I could sing that one every day. That is good news. Which consequently is what we call the gospel. The good news. Let me invite you to open your Bibles please to Isaiah 62. Please. Isaiah 62. Let's pray together. Father, you are faithful, but you are holy. And in that holiness, you are faithful. And in the midst of that holiness, you are merciful. And from that holiness, you administer righteousness and justice. And in the midst of that holiness, you have demonstrated very clearly your incredible love with which you've loved us. Draw our attention to yourself today. May our minds and our hearts be impressed Enraptured in the truth of who You are. A God who seeks us. In Jesus' name, Amen. So many spend their days seeking satisfaction from relationships. We've all experienced relationship pain and relationship disappointment We've experienced emptiness and sorrow from relationships gone awry. You can see the ebb and flow of relationships on anniversaries and special days. If things go according to plan, there are smiles, satisfaction, and ease. And then there is the humdrum of life. There are errands and cleaning. There are conflicts and challenges. There is death and sorrow. Some seemingly do not have close relationships either because of death or divorce or isolation. And there's a feeling of disapproval dissatisfaction, there's a feeling of aloneness, and it's in the face of this, friends, it's in the face of this that it is good to know that God has sought after you. I want to draw your attention to Isaiah 62, beginning in verse 10. God's speaking to Old Testament Israel, He says, go through. Go through the gates. Prepare the way for the people. Build up. Build up the highway. Take up the stones. Lift up a banner for the peoples. Indeed, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world, so say to the daughter of Zion, surely your salvation is coming. Behold, His reward is with Him and His work before Him. And they shall call them the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, and you shall be called sought out." Sought out. A city not forsaken. The Bible tells us, and Jesus is the mouthpiece, that God is to be worshipped. And he says this to the Samaritan woman in John 4. He says, but the hour is coming and now is where the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. God is seeking you. God has sought after you. This is a comforting reality. And you know, I find it to be most ingenious that you and I will find this seeking of the Lord in the most unlikely places in what we call the Law of Moses. of the law of Moses, we start to feel the choking of law, the choking of rules, and the constraints of regulations. We start to get that old view of an austere God who is waiting to pounce upon you, to lash out against you for doing wrong. And what I want for us to actually see hear and understand is what is happening these thousands of years ago. And I want for us to sense, rightly, the abundant grace of God in the midst of His law-giving. The abundance of God's grace in the midst of His law-giving. Because if we don't see the abundance of God's grace in the midst of His law-giving, we are not rightly reading the Word of God. God's grace is from sea to shining sea, God's grace is from the beginning of time until the end of time. It's from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22 in its last verse. Grace is all over the pages of Scripture. Grace marks history. Grace marks the person, nature, character of God, even in the law of God. turn with me to the book of Leviticus chapter 1 and verse 1. Leviticus chapter 1 and verse 1. It is our duty this morning to look at the book of Leviticus. Now it's obvious there are 27 chapters. We are not going to expose 27 chapters of Leviticus or else I think some of you would pass out and fall on the ground. And I don't want to do that to you. We can't even get into a lot of detail in the book of Leviticus. But what we can do, friends, is we can see the heart of Leviticus. We can see the heart of God. And we can see how Leviticus fits into the big picture of God's glorious revelation. Now the Hebrew Scriptures do not have for us the name Leviticus as the name of this book. The Hebrew Scriptures take the first words of the Hebrew text and make that the name of the book. So Leviticus, as related to the Levites, related to the priestly ministry, is kind of someone's impression of what this book is. I think it's wrongly the impression of what this book is. The way that God's word starts in Leviticus chapter 1 and verse 1 is this way. Now the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting saying... I'm going to stop right there. And the Lord called to Moses saying... You can summarize it with this. And the Lord said. and the Lord said. I want you to turn now to the last verse of the book of Leviticus, the end cap. Leviticus 27 and verse 34. And Moses pens these words under the inspiration of the Spirit of God and he writes this, These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. Over 30 times in the book of Leviticus you will see this phrase, and the Lord spoke to Moses. And what I want for us to recognize is that it is a gracious thing for God to speak. Imagine if He didn't. Imagine going through life, friends, without a written record of God's