here's the thing, if we want to understand the New Testament, then we need to understand something about the book of Leviticus. And some of you may say, well I'm not sure I believe that. Well what happens is when we read the New Testament without an Old Testament foundation and understanding, You start imposing interpretations and you start making things fit to your framework of thinking rather than allowing the text to fit within the framework of the foundation that's been given. Does that make sense? The Old Testament is the foundation, but we have much clearer teachings and some of the things in the New Testament help us understand the Old Testament. But when we read the New Testament, a lot of times New Testament principles that you think of are grounded in Old Testament principles. And so we want to see that when we come to the book of Leviticus. For example, in Hebrews, when the writer talks about the Day of Atonement, then you've got to step out of Hebrews for a moment and go back to Leviticus 16 to understand what he's talking about. And the writer of Hebrews doesn't go into a lot of details about the Day of Atonement. Why? He assumed they understood all that and there's not a need to go into a lot of details. Alright, so if you're going to understand the veil, the mercy seat, the offering on the day of atonement, the high priest, then you have to understand something about the book of Leviticus. And so this means you need to find the contents that have been in this often neglected book. And once again, a lot of people within the church don't look at the book of Leviticus as something that's relevant, but I think it lays, once again, the foundation to understand a lot of what is being taught in the New Testament. Now, Leviticus means pertaining to the Levites, and particularly the Levitical priesthood. It could be considered the priest handbook. The name Leviticus comes from the Latin Vulgate. The Hebrew title for this book or the Hebrew word for the opening of this text is The Lord Called. Literally, the rendering is He Called. What's interesting about this book is if we put red ink every time Yahweh spoke, it'd be probably the reddest book in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament. Almost all the book is a quotation of God giving Moses instructions. So all of this is important because God is speaking to his people. Now, when we talk about the authorship of this book, you'd think it'd be pretty straightforward, but as with a lot of things in our more modern day, it's not. We need to understand that those who believe and a man named Moses who lived among the Israelites and he was involved in the exodus of Israel from Egypt to the promised land, that represents, at least in scholarship, that represents a small minority of people who call themselves Christians. And so if you ever happen to go into any of the Christian bookstores around here, be careful because lining their shelves are books written by some of these liberal scholars and some of these false teachers, especially when you get to the commentary section. You'll find out that the majority of the commentaries on the Old Testament are penned by liberals who deny the things that we just take for granted. Just in the plain writing of the text, they will distort and twist a lot of these clear passages. In fact, in most seminaries today, their Old Testament courses, you're hearing views that were just basically unheard of for the first 1,850 years of the church. So that's what's going on in a lot of the seminaries today. So you need to be careful who you listen to. You need to be careful to who you're influenced by and what you pick up and what you read. Now the majority of these commentaries you would read that Moses, and I'm talking about the modern day commentaries. The older commentaries, like I said, before the 1900s, don't really have this problem. But a lot of them that came out, you know, With the rise of liberalism within the church starting in the early 1900s, we started seeing a lot of diverging tendencies of these commentators to get away from the historicity and authenticity of this book. Now, the majority of these modern-day commentaries would read that Moses, if he existed at all, looks very little like the Moses we read about here in the Bible. And the character that we read about is an embellishment of the Jews who wrote about him centuries after he lived. Many of the leading scholars teach that the first five books of the Bible did not take their final form until the Babylonian captivity. And so when the people came back, there was a need for instruction and this is where the book of Leviticus comes from. So what they're arguing is that the book of Leviticus didn't even exist prior to the Babylonian captivity or not in its current form. And so what is argued by these people is in the days of Nehemiah, what Nehemiah does is he just ascribes everything back to Moses in order to give it authority and credibility. Now, there's this thing called the Graf-Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis. This is a theory about the origins of the first five books of the Bible. And this is what most of your modern Old Testament commentaries are going to align themselves with. But this hypothesis, or this thesis, is that when dealing with religion, things evolve from the simple to the complex. And the theory is that