I wonder if you have ever done something that you really didn't want to do, and then afterward realized it was really good for you to do that. You realized that the things that you feared or dreaded about it didn't really come true, and in fact, the opposite was quite true, that you realized that it was good and there's nothing that would stop you from doing it again. Or maybe you were just ambivalent about it, and you went anyway or you participated in it anyway and found the same thing to be afterward. Maybe at times you feel that way about coming to church. Be honest now. Maybe sometimes you feel like I just don't wanna go. I don't wanna go worship, or I don't wanna come to Bible study, or I don't wanna come, I just, I don't feel like I don't have an enemy. But once you go, your head and your heart are connected, and you realize this is the way you're wired. You're wired as a believer. And sometimes it takes some self-talk, right? Sometimes it takes some help from other people around you. Sometimes it's like the man who woke up on one Sunday morning and said he didn't want to go to church. And his wife said, you have to go to church. He says, I don't want to go to church. He said, I don't have to go to church. I don't want to go to church. She says, you do have to go to church. And he says, they're just a bunch of hypocrites down there. Now you fill in your blank there, right? It's just a bunch of hypocrites. It's just a bunch of boring songs. It's a bunch of boring things. The preacher preaches too long. I don't want to go. And she says, you have to go. And he says, why do I have to go? Because you're the pastor. Now really, the same thing you should be saying about yourself, right? Why do you have to go? Because I'm a member. These are my people. We're united together in Christ and these are my people. And I don't feel like it, but I know when I go, it will be a better thing. But maybe this morning was one of those mornings. Leviticus. Really? A dusty old book of laws? I thought we were in Christ. I thought he came and something happened to those dusty old laws. Do we really need to study Leviticus? Does it really have something to say to me? I'm assuming that no one in here and no one ever has says, Leviticus again? That's all he preaches on is Leviticus. You never felt that way, have you? So in a few weeks, a few months, we'll be through with Leviticus, and I'm confident that you will say, I'm glad I did that. It was valuable to me. And all the things that I was worried about, all the things I thought, what does it have to do with me, whether I eat this fish or not, or this animal or not, or wear this clothing or not, what does it have to do with me? I don't bring offerings to a priest, I don't have a priest, what does it have to do with me? Well I think by the time we finish we will see that Leviticus is one of the most important books in the Old Testament because from Leviticus flows Christ. We do not have an understanding of what Christ has accomplished the way the New Testament brings him if we don't understand Leviticus. So Leviticus is something that we need to look at and this morning I intend to bring Leviticus as just a broad overview. I'm not gonna cover all what's in it. I'm gonna cover some themes, I'm gonna cover its setting, and I'm gonna cover why it's valuable for us and why it does have application for us. And I'm gonna do that by answering four questions. What is Leviticus? Why Leviticus? How does Leviticus apply to New Covenant believers? And how do I prepare to receive Leviticus? So through those four questions, we'll jump into Leviticus. So we're going to read a little bit of Leviticus in just a moment, but the thing we need to do first is figure out where Leviticus fits in. Is it just thrown in here? Is Leviticus just something that God said, well, now I'm really gonna test him? All those people who said they were gonna read through the Bible in a year, let's see what they do when they get to Leviticus. How many of you have stopped reading your Bible through in a year when you got to Leviticus? or at least been deterred from it pretty strongly, right? So if we see where Leviticus fits into the biblical theology that we've been building, we built so much of this over the last several years, you're gonna remember that in broad terms, Genesis starts with four major events in the first 11 chapters, right? What are those four major events? Creation, fall, Flood, chapter 11, the Tower of Babel, right? Four major events that happen in there. And we move from God placing Adam and Eve in the garden and giving them the creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the world and have authority over it, telling them to spread His righteousness throughout the world to their sin. and the consequences of that sin, to God saying, I'm going to start over, and he starts with Noah and his family, and Noah gets out on the other side of the flood after being delivered, and what's he do? He sins, even though God gave him the same creation mandate, to be fruitful, to multiply, to subdue the world, to have authority over it, and he gives that to Noah as well. And then by the time we get to the Tower of Babel, the Tower of Babel, we have the Table of Nations before that that show us the nations are trying to gather two things they're doing wrong, right? They're staying put instead of being scattered, and they're building a tower up to God. And that would have been something that would have been normal in ancient Near Eastern times to build a tower up called a ziggurat, and it would have been a way to build up to God, but also the place that their gods would come down to them. So one, they're not scattering, they're staying put, but secondly, they're building something for themselves. Do you remember what that is? A name. And God then turns the page to Genesis 12, and we're introduced to Abraham, and God says what? I will make your name great. So we continue with the rest of Genesis with the nation being built with Abraham and the other patriarchs and showing that story. And then we end up at the end of that story, we end up with them moving into Exodus and we see God, they have been taken into captivity into Egypt. And in the first 18 chapters of Exodus, we're seeing what God does to redeem his people, right? We're seeing Moses' interaction with Pharaoh and the