mind. Without a written record of God's plan. Without a written record of God's provision. We would be, of all men, Most to be pitied, because we would not have a word from God. But in fact, we do. God, in the midst of His redemption of His people of Israel, on the backside of redeeming them out of the land of Egypt, God spoke to Moses. And they have a gracious record. God has communicated and communed. with man, with his people. Whenever God reveals himself, his purposes, and his provisions, we should be astounded by grace. Friends, don't look at Leviticus as simply law. See the gracious hand of a gracious God giving them what they needed. Now I want to take a couple of steps back and then we'll re-enter our discussion of Leviticus. Take a look at Exodus 19, please. Because what we'll see here in Exodus 19 is God's purpose in redeeming a people for himself. Now here he speaks about Israel. You can read these same words attributed to God's church in the book of 1 Peter. And so the purpose of God redeeming Israel in Exodus 19 is reiterated for the church in 1 Peter. So you can just cut out the middle man and say God's purpose of redeeming people. God's purpose of redeeming people is recorded here in these verses. Beginning in verse 1 of Exodus 19. In the third month, after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on the same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come to the wilderness of Sinai, and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself. Friends, that's called redemption. I've brought you to myself. Verse five. Now, therefore, If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel." And so we have here a record. God says, I took you. I bore you on eagle's wings. I brought you to Myself. And I want you to be this peculiar people. This special people. A special treasure. You should be a kingdom of priests. You should be to Me a holy nation. This is good. God has told them why He redeemed them. God proceeded to lay out the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, and then various other laws to regulate life and worship. God then describes to Moses his plans for the tabernacle and priesthood. The book of Exodus ends with a completed tabernacle that is divinely inhabited. Divinely inhabited. It ends with a completed tabernacle and the glory of God filling the tabernacle take a look at Exodus 40 and verse 34 and following Exodus 40 and verse 34 Moses writes then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day, and fire was over it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. So we have at the end of Exodus the completed tabernacle, the glory of God inhabiting the tabernacle, and we've already been told in Exodus chapter 25 and verse 8 what the purpose of the tabernacle was. It was this, very succinctly, and let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. God wanted you come to be among his people. He's seeking them out. Here they are in Egypt. They have gone into Egypt and they're there for 400 years. They have forgotten the goodness of God. But oppression comes upon them. Because the Egyptians said, I don't know about this people. They're going to outnumber us. They're going to overtake us. We can't have this. So they enslave them. and the people of Israel cry out to God, and God remembered His promise to Abraham? He brings them out of Egypt as a people for Himself. He brings them into the wilderness. And He wants to dwell with them. But we have to know something about God. He's not your ordinary Joe. God is not a man. God is holy. God is unique. God cannot be worshipped any way we choose. God cannot be approached however we want. We don't make the terms of arrangement when it comes to meeting with a holy God. God is holy. And the book of Leviticus is going to tell us that God is holy. And in the midst of that holiness, in the midst of that glory, in the midst of that uniqueness, God says, I want to dwell among you. And to dwell among you, there are some things that need to be done. I want a relationship with you. I'm seeking you out. I'm making you my own people. I want you to be a representative of me to the whole world. But that doesn't happen just because you want it however you want it. It must be done in a specific way because I'm holy. From this newly constructed, divinely inhabited tabernacle, God speaks to Moses. And that's where we are in Leviticus 1 and verse 1. Now the Lord calls to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting saying, where is he speaking from? The tabernacle of meeting. Where was he at the end of Exodus 40? He was in the tabernacle of meeting. And so we have a continuation of what's going on in the book of Exodus. This is not like, okay, we've got Genesis, it's over. We have Exodus, okay, now it's over. Now we've got Leviticus, now it's over. Now we have Numbers, now it's over. It's not like that. What we have in the Torah, the books of Moses, the law we like to call it, we have God telling us about His winning of His people and God's regulation of those people so that they can relate properly with Him. God is holy and He speaks to Moses out of this tent of holiness, this tent of meeting. What's a tent of meeting? I want to relate with you. I want a relationship with you. I want you to know that I am your