Chapter 1, verse 1. By the way, this series that we're starting, if I was to give it a title, I would say Christ, very simply, Christ in the book of Leviticus, because that's what we would be centered upon. Now the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of the livestock, of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a meal without blemish. He shall offer it of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He shall kill the bull before the Lord and the priests. Aaron's son shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar, that is, by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And he shall skin the burnt offering and cut it into its pieces. The sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and lay the wood in order on the fire. Then the priest, Aaron's son, shall lay the parts, the head and the fat, and order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. But he shall wash its entrails and its legs with water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, sweet aroma to the Lord. If his offering is of the flocks of the sheep or of the goats, as a burnt sacrifice he shall bring a meal without blemish. He shall kill it on the north side of the altar before the Lord and the priests. Aaron's son shall sprinkle his blood all around on the altar, and he shall cut it into its pieces with its head and its fat, and the priests shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire upon the altar. And he shall wash the entrails and the legs with water. Then the priest shall bring it all and burn it on the altar. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. And if the burnt sacrifice of his offering to the Lord is of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or young pigeons. The priest shall bring it to the altar, wring off its head, and burn it on the altar. His blood shall be drained out of the side of the altar. And he shall remove its crop with its feathers, and cast it beside the altar on the east side, into the place for ashes. Then he shall split it at its wings, but shall not divide it completely. And the priest shall burn it on the altar, on the wood that is on the fire. It is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord. Amen. My Lord, we please to bless this reading of His word to each one of our hearts. And now we will praise God again, singing Psalm 8, Psalm 8b. In the first chapter and the first verse, by the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting. Let us pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you this evening for your word. We ask, O Lord, as we come now to this particular book, a book that in some ways is closed to so many today, we would ask, O Lord, that you would open up our hearts, open up our spiritual eyes to see your truth. bring your truth over the centuries over the millennia oh lord we pray and make it indelibly written upon our hearts that we would see christ and all his beauty and lord we are being drawn again to worship him in the beauty of holiness bless us now oh lord as we come to your word in jesus name amen We live in an enlightened age in our world. In many ways, you could call this the age of sight. When we come to an ancient book like Leviticus, it reveals a God who speaks. In fact, of all the books in the Holy Scriptures, Leviticus contains more of the very direct words of God than any other. God is primarily the speaker. But you see, we live in an age of seeing. Seeing is what matters in our society. Seeing is believing, or I'll believe it when I see it, are common enough expressions that we all use. Our age is known as the age of seeing more than any other that man has ever gone through because of technology. We see things happening on the other side of the world instantaneously because of technology. We know what's going on. Years ago it may have taken months and months for people to know what was going on. And so perhaps some people may be caught off guard by the Bible's picture of a God who speaks before He shows Himself. Remember Jesus' words to Thomas in John 20, 29, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. So here in Leviticus, The book begins with God speaking. Now perhaps, like many, maybe some of you may shy away from a book like this, the book of Leviticus, because you find it full of regulations. I've heard some say it's very boring to the ears. I trust it will not be boring these expositions of Leviticus to you. It is God's Word. Therefore, Christ pervades it as He does all the Scriptures, because Christ is from Genesis to Revelation. So, my purpose in coming to a book like this comes with the hope that the Spirit would unlock to us, to our minds and our hearts, the riches of the types and the shadows that reveal to us the blessed Savior, Jesus Christ. Some may ask, Pastor, why look at the shadow when we already possess the substance? Well, there are advantages for sometimes what lies in the shadows when drawn out, says Horatius Boner, in sharp and simple outline against a twilight sky, he says, the effect of the whole can be more impressive when eyed in the glow of day. Bowler has a wonderful commentary on Leviticus. Of course, I'm partially the Free Church of Scotland minister from the past, but it's a wonderful, wonderful commentary. So we begin this evening to look for Jesus Christ in this wonderful book that means The Law of the Priests. So, we come then to survey the beginning as God speaks. Now, the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting. Now, this is really an introduction this evening more than anything else. The grammar tells us that Leviticus is linked to the final chapters of the previous book, Exodus. It really is continuing the narrative, if you like, of Exodus. In Exodus 40, verses 34-35, you have the completed tabernacle or tent of meeting at Mount Sinai. And notice here in Leviticus, in this verse, in 1-1, the Lord summons Moses to hear