If you would please to turn to the book of Galatians, chapter number 5. Galatians, chapter number 5. I've been pondering. Oh, by the way, the College World Series sign-up sheet is being passed around. that is coming up as well and please be in prayer for that. But sometime back I was contemplating where we would go next in our study and I was thinking about Leviticus and somebody asked me about Leviticus and so Leviticus it is. And so we will begin our study in the book of Leviticus by looking at the book of Galatians. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray your blessing and help upon the life of our church. And Father, you have, of course, purchased us with the blood of your Son and have given to us your Holy Spirit. We have constant assurance that we belong to you by the will of the Father, by your will as our Father. And you've given to us your word. And so help us to understand it and use it properly. So we ask your help in this study, in Jesus' name, amen. I don't think it's in, for all that, the list, if you're following along in the list, the first verse that I am going to look at is Galatians 5.14, which is not on the list, but we're in Galatians 5. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And Paul's not confused about a word. The word that he used can be word, singular, word expression, word saying. It's a very broad word. So all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. How do we think about the book of Leviticus? Should we even bother with the book of Leviticus? Is it one of the most important books in the Bible or is it one of the most boring? Someone that I read said that their determination to read through the Bible in a year perished in Leviticus. Personally, I find Leviticus 13 and 14 to be the two most challenging chapters in the Bible to read. And as I say so often about so many passages, I'm really praying for the rapture before we get there in our study. This is the third book of the Bible. It is the middle book, of course, of the Pentateuch, the first five books. And were we Israelites, we would be immersed in it on a regular, regular basis. This is a very simplistic because, you know, one sentence can't really do justice to any book or theme of the Bible, but Genesis tells us of our ruin by rebellion against God, and Exodus tells us of redemption, which came through God's grace, and Leviticus talks about righteousness. What do the people of God who have been redeemed, and this is a theme that we will come back to time and time again, folks, that the book of Leviticus, the law of Moses, from the very day it was written, was written to a redeemed people. And it was not a book ever about how that people would be redeemed, but how redeemed people should live and how redeemed people should behave themselves before the Lord. It is the book that tells us what it looks like to live out the law of Moses. What does living the Ten Commandments look like daily? What does it look like on Sunday? And what does it look like on Monday? Leviticus is the book that tells us It begins, you're probably familiar with this, it begins with seven chapters outlining individual offerings to be made. These are not national or corporate offerings, but individual offerings. We will turn our attention to them. It has five chapters entirely devoted to normal human body functions. And we will take our time to talk about that. There are chapters describing priests and purification. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The reality is that if you really want to know what love looks like, it looks a lot like the book of Leviticus. The book of love. We don't think of it that way, but it's the book of love. But what about us? And this is where I want to begin this evening. What about us? Because we are not Israelites, and we are not Old Testament people, and we are most certainly not under the law, which is where I will call your attention first in our study. Ephesians or Galatians chapter 5 and verse number 18. The reality, folks, and I began, not that you care, but I began I started working through the offerings of Leviticus and wanted to introduce us to the book of Leviticus and found that the introduction took up most of the time that I had allotted. Our relationship as New Testament people to the law is complex. Not the kind of complexity that we cannot understand, but the kind of complexity that does demand some attention and attentiveness on our part. So we don't want to be glib with reference to the law. We don't go, well, I'm not under the law, because that is disrespectful dismissiveness of the significance of the law. And on the other hand, we don't want to try to bring ourselves or anybody else back under it. Our relationship with the law is very complex. So we begin with this, first of all, that we are not under it. We are not under it as a means of relating to God. Our relationship with the Lord is not one through the law of Moses. Galatians 5.18, but if he be led of the Spirit, which is one of the ways that the Bible talks about being saved. What I'm doing is it's not a distinctive class of believer. There are all these believers and then there are the really good believers who are led by the Spirit. If you're a believer, you're led by the Spirit. That would be one of the ways the Bible describes you. If you're a believer in Christ, and if you're a believer in Christ, then you are not