God and that you are my people. The book of Leviticus does not take us away from that concept. That is the concept throughout. It's just that as we look at it and we get lost in the details of leprosy, and you've got this thing on your forehead, and if it's doing this certain thing, it's pussing, you've got to go and see the priest, and the priest is going to tell you whether you're unclean, because if you're unclean, you can't go to the tabernacle of meeting. In fact, if you just gave birth, there's blood there. and you can't go to the tabernacle of meeting. Or if you have a discharge of some sort in Leviticus 15, you can't go to the tabernacle of meeting. If there's some kind of leprous disease thing on your wall, your house is unclean, you may have to knock the wall down. Why? Because, first of all, God is not approached however you feel like in any condition you want to approach Him. There are parameters to this entrance into relationship with God. And also, God really didn't want disease to spread throughout his people and kill them off. How about that one? That might be practical, like when you go to your doctor's office and they say, if you are coughing, put one of these things on your face so you don't make everyone else sick and everyone gets the bird flu and everyone dies. It's good that they do this. It's good that God gave them regulations concerning leprosy so that people's body parts weren't so numb that they kept losing them. Make sense? There are laws about human sexuality. There are laws about what kinds of animals to eat and what kinds you can't eat. Why? You are a distinct people. You are my people. You're not like everybody else. Don't live like everybody else. Don't be the world. You are a special treasure to me. You're a kingdom of priests. You are a Holy Nation! God is regulating that holiness over his people. God is holy. Take a look at Leviticus 11, beginning in verse 44. I provided you, ladies and gentlemen, with an outline from the English Standard Version Study Bible bulletin. That is for your own benefit because we can't cover 27 chapters in detail. That is a guide for you to kind of look at how things are categorized. It's a very well done outline. That's why I passed it on to you. It's a benefit for you. Here we are in Leviticus 11 beginning in verse 44. God makes this statement. For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourselves with any creeping thing that creeps on the earth, for I am the Lord who brings you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall be holy, for I am holy." Now he's talking about this in light of what kinds of animals they can't eat. Now this would kill your mind to think that you couldn't eat lobster. This is bad news. But God says, stay away from the lobster. Why? Is lobster going to kill us? No. You're unique. Don't just eat everything else everyone eats. Why? You know, sometimes you can't really answer every question why God wanted these certain creatures to not be eaten and these to be eaten. Someone probably has a really Wonderful answer to that. I don't personally. I just think God is saying you are unique God is holy look at chapter 19 and verse 1 same concept again Leviticus 19 beginning in verse 1 and the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." And so God is holy. We learn this from the book of Leviticus. Now, it's not the only place we learn it, but you can see it loud and clear in the book of Leviticus that God is a holy God. Well, the second thing we can learn, just kind of briefly, is this. God's people are not holy. Well, what do you mean? And this doesn't have to do with not eating the lobster. This is the first six chapters of Leviticus are telling us about these offerings. Now the first couple are not necessarily about unholiness, but certainly the sin offering and the trespass offering are about sinfulness. We are not holy. And so Leviticus makes that very clear. So it really does for us what Romans 3.23 does. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Not only is God holy and God's people not holy, there's a third element that we learn. God's people cannot approach a holy God without a prescribed offering. God's people cannot approach a holy God without a prescribed offering. And so here you are. You're a Benjamite. And you're in your location in the camp. And you know, in the midst of the camp, there's this tabernacle complex. And you want to go. You see the cloud. And you think, man, there's my God. He's visible among us. He wants us to know He's here. I want to go. I want to commune with this God. And God has made provision for that. He made provision so that they could come and commune with Him. And we have these offerings that take up the first six chapters of Leviticus. We have a burnt offering, which is a reference to complete consecration. God, I'm bringing this to you, and I want you to know that I'm completely yours. Everything. Do we have anything like that in the New Testament? Romans 12.1. Have you heard of it? I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship. Come, give yourself to Him. Consecration. The Israelites could go to God and say, you're my God. I'm bringing this, and I'm going to burn this whole thing on the altar, so that you'll know I am completely given over to you. Not