Take your Bible and go to the book of Leviticus, please. Leviticus. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. And I want to look at the overall view of the book of Leviticus tonight just a little bit. That's what we call the telescopic view. You remember me talking about that this morning? Look down over the top of it and see. I'll give you just a little bit. I won't hold you long. Just look at a few little thoughts here. Leviticus is a very good book. It's hard to understand. Thank God for it. We need it. It's the equivalent, and I've said this before, of a book of Hebrews in the New Testament. Leviticus of the Old Testament is the Hebrews of the New Testament. Keep that in your mind. And it's a lot to do with the priesthood and therefore, thereof, and so we look at it. I'm going to read one verse of Scripture tonight, chapter 1, verse 1. You won't have to stand. We'll just read this together. I'll read it twice because I want you to see this little fault and look at it. The Bible said, "...And the Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying..." Let's read it again. And the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying, and let's ask God's leadership and guidance, Father, give us wisdom. Help us to understand this tonight. Lord, help us to rejoice in the things of the Lord. Thank you, Lord, for your divine touch upon our heart and life. Thank you for the testimonies tonight, the songs that have been sung. Lord, thank you for what we have seen and felt and heard tonight, for the instruments and, Lord, the goodness of God, and the choir. And most of all, for the Spirit of God, Lord, it has just been real to us. And we left now, Lord, we could say it has been good to be in the house of God. You just blessed us, and thank you for that tonight. And help us, Lord, not to change that. Help us, Lord, not to destroy that. Through the preaching of the Word of God, Lord, help us to draw closer, pick up some things tonight that will help us to even be closer. We give You the praise for it in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Now Leviticus, one of the five books of Moses called the Pentateuch, and if you've never heard of the Pentateuch, it's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The five books of Moses, now you've got to keep that in mind. And it's a book, Leviticus is a book of types, patterns, examples, shadows, figures, just like Genesis, just like Exodus. And these are full of shadows and types. I'm going to give you a few things here tonight. And remember, this is by way of review. The book of Genesis is a book of what? Beginnings. Amen. You've heard me preach this before. Genesis is a book of beginnings. Exodus is a book of what? Redemption. Remember, it's the book of redemption. I'm just seeing how well you remember. And then Leviticus is a book of what? Worship. All right, you got it. So you've got to keep that in mind, how it is, and it's important. God puts it in stages and steps, and that's the way we come here. Levitical, when you look at the Levitical Law in Leviticus, it's a priestly book, a book about priesthood. And you'll see that. Notice in chapter 1, in verse 1, where God is and what He's saying, "...and the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him," where? Out of the tabernacle of the congregation. Now we know this, and you go back and think about it. You remember we had talked about the book of Exodus. And we'll break that down in a minute and show you some things, but I believe tonight you'll have to say that this is a book of worship. God is not on the outside of the tabernacle. Where was God when He called out to Noah to come in the ark? He is on the inside of the ark. He didn't run Noah in the ark. He got in the ark. And the reason He got inside the ark is because Noah had done exactly like God told him to do. He had built it to the right dimensions, the right length, the right width, the right height. He'd put the door in the right place and the window in the right place. And he pitched it within and without, which is a type of the Spirit of God. He had it just right. He'd done it according to God's blueprint, and God went in to inspect it. He's the first inspector, amen, building inspector we've ever had. Amen. Think about that. And he went in and checked it out, and when he walked in and looked at it, God said, this is approved. And he said, Noah, get on in here. And he came in, and when he did, God shut to the door. Now we find that God gilded the tabernacle, the dimensions of how He wanted it built and how He wanted it done. We've been talking about that in past days and months. And now we find tonight that He's come to the place in the book of Leviticus that He has approved what's been done. The tabernacle's set up, and God's on the inside. I'm glad when God gets on the inside, ain't you? God's been on the inside tonight here at the church, and so He's on the inside, and He said, Come on in, Moses, amen. As a matter of fact, He says, I want you to speak to the people. And He told him what to speak in verse number 