the original worship of loose-knit groups of Israelites was very simple and no structure and is without form. And as time goes on, traditions are made and as these traditions are made, things get written down and you get more and more of a formalization until you come to the Babylonian captivity and restoration where you get final structured manual all put together that teaches them how to worship in order to keep them together. And then that's what they argue. This is what keeps the quote people of God together. Now let me ask you this. Why do you need to know this? You need to know this Because this is what many of the ministers and pulpits today across the land, they've been exposed to this if they went to seminary. Like I said, the majority of the seminaries today are liberal. There's a few good conservative ones out there. But what they do is they turn and they expose their congregation to this kind of nonsense. And what happens is, They promote this to the people that sit under them. And in turn, the people you come in contact on a daily basis, people who say they go to church, this is why it just seems like they study such a different Bible. Well, this liberal ideas have been laid down to get them to question the very veracity of God's word. And so when you take it at face value, they think, wow, something's wrong with you. You actually apply God's word? Right? And you probably saw this, and I mean, if you had to go to college, you probably took some kind of religion course, and you get exposed to this kind of line of thinking all the time in those courses. And so what happens is when you have an ungrounded group of people from the church, they go to these secular universities, and you have a comparative religion course, and they start trying to promote these ideas as well, well then all of a sudden, the people who go to church start accepting this as the truth, as opposed to God's word. And so they begin to scrutinize God's word under these new lenses that they put on. And so here's the other thing. These people will take these false views of these liberals and they'll promote them and repeat them as absolute truth and they'll argue that this is accepted consensus of the scholars. Have you ever heard anybody or met anybody say, well the scholars all agree on this. even if it goes against God's Word. And so we as the people of God need to not fall for that. I don't care how many scholars are put together. The reason why I like Acts 17 is you've got some of the brightest minds in Athens sitting there and Paul just walks in there with something that just rocks their world. Something they've never been confronted with. And he does it without apology, he does it without hesitation, he's not embarrassed over it, but he simply proclaims it. Well, what we need to do is put to rest this idea of these scholars. Most scholars have not studied every area of all subjects to the sufficient degree to be an expert in every area. And what typically happens is they may read something on this subject and agree with it, In other words, they take it as a given without really wrestling through the issues or struggling with the issues. And so, the next thing you know, oh, all scholars agree with it. You see the fallacy of that approach and what's happened is those of us who actually take God's word at face value and trust in it and live according to its precepts, you're made to think, well, you're just naive in some way or you're not intellectual enough and if you're smarter, you would get it. Don't fall for that. Take God's Word, read it, study it. God's Word says that those who study it, the simple are made wise. And so, understand You need to understand what's going on out there in a lot of the churches, but it does explain a lot of what we see going on in society today. But you need to understand this, not because I'm concerned you're going to fall for it, but you're going to come into contact with a lot of people that have bought this type of liberal thinking and questioned whether or not Moses wrote this or was it rewritten after the fact. So understand, this is the law that was given to the people of God and it was given to them through the mediation of Moses. Now, let me get you to think for a moment about the nature of the book of Leviticus. What kind of people are assumed in the book of Leviticus? Well, it's the nomadic people living in the wilderness. Remember, they have a tabernacle. They don't have a temple, they've got a tabernacle. And that tabernacle went with them everywhere they went. Now, if the priest wrote this book 500 years after captivity, is that what you would expect to see? Remember, this book reflects the wilderness. It reflects a wandering tribe of people. It reflects a pre-Temple Judaism. Remember, the lepers were to go outside the camp, not the city. They're instructed to go outside the camp since the camp is still moving. The idea of the people to meet at the tent of the meeting is given, which is not so easy to do once they're in the land. Once they're in the land, excuse me, they're dispersed and they're just days worth of travel. And so there are appointed times where they were to come and gather together at the temple. And so you just can't have all these tribes respond on a moment's notice. And my point here is that this theory, if it was correct, then they've created a context that was