only is there this burnt offering in chapter one, in chapter two there's a grain offering. You can also call it a meal offering. And this offering is, you bring something and you actually share it with the priests and with God. It's a communal meal. a thanksgiving offering to God for His love and His mercy. It's very much like a Lord's Supper celebration where you're saying, I'm drinking this cup with the Lord. I'm partaking of this bread with the Lord. It's a communal meal. It's a fellowship meal. God is saying, here I am! I'm in your midst! Come to me! You can bring this offering and demonstrate your consecration to me, your holiness, You've set yourself apart to me. You can come and you can have a fellowship meal with me. Sorry, I said that wrong. That's the peace offering, that fellowship meal. The grain offering is a thanksgiving offering, and then the peace offering is the meal that's shared between the one who brings it and God. How does God partake of it? All the fat. Now for some of you thinking, all right, good, that's a good deal, I cut all the fat off my meat anyway. But the fat is where the flavor is. And so when it's talking about cutting the fat off and burning that on the altar for God, you're giving him the best portions of this, not the, I cut that stuff off and I'm keeping the best for myself. When you're talking about burning the fat on the altar, you're talking about giving him the very best that is there, and there's this communion that goes on. this fellowship with God, between God and His people. So there's the burnt offering in chapter 1, the grain offering in chapter 2, this Thanksgiving, the peace offering in chapter 3, this communion-type supper with God. There's a sin offering as you get to chapter 4, and it's a sacrifice for unintentional sin. Take a look at chapter 4 for just a moment. Leviticus chapter 4. and verse two we'll start in verse one so we can get one of those and the Lord said to Moses in here Leviticus 4.1 now the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying if a person sins how unintentionally against any of the commandments of the Lord in anything which ought not to be done and does any of them if the anointed priest sins and he goes on it talks about this unintentional sin if you sin unintentionally bring a sin offering and God says this will be an atonement for your sin it will cover your sin it'll it will it will unite you in fellowship with God again God wants to fellowship with His people. He's making Himself available to unholy man through a holy means. You see that? Holy fellowship with the Holy God only comes through holy means, not through whatever means we choose. Then we come to chapter 5 and this trespass offering is brought forth. Instead of trying to work through it, I'm just going to read a paragraph just to distinguish the sin offering Trespass Offering, this comes from The Tabernacle, Shadows of the Messiah by David Levy. He writes this, Although it, the Trespass Offering, was similar to the Sin Offering, there were a number of differences. The Sin Offering dealt with sin against God. The Trespass Offering emphasized sin against God and mankind. The Sin Offering dealt with the nature of the sin. The trespass offering emphasized the acts of sin. The sin offering dealt with the guilt of the sinner. The trespass offering emphasized the injury against God and mankind. The sin offering dealt with atonement, the removal of guilt. The trespass offering emphasized the satisfaction and reparation for the wrong committed. It's good news. It's good news. What do we call the good news? We call it the gospel. Oh my, in the law of Moses, the gospel, good news. men, unholy, separate from God, unable to approach Him of His own resources. And God comes in amongst them and says, you can come to Me. Come to Me by the only means I prescribe. And I will commune with you. I will remove your guilt. I will repair and restore fellowship. I will meet with you there. This is amazing, friends. This is grace in the law. When you come to Leviticus 16, and you have the Day of Atonement. We're not going to read it, so you can turn there, but I'm not going to point to even one verse in Leviticus 16. I'm sorry. Our time just doesn't let us do this. The Day of Atonement was a prescription from God that a sacrifice, or sacrifices, would be made for the sins of the people of God, the nation. The High Priest would enter into the Holy of Holies only on this day, and not without blood. This brings us to an important concept that I haven't brought up in the concept of discussing the offerings. Because to meet that Holy God, something has to be judged instead of you. Whether it be a lamb or a ram. whether it be a bullock or two turtle doves, something is judged instead of you. And all of these offerings from the beginning, other than the grain offering, there's blood, there are bloody offerings. It demonstrates that we the guilty come to God and something has to pay to get that done. and the blood flowed every day. Why blood? Well, that's what Leviticus 17 tells us. Take a look at Leviticus 17 and verse 11. Verse 11, for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul but it's not just some blood it's not like I'll drain some of the blood of this animal patch it up and send it on its way it's it's it's the the blood let out the life of the flesh is in the blood there is an implication that sin yields what? What is it? Come on, help me out. I know I heard some of you. Sin yields what? Death! Didn't God tell Adam that? Didn't God tell him Look at all these trees. They're for you. Enjoy. Be fruitful. Multiply. It's a garden of glory and beauty and fulfillment. Enjoy it. Live it up. Tend it. Care for it. Exercise dominion. I walk with you every day. Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, or you will die. Yes? Did God keep His word? Doesn't He always? And so, death results from sin. It did that very day that Adam and Eve sinned. You remember that God covered them with sheep clothing. Something died. And death has ensued ever since. People have died ever since Genesis 4. Cain killed Abel, and then you've got all the lists of the genealogies. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. And he died. The echo of God's faithfulness. And he died. And he died. What do you mean, God's faithfulness? And he died. Touch it, and there'll be death. And he died. The echo of God's faithfulness. Death. results from sin. And here's a holy God coming to an unholy people and says, you can fellowship with me, but something must die. The life of the flesh is in the blood. Interestingly, as we go through the book of Leviticus, we note this as well. God's people need help bringing offerings correctly. And so we have the Levites and the Aaronic priesthood. There are priests involved in every one of these sacrifices. Well, we also learn this. Priests are not faultless. Priests are not themselves holy. Well, how do we know? I want to point you to two places, one in Leviticus and one in Hebrews. Leviticus 10, please, and Hebrews 5. If you can go in two directions at once, you are a blessed person. Leviticus 10 and Hebrews 5. God's holy. We know this. God's people are not. God still, in the face of our unholiness, prescribes offerings so that we can still approach Him. And he gives us a line of people, gave them a line of people, whereby they could meet with God, the priests. But the priests were not faultless. In fact, Aaron's sons, Nahab and Abihu in Leviticus 10, illustrate the imperfection of the priesthood, beginning in verse 1. Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense in it, and offered profane fire before the Lord. I wonder what they put in it. I don't know. But it wasn't the prescribed way. That's all that matters. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, God has sought us out, but we can only come to Him the way He prescribes. It's not our own way. Cain found that out. Nadab and Abihu find that out. Well, these profane fire, okay, well, what's going to happen here? They offered profane fire before the Lord, which he had not commended them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. And Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord spoke, saying, by those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy. And before all the people, I must be glorified. So Aaron held his peace." Aaron says, yeah, that's right. That's right. God, you're right. I can't imagine. Can you imagine standing in his shoes that day? Can you imagine? You hear this noise and you hear some form of turmoil going on where people are in hysterics. And you show up on the scene and Moses said, God took your sons because they didn't do it the right way. God must be seen as holy. And Aaron says, nothing. Why? God is holy. You can't approach God however you feel like it. Brothers and sisters, friend, there are countless people trying to approach a holy God on their own terms. And just like Nahab and Abihu could not, Nadab and Abihu could not, nor can they, Nor can we. In Hebrews chapter 5, now he's talking about Jesus being better than the Levitical priesthood. We can amen that anytime. Amen. He's telling us about the Levitical priesthood and what they had to go through. It says in verse 1 of Hebrews chapter 5, For every high priest, taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that they may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray, since he himself is also subject to weaknesses." In other words, the high priest can say, oh boy, you're bringing a sin offering? Well, I know what that's all about, because I have to bring a sin offering too. Verse 3, because of this, he is required as for the people, so also for himself, to offer sacrifices for sins. Sacrifices for sins. So the priests were not faultless themselves. They weren't like this special group of people that had it all figured out, super spiritual ones, no sin. No, they were sinners too. And in order to offer sin for you, they must first offer sin for themselves. And in order for them to have entrance with God. They need to deal with their sin before God. Because just as you are unholy, they are unholy. And they need to bring something to say, because of my sin, something must die. And then I can bring an offering for you. The priests aren't faultless either. They're not sinless. They're not holy. And then as you look at the rest of the book of Leviticus, because God is holy, God prescribes laws to distinguish his people from other nations. And that, I'm just going to refer you to your outline for that. You can look