2. Now, there's two main categories or two main divisions of this book of Leviticus, and we'll give them to you. And we'll see it in chapter 1 through chapter 16. You put this in your notes. Chapter 1 through chapter 16 of the book of Leviticus, it teaches us and tells us how that we can approach God, the way that we can approach God. You cannot come to God your way. Amen. God has a way to get to Him. Do you believe that? Amen. You say, that's Old Testament. I'm talking about New Testament too. You cannot just approach God, but in a certain way. Amen. God, first of all, He calls and speaks, and you can't come to the Lord until He speaks. Is that right? And the Bible says, "...he that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." And the way it is, we come God's way. God said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He's the only way that we can approach heaven. Then we find chapter 17 through 27, only 27 chapters in the book of Leviticus. And out of those 17 through 27, we don't find a way of approach to God, but we find a way of abiding with God. That's important. Amen. We've got to get to God before we can abide with Him, but those last chapters of the book tell us how we can abide with Him. The book of John talks about how we abide with Him, and we are to abide in Him and His words. Now some of the main words and what the book of Leviticus deals with is the worship. We talked about that in the beginning. And also a couple more things I'd like to point out is holiness. God wants His people to be holy, and the book of Leviticus tells us how to be holy. And it's not only a book of holiness that we find there, but it's also a book of separation, how that we separate ourselves unto God. Separate ourselves from sin and separate ourselves to God. That's New Testament doctrine, by the way. We're to separate ourselves from the world, and we're to separate ourselves unto God. We're to come out from among the world and come out from among sin and be separate, saith the Lord, and we're to be separated unto Him. Amen. Now we'll go a little bit further. So we find tonight that that approach, that approach, how do we get the approach? Number one, through sacrifice. Put this in your notes. How do we approach God? There's got to be a sacrifice. And there's got to be some priests and some ways of getting there. And God used sacrifice in the book of Leviticus and priests and the priesthood to bring us to Christ. Amen. People in the Old Testament could not get to God without a sacrifice. They could not get to God without a priest offering that sacrifice and sprinkling that blood. We come to the New Testament, brother, we can't get to God, amen, but through Jesus Christ, who is our supreme sacrifice, and only through His blood, and that blood cannot be sprinkled without the priest, and He is our High Priest. Amen. He had to have somebody to help him along, but thank God he has become our priest. Amen. And when we find that, we sum it up together. Sacrifice and we find the priest. What do we find? We find that every way we get to God, from Genesis to Revelation, is through one particular thing called the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood. The blood is from Genesis to Malachi. And Matthew on up through the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to the last parts of those four Gospels. And then we find that Jesus sheds His blood on the cross of Calvary. Didn't spill it. Wasn't killed. He gave Himself willingly on the cross of Calvary. And that blood is a supreme sacrifice. And the blood that God accepts has been sprinkled on the mercy seat of heaven. And God has accepted it. And blood, we find blood, has been from sacrifices from Genesis up to the time that Christ sacrificed Himself on the cross of Calvary. And that is still blood. What blood? The same blood that brother Jesus gave on the cross of Calvary. Amen. So we know that that's plain. You say, that's right. We already know that. That's good. I'm trying to remind you. So you see, the book of Leviticus is an overall, look at it tonight, it's sacrifice, priest, and blood. Amen. And there is an abiding. How do we abide in Christ? Now, which is the last part of the book of Leviticus? We abide through consecration. In other words, separation, we get consecrated and dedicated and separated from the world, and we begin to become like Christ, and therefore we can abide with Him. Brother, you've got to come like Christ to have communion and abide with Him. You can be saved and still not do the abiding that you ought to have. He abides in you, but do you abide in Him? Amen. You listen to me tonight, think about that a minute. What happens is our life, it gets to the place that we get off kilter, get in the place that we get in trouble, and that keeps us from coming to Him, and we're not consecrated. Brother, we don't have that continual communion with the heavenly Father, and we get cold and distant, and church won't mean much to you. Amen. Bible reading won't mean much to you. Prayer won't mean much to you. Amen. You've been there. I