under, you are not under the law. And what that means is that we don't relate to God by observing the ordinances of the law. We do not kill any animals as part of our religious observances. We have no ritualistic purifications. There is nothing New Testament that is performed upon a woman after she has a child. There is no ritualistic purification performed upon us after we have had an illness or even normal physical relationships between spouses. We are not under the law. We do not interact with God in that way. We have no mandated religious feasts. None. And we have no mandated religious holidays. I mean, I realize we observe the Lord's table So I'm not saying, okay, because one of the things, folks, that emerges, right, some people, they go, I'm not under the law, and they take an immediate turn and go, therefore, there are nothing is, I can do anything that I want as long as I think I can defend it in my mind. That's not true, ever. But our religious memorial, like the Lord's Table, is just that, it's a memorial. It is not a holy feast. So we are not under the law and we most certainly, let me ask you to turn to Galatians chapter two, we are most certainly not saved by observing it. We're most certainly not saved by observing it. Now this would be true equally in the Old Testament, but it is something that is very quickly lost on the Jews. Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. Not justified by the works of the law, the best works by the way that a man could do. When you think about the works of the law, folks, you wanna remember those are the best works that a man could do. Those were the works that God gave the Jews to do. Those were the best works. But no man is declared righteous by God on the basis of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified, and when Paul writes that, there is a backward look to that, too. No flesh, no flesh ever at any time has ever been saved by the works of the law. Look, if you would, at Galatians chapter three. If no one was saved by the law, what is the point of the law? What did the law do? if it wouldn't save a man. Galatians 3.19, wherefore then serveth the law? What is the purpose of the law? It was added. It was added because of transgressions. All right, now this is a very weak illustration, folks, so don't push it too far, and don't push me for using this illustration, but the Law of Moses functions very super, I mean, the Law of Moses is not superficial. I'm sorry, let me rephrase that. Building codes. Building codes. There's a sense in which I think we get a little bit of an insight into the Law of Moses when we think about building codes. Building codes are not as old as buildings. building codes get added. And we can scream all day long about bureaucracy and tyranny and with some legitimacy, but building codes came into existence because enough people violated the fundamental principles of building that many things were not safe. And so we have codes. Codes are not buildings, but they were added. wherefore then serveth the law. It was added because men were transgressing, verse number 19, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And that promise, of course, goes back to Abraham, but it isn't fulfilled until Christ. It's not fulfilled in Isaac, it's fulfilled in Jesus. He's the promised seed. So we have this, Massive quantity of time from a human perspective in which there is a promise and we wait for the seed and all during the promise there are transgressions. People are crossing lines. And the promise was made and it was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid, for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. And by the way, if I could just be so brazen and get so far ahead of myself here. When we start thinking about that dreaded word legalism, right, this is the precipice we don't want to go off. Right, here's what the Bible says about this. If there had been a law given which could have given life. It's not like God had something that a man could do that would give him life and wouldn't tell him what it was. There was nothing that a man could do that would give him life. There was nothing that a man could do. There was no law that God could give that would give to us life. Verily, righteousness should have been by the law at the end of verse number 21, but the scripture hath concluded, or put all of us in the same pasture, all under sin, that the promise of faith by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them to believe. Wherefore, right, summary statement. What is the purpose of the law? It was added, verse number 19. What does it do? How does it serve? The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ so that we might be justified by faith. It wasn't that God was withholding a good thing. It was that God was doing a good thing by giving to us the law to demonstrate our transgressions. Now, again, we could quibble about the principle or the bureaucracy, but the principles are the same. Speed limits are written to save life, not to deny joy. And they demonstrate the transgression. I didn't know I was doing wrong until I checked my speed against the speed limit sign. That's what the law does. That's the purpose of the law. So we are not justified by the law, we will return to this, but the law has a valuable purpose. And here's something else that we want to make sure we note, folks, as New Testament people, This