through it. There's some interesting concepts. We don't have to worry about clean and unclean animals anymore, do we? Now, Peter struggled with that because Peter wanted to follow the law. He wanted to approach a holy God in a holy way. And so God says, you see these animals? Eat them. And I've never eaten anything unclean. No. What I've called clean, don't you call unclean. So we don't have to worry about the laws of clean and unclean this way any longer. Interestingly, we can't choose things in and out of here and say, well, I can eat lobster now, but I can't get a tattoo. Yeah, I just said that out loud. Listen, be careful, because we like to say, well, in Leviticus it says not to get tattoos. Tattoos are therefore sinful. Okay, well, have you eaten anything with a cloven hoof? Do you eat bacon? And you can go right down the list. Oh, but the tattoo thing, that's just offensive. Oh, really? Okay. Why was it offensive? Well, it had a meaning in the culture. They were getting tattoos for something. They were sacrificing their children to idols, and so don't burn your bones. There's all kinds of things in the Old Testament. Oh, we should never be cremated because it says so in the law. What was it about? Why was he saying not to be cremated? Because it was about a sacrificial representation of someone to a god, a small g god. The nations were doing it. Don't be like the other nations. You're a holy nation. It doesn't hold into what has happened after we've been freed from the law as specifically stated in these ways. So we look at it and we've got all these elements to separate the nation of Israel from the nations around them. And we have certain concepts in the New Testament that do the very same thing, don't we? Don't speak like you used to speak. Remember that one in Ephesians chapter 4? Two different places. Don't lie in verse 25. And don't use corrupt communication in verse 29. So don't speak like they do. Don't steal, but instead of stealing out of your benefit, make sure you give to others. Don't be angry to the point of sin. Or, be angry but don't sin. Don't let the sun go down upon your wrath. He gives us laws of holiness throughout the New Testament. to give us a distinction. Oh, you live in a world that's a crooked and perverse generation, but you were to shine as lights in the world. How do I do that? By not complaining about every single thing that ever happens to you. Nobody says that. That's being holy. In the midst of a world where the government does things differently than you would want to, still be subject to the governing authorities. This is a way to be holy. Be a good employee. A way to be holy. Love your wife. This is a way to be holy. Respect your husband. This is a way to be holy. Obey your parents. This is a way to be holy. The holiness doesn't go away because certain elements of the law have been fulfilled in Christ. We're a holy nation. Just like Israel was. The church is a holy nation. We're peculiar, a special pleasure unto God. And we're to show forth His praises by a life of holiness. But the source isn't from us. This is it. Leviticus, listen carefully please. Leviticus points us to the expansive chasm between God and man. But it also points us to a God who has provided a pathway to himself. A pathway to fellowship with him. Leviticus is ultimately, listen carefully, Leviticus is ultimately laying out for us a desire for a complete and final sacrifice that ends all sacrifices. A sacrifice that unites us to God forever. That sacrifice, friends, has been made in the person of Jesus Christ. The sacrifice is a once-for-all sacrifice. Leviticus wants us to long to not have to come to God through blood every time. Leviticus makes us want a perpetual, continual, finished, final relationship that lasts forever with God. The sacrifice has been offered. Turn with me, please, to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. We read this earlier. But I hope even now, though it was meaningful when we read it, I hope now as we look at it in the context of Leviticus and God's willingness to stoop down, His willingness to condescend, to come into the midst of an unholy people, and give them away to Himself, And we look at what He has done for us in Jesus Christ and say, look, I don't have to bring a bullock. I don't have to bring a lamb. I don't have to wring the neck of something. I don't have to slit the throat of something and pour it into a bucket. I don't have to do this. It's been done. Hebrews 10, beginning in verse 1, God says this, For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things. could never, can never, with those same sacrifices which they offer continually, year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then, would they not have ceased to be offered? Wouldn't they be done? They make a sacrifice, okay, you're done. Exonerated. Don't worry about it. No. Not only year by year, in the day of atonement that is being referenced here, Yom Kippur, but day by day. Day by day. bringing and offering for sin. There's a reminder of sin. He says this, for the worshipers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins but in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. You've got to come again. You've got to come and do this again. You've got to deal with this again