know you've been there. Brother, there's times you prayed, but you didn't feel like it went nowhere. There's times you read your Bible and it didn't seem like it had done no good. There's been times that you sought the face of God and could not find Him. It's like God had turned a deaf ear, like God had gone out of town. But listen, He is always there. But I'm telling you, it's because we're not consecrated. Brother, we need that eternal fellowship with the Son of God tonight. Now let's break this chapter, this book down tonight. I'll tell you some things that it's done in chapters 1 through 7. Put this in your notes. You'll find that there's offerings. There are the laws of offerings. God has certain things. There's actually five offerings that can be offered. I'm not going to give them to you tonight. But you just study the first seven chapters, you'll find them. There's five offerings. Look at those five offerings. It's be your homework. Go home and look at it. You'll find those five offerings in the first seven chapters. This is the law of offerings. God has a certain way of offering. God has a certain way of doing it. And you needed those things, and that's what God is showing. And every one of them is for a purpose. And we're going to come back and sometime I'm going to preach on them five offerings and show you how they fit in with the crucifixion of the Son of God. Brother, we talk about them seven feast days and tie those offerings into it. And brother, it's a blessing to study that. I think it's in the 23rd chapter of the book of Leviticus. You study that and that's a tremendous chapter. You'll find everything from the birth of Christ to the resurrection and return of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 23rd chapter of the book of Leviticus. It's amazing to sit down and study that. Now, let's go to something else. Chapters 1 through 7 are the law of offerings. Chapters 8 through 10 are the law of the priesthood. Now, there are certain things that the priesthood could not do, and certain things that they should do, certain ways and laws and systems they had to set under. As a matter of fact, we're going back to the book of Exodus one of these days, and we're going to look and see how that he had to have a certain garment. He had to be fixed in a certain way. He had to be anointed by the presence of God in his life. Amen? Did anybody study on that anointing over the week? Amen. Did you study much of it? I give you that for homework. You didn't do your homework? That anointing? Amen. I remember I talked about Wednesday night, the anointing versus the filling of God. Well, that anointing is not what comes on you, it's what God done when He saved you. He anointed you for His work, set you apart. Brother, He put the anointing on you. He fills you to do His work. Anybody study on that, go home and study on that. I challenge you with it. As a matter of fact, I started to come back and preach on it tonight just to kind of see if you'd been with me. Amen in it. And now I wish I had, but this is what God wants. But anyhow, listen. We look here and he talks about the law of the priesthood. And they find that in chapters 8 through 10. Then in chapter 11 through 22, you find the law of purity. And he talks about how the body is pure and the purity. And he talks about the leper and how you cleanse the leper. Brother, there are some tremendous Scriptures in there, how that he cleanses that leper, and he goes through that Levitical law, and he does this. And sometimes it's dull on the surface to think about what the priest did, and look at that, and you say, that doesn't apply today. But it does apply! Amen! Brother, we don't put the blood of the sacrifice on the ear. We don't put the blood of the sacrifice on the leper. Hey, but we don't have to, because the supreme sacrifice, Jesus Christ, It's already been done for that tonight, and thank God He is the One. His blood's been sprinkled for every sinner. Thank God for that. Then we come down to chapter number 23 through chapter 27, and you'll find the Law of the Feast. Brother, when you get down and we talk about them seven feast days that I was mentioning a while ago. Now remember this. In Exodus, we'll break it down into two parts to be able to get the book of Leviticus. Number one, the first part of Exodus, and it goes through chapters 19, chapter 1 through 19. You know a little bit about that. We've been preaching on that some time ago. Now in chapter 1 through 19, we find Ezra in bondage. She's been set free by the grace of God. God's delivered her out of Egypt after 430 years through the hand of Moses, brought them through the wilderness, opened the Red Sea, and they got over on the other side. Amen. After what? after the blood had been applied to the top of the door down the side post, and they came through blood, redemption in the first few chapters of the book of Exodus. Chapters 1 through 19 finds their bondage, their deliverance and their redemption, amen, and brings them now into the wilderness. Chapter 20 on through chapter number 40, God