the word he speaks from the tabernacle of meeting. The Lord created of Sinai as it was a nation. a covenanted nation. As he said to Abraham, I will be your God and you shall be my people. He had brought them out of the house of bondage after 400 years in the land of Egypt and he fulfilled that prophecy right to the very hour. He delivered them at the night of the Passover, you remember, through the shed blood of the lamb on the door lentils. When I see the blood, he says, I will pass over you. And the death angel would not touch any of the children of Israel. He delivered them safely from the armies of Pharaoh across the Red Sea. Then at Sinai, he delivered his law and instructions on building the tabernacle, Exodus 20. In Leviticus, we have all the regulations that the Lord gave at Sinai. So the setting of this book is Mount Sinai. Leviticus was written at Mount Sinai, as it were. The people at Sinai saw the glory of the Lord. But that sight was not exactly very inviting to them. Acts 24, 17, the sight of the glory of the Lord was like a consuming fire on the top of a mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel. In fact, because of fear, they were so fearful that they distanced themselves from that glorious sight. Yet here in Leviticus, it's an entirely different picture here. They saw the glory of the Lord with joy. Because this was after the priests had prepared the way and the institution of the sacrifices in this portable Sinai, which is the tent of meeting. We read in Leviticus 9, 23, 24, And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the meeting and came out, and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people as fire came out from before the Lord, and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted out and fell on their faces. What brought this dramatic change? Was it not because God had made a way of approach? A way of sacrifice? Just as the believer today comes to the Lord through the way of bloodshedding and sacrifice, we have come to Mount Zion, have we not, to the city of a living God, the heavenly abode of all who fear the Lord, in Hebrews 12. No longer is there terror, no longer is there fear. There's no servile fear for the believer, but we come with a sense of expectancy to the Lord. We come with a sense of acceptance because of our great High Priest. He is passed through the heavens, we're told in Hebrews. Jesus, the Son of God, who after He had made one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God and now he will ever live to make intercession for his church. Now this call to Moses at the newly constructed sanctuary is very interesting because the word call in the Hebrew comes first. It is the only time in the book where it actually states the Lord called Moses. But it serves to introduce to us the some 34 times that it is recorded that the Lord spoke to Moses in Leviticus directly. Unlike any other person in the Old Testament, God repeatedly spoke to Moses. Numbers 12, He said, I spoke with him face to face or mouth to mouth. even plainly, and not in some dark sayings, and he sees the form of the Lord. And whenever Moses met with the Lord, his face glistened as it did, you remember, when he came down with the log from the mountain. We are told that his face reflected the effulgent glory of God, of the Lord, Exodus 34. See, he was the mediator who pointed to the greater mediator who, being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, even Jesus, Hebrews 1.3. Now, God speaks to Moses at the tabernacle of meeting as he did at Sinai. And as one has said, there is a correspondence here between the three divisions of the tent and the three circles of holiness that surrounded the mountain, as it were, ascended on the ascent of that summit to the summit of the mountain. The tent in the tabernacle had two rooms that were separated by a curtain. The inner room was known as the holiest of holies. That is where the Shekinah glory was. That was where the mercy seat was. The outer part was the holy place, Exodus 26-33. And the third division was the courtyard that surrounded the tent. The outer court, you might say, Exodus 27-9. Corresponding to this, you have the peak of the mountain as the Holy of Holies, where God met with Moses. The Lord spoke and no one could approach him at the summit except Moses, the authorized mediator. The high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, you remember, in Exodus 19.20, once a year on the Day of Atonement. My beloved, the summit of the mountain was declared to which Moses went up. And the elders of Israel, the priests of Israel, could enter to assist the High Priest in the Holy Place in Exodus 20. That's where they did their work, in the Holy Place. The High Priest was the only one who could enter the Holy of Holies. The foot of the mountain is where the people stood. Exodus 19, 17. That corresponds to the courtyard of the tabernacle. People would enter there with their sacrifice and worship. Leviticus 1, 3. At the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord. But the significance of God speaking even now after the 40 days on the mountain, as it were, was that He continues to provide for His covenant people, regardless of their proximity to that mountain. The tabernacle of meeting that symbolizes the presence of God with His people assured them of His kindness, of His covenant, kindness, His covenant provision, and His protection. Now, hasn't the Lord made the same provision for us, the church, in the same way, in the sense of that personal relationship that we have with our Lord Jesus Christ? Think of the words John 4, and the Lord became flesh, and Shekinah, Shekinah dwelt among us. Relating to the word tent, Our Lord Jesus Christ came from the portals of glory, taking on our humanity, apart from sin, to tent among us, to tabernacle among us. And says John, and we beheld His glory, the glory that had only begotten the