plagues and how God redeems his people. And the people act in faith because in the 10th plague, they do exactly what God says to do. Put the blood of the lamb on the doorpost so the angel of death passes over them. Well, it takes the firstborn of all the Egyptians and anyone in Israel who was not faithful to God. And so we see how that works, and we see God delivering them, and God brings them out, and he puts them at the foot of Mount Sinai. And when he puts them at the foot of Mount Sinai, beginning in chapter 19, he gives them the law. And they see how they are supposed to live, and they see what it's going to take for them to build the facilities for worship and prepare for the priest. And we see all of those in great, that is fascinating detail, and then we see that God is telling his people how they're to function, and then we have that wonderful chapter, not so wonderful chapter, in chapter 32, and what happens there, that golden calf incident. They don't wanna just replace God, they wanna add to God, right? And so they, we just threw all the gold in, and out comes this calf, he says. And so God reinstitutes the covenant with them, the people again say, all that it says we will do, And then God tells us through the rest of Exodus what it meant to build all those things, to build the tent of meeting, to build the altar and the basin and all of that, and to actually weave the clothes for the priest and all of that. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the end of Exodus. This brings us up to our putting Leviticus in its context. The people of God gathered around the mountain, they've been given all of the pieces for worship and living, But there's a problem. Look at the very end, verse 34 of Exodus 40. So we're coming into the answer to our first question, what is Leviticus? What is Leviticus? The end of verse 33 says, so Moses finished the work. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. So Israel is seeing the presence of the Lord. And you notice that when the presence of the Lord, the glory of the Lord fills the temple, Moses was not able to enter into it. Look at Leviticus 1. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. from the tent of meeting, saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them. So right here, we have some clear theological distinctives for us, don't we? God's glory has filled this tent of meeting. The glory has filled it and it has filled it to such extent that if Moses go in, he will surely die. And so God speaks to him to speak to the people. So the first thing we see is that God is speaking. Amen? That catches our ears, right? That catches our ear. God is speaking. 36 times we see either the Lord spoke or the Lord said in Leviticus. Everything that's happening, God is giving to Moses to give to the people. So this is for the people of God. It's not just for Moses. It's just not for the priests. And one of the things that we see in this title of Leviticus, we're thinking already it's all about the Levitical priesthood. And yet we see that it's only three verses in Leviticus that the Levitical priesthood is even mentioned, and they're all together. Three times in two or three verses. This is God's word to his people. It's his word to his people. And it's better for, the Hebrew title of this comes right from the first words, the Lord called. That's the Hebrew title of this. In Hebrew, the word that's translated, the Lord called. So this is Lord calling Moses to give a word to Moses to pass on to his people. Now, I want you to turn to chapter 26 of Leviticus. Look at the last verse of chapter 26, verse 46. These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai. Turn over to the last part of the next chapter, the last verse of chapter 27. after a section on vows and how to handle those. The book ends, these are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. That's where we started, right? At the foot of Mount Sinai, the Lord speaking to Moses for his people. Now after it's all done, he's given the people some words that meant something and it's all finished. Look at Numbers chapter one, verse one. The very next verse, remember we're putting this in its context, the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the Tent of Meeting. in the tent of meeting on the first day of the second month and the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying. So he's going to continue to speak, and for the first 10 chapters, it's gonna sound a lot like Leviticus, but there's a major difference, you see it? If you watch the videos that I ask you to watch from the Bible Project, they made a big deal of this, didn't they? And what did the guy say? When the guy narrated the video, went from Leviticus 1.1 to Numbers 1.1, he said what? Leviticus worked! And I agree with him. Leviticus works because the purpose of Leviticus is for God to show his people how they gain access to him for worship and how they are to live in the world. They have the law given to them. Leviticus is the commentary on that law. Leviticus tells them how to work this, how to make sure, we've got the tabernacle place and we've got all of these implements in it. How is this supposed to work? Can we just waltz in and talk to God? Well, God's talking to Moses from inside and Moses on the outside, so that's a sign for something must not be right for us to do that. So what do we do with these priests and the garments? What do we do with these offerings? What do we do with these holy days? How do we implement these? Leviticus tells them how. Because why is God's presence in that tabernacle to begin with? Because he desires to dwell with these people. Remember, that's what he did in the garden, right? The fall happens, and that all goes by the wayside, but God is constantly dealing with how to dwell with his people. And we know this because we just saw this in full fruition when we got to the end of Revelation, right? At the end of Revelation, we reminded ourselves that when the new heavens and the new earth and the new Jerusalem, which is us, when that happens, that we are able to be in the presence of God and the Lamb, and there's no sin, and we worship without a mediator, and there's no son, because the worship is restored to what it was intended to be. But God hasn't just said, well, I'll give it to him in Genesis and put him through a