Let's offer a word of prayer before we begin our study. Our dear Heavenly Father, as we meet together now, we ask your presence by your spirit, through your word, that we might be blessed mightily, that we might learn of you, and that you might help us to understand your word yet better than we ever have. And Father, we ask that you bless our pastor, especially this morning, who's been out for a time. We pray, dear Father, that you'll work mightily in him and restore him to his place. We are so thankful for this church. We ask your blessing upon it this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. Turn to Romans chapter four. You see, I'm going to try to finish the book of Leviticus this morning. And by the way, people have asked about, is this my last lesson? And generally speaking, I thought it was. But I will stay the course as long as I'm needed until pastor returns and the elders find other instructors. I'm not going to abandon anything. We are grateful to be able to teach and we thank the Lord for it. As you know, I was going to, my larger plan before it kind of crumbled for me was to move from Leviticus to the book of Romans. And so this morning, I'm going to kind of do a shortened version of my transition and then return back to chapters 26 and 27 of Leviticus. I've always held that Leviticus has a direct connection with Romans, Hebrews, and a number of other New Testament books, and the life of Christ, of course. But specifically, I wanted to deal with the transition from Leviticus to the book of Romans as though I were going to be here to teach it over the next 30 weeks. I don't know how long it would have taken. I love the book of Romans. Turn to chapter 4. My goodness, this is lofty business and lofty stuff. beginning even in verse one. What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He believed, and that belief was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. If you're a believer today, that just described you. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin, that beautiful word. Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? while he was circumcised or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also. And the father of circumcision to those who are not only of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham while he was still uncircumcised. And then comes this. For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath. For where there is no law, there is no transgression. Therefore, it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. It makes one beautiful connection with the Torah. with the books of Moses, the law, but Abraham came before that and was declared righteous by faith and faith alone. The connection is that the law was added to bring us to Christ. And that's why we're studying the law still back in Leviticus and so forth. All of those things relate to this. Christ is the fulfillment. Christ is the fulfillment of all the promises and the figures and the lessons of the law, of the prophets, and of everything in the Old Testament. Christ is the ultimate fulfillment. Turn to Hebrews chapter 1. I'll read it again. One of my favorite verses in all of scripture. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Hallelujah. having become so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. And then it goes on to say that Christ is better than Moses, Christ is better than Abraham, Christ is better than all things. Christ, Christ, Christ, he is the fulfillment of all of them. The book of Leviticus finds his fulfillment in Christ. And I hope that we have at least tried to make that really clear as we have worked our way through this very difficult book of Leviticus in which we're about to end. And it's still even turned to chapter 26 in Leviticus, please. 26 and 27, we'll try to finish it in due course. But we want to read a little bit of it. As Moses, who almost every authority attributes these writings, writes, you shall not make idols for yourself. This is God speaking. Neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves, nor shall you set up an engraved stone on your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. He is stating one of the first laws of the Ten Commandments, and against idolatry, and claiming to be the only God. I am the Lord, your God. We should take heart in that whole thing. We celebrate the one God of all, the only God, and the Lord Jesus Christ. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord." Don't you love that repeated phrase? If you walk in my statutes and keep my commandments and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage. and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing. In other words, a time of great prosperity. I will give peace in the land and you shall lie down and none will make you afraid. I will rid the land of evil beasts and the sword will not go through your land. You will chase your enemies and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred and a hundred of you shall put 10,000 to flight. Your enemies shall fall by the sword before you, for I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm my covenant with you. You shall eat the old harvest and clear out the old because of the new. I will set my tabernacle among you and my soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God and you shall be my people. It's still true today, isn't it? Christ is amongst us even this morning. By his spirit, he is amongst us. He loves us. He cares for us. and works for our own prosperity, not in any earthly sense, but in a spiritual sense. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. I have broken the bands of your yoke and made you to walk upright. But if you do not obey me, all of that was beautiful. It talks about God's purpose in his people and how he will bless them for obedience and adherence to the covenant that he has made with them. Then comes verse 14, and I know that this is hard to read. It really is. It's some of the most severe penalties in all of Scripture. And it is stunning, actually, to read. But if you do not obey me, by the way, even in treaties amongst people, there was always these two things. These are the blessings, these are the consequences, if you don't do it. This is what happens if you keep it, this is what happens if you don't. It was fairly common, and it is in that order that he writes. But if you do not obey me and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise my statutes, or if your soul abhors my judgment so that you do not perform all my commandments, but break my covenant, I also will do this to you." This is God speaking. I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you. And after this, if you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. I will break the pride of your power. I will make the heavens like iron and your earth like bronze. And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit. Then, if you walk contrary to me and are not willing to obey me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues according to your sins. It's going to go deeper, folks. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways shall be desolate. And if by these things you are not reformed by me, but walk contrary to me, then I also will walk contrary to you. And I will punish you yet seven times, second time is used that phrase, for your sins. And I will bring a sword against you that will execute the vengeance of the covenant. When you are gathered together within your cities, I will send pestilence among you, and you shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. When I have cut off your supply of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back their bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied." Is he done? No. And after all this, if you do not obey me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury. And I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins. Oh my gosh. You shall eat the flesh of your sons and shall eat the flesh of your daughters. I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you. I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. the offerings. I will bring the land to desolation and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you. Your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemy's land. Ask Daniel if that happened. And the land shall rest and enjoy its Sabbath as long as it lies desolate, it shall rest. For the time it did not rest on your Sabbaths when you dwelt in it. And as for those of you who are left, I will send faintness into their hearts and the lands of their enemies. The sound of a shaken leaf shall cause them to flee. They shall flee as though fleeing from the sword, and they shall fall when no one pursues. They will stumble over one another, as it were before, soared when no one pursues. And you shall have no power to stand before your enemies. You shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And those of you who are left shall waste away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands, and in their fathers' iniquities which are with them they shall waste away. Whew, are we done yet? Whew, that is some strong stuff, folks. But look, everything that I just read, but if they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers with their unfaithfulness in which you were unfaithful to me, and that they also may have walked contrary to me, and that I have walked contrary to them and have brought them into the land of their enemies, if their uncircumcised hearts are humbled and they accept their guilt Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, and my covenant with Isaac, and my covenant with Abraham. I will remember. I will remember the land. The land also shall be left empty by them and will enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them. They will accept their guilt because they despise my judgments and because their soul abhorred my statutes. Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them to utterly destroy them and break my covenant with them. It's still working the covenant with God, it is man who is violated, for I am the Lord their God. but for their sake I will remember the covenant of their ancestors who I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations that I might be their God. I am the Lord." Then he concludes, these are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between himself and the children of Israel on Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. Did it all happen? Yes, indeed. There was the Babylonian captivity. There is the book of Daniel and others that record what happened to the people of Israel when they disobeyed the covenant. And they were guilty of just about everything. And yes, there's even records of the Israelites resorting to eating their children. I like to say I have a sermon that I used to preach, oh, once every three or four years. Don't mess with this God. He is a just and holy God who will do what he says. But he is a loving God that even when we make a total wreck of the covenant and we repent and confess our sins, he is set to forgive. Don't you love that God? I do. I was a rebel against God, like Israel. He saved my miserable soul. And I am indebted forever and eternity to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for his mercy to me, a covenant breaker. My, my. And Israel is but a, if you will, a symbol, an example, a picture of what happens when you're in unbelief. But it also points out, and I thought the juxtaposition, if you will, of the severity of God over against His mercy. His mercy was last, wasn't it? It was the last thing said. Hallelujah for that. Our God is a marvelously gracious God. And even when we break his covenants, he forgives if we repent. I am often involved in over on Quora describing this whole thing about repentance. So often I see some well-meaning Christian people that are over there and saying, if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ into your life, you'll be saved forever. And then if you ask them to clarify, would you please clarify, they come back and say, well, it's as simple as that. If you'll ask the Lord to save you, you'll be born again, and then you'll live forever with Christ. Never once mentioning repentance. And it just says right here, but if they will repent, then I will show mercy. Repentance, it's the left out element in the modern gospel. Irritates the daylights out of me, I have to admit. Especially coming from well-meaning Christian people. We need to talk repentance again. We need to teach it. It was taught here in Leviticus. But if my people will repent, and confess their sins, I will show mercy and grace. And we just read of the grace to Abraham in the New Testament in the book of Romans. Wonderful stuff folks. This is wonderful stuff. Even if it's in the book of Leviticus, which can be very difficult to work your way through. I will leave this study kind of frustrated with myself a little bit. for not going more in depth with this book, but it would have taken weeks and months more if we were to do that, if we were to slow down and to take it that way. We're going to try to finish it. But admittedly, we glanced over the high points of Leviticus and we did not delve into the minutia. of some of the things that it said. By the way, God provides minutia sometimes, not just to take up space, but to communicate real things. Chapter 26, for me, was a fitting kind of summary of the book of Leviticus. what with its sacrifices, what with its, all of the things that we have read. Now let's go to chapter 27, the final chapter of this marvelous book. Now the Lord said to Moses, it's fairly long too, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when a man consecrates by a vow certain persons to the Lord according to your valuation. This gets into the kind of a thing that we haven't studied too much at this point. There was this system of valuation. Somebody would vow something to the Lord and it would be evaluated or valuated by the priests. You bring an animal, you dedicate it to the Lord, and they would price it, give it a price, and it was valued at that price. You bring a person to devote to the Lord, and the priest would set a price. It's complicated, and it has to do with the life of the Israelites while they were under the law. But it's meaningful. Now the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children, say to them, when a man consecrates by a vow certain persons to the Lord according to your valuation, if your valuation is of a male from 20 years old up to 60 years old, then your valuation shall be 50 shekels of silver according to the shekel of the sanctuary. I am not going to get into a big long dissertation about how much a shekel is and all that kind of stuff. Let's say that it was a substantial amount but not completely impossible. If we notice, If it's a male, from 20 years up to 60 years old, then your valuation shall be 50 shekels. Verse 4, if it is a female, then your valuation shall be 30 shekels. Why you poor women, you're just not as valuable. Oh come on, that's not what it means. Men were given more value because they offered more service to the priesthood and the tabernacle. The women's role there was very minor. It has nothing to do with their intrinsic value. God doesn't think less of females. Gee, he came by a female in Israel. He didn't come by a male, he came by a female. If from 5 years old up to 20 years old, then your valuation for a male shall be 20 shekels, it's a little bit less, and for a female 10 shekels. month old up to 5 years old, then your valuation for a male shall be 5 shekels. It is a declining amount. For a female, your valuation shall be 3 shekels of silver. If from 60 years old and above, if it is a male, then your valuation shall be 15 shekels and for a female, 10 shekels. But if he is too poor to pay his valuation, get this, then he shall present himself before the priest and the priest shall set a value on him according the ability of him who vowed the priest shall value him. I could share a personal testimony there, but I'll skip it for now. I stood before the Lord. and he valued me. Verse 9, if it is an animal that men may bring as an offering to the Lord, all that anyone gives to the Lord shall be holy. He shall not substitute it or exchange it, good or bad, or bad for good. And if he is all exchanges animal for animal, then both it and the one exchange for it shall be holy. Once you're holy, you're holy according to the law. If it is an unclean animal, which they do not offer as a sacrifice to the Lord, then he shall present the animal before the priest and the priest shall set a value on it, whether it is good or bad, and you, the priest, value it, so it shall be. As you, the priest, shall value it, so shall it be. But if he wants at all to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth to your valuation. If he wants to redeem it, these things were redeemable, but you had to add the price plus one-fifth. Complicated, but it does have meaning. And when a man dedicates his house to be holy to the Lord, then the priest shall set a value for it, whether it is good or bad, as the priest values it, so it shall stand. If he who dedicates it wants to redeem his house, then he must add one-fifth of the money of your valuation for it, and it shall be his. If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the field of his possession, then your valuation shall be according to the seed for it. A homer of barley seed shall be valued at fifty shekels of silver. If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee according to your valuation, it shall stand. But if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest, you remember the jubilee is seven times seven, then the priest shall reckon to him the money due according to the years that remain to the year of the jubilee, and it shall be deducted from your valuation. It's fair. And if he who dedicates the field ever wishes to