never needed. Does that make sense? If you're going to come and say that all this was rewritten after Babylonian captivity, why would they create such a wow context to just rewrite the Word of God? So there's a lot of problems with this approach and this theory. Just think about the mental gymnastics and the literary dishonesty to try to pull this off. Also, if you read through Ezekiel, you've got prophets that are before captivity, prophets during captivity, and prophets after captivity. Which kind of prophet is Ezekiel? Deering captivity. Who is his other counterpart? Daniel. So Daniel and Ezekiel are the two captivity prophets. Well here's the problem. If Leviticus was put together after captivity, how is it then that Ezekiel actually pulls from Leviticus? You see some problems with this theory that's out there that the liberals want to run to? Keep in mind Ezekiel, like I said, we know where he was in time and space. So Ezekiel is pulling from Leviticus before it was ever written if this theory is correct. So how do they handle this dilemma? Well, they just backdate Ezekiel as well. You see, it never ends with them. Unbelievers have to come up with all kinds of schemes and gyrations in the way they think to work around the truth of God's Word. But notice this. Our authority comes from Christ. He teaches us that the books of Moses did come from Moses. Christ has put a stamp of approval on the authorship of Moses. And so if you don't start with this assumption, then you open yourself to all kinds of false and distorted views. Now maybe you don't fall victim to this type of hypothesis, right? But if you don't start thinking that Christ is the final authority and there's no authority above him, if you don't start there, then you really do open yourself up to all kinds of false positions. But Christ has put his authority and his authenticity on the authorship of Moses. And so when we give up ground on something as simple as the authorship, don't think that it stops there. Because some Christians would say, who cares who wrote the book of Leviticus? Why is it a big issue? Do you now see why it's a big issue? You start giving up ground in one little place, it just creeps and it grows into something else. I mean, think about this. It started with questioning the authorship of the book of Genesis, doesn't it? And now what do we have? Now what's being questioned in Genesis? Creation. When creation is questioned, what else is questioned? the fall, God's redemption, the rest of the Bible. I mean, you start pulling the foundation, what happens to a house when the foundation is pulled out from under it? Crumbles, right? And that's what they've been doing, okay? So keep all that in mind. The book of Leviticus gives us an understanding that God desires holiness within his people. And I think that's, if they can cause you to question or have doubts about the contents of the book of Leviticus, then they've won because The book of Leviticus deals with an important subject and that subject is holiness. And so God instructs his people to be holy. Why? Why does he tell his people to be holy in Leviticus? So he's a holy God. And remember Peter picks up on that thought in verse Peter, and he reminds the church, you know what? God's not changed. He's immutable. Therefore, we are to be a holy people under the new covenant. So there's the foundations that are laid there that are not replaced. when we come into the New Covenant. Now the first chapter, so let's think about Leviticus 21. The first chapter gives us instructions regarding the sacrifice of the burnt offering and the second chapter gives us instructions regarding the meal offering. The burnt offering is an animal. The meal offering was some kind of vegetable. Notice the nature of the burnt offering is propitiatory in nature. In other words, God's wrath is appeased. When you come to these meal offerings, it's more Eucharistic. In other words, it expresses gratitude for the fact that our sins have been forgiven through the Lamb. The burnt offering, we see something of, you know, we think about the Day of Atonement, we think of justification. When we see the grain offering, it points and pictures more of sanctification. And when we see the burnt offering, and particularly in the New Covenant, we see that this is Christ's gift for us, but when we come to the grain or the meal offering, we see ourselves giving ourselves to Christ. Now, when we come out of the Old Testament, where they have the sacrificial system, is the New Testament without sacrifice? Are there any sacrifices that were called to in the New Testament? Living sacrifice. Would it be a living sacrifice, right? What else? Sacrifice of lips. Singing. Of praise, yeah. So there are sacrifices that we give ourselves to in the New Testament, but they have a different nature on them. It's not a bloody sacrifice anymore. That's been dealt with. As redeemed people now, we are living sacrifices. We are to give the sacrifice of praise. All right, so all this hopefully is starting to come together for you. A lot of times I think we think the New Testament is so truncated away from the Old Covenant, but remember the Old Covenant was preparatory. It was preparing us for something. It was a foreshadow of the better things to come. So there's not this huge disconnect between the two. the Old Covenant was pointing us to these