bunch of years and then I'll give it to him in Revelation. It's always what he has been doing. So this is where we see the book of Leviticus put into this movement of of biblical theology. So under the answer to the question, what is Leviticus, we wanna look at two things, presence and practice. We can look at it different ways, but we're just gonna have this brief overview on what's going on. First is presence. God desires to dwell with his people, but there's a problem. God is holy, and his people are not. Now remember, God gave the law to a redeemed set of people, right? That's the way chapter 19 in Exodus starts out, right? It starts out that I am the Lord who redeemed you from Egypt and therefore I'm giving you the law. He's not giving the law to a bunch of people who don't know him and saying, now obey this and I will save you. He's saying, I've already saved you, therefore you should obey this. Because when we look at the law, the law is reflecting God's character. And we'll look more at the law in a moment. as we move through. But this redeemed people has been given the law. But they have rebelled. Chapter 32, the golden calf, right? When they were given the law, they said, yes, Moses, tell God we'll do everything that the law says. And then when they re-institute the covenant later on, yes, tell him we'll do everything. We confess that we'll do everything that God says. But they don't. They're an unholy people. So God's presence fills the tabernacle in Exodus 40. Moses can't be there because he's holy. Now what does it mean to be holy? The root meaning of being holy means to be set apart, to be set apart. So for God to be set apart, it's meaning that God is set apart from every other creature. He is set apart from evil. He's set apart from all the things he has created because he is the creator. There is no one like him. And when we investigate the character of God further, we see that holiness marks everything that he does. He is different, he is other than everything that he has created. Even the human beings that he has created in his image, or just created in his image, they are not him. They're created in his image. And so God is set apart because he is different from everyone else. And when we think of holy, we think of perfection. We think of his glorious perfection. That's really bringing into his glory as well, but the fact that he's set apart from everything else means that if he's set apart, there's got to be something done in order to have access to him. Because we have already learned that if, If we're in the presence of God in his bright holiness, we will not survive. No one can be in God's presence without a mediator. No one can be in God's presence without dying. But God has come to earth to dwell with his people. Remember, this tabernacle leading into the temple, it's all a copy, Hebrews tells us, of the heavenly temple, the real temple, the one not made with hands. But he has deigned to dwell with his people. So he has to provide a way for his people to come and worship him. That's why Leviticus starts out with burnt offerings. How does this happen? So when we start off right in chapter 1, and we're going to read another couple of sections today, but when we start off right in chapter 1, we're dealing with burnt offerings. And immediately we say, I don't remember the last time I made a burnt offering. What could this possibly have to do with us? What could this possibly have to do with us who are not under the law? Well, I want you to know that God is speaking through all of this and what he is showing them is a way to worship that makes sense to them because he needs to invade the space in a way that allows them to come into his presence. So his presence dictates Leviticus. And we can look at this in several different ways, but we'll do that in a moment when we move from the presence of God, the holiness of God, and the problem that's here that needs to be addressed, that starts right out at the beginning when Moses is given these words to give to the people. It's God's people learning how they come into contact, gain access to a holy God, among other things. So if we have this problem that is the problem of his presence, there must be a practice that is given to us in Leviticus. And that's the bulk of the book, is what does this actually look like? Turn to chapter 11, Leviticus chapter 11, verse 44. Leviticus 11, verse 44. For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall, therefore, be holy, for I am holy. Now turn to chapter 19, verse 2. Verse 1, we have one of our 36 times, and the Lord spoke to Moses saying, and then verse 2, speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for the Lord your God, for I the Lord your God am holy. This is the driving theme of the book. What does it mean for us to be holy and enter into his presence? Now, if holy for God means separate from all of his creation, he is set apart from all his creation, what does it mean for us? We didn't create, we're not in his character, and yet, The call for us to be holy is because he is a holy God. See, the charter for Israel was to live a life that magnified God's glory and his holiness so that the nations would come to the mountain and worship him. That's the charter for Israel. They are to live in such a way that the nations come because they're different and that difference draws them to the God who has redeemed them and told them how to live so that they would see the creator God and worship him. Now we get to the New Testament, that shifts in a different way, but it's the same thing, right? We are to go out to the nations. We are to go to the nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them all the things that God has taught us. But we are to go to the nations, but we're doing the same thing, right? We're going into the midst of them as God's people, and we're living in a way that it looks different to them, so that when they see us, we point them to the holiness of our God. So if we're going to be holy as God's people, if Israel was to be holy as God's people, they need to look as God said. And so God sets up a practice for them that they need to accept by faith and say, if God has said I can access in this way, then I can access him in this way, and they trust in that. So the point of all of this is to say, how do we become holy so that we can