is not because, Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, is not because God has relaxed the demands of the law. To use our language, God has not progressed in his thinking about human conduct so that he has eased up on his demands or his And that brings me to another verse that you have in your outline, Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 18. Matthew 5, 18, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. So the law of Moses isn't going anywhere. So Christ came and he fulfilled it perfectly and then as our substitute we have been given his righteousness. It has been imputed to us. The righteousness that he has that lives the righteousness of the law. So we are not saved by the law, and we are not under the law, but even though we're New Testament people, we should love the law. It's never going to save me, it was never designed to save me. And even though I'm a New, not even though, as a New Testament believer, I do not relate to God through the law of Moses. But I am not to be disrespectful of it or dismissive of it, I am instead to love it. Romans chapter 7 and verse number 22. Romans chapter 7 and verse number 22. Paul writes, for I delight in the law of God. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. After the inward man. There is supposed to be something, folks, in the life of a Christian that loves the righteousness of the law. Now there are lots of people who are endeavoring to obey the law, and I don't mean that in a bad way. They are endeavoring to live. They recognize their Christian responsibility and their Christian duty. But I would just point out to us that the Bible calls us to even more than that. It calls us to have a love for the law of Moses. I delight It brings me joy and happiness. I delight in the law of God after the inward man. Paul goes on then in Romans chapter 8 and verse number 3, because the law of Moses, folks, is nothing other than a description of the righteousness of God's nature. What is God like? And we'll come back to this. What is God like? How does he think about things? And the answer to that is found in law. Paul says in Romans 8.3, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Which again, you see the similarity in the expression that Paul used when we started. If you be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. And here we walk not after the flesh, but we walk after the Spirit. Again, not a distinctive class of Christians, but a description of all Christians. All Christians walk after the Spirit. So we are not saved by observing it, and we are not under it as a means of relating to God. We will observe the Lord's table Sunday evening, but we will not slaughter a cow Sunday evening. We are not under it. The law is good if it is used properly. 1st Thessalonians chapter 1, or 1st Timothy, I'm sorry, 1st Timothy chapter number 1. Paul loved it. In his inner man, he recognized the conflict that he had with it through his flesh. We talked about this several weeks ago in Sunday school. The problem is not the law, the problem is sin. and the way sin and law are hostile to each other. 1 Timothy 1.8, but we know that the law is good. We know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. Knowing this, all right, do we know this? That the law is not made for a righteous man. But it is made for the lawless and the disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured person. And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which is committed to my trust." So the law is good if it is used lawfully in its proper way. Well, what then is the proper way to use the law? It will not save anybody, and we do not relate to God by its observances. God is not frustrated. folks, that you are not observing the Feast of the Tabernacles or the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And he is not frustrated that you are not utilizing the ritualistic performance for cleansings. And he is not frustrated that you are not observing the dietary restrictions of the law, not in the least troubled Now we know that human conscience comes in and often is troubled, but folks, you have to know equally that God is not troubled. He's just not troubled. So then, what is the right way to use the law? And let me suggest to you that the Bible is helpful to us along a couple of lines. First, the law is good if it is used evangelistically. That's what Paul is saying in 1 Timothy 1, 8 through 11. I mean, how does, right? Here's a religious guy, right? Here's a guy whose focus is on the Lord, whose trust is in Christ, and God says to him, the law's not for you. Well, who's it for? Well, it's for this guy over here. Well, that guy doesn't want anything to do with you. That's the point. That's the point. He needs to be brought into the knowledge that his life is going to be measured by an external standard, not by whatever he thinks is best. This is what our wackadoodle, gender-disrupted world needs to know. That God has spoken. Clearly, these are the kind of people for whom the law was designed. And we all understand, folks, or at least we should understand, that the gospel message really loses its punch if people don't have some sense of the sins they have committed. The gospel message is really not a message of You're just kind of flawed, and you're not as good as you could be, and Jesus wants to bring you, fill you up, and round you out, and make you