redeem it, then he must add one-fifth of the money to your valuation of it, and it shall belong to him." Seems tedious, I know. But we want to finish this. But if he does not want to redeem the field, if he has sold the field to another man, it shall not be redeemable, or excuse me, not be redeemed anymore. But the field, when it is released in the Jubilee, as we learned previously, shall be holy to the Lord, holy to the Lord, as a devoted field. It shall be the possession of the priest. And if a man dedicates to the Lord a field which he has bought, which is not the field of his possession, then the priest shall reckon to him the worth of your valuation up to the year of Jubilee and shall give your valuation on that day as a holy offering to the Lord. There's some computations going on here. The priests have to make these computations. In the year of Jubilee, the field shall return to him from whom it was bought. to the one who owned the land as a possession. And all your valuations shall be according to the shekel of the sanctuary, 20 giras to the shekel. But the firstborn of the animals, and get this, which shall be the Lord's firstborn, no man shall dedicate, whether it is an ox or sheep, it is the Lord's. The firstborn is the Lord's. There's no differing and changing that. And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall redeem it according to your valuation and shall add one fifth to it. If it is not redeemed, then it shall be sold according to your valuation. Nevertheless, no devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed every devoted offering is most holy to the Lord. That does not change. If a thing is most holy, it remains that way forever. Excuse me. No, this is above and beyond the tithe. The tithe was obligatory to offer a tithe of the field and all those kinds of things. In those days it was more about produce than it was about money. But no, it is an addition to that. It is very complicated and like I say, there is much to be said about this. You don't want another three weeks in the 27th of Leviticus. Nevertheless, no devoted, verse 28, no devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord and all that he has. I already read that. It is most holy to the Lord. No person under the ban who may have become doomed to destruction among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death. And all the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wants at all to redeem any of his tithes, he shall add one-fifth to it. And concerning the tithe of the herd or the flock, or whatever passes under the rod, the tenth one shall be holy to the Lord." 10% of tithe. He shall not inquire whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it. And if he exchanges it at all, then both it and the one exchanged for it shall be holy. It shall not be redeemed. These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel on Mount Sinai. The end. The end of Leviticus, at least. My, there's more yet. there's Deuteronomy, which goes into some detail, covers some of the same territories that the book of Leviticus has. It is a major, what shall you say, study A major task to study these books. I hope that we have done one thing and the reason I made the connection with Romans is that what I intended to do is to make the connection between Christ and Leviticus. Yes, he's there. And Christ in Romans. And there is a direct connection between the two. But the law of Moses and all of Leviticus is, as we said, of no consequence to us. We're under a new covenant. Jeremiah mentioned it. Ezekiel mentioned it. Because the first one was broken. It is irreparable. but I will establish a new covenant, Jesus said. And that night before he died, and he was having dinner with his disciples, he said, this is the blood of the new covenant. These are wonderful things. Leviticus preparatory for that moment, And I hope that the next time you read that in the gospels about that last supper and those things that we recall so readily about Christ on that final day and that evening and the next day, that it takes you all the way back to Moses, yea, further to Abraham. And it is all tied together. culminating in, as the book of Hebrews says, the appearance of Jesus Christ. I finish with this thing. He is everything. He is the end of all things. Christ is the end, the telos of the law. It doesn't mean that the law whatever. It served its purpose. It's over. He is the end because he is the fulfillment of every law, of everything that the Old Testament required. Christ is the fulfillment. We are not under the law, but under grace, the Apostle Paul says. Thank goodness for that, eh? I could not have kept the law, they didn't either, that is the Jews didn't, and they were scattered throughout the world and even today still are. What does the ad on TV say? I'm sure all of you have seen it. Violence against Jews is up 300 and some percent in the United States. Do you see that? You guys recognize what I'm talking about? It comes up on the TV every once in a while if you're watching news and stuff. Jews are still being persecuted because they have abandoned Christ. Don't fool with this God. don't mess with them, is bringing it all to the conclusion in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now Jew, Gentile, and whatever else there is existing on the world must come through Christ and Christ alone. And this church preaches that message. I'm glad to be part of it. Let's pray as we finish. Our Heavenly Father, Accept our teaching as that which agrees with the scriptures. That all things find their fulfillment in Christ Jesus our Lord, the one that we know, the one that we have trusted, and the one that we have thrown ourself onto. Bless us, Father, may you help us to be repenting repenters, as one writer put it. And help us, Father, to obey the new covenant and to live for Christ in this world that needs him so much. Help us to proclaim him this very day, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Thank you very much.