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Good evening, brothers and sisters.
Please forgive me if I sound a little off. I walked in here
tonight with a cold, although after speaking with Terrence
for a few minutes, I'm convinced I have something much worse,
because he just puts those thoughts in people's heads. Did anybody
not receive a handout to write notes or questions? OK. So we'll begin. We're studying the book of Leviticus
tonight. Going through the whole book. Over the past several weeks
during worship, Pastor Bob, rather, has been taking us through his
Church Essentials series. We've been going over what it
looks like, what the local church looks like, how it functions,
and what membership looks like. This past Sunday, we went over
the role of discipleship within the body. And since we began
that study, I've had a number of conversations with people
about why we would go through a study like that. why we would
take so much time to look at what the church is and what it
means to be a part of a church. And the reason is quite simple. Aside from that, it's that which
the Bible teaches. It's because God has always made
a distinction between groups of people. He's always put people
in one of two categories. From the beginning of the Bible
to the end, God has always distinguished people by one of two categories. He will deal with people in one
way, and then he will deal with another group of people a completely
different way. We've seen this take many forms.
Back with Adam and Eve, they were in the garden, and then
they were cast out of the garden. There were those whom God allowed
into the ark, and those whom he did not. There were those
that received the covenantal promise of Abraham, and those
who didn't. There were the cursed and the blessed. There are the
clean and the unclean. There are the Jews and the Gentiles,
the circumcised and the uncircumcised. Even going on into Revelation,
the book of Revelation, people are divided into two categories.
They're either referred to as the beloved or those who dwell
on the earth. And that's because the Word of
God has never been bashful about making that distinction, dividing
people into two different categories. God is a God of division. He
divides people, He separates them, and then He chooses one
or the other. This book of Leviticus is all about making that kind
of distinction. It's about God teaching His chosen
people to distinguish themselves from those whom God hasn't chosen. It's about demonstrating through
word and deed and practice that these men and women are set apart
from all others on the world. That they're guided by a particular
set of principles, and that they follow a certain set of rules,
and that they worship a unique and holy God. This is, in fact,
a book about holiness. If we were to single out a verse
or passage that demonstrates what the entire book is about,
we could find that in Leviticus chapter 11. If you turn in Leviticus
chapter 11, verses 44 and 45 say this. For I am the Lord your
God. Consecrate yourselves therefore
and be holy for I am holy. And you shall not make yourselves
unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth.
For I am the Lord who brought you up from the land of Egypt
to be your God. Thus you shall be holy for I
am holy. So that's the purpose of this
book. It's to instruct the Israelites how to carry out this command.
To show them what it means to live a holy life, how to consecrate
themselves and to be holy as they've been commanded. Now,
if you aren't already aware, I should warn you that this book
of Leviticus has a really bad reputation. It's pretty widely
known, it's almost a punchline at this point, that many a yearly
Bible reading plan have died a slow, agonizing death in the
book of Leviticus. People find them... Yeah. Yes. Those names get lost in the mix
after a little while with the genealogies. But yeah, Leviticus
is a tough book. You know, people read Genesis,
and they open up about the creation, and they see the garden, and
they see the flood with Noah, and then they see Abraham and
the patriarchs, and then they get to Exodus, and they talk
about Moses, and we see the burning bush, and then we see the plagues
of Egypt, and then the parting of the Red Sea, and the Ten Commandments
are given, and then after the tabernacle is built, we turn
the page to Leviticus, and for the next 27 chapters, we read
about animals being sacrificed, how to choose them, how to kill
them, what parts of them you can eat and what parts you can't.
Then there's a whole section on what things are clean and
unclean. There's a whole very long disgusting
portion on how to determine whether or not a sore on a person's body
is leprous or not and how to clean it. Then we go through
all these feasts, none of which we celebrate as Christians. And
then we get to blessings and curses. If you read it, it's
not all in like a terms and conditions portion that you'd read on iTunes
or something. So the question I ask then is,
why should we study this book? What, if you had to guess, would
you expect to gain from such a study in Leviticus, knowing
what you know? Anything? Go ahead. Yes, go ahead. Yeah, I mean, and even in the
ways in which it's not distinct, you know, through sacrifices,
it's not perverted like it is through other people, you know,
and the difference is holiness. There's a moral quality to how
we worship Yahweh in which other people do not have. Yep, absolutely. Fiona, you had
a question? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I think when Solomon
dedicated the temple they used something like 40,000 goats or
something like that. You have to wonder how many animals
are truly on the planet that could cover all the sin of the
people. Yeah. Wasn't there... Yeah, it's amazing. But yeah, there's so many things
we can get out of this study of the book. The holiness thing
is the primary thing. The more we understand about
God's holiness, the more we understand about our own, what we're to
achieve as human beings, how we are to be holy. We can get
a deeper appreciation of God's atoning provision for people.