whole, and God has a, you know, the Charles Stanley theology, God has a wonderful plan for your life. But the gospel is that God finds virtually everything about humanity reprehensible, and yet he loves and saves them anyway. Or as Paul said in Galatians 3.24, which we have already read, the law was our schoolmaster. Our schoolmaster. The Roman slave, the pedagogue. The one who was responsible for instruction. That we might be justified by faith. One of the things that the law does, folks, is really bring us to the brink of despair if we think about... I mean, anybody who reads the Sermon on the Mount and thinks that they've almost nailed it is not really reading it carefully. The law kind of leaves us going, there's no chance for me. Yes, there is a chance for you. It is the righteousness of Christ. So evangelism is a good use of the law. The second good use of the law is in its example. And even our beloved New Testament in referencing us for guidelines to conduct. The law, folks, is a reflection of the very nature of God. It is not a spiritual obstacle course that God has imposed with a design to trip us up. And this is why I think that Paul can say in Galatians 5.14 that love is the fulfilling of the law. Because I have examples. Look, if you would, at Romans chapter 7. I hope I put this on your... Maybe I'll go to Romans chapter 7. 1 Corinthians 7 doesn't have the information I want. Romans chapter seven, verse number one. Know ye not, brethren, for I speak to them that know the law, how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth. But if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, as she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress. Why is she called an adulteress if she's married to another man? Because of what the law says. But if her husband be dead, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. See, we find out that Paul has not really been talking here about marriage and the law. He's been talking about salvation. but he is using the law as an illustration. Do you know the law? Okay, now look at how the law illustrates something. See, do you get the point? It is good to be used as an example. It is helpful to us. Or Romans chapter 13 and verse number eight. Oh, no man anything but to love one another, this fulfills the law. This fulfills the law. Or look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9. And without spending a lot of time putting in all of the context, Paul is in a conflict with the Corinthians apparently because he will not take their money. And this really troubles them, that he will not take their money. And so Paul writes to them like this. Okay, let's just start in verse number four, or verse number three. My answer to them that do examine me, put me to the test is this. Have we not power, and that word power is the word authority or right. Do I not have the right to eat and drink? Have we not power, the authority, the right to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as the other apostles and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas? Or I only and Barnabas have not we power or authority to forbear working, and he's talking there about what we would call secular work. What are my rights? I am an apostle, what are my rights? Do I have the right to eat? Do I have the right to a spouse? Do I have the right to not have to work as a tent builder? Do I have those rights? And they're not denying him those rights. He's just speaking to them rhetorically. They're not going, Paul. You know, these are problems to us. The problem is that he won't take their money. Verse seven, who goeth to warfare any time in his own charges, who planteth a vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof, who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock, say I these things as a man. All right, so he refers back to the world that they know. If you're in the kitchen cooking, would anybody really fault you for sampling what you're making? If you're in the kitchen baking, is anybody legitimately going to criticize you for sampling what you're baking? If you're farming, has anybody got a legitimate claim against you, a charge against you because you're eating the crops you're growing? That's the kind of question Paul's asking. But then he asked this question, am I just a guy talking? Right, am I just looking at the world as it is? Or, to go back to verse number eight, or saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, verse number nine, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? And it's a very emphatic statement there, folks. Is God's primary concern the animal? We'll start next week by talking about animals and their rights. Is God looking at that ox going, man, buddy, I'm worried about you, so you get to eat. No, no. The spirit of God is very clear there. Doth God take care of oxen, verse number eight, or verse number nine, verse number 10? Or saith he, had it all together for our sakes. Not about the animals, all about us. For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. And Paul goes on, And then he points out, because we're not trying to deal with that subject matter, but he points out that he doesn't do that, even though it is his right. And he has his reasons for refusing his right. That's where 1 Corinthians 9 is going. That's the basic argument. It's not I have my rights, leave me alone. It's I have my rights and I don't take them, leave me alone. Leave me alone for not taking all the rights that I have. I have my reasons. But he references the law Paul says, look, think about how God thinks about a subject. Or 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse number 34. 