have access to God? How do we become holy in God's eyes so that we live in the world in such a way that we look separate, called out? Because us as believers in Israel and the Old Testament, we are called out by God, for God, right? We're called out by God. He calls us. He saves us. He sets us apart as his people, but it's also for God. We no longer live for ourselves because we've been crucified in Christ, Paul says in Galatians. So we're seeing this work out in Israel in the Old Testament. In Leviticus, we are going to find these laws that tell them how to access God. And we can look at the structure several ways. But if you looked at the videos I sent out, I think the Bible Project gives us a really helpful way to memorize the basic content of Leviticus. There are faults in it, of course. I mean, some of their chapter markings contain other things, but just like I summarized all of Genesis and Exodus leading up to Leviticus, I didn't tell you everything that was in there, but summarizing them, helping you see the flow of everything. So the Bible project says on the ends, chapters one through seven and 23 through 25 are ritual sacrifices in one through seven and all the rules that go along that. and in 23 through 25 are feasts, the ritual feast. Those are all very practical things for the Israelites to know. Then you move in, kind of bookends, you move in from the end of the book and the beginning of the book, you move in, and at the beginning, eight through 10, is the ordination of the priest. We also see the failure of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu. We're going to see that as well. But in 21 and 22, the next section in from the end, we see the qualifications for those priests. You move in one section further, 11 through 15 are ritual purity laws for the people, how they are to function in this act of worship. But also 18 through 20, we've moved in each bookend, 18 through 20 are the moral purity laws. How do they live pure before their Lord? Right in the center of all that, in 16 and 17, is the Day of Atonement. That important part that holds all of this together in Leviticus, that day in which God says he will provide the way for all the sins of Israel to be atoned. And it's a special day. It is a once a year day. And then at the end are blessings and curses. and a final word on vows in 26 and 27. Another way that you can think about this is the first half and the second half. First half is one through 16, it's laws for the tabernacle. The second half is 17 through 27, chapter 17 through 27, laws for the community. So if you can put one of those things, the Bible project outline is helpful for you because it will keep you tracking with this chiastic parallel view of what's going on in the book of Leviticus. Something else that we're going to see a lot of, and we're not going to go into in-depth on this yet, because we'll have to do that as we see how it works out, but the idea of clean and unclean, holy and not holy, or holy and common. because there were things that would make Israel not worthy, not acceptable to enter into God's presence. Now what we're going to learn in the priest is that the priest, there are things that the worshiper does, there are things that the priest do, and then there is the day of atonement, that one day that the high priest goes in to the holy of holies. Each one of those takes a different level of purification and a different level of acts that would purify them. And so there's the idea of clean and unclean. Well, unclean does not necessarily mean sinful. I mean, you can be made unclean by touching a dead body. That's not sinful to touch a dead body, right? You can be made unclean by having a child. That's clearly not sinful to have a child. So being unclean is not necessarily sinful. Some things are, but it's not necessarily sinful. But God has set up this way that says, It's okay to be that way, but it's not okay to enter my presence that way. That's the key. Because remember, God is the one who controls how he's going to be worshipped, not us. God has spoken in his scripture about how he is to be worshiped. This is a sermon for another time, but we need to take this in from the scriptures, all from Genesis to the maps, and say, what has God said about worship? Individual worship and corporate worship. God is the one who sets forth how he's to be worshiped, not us. That's why worship practices throughout history have not passed muster with the scriptures a lot of times, because God is the one who says how he will be worshiped, and he's no less doing that in Leviticus than anywhere else. So he sets this idea of clean and unclean, this idea of ritual purity, in order to do this, this is key, in order to show the people their unholiness and show the people his holiness. See, they have to be able to see God as righteous and holy. They have to be able to see that and experience that, and the greatest way to do that is to understand that you are not. That's the greatest way to understand the character of God as you process his word, as you see who you are. And you will see who you are more clearly when you see who God is. So God is showing his people, I am other, and this is the way you should approach me. And you say, well, that doesn't make any sense to me why that would be. It doesn't have to make sense. This is the word of God, how he's placed it in the laps of his people to say, this is the way you approach me. And I think as we go through this in detail, and we'll do this mostly chapter by chapter, You can put away all the nightmares of going through three verses at a time through Leviticus. We're mostly going to do this chapter by chapter, sometimes section by section, but I think it will be clear to you the difference between clean and unclean and how that applies to us as believers. Another topic that is contained in the what is Leviticus under practice is the idea of sacrifice. Now to us, sacrifice seems barbaric, doesn't it? I mean, I just went through our youth class this morning and I said, just close your eyes for a minute and picture Leviticus chapter one. And you are a faithful Israelite who owns cattle. You are to go out in the midst of your cattle and you're to pick out the choicest head of cattle that you have without blemish. It's costly to you, isn't it? It is the most choice cattle that you have without