gives instruction on how they're to walk. God gives them the Ten Commandments on the two tables of stone on Mount Sinai and told them what they should do and should not do. And then He gives them the pattern of the tabernacle and said, I want it built just like this. I want it built to certain dimensions. I want it put in a certain place. And I want it just like I want it. Amen. So we find that God's leading that out. Now we get to the book of Leviticus. God's going to tell you what I want you to do with what you've already done with the tabernacle. He said, I'm in here in the tabernacle. Come in. Amen. He said to you, here's what I want you to speak to the people of God about. And He begins to give them the plan of it. And so we're finding God's saying, We're going to have a place to worship. It's been made like it's supposed to be made out of Exodus, and now we come into Leviticus, and now we're going to change the set, and we're going to be in worship mode now, and now we're going to worship God. Beloved, if we've been saved tonight, we need in the worship mode. Amen. See, that's what we come here tonight for, to worship. We come to the house of God to worship. Now, the key words of the book of Leviticus are these, offering, amen, sacrifice, holy and many times the word clean. God looks for a clean sacrifice. He wants a sacrifice without spot and without blemish. Amen, He does. This book not only implies, but tells us the importance of the blood. We are living in a society tonight that does not care much about the blood. Amen. They want to figure out how to get to God through works. through doing things, through their accomplishments. But the Bible teaches us that there is only one way to heaven, and that is through, through, I said through the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. And I believe, except that he talks about, you know, without remission, that there is no remission of sin without shedding the blood, there is no remission of sin. Beloved, a knife has got to be. So God shows us in the book of Leviticus, that's why He goes into it, tells you how to cut the animal up. It shows you how to burn the animal. It shows you how to wash the inner parts. It shows you how to do everything. You look at that, you say, that's gross, that's ugly, that's terrible. Some of you don't like the book of Leviticus just because of that. You look at it and you say, oh, that's terrible. But let me tell you something, brother, Christ went through every bit of this for you and me, and He's telling us in the book of Leviticus that it's got to be blood! In Genesis, what does God say? It's got to be what? Blood! The first blood sacrifice that was ever offered in the Bible was when God killed two innocent animals and brought them skins of those animals out and covered and clothed Adam and Eve. First blood sacrifice. God said, I'll set the pattern for you. And He set it on. And He said, I want this to be done. And He passed it down through Adam. And Adam told his two sons, Cain and Abel, it's got to be blood. Cain said, I won't have it. And Abel got killed because of it. Amen? And I want to tell you tonight, brother, people have been going around the blood down through the ages and down through the centuries, but the book of Leviticus comes along in the third book. One, two, Three. Amen. We get to the book of Exodus and we find out that it's blood. Amen. Across the top of the door, down the side post. It's blood that's going to get you redeemed. Now we come to the book of Leviticus and God said, I've not changed my mind yet. From Genesis, it's still blood. And you go to Numbers, it's still blood. You go to Deuteronomy, it's still blood. And the first five books of your Bible is a blood sacrifice all the way. And from Genesis to Revelation, it is blood. Not the blood of bulls and goats, but the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. And so you see the significance of the book of Leviticus. Yes, it's ugly. Yes, it's nasty looking. Yes, it's gross, as these kids say. Amen. I never didn't know that word. Like, the gross meant something else when I was a kid. But now, you know, oh, gosh. And like, ooh, that's bad. I want you to know tonight, ladies and gentlemen, it is ugly. But I want you to know also that that's exactly how God chooses. That's the way it's going to be. Amen. The book deals with sin. Sin. Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus. Now three books in a row is dealt with sin. Where does sin enter? Into the garden. Amen. Actually, it entered in with Satan when he went against God. But I'm talking about in mankind. It entered in the garden. As we come on down from there, we realize tonight that sin has taken its toll, and the wages of sin is death. but the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we come on down now to the book of Leviticus, and we find that God has to deal with sin still. He's been dealing with it in two books, and the third book He's still dealing with it. And so there has to be a sacrifice. There has to be a priesthood. There has to be an atonement and making us one with God. There has to be an access to God. There must be holiness to get us into the very presence of God. And God said in the book of Leviticus, it's My order, and that's the way you're going to do it. And this Old Testament, yes sir, it works in the New Testament as well. So God hasn't changed His mind about it. This book, it teaches the importance of the blood. Secondly, it teaches the necessity of the blood. It's necessary. Brother, the blood is important, yes, but it's necessary. It has to be done. No man can get into heaven another way. John chapter 10 said if we climb up into heaven, we're like a thief and a robber. We're not going to get in. No man can climb up. Nobody can go around. Brother, nobody can change the ways God has laid it out. Nobody will ever get to heaven. Nobody will ever get to heaven. I said nobody will ever get to heaven but through the blood of Jesus Christ. Amen. They try to bypass the blood, they wind up in hell. Because God has chosen it that way. He has ordained it that way. And the Word of God teaches us that way. And then we find tonight Not only the necessary use of the blood or the importance of it and the necessity of it, but tonight we find the power of it. Those little Israelites could take their hands and put it on them little animals, lay their hands upon them and pray, and brother, they'd kill them animals and catch the blood and sprinkle that blood, and they could go home knowing that God had accepted their sacrifice. Amen. And God had covered over their sin. He hadn't removed it, but He had covered over their sin. He didn't remove it until Jesus Christ come and died. He's the only one that can remove sin. All the blood of the animals ever given never washed away sin. It only covered sin until Jesus Christ came. You remember that Jesus laid it out in the Word of God throughout. God laid it out in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New. But a sacrifice had to be clean. A sacrifice had to be without spot and without blemish. You couldn't get a sick animal to come. You had to get one that's without spot and without blemish. God goes in the 12th and through the 14th chapter of the book of Exodus and tells us that it's got to be one that's put up. 12th chapter, He tells us that they put it up and watch it. And they make sure it don't have a spot and a blemish, and then they kill that animal, that lamb. And it becomes a sacrifice, and they sprinkle that blood. Brother, he shows us that in the Word of God. Do you remember what Noah did? Noah put the clean animals in the ark, and he put them in by sevens. He put the unclean by how many? Two. Why? So that they'd have something to sacrifice when they come out of the ark. Do you remember in the book of Genesis also that Abraham offered sacrifice? Sacrifice is not something I said a while ago. It's not something that just happened in Leviticus. It happened in Genesis. It happened in Exodus. And so they offered those sacrifices. As a matter of fact, there are five animals that they offered, five different animals that they offered. Five is the number of grace, by the way. You want these animals that they offered? The ox, the lamb, the goat, the pigeon, amen, and the turtle dove, amen. Those were the offerings. If you look in Leviticus, you will find that is what Abraham offered. You will find that they offered the ox, You'll find it in the first part of the book of Leviticus. If any man could offer an ox, let him offer his ox. But if he couldn't afford an ox, he offered a lamb or a goat. If he couldn't afford a goat, he offered a pigeon or a turtle dove, and everybody could get them. Notice how one of these animals were and could be domesticated, and every one of them could be used for our food. You hear me? And so look at that. God said these are clean animals. And God has a purpose in everything that He does. And these sacrifices, brother, are important. Brother, God came through His Son. He was clean, without spot and without blemish, a perfect Lamb of God. Died on the cross of Calvary with no sin whatsoever. Not one little grain of sin in His life. And gave Himself to die on the cross of Calvary. This book sets forth the truth for the rest of it. There's what we call, and I've mentioned this many times at this church, there's what we call the first mention principle in the Bible hermeneutics. If you've ever studied the Bible, you'll find out that there's a first mention principle. That is, when you find something mentioned for the first time in the Bible, you get the meaning of what God means for it and says for it if the first time in the first mention of it, And you get the meaning then, get it right, it will go that way all the way through the Bible. It won't change. So God starts off in Genesis with blood, Exodus with blood, Leviticus with blood, and it's blood all the way through, and God does not change His mind. Amen. It's the first mention principle. So we see that it's the book of truth that tonight rests on the Word of God tonight. You'll see it. He sets it forth. All the sacrifices in the