spiritual realities. Well, let's look at Leviticus 1. Now, the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying... So here we have, in verse 1, instructions from God to Moses. And we see that the Lord called out Moses. This is God speaking at this point. We should really demand our attention. Whenever God speaks, we should pay attention. So when God gave Moses the law, it was from Sinai, with thundering and lightning and a thick cloud. Now he's going to speak to Moses from the tabernacle. What was the tabernacle? What did it represent? Yes, so that's God's dwelling place. He gives divine instructions concerning the different kinds of offerings and sacrifices. And so God is revealing to His people the things that bring Him pleasure. If we are redeemed people and our desire should be to serve Him, don't we want to know what brings Him pleasure? Well, he's telling them here. They're being instructed on how to properly worship him. And so this means we're not to indulge our personal preferences, but we need to submit ourselves to his direction. Notice his instructions, verse 2. Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock and of the herd and of the flock. So notice that God tells His servants to speak to the people of Israel. Notice the servant is to speak only to those things that come from the mouth of God. The servant is never to embellish the message, but rather he's to pass along the pure Word of God without man's invention. You say, yeah, but sometimes what God's Word said is hard. Sometimes when God's Word teaches us things, people don't like it. And you know what? They're not going to like us. So what is your response to that? Remember what Paul says, Paul says the preaching of the gospel is a stench to those who are perishing, right? Now the idea is that you're not supposed to be odorous, but the preaching of the message can be. And so, understand, we're never to embellish the message, but we take the Word of God and pass it along without man's invention. And sometimes that's hard. Sometimes that's very difficult, particularly if you have a close relationship with somebody and they need to hear the truth of God's Word. And sometimes they don't always like it. But nevertheless, you have to claim it. Okay? Notice the conditions for the burnt offering. Look at verse three. In his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd. Let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting before the Lord. Now, notice the burnt offering. There should be a male and notice the description, without blemish. And Matthew Henry makes the following notes. He that considers that God is the best will resolve to give him the best he has. else he gives him not the glory that is unto his name." Boy, and isn't that the truth? Right? The beast that was to be offered must be male without blemish, the best that a person had in his pasture since it was designed for the one that is infinitely perfect. So no animal was to be offered with any kind of deformity or defect. And you say, okay, well nobody would ever do that, right? Well, turn over to Malachi 1. Alright, so why don't we go to Malakoff. You have those before captivity, those during captivity, and those after captivity. Which category does Malakoff fit in? After captivity. So they've already been punished once, right? And you say, okay, well these are good children of God. They learned their lesson, didn't they? Well, notice what he says in verse six of chapter one of Malachi. A son honors his father and a servant his master. If I am the father, where is my honor? And if I am the master, where is my reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to the priest who despised my... Wait, there's priest who despised his name? Yeah. You say, in what way have we despised your name? And God tells them, you offered defiled food on my altar. But say, in what have we defiled you? And by saying that the table of the Lord is contemptible. And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? So ask the question. Yeah, but I mean, it's just a blind animal. What's the difference? It's going to be consumed anyway. What's the big deal? Why is this such a grievous sin? Complete disobedience. God has told them in Leviticus, don't do it. Don't bring your lame, blemished, pathetic sacrifice. I want only your best. And you think about the person who comes to worship under the new covenant. God don't really care how I approach him. You better be careful with that attitude. Right? Notice what it says in verse 8. And when you offer the blind as a sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? Offer it then to your governor. In other words, if you don't think it's a big deal to God, well, why don't you take something down to somebody you really respect? Why don't you go give him something lame? You wouldn't do it. Would he be pleased with you, God asks? Would he accept you favorably, says the Lord of Hosts? Now entreat God's favor that he may be gracious to us while this is being done by your hands. Will he accept you favorably, says the Lord of Hosts? Who is there even among you who would shut the door so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain? I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of Hosts, nor will I accept an offering from your hands. Does this get your mind a little bit more calibrated towards how God views our