any blemish. And you bring it in, you bring it to the temple, and you present it, and the priest hands you a knife. You slit its throat. You cause the blood to drain. And the priest takes the blood, throws it on the doorway to the tent of meeting, and then turns around to you and says, now slaughter it. You have to slaughter it. And then the priest comes in and burns it, and it's burned completely. Now just think of it from the animal, for one thing. That animal's all in. Right? There's nothing left of that animal. Most of the sacrifices, the priest will keep some of it. Sometimes you share it with the priest as a fellowship or Thanksgiving offering. This burned offering, this is total sacrifice. It is all in. And you are heavily involved in that. And what is the purpose? The purpose is because you are presenting that animal as atonement for yourself. It is a substitute. So you are all in. So you can see the sacrifices, even for the Israelite, and even for us understanding how the Israelite experienced it, we're starting to see the divine principles behind it, right? This is atonement, it is a substitute, and it is a completely devoted sacrifice with nothing held back. Now this would have been something that was common in ancient Near Eastern worship practices, all those pagan religions, all of this would have been common. They would have had holy spaces and holy buildings and sacrifices, and they would have had all these types of things. It was not uncommon, it was not unknown to the biblical people at all, was it? I mean, all the way back into Noah, Noah's sacrifices. Job's sacrifices for his children, the same time as Abraham. Abraham's sacrifices, the patriarch's sacrifice, all the way back to the garden, after the garden in Cain and Abel, their sacrificing. It was a normal thing, but now when God speaks this, he speaks it into a realm and in a way that everybody understands, but it is different. Because what they're being asked to do is much more intimate. It serves a much different purpose. It's not to placate the wrath of a God that will kill you if you don't feed it its evening meal. It's to provide access to a God who loves you and wants to have fellowship with you. So it has a totally different purpose. And if the Israelites are doing this by faith, they're accepting the bigger picture that we now know as well, right? The bigger picture is all of this points forward to a Christ who fulfills it all. He was our once for all sacrifice. He was the perfect, without blemish, Lamb of God. He is the mediator, the one mediator, the only mediator between God and man. He fulfills all of this, and they're accepting that by faith, believing Jews in Jesus's time, look and see that by faith. They see this in Jesus, even if they don't understand it completely, because it is the point of Leviticus. So the sacrifices, they may be foreign to us, but the principles behind it are not foreign to us. because God's plan is so much different. Another idea is atonement. We've talked about this a little bit. Atonement has to do with dealing with that problem of sin. And for the Israelite, their problem was sin. That was why they were not holy. That was why they were not acceptable. So atonement deals with the sin problem. It restores that relationship by dealing with the sin problem. Some people describe it as tear the word apart at one mint. parties that are at enmity, the atonement brings them back together in unity. It's a very common word in Leviticus. It occurs 90 times in the scripture, 46 of those times in Leviticus alone, and 13 times in chapter 16. So chapter 16 being the center of Leviticus, I just want you to read it with me. So turn to chapter 16. This is the center of the book, it is the center of the ritual The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron when they drew near before the Lord and died. And the Lord said to Moses, Tell Aaron your brothers not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat that is on the ark so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the holy place with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist and wear the linen turban. These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel. Aaron shall present the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall kill the bull as a sin offering for himself and he shall take the censer full of coals of fire from the altar before the Lord and two handfuls of sweet incense beaten small and he shall bring it inside the veil and put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the Lord of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is over the testimony so that he does not die. And he shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the front of the mercy seat on the east side and in front of the mercy seat he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his fingers seven times. Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering that is for the people and bring its blood inside the veil and do with its blood as he did with the blood of the bull, sprinkling it over the mercy seat and in front of the mercy seat. Thus he shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the people of Israel and because of their transgression, all their sins. And so he shall do it for the tent of meeting which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleanness. No one may be in the tent of meeting from the time he enters to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has made atonement for himself and for his house and for all the assembly of Israel. Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar all around. And he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his fingers seven times and cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanliness of the people of Israel. And when he has made an end of atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins, and he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of the man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. Then Aaron shall come into the tent of meeting and shall take off the linen garments that he put on when he went to the holy place and shall leave them there. And he shall bathe his body in water in a holy place and put on his garments and come out and offer his burnt offering and the burnt offering of the people and make atonement for himself and for the people. And the fat of the sin offering he shall burn on the altar. And he who lets the goat go to Azazel shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and afterwards he may come into the camp. And the bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place shall be carried outside the camp. Their skin and their flesh and their dung shall be burned up with fire. And he who burns them shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water and afterward he may come into the camp. And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourself and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. For on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse you. You shall be clean before the Lord from all your sins. It is a Sabbath of solemn rest to you, and you shall afflict yourselves. It is a statute forever, and the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priest in his father's place shall make atonement wearing the holy linen garments. He shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary and he shall make atonement for the tent of meeting and for the altar and he shall make atonement for the priest and for all the people of the assembly. And this shall be a statute forever for you that atonement may be made for the people of Israel once in the year because of all their sins. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. I know that's a long passage of scripture to read, but do you feel its weight when we read it all? How many times the idea of clean and unclean, sin and forgiveness of sin, taking care of that sin, the idea of atonement, the specificity of all of the rules that have to be done. Can you imagine yourself as a high priest, and the first time you read that, say, really? Seven times? What if I do six? Is the world going to come to an end? I mean, that's the way we read these passages sometimes, right? But it's by faith that the people of Israel did what God said and that faith meted itself out in their life with God honoring His covenant because this is all about covenant relationship with God and His people. So this idea of this once a year, if anyone did not realize they had sinned and did not offer a sacrifice for it, this day was when God said, I am a gracious Lord because I forgive the sins of my people so that they can come into my presence and worship me. Well, the last thing we'll look, just think about just for a moment in this idea of practice is that there is a mediator. Priests are required. They're required to be more clean. They're required to go through more purification steps. You just read, heard me read about those in chapter 16 because they are closer to God. The priest's function was to represent God to the people and the people to God. They walked in. Remember, we looked at this when we were going through Revelation at the breastplate that had all the 12 stones on it that represented the tribes of Israel, that as the high priest went into that Holy of Holies, he is entering in on behalf of the people. And it was that promise that God's saying, there will come a day where all my people will enter into my presence without this human mediator because there has been one mediator, Jesus Christ provide for that. So this idea of mediator is another theme that we must be ready to deal with. Well, that's the meat of what we're doing today, the bulk of it, not the meat, the bulk of it. But let's answer our third question. Why Leviticus? Hopefully some of this is now, I moved this question in three different places as I'm preparing this. Do I start with this? Do I end with this? I think in this spot you can start to see some of the reasons why it is not only appropriate for us to study Leviticus, but it is beneficial to us. It is glorious to us. First of all, Paul tells us in 2 Timothy that all scripture is breathed out by God, right? All scripture is God-breathed and profitable So when Paul wrote that, it's the Old Testament scriptures he had predominantly in front of him. The New Testament scriptures are being lived and written. They fall into this, but when we see Paul telling Timothy, his protege, this, he's predominantly talking about the Old Testament scriptures that are God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." So if all the scriptures are given to us as profit for us, we should not turn over any book and say, that's not valuable for us, because they all are. Secondly, Leviticus is primarily about how our holy God provides for his unholy people to gain access to him. We need this. We need to understand the principles behind how God instructed Israel that they must come into his presence. And we have Nadab and Abihu right at the beginning of the book or the first third of the book to show us that if you enter into his presence in a way that he doesn't want you to enter into, you are entering in an unholy manner and he will kill you. Because that's what they did. They came in and offered strange fire. They offered their incense in a way and a mixture that God did not command and they did not live. And it's like one and a half verses or one, maybe two verses that tell us that and it moves on. So this is important to us. And we say, well, that's only Old Testament, is it? Do you remember Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter five? That's in the New Testament. and they brought a lying spirit into their worship and God took their lives. Now I'm not saying God's gonna take your life today, I'm saying God can take your life because he never changes. So we need to understand what went behind God's way of telling his people that they can access him and worship him and how they should live in the world. The New Testament affirms it all and we will look at that clearly. One of the beautiful things about studying Leviticus is Leviticus drips with Christ. Leviticus is so full of the language of sacrifice and the language of holiness and the language of perfect obedience. And it always points us forward to Christ because the New Testament tells us that he fulfilled all of that. And so everything that we're learning points us to Christ. We will interpret it through its fulfillment in Christ. Now, I just need to tell you right off the bat, that does not mean we set it aside as if it's not valuable for us. It just gives us the way that we will interpret it. And