book of Leviticus are substitutionary. That means that they are taking the place of that sinner. This is important. You've got to get this. We talk about the vicarious sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ. We talk about His substitutional debt. What we're saying is tonight that He was without spot and without blemish, without sin whatsoever. And when He gave Himself on the cross of Calvary, He died a substitutionary death for you and me. In other words, He took our place. It should have been us that was crucified, but He took our place. That's what it means tonight. So we see that the sacrifices are substitutional. And thank God for that. Now, all these sacrifices, and I'm closing with this, in the book of Leviticus, number one, all these sacrifices were a promise. Every time they offered a goat, every time they offered a lamb, every time they offered an ox, every time they offered a turtle dove, every time they offered a pigeon, God was saying, this is a promise to you that I'm going to bring you a sacrifice one day that's going to pay the price for your soul. That's a promise. Not only was it a promise, but God said, it's a pledge. I pledge to you that there's one coming. And isn't it what John the Baptist said? There's one among us, or one among me tonight, he said, that's mightier than I, whose shoes latched, I'm not worthy to unloose. And then he looks around in John 1.29 and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Are you with me? I'm telling you tonight, you'll see it as you see it portrayed in the New Testament. And I praise God for it. It's a promise. It's a pledge. And then every time they offered one, it's a prophecy. God said, I'm going to fulfill this. One day it's going to take place. One day He's coming. One day He's going to pay the price. It's to come. And then, thank God, a little over 2,000 years ago, He came. He died. He was buried. He arose. He ascended. Seated at the Father's right hand. And thank God, soon coming again. And I got my supreme sacrifice. Amen. Now I go back and look at the ox, the goats, the lambs, the pigeons, and the turtledoves, and I say, thank God, He's already come. He took their place. Amen. And now no longer is sin just covered. It's washed away. You know, I'd say tonight, where's my sin? Well, the little Israelites, you said to Him, where's your sin now? He said, well, we offered a goat today. And where's your sin? He said, it's covered under the blood of that goat. You say to another, and he said, well, my sin's under the blood of that ox that I offered a little while ago. You talk to another, and he said, well, we couldn't afford an ox, and we couldn't afford a goat, but we got us a pigeon. And my sins are under the blood of that pigeon. Where are they at? They're covered by that blood. But hey man, we can look back at that now and ask that little Jew, he is here tonight, what's happened to your sins? He said, what sins are you talking about? There are no more. I thought you said they were under the pigeon's blood. They were until Christ came and took them away and washed them away, and now there are no more. Aren't you glad you can say that tonight? I've never been able to say that my sins are under the blood of a pigeon. I've never been able to say that my sins have been covered by an ox. I've always been able to say, thank God my sins are gone. What sins are you talking about? They're gone. He took them away. That's because Old Testament and New Testament changed. Amen. Same manner, same order. Faith, faith, faith. Blood, blood, blood. Amen. Thank God. A lot of folks have a problem with trying to get the Old Testament and New Testament together concerning the blood, but it's there. And if you don't get it right, you're going to miss it anyhow. But I'm telling you, I thank God. That's the overall view of the book of Leviticus. Now, there's a lot of things we break down in this book. We could talk about the little laws and the things that they did and how they did certain things, but that's an overall view. It's a book of worship. Looking at it from a bird's eye view, looking down over it, telescopically, we're looking at it tonight and we're saying that's basically, it's a book of worship and how that God brings us in relation to Him and worships with us. Amen. He worships tonight with us. He's in us and we're in Him. That's why we come in tonight and you can feel another visitor here tonight. Sung in the choir, I can feel somebody else nudging my soul. He listens to testimonies and somebody else is nudging my soul. Amen. Been in the church tonight and we felt like there's been a visitor from heaven. We've been visited by heaven tonight. Amen. I wish it could have been more. Amen. But we had a little bit of His presence. We couldn't take a whole lot more of it, no way. Amen. I could take some more. Couldn't you? But I couldn't take all of it. Amen. I'd like to see the presence of God. We come to the house of God. That's worship. when His presence comes in, heads bowed, Leviticus is a book of worship. Amen. Thank God tonight that it is.