The fact that he even allows us to make sacrifice, or that
he gave people the opportunity to make a sacrifice to cover
their sins. is a huge thing. That's a tremendous
mercy for the people. That He is merciful in allowing
people to partake in His worship. That you see God's goodness reflected
in His law, which protects the people from the lawless people.
And finally, we see the law of God being fulfilled once and
for all through His Son, Jesus Christ. There's a great deal
that we can get. Yes, Amory? Yeah, absolutely. All those animals
and they didn't accomplish anything on their own. It was only the
blood of Christ. Yeah. Amen. But that's good. That's a lot of good answers.
My hope is that the next time you read through the book of
Leviticus, that you'd be encouraged to read through it. That we'll
gain not just a more thorough understanding of the book, that
the next time you're going through this book, that you'll be able
to see all the things we're talking about here, and you'll be like,
yes, there's Christ. Yes, there's Christ. There's Christ. There's
salvation. There's redemption. There's holiness. There's God.
There I am right there. Yeah. It's non-stop. Yes, thank you both. So if we're
just going to set up the context of this book though, when we
start Leviticus, let's go back real quick into Exodus. The last thing we see in Exodus
is the erection of the tabernacle. Moses was given the charge to
erect it back in Exodus 25. He was told to build the tabernacle,
and he was told to make the things that would go in the tabernacle,
and he was told to consecrate the priests that would worship
within the tabernacle. And then we read in the last
few verses in Exodus 40, verses 34 to 38, Then the cloud covered the tent
of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud
had 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 sons of Israel would set
out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not sit
out until the day when it was taken up. For throughout all
their journeys, the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle
by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of
all the house of Israel." So that's it. That's how the book
of Exodus ends. The people of Israel were in
the wilderness, God was in the wilderness, and the tabernacle
was in the wilderness. But don't pass over that. Listen
to what we're talking about. The people were in the wilderness.
God was in the wilderness. The tabernacle was in the wilderness.
The tabernacle was God's means so that he could specifically
dwell with his people. That's one of the most remarkable
themes in the entire Bible. God dwells with his people. Remember
the garden? What do we read in Genesis 2.8?
That God created Adam and he placed him in the garden. In
Genesis 3.8, we hear that God was walking in the garden. He
was dwelling with Adam and Eve. Sorry, I lost my place. He was
dwelling with his people. We see that same thing here in
Exodus and Leviticus, that God is dwelling with his people,
and this continues all the way up until Christ. throughout all
the time where God dwelled in the tabernacle, till the first
temple was built, to where it was torn down and the second
temple was built. The tabernacle and the temple were where God
dwelled with his people all the way up until Christ. But then
what do we read in John 1, 14? That Jesus Christ, who was the
Word of God, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Christ
dwelt with all of his people. Then we're told in 1 Corinthians,
Paul tells us, or do you not know that your body is a temple
of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God,
and that you are not your own? And then, wait for it, in the
book of Revelation, chapter 21, verse three, we read, and I heard
a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle
of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall
be his people, and God himself will be among them. That's a
really important piece of information. We can't forget that God isn't
merely an observer here. He is not watching these things
from afar. He's not looking at these Israelites to see if they're
going to obey his commandments or not. He's an active participant
in every act of worship that's taking place among the people.
Remember what we saw back in Exodus 3, when Moses was approaching
the burning bush, what did it say? It said, do not come near
here. Remove your sandals from your
feet for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
Moses couldn't even approach a burning bush with dirty shoes
on. He had to take them off because
no unclean thing can approach God. It can't be in the presence
of God. Now imagine dwelling with God every day and every
night throughout all your journeys for the entire time that you're
dwelling there with God. And you can see his presence
as a pillar of cloud or a pillar of fire every day, every night. It's always there. God is always
there with you. And don't forget what we've been
talking about in Isaiah. God isn't just holy, but he's
holy, holy, holy. He's a particular holiness. He's
the most holy. He's far above any other and
certainly far removed in his moral qualities from every man,
woman, and child that are dwelling with him in that city, in that
camp. So as we look at the first 10
chapters, one of the ways in which God demonstrates his separation,
his holiness apart from the people is through the implementation
of sacrifices. But it wasn't started here in
Leviticus, it was actually started much sooner, back in the garden
after Adam and Eve had sinned. Right? Right after that, we hear
that Adam and Eve, their eyes were opened and they knew that
they were naked and they sewed fig leaves to cover their, you
know, as loincloths for themselves. We read that in Genesis 3-7.