Father, full of grace and truth. The incarnate God came. He tented among us. He tabernacled with us. He is present with us even now, even this evening in the church. God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. Our Lord has come, our Christ Jesus is the very expression of God Himself. He is truly God and truly man. He is the One who has come to bring us salvation and we are assured of this by His resurrection from the dead. All we can say is, Hallelujah, what a Savior! He is the Mediator. We can now approach God through a Mediator, through His Mediator. This is my second point here, through God's Mediator. Now, the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting, saying, When our forefather Adam fell in the garden, God drove him out. No longer could Adam and Eve commune with their God, as they once did. What was needed now was a go-between, a mediator. How could man, fallen man, relate to God, his Creator? Job 9, 32-33, For he is not a man, and I am that As I am, he says, that I may answer him, and that we should go to court together. Nor is there any mediator between us who may lay his hand on us both. The need then of the hour was a mediator. But where could such a mediator be found? Because man could not look upon a holy God and live. So God had to do a work of preparation. so as man could meet with Him. God describes the situation in Exodus 19, 12-14, "...you shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death." See, man had violated God's command. He had transgressed the law. He just couldn't rush into the presence of God, the presence of the Holy One. He who inhabits eternity? No. Because God dwells in unapproachable light. We're told that Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people. And they washed their clothes in verse 14. Man had to be made fit, you see, he had to be sanctified. He had to be cleansed to come into the presence of a holy God. So that needed a mediator. God chose Moses in the Old Testament at that time to be this mediator. We're told in Exodus 33.11, so the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. Yet we're told elsewhere that God prohibited Moses from seeing and looking upon his face, Exodus 33, 20. You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live. And Jesus said, John 1, 18, no one has seen God at any time. When he says there that they met face to face, it simply means that the Lord's presence was with Moses. Moses couldn't look upon God by viewing his face. The only way he could Look upon God was to see his back. That's just 33, 23. Do you remember the Lord put him into the cleft of the rock? And he says, Moses, watch as I pass by, and you shall see my back, but my face you shall not see. He had the graciousness and the compassion of God. His loving mercy. He made it possible for man, the sinner, once again, to have fellowship with Him. To know Him. In Old Testament times, Moses was chosen by God to be as mouthpiece as it were to the covenant people. And he enjoyed, above all men, this special relationship with the Sovereign Lord. Of course, God allowed Moses to visit Him anytime. in a special tent outside the camp. But as time went on, God limited the excess. After the tabernacle of meeting was constructed, for example, if you remember on Mount Sinai, Moses went into the midst of the cloud in Exodus 24, 18. Then we read after the tabernacle was built, Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. He couldn't go in. So God gave him his word outside the tent. This is where he was when God gave him all the regulations and all the revelations that we find in this book of Leviticus. He wasn't inside the tent, he was outside the tent. And notice the Lord called Moses. Then he spoke to him. God was in the tabernacle. God spoke to him from the tabernacle of meeting. But Moses was not in the tent, he was outside. And later on, Leviticus 9.23, Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and come out and blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people at Aaron's induction. In other words, Moses' position was a kind of transition, a type of link to the Aaronic priesthood who would make intercessory sacrifices on behalf of the congregation. and especially and particularly on the day of atonement when only the high priest alone could enter the Holy of Holies behind the veil and such would exclusively belong that privilege to the house of Aaron. Leviticus 16, 11-14 Aaron shall bring the bull of the sin offering which is for himself and make atonement for himself and for his house and shall kill the bull as the sin offering is for himself then he shall take The scents are full of burning coals of fire from the altar before the Lord with his hands full of sweet incense. Beaten fine, bring it inside the veil. And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the testimony lest he die. He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger on the mercy seat on the east side and before the mercy seat. He shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger seven times. and this was followed by the killing of the goat as a sin offering for the people with the blood sprinkled upon the mercy seat so we shall make atonement for the holy place because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel and because of their transgressions and sins there he was alone Aaron as the high priest in the presence of the holy God making atonement for himself, for his family, and as Leviticus 16, 7 says, for all the assembly of Israel, for all the covenant people. This all pointed to the greater Moses, the second Moses, our great high priest, our Lord Jesus Christ, who entered into the very presence of God to make atonement for his people's sins. He died upon Calvary and he enters into the glory. He presents the sacrifice to God. Because he had made one sacrifice for sins forever. But this man, this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Hebrews 