we'll talk about that in just a moment. Hebrews is the best commentary on Leviticus. That's why we start in Hebrews. We start in Leviticus because we want to understand Hebrews better by understanding Leviticus first. And when we get to Hebrews, we will see that Hebrews fills in all the things we will just talk about in small amounts when we study Leviticus. But by the same token, It's not only that way, but it is also Leviticus is required to understand Hebrews. If we don't understand Leviticus, we will not understand Hebrews. When we get to Hebrews, it will help us see the fulfillment. But they're in tandem as well. A fifth reason that we should study Leviticus, it provides for us the foundation for a sexual ethic that's needed today. It's always needed, but it's needed today. What does God have to say about sexuality and sexual relations? The foundations of those are in Leviticus. It will strengthen our witness because we are the set apart ones to live in a lost and dying world in a different way than they are living. Leviticus provides a call to a moral life that shines God holiness to the nations. We have the same calling. It's not just in the sexual ethic, it's in everything that we do. People should look at us and see Jesus. They may not know they're seeing Jesus, but they're seeing something different, and those who God is drawing unto himself, they are seeing something that they want. Their appetite is being stoked for. They need to see that in us. Remember, we are holy unto the Lord. We are set apart for him and by him. He sets us apart for his glory and he does all the setting apart. And so our life must show forth his glory and his holiness. And last. of many reasons why we should study Leviticus. Leviticus forces us to see our sin in light of God's holiness, but also, and this is important, also allows us to see our lack of holiness in light of God's grace and his love for his covenant people. So if we look at Leviticus and all we see is the law and how much we fail and we don't see the grace and how much he provides for his people, then we are missing out, not just in the New Testament understanding, but what God is actually doing in Leviticus for his people. Because he didn't have to do any of it. But he is being faithful to the covenant that he made with his people. Well, the last question. How does Leviticus apply to us as new covenant believers? Well, we're gonna see that in every chapter that we look at, but let me just set the stage for some things that I wanna add to your arsenal or take away depending on what the need is. First of all, understanding the law. Very complicated issue, theologians disagree with this. What does the law mean for us as new covenant believers? How do we appropriate it? and I'm not gonna say that the way I'm telling you is the only way to think of it, but I think it is a biblical way to think about it, and I'm gonna urge you not to fall into the extreme camps. Do not fall into the camp that would say the law means nothing to us, we don't have to read it, we don't have to understand it, we don't have to go to it at all, because if you start down that path, you're gonna end up like some of those folks who say that only the things that Paul wrote are valuable for Christians, and that's heresy. So don't set it aside just because you're not sure how to appropriate it. But also, don't go around and stop eating shellfish. Okay, don't go around and go build rails around the roof of your house. Let's study it in light of its fulfillment in Christ because Paul tells us this, the law is holy and the commandment, which is the law, is holy and righteous and good. And he tells us in 1 Timothy that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So there's some admonition to us that the law doesn't save us, right? The law cannot save us. Paul also tells us in Romans chapter seven that the law shows us our sin. The law reveals to us our sin. Sin uses the law as a base of operations to launch itself out. And so the law for us as a believer, we have to know these New Testament facts about it. Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. So if Jesus came to fulfill the law and we are in union with Jesus, that law means something to us because he has fulfilled that law for us in our place. Galatians tells us, Paul tells us in Galatians, that the law is a tutor that leads us to Christ. It's the same idea that was in Romans chapter 7. The law is what shows us who we are in the light of who God is because the law reveals God's character. The law shows us how God expects us to act if we are to be holy and perfect. And that's what Jesus says, be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect. Peter tells us be holy, quoting Leviticus, be holy because I am holy. Well, what does that mean for us? That sort of clears it up, but not completely. If he fulfilled the law, what does it have to do with us? Well, Jesus taught that it's the law of Christ. Jesus and Paul both have the same idea that it is the law of Christ that we are bound under, that everything that the law taught is required of us to live our life in light of those same principles, even as we're depending upon Christ, who fulfilled that law perfectly. So Jesus fulfilled the law, so all of us in union with him, If we, what does John say three or four times in the mid chapters, if you love me, you will flaunt the law. If you love me, you'll ignore the law because you'll know I came to give you grace. It's not what he says, is it? He says, you'll obey me. And when Jesus gave his critique on the law and the sermon on the mountain, what did he do? He gave a critique of the law. He said, listen, you have heard it said, but I say to you, and the but I say to you is always more internal than the external of the law. And he's not adding to it. He's telling us what it originally meant. We have to keep that distinction in mind. When Jesus says, you've heard it said that you shall not commit adultery, most of the people that Jesus was talking to said, I've never committed adultery. He says, but I say to you, if you've lusted after a woman in your heart, you've committed adultery with her. So it's an intensifying of the law that was intended at its beginning because the law was never to be external, it was always to be internal. That's why Jesus said, true Jews are one who are one inwardly, not who is one outwardly. So Jesus fulfilled that law. Obeying the law does not lead to salvation. It can never save, but it flows from our salvation. And we know that we are freed. This is the important part. As believers, we're freed from what part of the law? It's condemnation. Romans 8.1. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And that's because Jesus fulfilled it on our behalf. So we have to look at the Old Testament law with these ideas firmly implanted in us. We also know that Jesus quoted from Leviticus. Other New Testament writers quoted from Leviticus. So they're quoting. We know this is good for us. And we will endeavor to apply all of these principles according to what Christ has accomplished. Well, the final question. How do I prepare to receive Leviticus? If we're gonna come together and study this book, we need to have some preparation in our hearts and minds. Part of what we try to do this morning is to set that preparation, be on the lookout for holy, and unholy, for clean and unclean, sometimes pure and defiled, but most of the time clean and unclean. To be on the lookout for the laws and say, okay, let me not dismiss that, let me find out what character of God is presented in there and how I can bow to the character of God and the will of God in the midst of it. Being prepared for that from the beginning is so helpful for us. But I want you to turn to Leviticus 20. Just a few verses here in Leviticus 20, beginning in verse 22. You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out, and you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving you out driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. But I have said to you, you shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples. You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. You shall be holy, for I am the Lord. For I, the Lord, am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine. Now, we may not be separating animals, but we're separating behaviors and motives and actions and our tongue. We're separating them from the nations to be in accordance with God's word and with God's promises and with God's laws. And our hearts need to be predisposed to hearing that. Otherwise, we show ourselves to be fake. This is a life or death matter for us as believers. If we're believers who live in such a way that no one would ever know we're a Christian, except we tell them we go to church on Sunday, then there's every chance that we are a counterfeit. And the book of Leviticus will bring that up from the depths. Now it may show you areas that don't, that are not showing that you are lost and don't know Christ, but it will show you areas, I promise you, that God would like to sanctify in your life. that God would like to make holy, that God would like to purify so that you are walking with him stronger and not being the counterfeit. That's why when we sing things like we sang this morning, I choose to, I don't even remember what the words were, but I choose to live my life according to you, live it in you. I choose to give up my life, give up my life and live the life in you. We're going to sing right now our desire to be holy. Do we have that desire? Because one of the reasons that I think the church avoids Leviticus is the church avoids holiness. Because we think holiness is wherever we're living and whatever we're doing. That's good. I mean, after all, Jesus saved me and there's no condemnation. And yet the command is still, be holy, for I am holy. And that is not just a positional holiness that says, when I die, Christ will be my advocate and his holiness will be how I get into the eternal state. It's a command for us now that if we are his, things should change in our life and look differently. And there will be things that God brings up. Are you willing to set those down? and listen to the voice of your savior as he says, I would rather you start this or stop this or modify this or look at this a little more deeply or how does that square with this command? How does this square with my love for you in this area? How does this square with my son's life? We have to be ready to receive those words, not just look at this as a law, well, let's figure out what it means for us and move on to the next because we are people of the book. And we have a savior who has died in our place. He is the once for all sacrifice that brings us into free and clear and bold access into the throne room for all we need for life and godliness. This is the way we take advantage of it. By reading his word, saying, have your way with me because I choose to be holy. Father, thank you for your word to us. Pray that as we open this study of Leviticus that you will make it clear to us. Make it clear to us in our own heart and mind what you desire to do. For we will learn many things and our knowledge will expand. Our understanding of what you're doing will expand. But Father, do not let us be people who come engaged with our head but not our heart. For as we learn new things and we learn new answers to new questions, let it not just be an apologetic that forms for us to strike down our enemies. Let it be something that sits deep within our hearts, that reveals our true desires in Christ, that allows us to crucify sin in a more powerful and strong way through the gospel. Let us learn about you and your character and your grace and your mercy and your provision in such a way that it empowers us to live holy and godly lives. Let our witness be so strong that other people will look at us, whether they profess to be Christian or not, they would look at us and not build us up, but say, what are you doing? How is it that you look like this and smell like this and act like this? Might we be a people, Father, that would be such a strong fragrance to people that it would be an aroma of life to those who you are drawing and death to those who are your enemies, but that everyone would be pointed toward you and your sovereign glory so that you would get glory. Your holiness would spread. The kingdom would be advanced. You would sum all things up in Christ through what you have us do, and it will be practice for us. as we await our eternal state of worshiping you without any hindrance at all. Would you do that for us, Father, for your glory and for our benefit as we grow in our holiness, in Jesus' name, amen.