Later, after God declares the curses, we read in verse 21 that
the Lord made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed
them. Garments made of skin. Skin from
what? Skin from an animal. God sacrificed the life of an
animal in order to properly cover the shame of Adam and Eve. And
from that moment forward, a sacrifice was required, at least in instruction,
to cover over the sins of men. We see that right away in Genesis
4, when Cain and Abel were already bringing their sacrifices to
God. Cain had brought the first fruits of his harvest, and Abel
brought the first of his livestock. We see that later on in the book
of Job, which is considered to be the oldest book in the Bible.
We see Job making sacrifice for his sons in chapter 1, and then
in the final chapter, Job 42, God instructs his friends, Eliphaz,
Bildad, and Zophar, to go to Job with their sacrifices so
that Job can make it on their behalf, because God won't accept
their sacrifices. He'll only accept Job's. And
then back in Genesis we read that Abraham, when he went to
sacrifice Isaac at the request of God, that Isaac even asked
his father, where is the lamb for the burnt offering? So this
was no new thing to the Israelites. This was happening all along.
But now God is dwelling along with them. He won't allow anyone
to approach who hasn't been cleansed or consecrated or sanctified.
The sacrifices were the primary way that this was accomplished,
and there were many different types of sacrifices, as Bob was
already telling us. There was the burnt offering.
That was a general sin offering, also used in dedications. There
was the grain offering, which was the first fruits offered
as an offering of thanksgiving. There was the peace offering.
It was likewise a thanksgiving offering, which was meant to
acknowledge a particular blessing or the fulfillment of a particular
promise. It was also known as the shalom offering. That word
shalom has a particular context. It doesn't just mean peace. It
doesn't just mean you're not warring with somebody. It means
you have this harmonious relationship with somebody. Next, there was
the sin offering, which was made when one was convinced that he
or she was guilty of a particular sin and wanted to demonstrate
repentance. They would prepare this offering.
This offering was also closely related with the purification
of the sanctuary itself. And then there was the guilt
offering, which was also offered in response to sin, but this
sacrifice was more specific as to which sins. Did you have a
question, Mo? Okay, sorry. The ones mentioned for the guilt
offering were when somebody was committing an act that was expressly
forbidden, when somebody had desecrated something that was
holy, or also in sins that involved sinning against your neighbor.
Other places in Scripture we see the drink offering, but that
really isn't mentioned much in this book, so we'll just skip
over that for now. And I don't have time to go into
all these offerings, there's just so much in this book. But
I think what's important is, as Pastor Bob was already doing
for us, is to look at a few of the distinct characteristics
that these offerings all have in common. First, there's the
nature of that which is being offered. Whether it was animal
or grain, that which is being offered was expected to be at
least symbolically perfect. The animals which were offered
were generally to be mostly males and without blemish. Any mark
or any deformity and the animal would be considered unfit for
sacrifice. And the Lord said, try to do
that to your daughters. Try to do that to those who collect
taxes, which you will offer to me on my altar, and let me sacrifice
this. How often do you give God that
kind of worship? Um, yeah, and that's, he requires
perfection, right? He needs the very best. He, he
will settle for nothing less. Um, ultimately we see that in
order to cover the sins of one requires not just a sacrifice
of life, but the transfer of sin from the imperfect to the
perfect. When you wash your car, do you
use an old dirty rag? No, you use something that's
new. And when you wash the car, what happens? The car is clean
and the rag is dirty. It's the same thing with sacrifices. You need something perfect, something
spotless, something that can absorb the sin of another. The instruction of the cakes
that are prepared without leaven serves the same function. Everywhere
you see the word leaven, just replace that word with sin. That's
what it represents. That's what the letter represents,
sin. God will only accept a perfect,
sinless sacrifice for covering of sins. Second, in regards to
the sin offering, the shedding of blood was required. Blood
was very important in the act of sacrifice. It says in Leviticus
17.11, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given
it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For
it is the blood, by reason of the life, that makes atonement.
Blood equals life. In addition to the sacrifice
being perfect, it also must lose its life. This representation
of blood and life is so strong that God even goes further in
Leviticus 17 to bar anyone from eating something that had its
blood still within it. Next is the portioning of the
sacrifice. It was a provision for the Levitical priesthood.