10, 12. You see, Moses, despite being the great prophet, Deuteronomy 34, 10, the one who knew the Lord face to face, he could not mediate the glory of the Lord on a permanent basis or perfectly. It needed a greater Moses, a greater than Moses. In fact, Moses fielded his walk with God, didn't he? He disobeyed the Lord on occasion, such that God would not allow him the privilege of leading the covenant people into the promised land. Numbers 20, verse 12. The Lord said to him, because you did not believe me to hollow me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you do not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them. The Lord had told him to speak to the rock. And the waters would come forth. But Moses didn't do that. Moses was angry. He struck the rock with his rod twice. Violating our Lord's commands. And thus he paid for it that way. He was not allowed to lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. You see how important it is to follow the law of God? As we were saying this morning, if you love me, keep my commandments, says Jesus, the same commandments Moses was told to keep. Oh yes, he was a great and loyal prophet of the Lord. But there was one greater, our Lord Jesus Christ, and Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant for a testimony of these things. but should be spoken afterwards, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end." Hebrews 3, 5 and 6. You see, Moses was merely a man. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the very image of God. He's God, a very God. He's God manifest in the flesh, fully divine, fully human. He's the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation, Paul says in Colossians 1.15. He is God over all. He is the Word become flesh who's dwelt and tabernacled among us. He is the complete and perfect mediator. For there's one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He came into this world with the purpose of revealing his Father to man. He who has seen me, he said to Philip, has seen the Father. As those disciples looked to Jesus, who did they see? They saw the Father. That radiance, that glory that Sean and Moses faced was only temporary. that those beloved who in grace and believing faith upon our Lord Jesus Christ shall experience an eternal transforming power of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Paul puts it like this in 2 Corinthians 3.12 But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Corinthians 3.18 Oh, dear Christian, this evening you now no longer stand on the outside of the temple, looking on as it were from afar. You don't look on this. You're not standing afar. You have been brought through mighty grace. You've been brought in, as it were, into the Holy of Holies, into the very presence of the Holy God, through the one sacrifice for sins forever, Jesus Christ, who has brought us Into the Father's presence, for He alone is the way, the truth, and the life by which we enter into the Holy of Holies. Through His blood that's spilt upon the mercy seat, we now receive the mercy of God. We have tasted, yes, that the Lord is gracious. For our Lord's precarious death has removed our sin. He has reconciled us to God and made us accepted in the beloved. That's our position as Christians. But nigh once at the end of the age, he's appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9.26. So we note in this book, thirdly, that God reveals His glory. Now, the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tabernacle of Eden. Now that the Lord had given to Moses the details of the tabernacle, and in his providence he had provided the tabernacle for his covenant people, it was time to give them the divine directions for the true worship of God. And here we come into something that's practically unknown in the church today. The true worship of God, because everybody wants to worship God in their own way. I want to worship God my way, pastor. I can do what I want. I can approach God any way I want. No, you can't. You see, the book of Leviticus gives us all these regulations and directions for a reason. And notice the emphasis upon the word now. Now that the tabernacle is accomplished, This is how it says the Lord God Almighty, I want to be worshipped. This is how you are to live as my people. So in the first seven chapters, God gave to his people five different sacrifices to be offered in the worship. And we've been going through these. The burnt offering, the grant offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering. And in the eighth chapter, The Lord directed Moses as to how to ordain the priests who were to serve at the altar and how they were to fulfill their office. After which, God gave all the directions and regulations in chapter 9 that would maintain that relationship between the people and their covenant God. We witness Aaron and his sons, the priests of God, offering up sacrifices for the transgressions of the nation. It's notable also, only as His Word was carried out through the letter, that God registers His approval of the worship. That the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from the Lord, and consumed the burnt offering, and sat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Leviticus 9, 23, 24. What an amazing sight this must have been! At that blazing fire, the fire of God, coming from the Ark of the Covenant, within the Holy of Holies, Exodus 40, verse 21. This was, as has been pointed out, a continuation of God's presence that was seen on Sinai. Well, you remember God's glory was seen as a devouring fire, Exodus 24, 17. The implication, of course, was the permanency of the fire upon the altar. It was kept by the priest, you remember, each morning and evening, Leviticus 6, 12, so that it would not go out. In other words, God's presence, His glory would always remain. He visited His people. Now when our Lord Jesus came into this world, we find it