worship towards him and what we bring and how we present ourselves to him? I want you to understand what he's saying. I find no pleasure in you and your offerings because you're, like Mr. Franco said, you're doing it into disobedience. So can we, is it possible for the people of God to go through the motions of sacrifices here and do it in a way that's still disobedient? Is it possible for those of us under the new covenant to come before God in a way that's disobedient? But we come to church. And we sit there and we endure your sermons. We sing hymns. We pray prayers. We smile. Is it possible that we could be coming before the Lord with hands that are not clean, hearts that are not pure, hearts that have not prepared itself to enter into true worship? I think it's highly possible. I think it's very easy for us to fall into that trap of going through the motions of religion, but not seeking God on His terms. So I think there's a lot here that we can take away from this. And we need to understand once again that the God of the Old Testament has not changed in such a drastic way that He no longer really cares what His people do and how they approach Him. So notice back in Leviticus, the offering was to be given voluntarily. Whatever we do must be done in such a way to please God. And here's the thing about a redeemed people. All that we do, there must not be any other constraints on you to do it other than that of love. So when you go before the Lord, when you serve Him, is it to demonstrate, is it out of a motivation of true love for Him? Okay, so think about, let me ask you this question. Think about it this way. Maybe this will help you think through this. What is it about legalism that makes it so wicked? It's not the what the legalist does, it's the why they do what they do. Ever thought about that? Remember, when the Pharisee prays to God, Why did Jesus give them such a hard time? It's not the what they did, it's the why they did it. Can you think about that? Why was it that Jesus gave them a hard time about their charitable giving? Is he against charitable giving? It's not the what, it was the why. They're trying to take glory for themselves, they're not giving Him the glory. Alright, here's another one. Jesus gets on to them about fasting. Jesus, is He against fasting and prayer? No, He actually gave Him some teachings on it. So it's not the what, it's the why. And I think this is what we're getting to here when it comes to our worship. It's not what we do necessarily that's wicked, it's the why we're doing it that makes it or could make it wicked. So hopefully that helps you kind of start putting some of these pieces together for you. Alright, notice the procedure. Go back to Leviticus 1 and notice the procedure. Look at verse 4. Aaron's son shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of the meeting. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces." And so, now by this action, the one offering the sacrifice is identifying himself with this victim. And notice that the sacrifice would be accepted as an atonement for the individual. And notice that the sacrifice is offered as a propitiation for the sins of that individual. Now all of this of course points to the atoning work of Christ. But now when we think of the atonement of Jesus, I want us to think of something that's vicarious. What do we mean by vicarious? substitution, you know, somebody doing something in the stead of another, right? The atonement was in the Old Testament, just as it is in the New Testament, something that is vicarious. In other words, Christ's death was for his people, and so the word vicarious means someone acting in another's stead. Sin has to be paid for. And so the question is this, who's going to pay for it? Who's going to pay for our sin debt? Now, either I can pay for my debt in eternity in hell, or Christ provides the payment of my sin upon the cross. Now, remember, think about it this way. When I pay for my sin, I'm dealing with God on the basis of justice. When Jesus provides the payment for my sin, then I'm dealing with God on the basis of justice, but also mercy. Now this should be a surprise since all the sacrifices in the Old Testament were always vicarious. Think about it, no Jew ever offered himself up for his sin, but rather offered this animal up. It's always been vicarious in nature. And so the Old Testament prophecies foretold of this. And this is, everything that we see here in Leviticus is preparing us and pointing us to that reality. Turn to Isaiah 53. And notice the nature of the atonement. Isaiah 53, and look at verse six where he says, and all like that sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him. Who's he laid on him? The iniquity of us all. Who has he laid this on? When it says the Lord has laid on him, who is he talking about here in Isaiah 53, right? So Christ is pictured here as the suffering Messiah, isn't he, in Isaiah 53. So notice the vicarious nature of this sacrifice. Turn over to Galatians 3 because Paul picking up on this idea teaches us something very similar. Galatians 3, look at verse 13. Since Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, have him become a curse for us. In other words, there's no reason for Christ to be cursed except for the fact that he did it on behalf of us. So vicarious in nature. Turn over to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9, 28. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him, He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation. So here we see that Christ was offered once to bear the sins, not of His own, but the sins of others. One more, let me give you this over in 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3, look at verse 18. The grove. One second, baby. 1 Peter 3, look at verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, notice the vicarious nature of this, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. So for man to approach God, there must be a sacrifice for sin, and what we should begin to see now is that the nature of the atonement is vicarious. That foundation was laid there in the book of Leviticus, and that's what the New Testament writers are picking up. Now when we think about the word atonement, we need to think about a term, propitiation. Now I hope you guys have gotten that term by now. So I'll ask and see, what does propitiation mean? Yes, how? Sacrifice by the offering of a gift. Okay, good. So we're getting that term down. The word propitiation is a religious term. The root of this term in the Greek is hilasterion. You'd read of that in 1 John 4 10. For example, it says in this is love, not that we have loved God, but he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. So Christ's death was the act that appeased the wrath of God. And so the Greek term was used in the Septuagint. For example, remember the Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament. But this Greek term was used to refer to the mercy seat. And remember, the mercy seat was where the blood of the sacrifice was sprinkled on it to appease the wrath of God on the day of atonement. Turn back over to Romans 3. Let's just look at this again. I hope this is a good review for you. Romans 3.25, whom God, talking about Christ, God gave Christ, set forth as a propitiation by His blood. And notice the blood language here. God's wrath was appeased by the death of Jesus. And so it was through this death that Paul teaches us that God demonstrated His righteousness. God is giving testimony of His righteousness through the death of His Son. But I want you to see that God's wrath has been appeased by the vicarious death of Jesus Christ. Jesus has atoned for our sins. And so this language pops up over and over again throughout the New Testament. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 5. Look at verse 7. It says, therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be the new lump since you are truly unleavened for indeed Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. So notice this idea, this picture of Christ being our Passover. What do we think of at Passover? Well, where that animal was slaughtered, the blood of that animal was put across the doorpost. and then the language of sacrifice is being put here. And all of this is under this idea of how is the wrath of God going to be appeased? What Paul tells you here through the preaching work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5, Luke verse 7. No, I'm sorry, Ephesians 5, Luke verse 2, excuse me. And walk in love as Christ also loved us and has given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So understand what took place there upon the cross. In fact, go back over to chapter 2, Luke verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once for all have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So all this language of sacrifice, the blood of Christ. Let me give you one more. Colossians 1, look at verse 20. Well, look at verse 19, For it pleased the Father that in him all the fulness of it should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. So we notice this blood language, which points us back to the nature of the sacrificial death of Christ. And the sacrificial death of Christ is the offering that has been given to appease the wrath of God. Now notice, do we offer up Christ? Did man offer up Christ? Who sent Christ? God did. So God sent the only sacrifice that was sufficient to appease His own wrath. I mean, that's the kind of love that God the Father has for sinners. Turn over to Romans 5. Romans 5, look at verse 6. When we were still without strength and due time, Christ died for them godly. For scarcely a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love towards us. How? How does God demonstrate His love towards us? In that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. You see the great love of God the Father towards us. Turn over to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians, look at chapter 5, verse 9. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, that we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you are doing. And so the idea here is that the child of God has not been appointed to God's wrath. Why? I mean they're sinners, don't they deserve God's wrath? They've not been appointed to God's wrath, so how has that been dealt with? The sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. And so over and over again, we see this theme. And so we should begin to see the nature of the atonement. The atonement is vicarious by nature, which means we can never pull this off. It can only be done by the God-man. And also we have seen that the nature of the atonement was to appease the wrath of God. And this too can only be pulled off by the God-man. But do you see how the book of Leviticus is the foundation that helps us understand the necessity of the sacrificial system? If Christ just shows up on the scene as a sacrifice, you're like, well I wonder why that is. Well, Leviticus helps us understand how it is that God deals with redeemed people, okay? And so Leviticus is the foundation that helps you understand the necessity of the sacrificial system. Everything in the book of Leviticus is pointing us towards the work of Christ because only the blood of Christ could atone for sin. Turn over to Hebrews 10 real quick. I want you to see the serious nature of the New Testament. I'm sorry, the New Covenant. Now notice what he says in verse 1. For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. What's the problem with the Old Covenant? What's the problem with this system that's been set up? It's not wicked, it's not evil, right? But what was it designed not to do? Yeah, well, be permanent. It didn't perfect anybody, did it? How do we know it didn't perfect anybody? That's right. Think about the continual nature of the sacrificial system. Day after day after day, you're a priest and you're offering up these sacrifices over and over and over again, right? Year after year, you have to go before the Lord with the Day of Atonement, alright? So notice here, verse 2, for then they would not have...button them back up. For the law of God, verse 1, having a shadow of the good things to come. So what does that tell you about the ceremonial system? That's right. And when you read through this, it's preparatory, isn't it? It's preparing you for what God would ultimately do through His Son. Alright? So we need to make sure we keep those things in mind. Alright, Luke verse 2. For when they would have ceased to be offered, for them would they have not ceased to be offered. For the worshipers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sin. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Therefore, When He came into the world, He said, Sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for Me. And burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come. In the volume of the book it is written of Me to do your will, O God. Previously saying, Sacrifice an offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin, you did not desire or had pleasure in them which are offered according to the law. Then He said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first that He may establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Think about how Leviticus ties into all that. It's preparatory. It's pointing us towards something. So here's the understanding. We're not abandoning the foundation because the foundation is what we build upon. But if the ceremonial law and what we're going to read in Leviticus is a shadow of the good things to come, then when do we stop looking at the shadow? You see the substance, right? The real thing. Whatever's casting the shadow. And so we put our eyes on Christ. And that's the point. The shadows, you know, the shadow of the good things to come was all preparing us and making the way for Christ. But then when Christ comes upon the scene, we turn our eyes and look to Him. And the book of Leviticus helps us understand and pull all that together. Okay? Now turn back over to Leviticus 1. So, when you read through the book of Leviticus, start asking yourself, how does this prepare me for the good things to come? How is Christ hidden within these words? And hopefully that will help you as you work through the book of Leviticus. Now, notice in verse 7. Notice the role of the priest. The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. Then the priest, Aaron's son, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But he shall wash his entrails and his legs with water, and the priest shall burn all the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. And so notice here, the priest was to keep this fire burning. He was to provide the wood and keep it going. He is responsible to clean the insides and the legs. He is to ensure that the sacrifice also is completely consumed. Now notice here, so that was his role, or one of the things he did. Notice the offering from the flock in verse 10. If his offering is of the flock, or the sheep, or the goats, as a burnt sacrifice, he shall bring the mail without blemish. He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord and the priests, Aaron's sons, and shall sprinkle his blood all around the altar. And he shall cut it into pieces with his head and his fat, and the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But he shall wash the entrails of its legs and its water, and the priest shall bring it, and all of it burnt, or burn it on the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord." So we see this offering. What happens if you have this offering? from the flock, then you pick up in verse 14 through 17, we'll see what happens when you bring this offering from birds. And so, what do we make of these different types of offerings? Well, the different offerings pointed to the ones, I want you to think, we don't typically think of this. We look at this and say, well, go get a livestock from the flock, go get a bird, what's the big deal? What does this really point to? It deals with one's financial standing, and notice the gracious