for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. Look down at verse 10. After it talks about Jesus' willingness to come and to give himself, it says in verse 10, by that will, by the will of Jesus, his obedience, by that will, we have been sanctified. through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. Will you say it with me? Once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God. From that time and waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, He has perfected forever. Forever a sacrifice that ends all sacrifices. He has perfected after one sacrifice, for He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Oh, this is Leviticus in the New Testament. Why do I say it's Leviticus in the New Testament? Because, listen, He, once for all, He eradicates sin. It's dealt with forever. It's beautiful. The ultimate sacrifice, and here we have fellowship with God, never to be removed, but there's something that takes place after that sacrifice. You call it sanctification. Perpetual, drawing near, holiness, distinction, The basis of our eternal fellowship with God is the blood offering of Jesus Christ, the risen lamb. The result of this relationship is continual sanctification. Don't, as a believer in Jesus Christ, live your life however you feel like it. God has sought you out. He has rescued you through the person of Jesus Christ. You have perpetual option of fellowship with Him. approach him in Christ, in holiness. One more passage, Revelation chapter 5. Beginning in verse 8, catch me, catch up with me if you're not there yet, verse 8. Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing, and every creature which is on the earth, which is in the earth, and on the earth, and in heaven, and under the earth, everywhere, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever. And then the four living creatures said, Amen. And the 24 elders, representative of all of God's people, fell down and worshipped Him who lives forever and ever. Friend, do you feel dissatisfied with your life? Do you feel dissatisfied with your relationships? Do you feel lonely? Do you feel abandoned? I want to tell you about a relationship that will never leave you feeling lonely. I want to tell you about a relationship that endures the test of time, calamity, and sin. There is a holy God, and He has done what is necessary to embrace you as His own child. When you enter into that relationship, He provides you with a promise. I will never leave you, nor forsake you. You can't enter into this relationship with the Holy God by your own strivings for holiness. It's not good enough. You come because something, someone died. You can only enter into this relationship through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I want to share with you the words of a song we sing every now and then, and it reminds us of this concept that God has pursued you. It's called Mercy's Anew. The second stanza says this, When I've fallen and strayed, There were mercies anew, for you sought me in love, in my heart. you pursued. In the face of my sin, Lord, you never withdrew, so I'll sing of your mercies anew." Friends, God has sought you. He's done what's necessary to obtain you. He's given you a pathway into an eternal relationship by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Son of God who spoke the world into existence. He's given you access into a relationship that never ends. He's taken away every sin of everyone that has ever trusted in Him for their salvation. He has given you the opportunity to have eternal righteousness and an eternal relationship with Him. He sought you. He's done what's necessary for you. you can have that eternal, incomparable relationship where you will be with God forever. And as we read about those saints in Revelation 5, around the throne, singing of Jesus and His being slain for you, you'll be there in that scene, crying out, praising God, because you have a relationship with Him. See, this is the God of the Bible. He's not the austere one who's ready to lash out. He's the one that says, hey listen, you keep on running and it's going to hurt you. You keep on rebelling and sin has a consequence. But I've made every pathway available. Look at My Son. Broken for you. Blood spilled out for you. Friends, this is life. Come. Come to Christ today. Believer, rejoice. Worship. Come to Christ, believer. Keep looking to Him. Keep bringing it. Keep worshiping. enter into his presence with thanksgiving into your heart and into his courts with praise be thankful unto him. Let's pray together. Father we are astounded by your glorious plan and we see it even in the book of Leviticus you want us to long for this completion that you've already brought to pass in the person of Jesus Christ and you've given us that have trusted Jesus as our Savior this glorious eternal union with you. It's real and we know it because your spirit cries out within us, demonstrating and convincing us of the fact that we are your children. And we cry out, Abba Father, thank you. We love you. Do a work in us. And in those who have not come to know Jesus as their Savior, may they in this moment recognize that he is their solution and he can give them an eternal right relationship with you. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.