was in Christ alone where God's glory dwelt. John says, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, John 1, 14. You see, it's only in Jesus Christ that we see the glory of God. There's nowhere else we see His glory. We don't see His glory in buildings, as we said this morning. We don't see His glory in statues and all the rest of it. We don't see His glory there at all. We only see it in Christ. That's the only place the glory is. It's not in a denomination. It's in Christ. In a sense, we see it in His creation. But as creation always points to the center of spiritual gravity, if you like, as it were, our glorious Redeemer. The heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament showeth its handiwork. As we look at the great mountains, the great oceans, who should we be thinking of? The Redeemer, the Creator, Jesus Christ. Of course, being born and living on an island, I saw the ocean pretty regularly. I loved to stand at the ocean and watch those thundering waves come onto the rocks and cliffs. The power of the God. That's just a small picture of the power of our great Redeemer. And those great storms in the ocean and the waves, 30, 40 foot waves coming up It's wonderful to watch. It reminds us of the power of God. Like Paul tells us, every one of us have fallen short of His glory. To see the glory of God, We must hear and receive savingly the gospel of Jesus Christ. You see, what I was saying there about the ocean, it means nothing to the unredeemed. It's just water. It's just water and wind. Even there, you just walk out and you see the beautiful flowers, you see the trees, you see the mountains. It means nothing to the unconverted. But when we have Christ in us, We see Christ in His creation. It takes on a whole different understanding. We take a whole different understanding of creation if we know the Lord. Because once we're in Christ, we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The Lord's presence in the life of Israel led to the land of promise. So all of us believe, we believe in Christ. All of us who know Him, who have repented of our sins and we truly believe in Him, all of us who are united to Him savingly, all who have come to Him by faith, to the crucified Savior, all who have cried for mercy, What does He give us? He gives us, does He not, His radiant glory? For we have the presence of God within us, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Just ponder that for a moment. What does that mean? Christ in us, the hope of glory. Christ is the glory within us as believers. As I was saying before, we look at creation differently when Christ is in us. We look at people very differently when Christ is in us. We should be treating people very differently if Christ is in us. Because God enables us to persevere in the knowledge and hope of our resurrected Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has called us unto life. And He's not only done that, He's called us into this heavenly glory. that awaits us. Here we get a taste, as Paul says, from glory on to glory. There is a glory now in the believer, but there is a greater glory to come. And that glory, I believe, is part of that, of what the psalmist says, when I await in His likeness. When we wake up, as it were, in the very presence of Christ, and we look upon Jesus, we look upon our Lord, not by faith, but by sight. We see His defeat. We see those scars, the cost of our salvation. What does the Scripture say? When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also shall appear with Him in glory. We can't even begin to imagine what that would be like. Because our loved ones that have gone before to be in Christ, they haven't come back to tell us. But the evidence is in the Word of God. The book of Revelation is full of the glory of God. John was shown the glory of God in the book of Revelation. We have it right here in this book. Christ has come back from the dead. And we see many things of the glory of God in the resurrection of the Lord and the appearances of His resurrection. I hope then, as we come to the end of this evening, that as we begin this journey, Lord willing, in this wonderful book, that you'll be as excited as I am about this book. Because I believe this book is full of Jesus Christ. It's full of the glory of God, the book of Leviticus, that has so long been closed to so many of God's people. because pastors don't even come near it in most churches. There is a book that I would... I'm leaving at night and I thought here, but there's a book that I would recommend to you to buy. It's worth getting. Christ in the Pentateuch. Christ is All by Henry Law. It's a wonderful, wonderful book. You can get it from Joel Beattie's bookstore. But getting back to this. Here we see the glory of God in the tabernacle. And as we journey, make our journey through this and through the tabernacle and go into these things I suppose that are strange to us in many ways. I pray that the Holy Spirit will bring Jesus Christ even closer to us and us closer to Him. And so we will be built up in our faith as we look for Jesus in this book of the Bible. Amen. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you this evening for the Word of God. And we look, O Lord, at a book like this that is an ancient book that speaks, O Lord, of the Old Testament, that speaks of a worship that perhaps we don't understand. Help us to understand it by your Holy Spirit. Help us to see Jesus Christ in this book. And help us to see, O Lord, that this book stands as a book that all of us should study. Because it speaks of Christ, speaks of how we ought to worship our God. And grant, O Lord, that we would learn at the feet of Jesus, each one of us. Bless your word to each of our hearts, we pray. And grant, O Lord, you would help us to make this journey through this book so as to see your glory afresh. In Jesus' name, Amen. I close by singing hymn number nine, hymn number nine.