nature of God in that. Well, what happens if you're not wealthy enough to have a flock? Can you not offer sacrifices? So he says, all right, well, if you can't afford that, then I've got a way for you to do it. Just bring a bird. In other words, you have to think about it. How could a poor person bring a bull to God? Well, God is so good, He's kind. But remember, He's holy, and He's just, and He can't just overlook sin. So a poor person breaks God's law just like the rich people do. And so there has to be an offering or sacrifice for their sins, right? God is, in His all-wise counsel, He makes this provision. And so, notice not the mighty, not just the rich, not just the wise, but all men need to have their sins atoned for. And God has made a provision in His law. And so, once again, the next time you hear that, you know, some biblical illiterate talk about the ungracious nature of your God, just point them to this fact. that even the poor person had the means in the way that he could offer sacrifice for his sin. Now, next we read about this idea of aroma. We read in verse nine about the sweet aroma, the sweet savior unto the Lord. So, this picture's the sacrifice of Christ, which we just read in Ephesians 5.2, and you'll see it in 1 Peter 2.5, the sweet-smelling savior unto the Lord. And it's through Christ's sacrifice, this sweet smell that he had. And it's this idea that he has been atoned for this offering of, I'm sorry, he has been propitiated through the offering of this gift. Now finally, let me just leave you with the motivation. Notice these offerings, all of them were free will offerings motivated from their great love towards Jehovah. And as a follower of God, they saw the grace of God within their lives and the idea here is that you should desire Him more. And so the offerings were brought to God by people who should have desired Him. And we see something of Christ within these sacrifices. We see that Christ offers the best that He has, which is Himself. And Christ willingly lays down His life for His people. He's not forced to come. He comes of His own free will. He willingly lays down His life for the sheep. He undertakes this great work in order to redeem His people. And so Christ gives His all. He gives His best. And so what we need to do now, I think, is let's get personal and reflect on our own lives. Do we really give God our best? I'm not talking about the lip service you give to make people think you do, but do you give God your best? Does He take priority? Children, don't you think about this one hard. Do you willingly come to worship God, not just on Sunday, but throughout the week? Are you compulsed or made to come worship? That says a lot about you, doesn't it? I want you young people to think about that. You know, some churches, you know, the wives drag the husbands to work because it's kind of like they got another kid, right? They drag their husbands to work. I'm assuming that's not a problem within this church, that the father's desire to submit to God. But you should never be compulsed to be go before the Lord and worship Him. It should never be made out of compulsion to spend time with Him. For those of you who have called out upon Him for salvation, a redeemed people willingly, freely come to Him, motivated by simply their love for Him. So let me ask you this then, what motivates you to worship Him? Is there any motivation? That He loved us. Yeah. So, but let me ask the question this way. What really motivates you to worship Him? It should be our love for Him. It should be, but what really motivates you to worship Him, right? And I'm thinking about you kids. If left to yourself, would you get up on your own and worship God? And so I want you to think about that question. What motivation? What motivation? Well, you know, last time I didn't get to worship God. Boy, my father let me have it. Man, that's just not... If you gotta be, you know, whipped into going to worship God, you're missing the point of what it means to be a redeemed person. who willingly comes. And remember, we do have a sacrifice in the New Testament. We are living sacrifices and we are to do this willingly and we are to offer up the sacrifice of praise. So let me ask you this, do you bring him your best when you come to worship or do you bring lame worship similar to what they were guilty of in the days of Malachi? And once again, it brought much displeasure to God. If you read through the prophecy of Malachi, you can see that he was very upset with the people of Israel. do you bring him your best? Would God the Father be pleased with your service with the worship you bring as an offering? Remember, God the Father was well pleased with the son's offering. But is he pleased with ours? And so that goes back to how you approach it. It's not necessarily the what of what you do. The what does matter, but also the why. So I'm gonna stop here and we'll pick up Lord Willa next time in Leviticus 2. But I want you to think about these things because my desire is that as we go through some of these key chapters in Leviticus, it encourages you to go back and read it and think about what are some of the takeaways that we can get from the book of Leviticus that would help us in our own walk. But this is a book to redeem people about how to pursue after holiness and live a life that's holy to Him, particularly with our worship.