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse number 34. Let your women keep silence in the churches. And we went through First Corinthians, we pointed out that that is almost certainly in an official kind of capacity. It doesn't mean that women can't talk when they come in the door and talk with each other. It doesn't mean they can't ask questions. It just means that they're not the teachers. Women should be silent in the churches. That's New Testament teaching. That's New Testament teaching. Women should be silent in the churches. For it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law." So the law is very helpful to us as an example, folks. And we don't necessarily carry the law over Word for word, the law said, kill this animal. So now I'm in the New Testament and I'm gonna kill this animal. But we're looking to understand the principle that drives it and the point that it is trying to make so that you end up with passages like this. Galatians chapter six and verse number two. That we bear each other's burdens. Why should I care about you? that we bear each other's burdens because this is how we fulfill the law. This is what the law looks like in a New Testament life. Not killing an animal, not observing a feast day, because the law itself really had more interest than just simply a dead animal. So we love each other, we fulfill the law of Christ. We bear each other's burdens, we fulfill the law of Christ. And we have some idea of what that looks like by going back and reading a book. like Leviticus. So the law is helpful to us in an evangelistic sense, and it is helpful to us in an example sense. How did God think about this particular subject? We're supposed to love each other. Okay, how did God think about, what did that look like in the Jewish world? And how do we act like that in the New Testament world? without the animal sacrifices in the holy days. And in fact, the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 1, tells us that the law has a shadow of good things to come, and of course that's Christ. And so it is very respectful, almost reverential about the law in its proper place and context, not dismissive of it. Not dismissive, folks. Not as if everything that you get asked to do or informed to do or told to do or instructed to do by policy is somehow some form of legalism that is binding you. We're not living in a world of complete free-for-all, but a world in which the law of Christ is being fulfilled in us as New Testament Believers. So let me just kind of wind this down then. If you approach the book of Leviticus and think of it only in terms of rituals and animals, it is not going to be much help to you. Because we don't do the rituals and we don't do the animals. And some of it, let's be realistic folks, can appear to be very tedious. But if we're looking for the righteousness of God in action and what loving our neighbor really looks like, then we can extract some tremendous insight as to how we should behave ourselves with reference to other people and how we should think about the Lord and what a right treatment of him would be. Let me ask you finally to go back to the book of Exodus. to the last chapter of the book of Exodus. And I just want to take one minute and kind of dip our toes into the book. God, of course, right? God had told Abraham that his people would be taken into Egypt, that they would remain there for 400 years, that God would deliver them. And the book of Exodus is God raising up Moses to deliver his people. and they are miraculously delivered across the Red Sea into the wilderness. The tabernacle is constructed, the tabernacle is assembled, the tabernacle becomes operative. And in Exodus chapter 40 and verse number 38, you have this, for the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. Leviticus chapter one and verse number one, and the Lord called Moses and spake to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation. And that is literally the way the book flows, right? Again, our chapter and verse divisions are marvelous helps, but sometimes they interrupt the clear flow of Bible thinking. There is the Lord. He is on this cloud of presence, is at the tabernacle, and the Lord speaks. The Lord speaks at that time. And in fact, folks, were we Hebrew speakers, that would be our word for the book of Leviticus. We wouldn't call it Leviticus. We would call this book The Lord Called, because that's what they call it. The Lord Called. Leviticus comes from the Latin, pertaining to the priest. That's a little bit of a misnomer, because it really isn't simply pertaining to the priests. It pertains to the Levites. So next week, Lord willing, we will turn our attention to the first chapter of Leuticus. We will walk our way through the sacrifices, and we will just try and focus on what the offering is, because every one of them has a distinctive name, and how it was offered, because each of them is offered in a different way. and why it was offered, why would a Jew offer it, and then how it has application or meaning for us in the New Testament age. So that's where we will take the first seven chapters. Okay.