The Levites were a tribe without an earthly inheritance. These
men had no land, nothing which they could leave to their children.
God had set them apart as a holy tribe specifically for the working
and keeping of the temple and the things that they worshipped. It's actually also interesting
to note that that same That same word, it's not used in Leviticus,
but it's used in Numbers, that the Levites were constantly working
and tending the temple. There's only one other place
where that type of language is used, and it's back in the garden,
where it says that Adam worked and he tended the garden, sort
of showing Adam to be sort of like a precursor, sort of a proto-priest
in some way. But when people would bring their
sacrifice that God had always allowed, except in the case of
a burnt offering, God had always allowed a portion to be given
to the priest so that they could consume it. That was their food,
that's how they ate. And then finally, the penalty
for mispracticing the sacrifice. Chapter 10, we see one of the
few narrative portions in Leviticus where we read about Nadab and
Abihu, Aaron's sons, who burnt strange fire on the altar of
God. And he destroyed them instantly. It said he consumed them and
destroyed them utterly. It's a bit jarring to read. such
an account after reading all these chapters about sacrifices
and instruction. But when we consider just how
much time God has spent talking about all these sacrifices and
how specific they should be and what can be killed and what can't
be killed and how much portion, what parts of the animal are
even to be divvied up and how, it's not really that striking
to see that God would be that offended that somebody would
go against his instructions. There's only three occasions
in scripture where God starts people dead. who, as you say, were given some
specific instructions that they presumed that they could work
it out on their terms. In other words, they thought,
how important is it that I mix the right concoction of instances?
Because that's what they were instructed for. People at Strange
Fire, they concocted their own incense mixture, rather than
getting the specific instructions from God. But I think that this
is a lesson for all of us, because we don't take seriously what
we've got. We want to take and choose what we want, or we want
to adapt it to our own, or make it say what we want it to say,
depending on our own sinful indignation. We can't do that. And specifically
about worship, you know, the regulatory principle that when
we come to church, we should be governed by the word of God,
not by feelings, not by traditions, not by liturgy. The word of God
should govern our worship, and when we're not doing that, we're
off in a strange path. And the interesting thing, it
sort of brings me into my final point on sacrifices, is that
we understand what about these sacrifices in the first place.
That they didn't truly accomplish anything, they were a shadow,
they were a type, they were a picture of the one true sacrifice that
God actually would accept, and that was his son Jesus Christ.
In the book of Hebrews it says, in Hebrews 10.4, it is impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. But then we're
told about that true sacrifice later on in verses 10 through
12. By this we have been sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering
and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can
never take away sins, but he, having offered one sacrifice
for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God. Oh, I'm sorry, Amber. What I
want to share is that the sacrificing of the blood of animals reminds
me very much of the culture wars that the Jews followed and continue
to follow. And even as a child growing up,
my mother used to soak the chickens Yeah, well yes, I mean ultimately
Christ said that it's not what enters the body that makes a
man, that defiles a man, but what comes out. You know, but I mean, these things
are all representative, but yeah, we should be mindful of everything
in terms of doing right by our bodies. Yeah, we are to take,
we are to see ourselves as a temple of the Holy Spirit, and we're
to do right by our body. That's an act of worship in how
we treat ourselves. Any other questions, comments?
Okay. So in our next section, verses
11 to 15, we get into the chapters that sort of deal with things
that are clean and unclean. These chapters begin to distinguish
the things that are clean from the things which are unclean.
And I would hope by this point that you might have a sense as
to why, right? Why would God spend five chapters
describing the things which are either clean or unclean? Well, he does so because whenever
we see the word unclean, we should see sin, just as we saw with
lemon, just as we saw with everything else. The phrase cleanliness
is next to godliness is a stupid saying, but it's kind of rather
apt in this case. To be unclean didn't just mean
you were dirty, it meant that you were corrupted, that you
were corrupted by sin down to your very core. It meant that
you were defiled, you were cut off, you were separated from
God. If you were declared to be unclean, you were cast out
of the city. To be unclean meant that you
were no longer holy. It was a very important thing
to be clean in the presence of God. One of the first things
to receive this distinction is animals. There are a number of
animals that are listed as being either clean or unclean. The
Israelites were only to eat the clean animals. If you ate an
unclean animal, then you needed to be cleansed. So there are
two things that we should note about the clean and unclean animals.
First, there are a number of people that have gone on to talk
about This merely being a provision of God to protect the people
from diseases. That God was simply trying to
protect animals like pigs, right? They carry trichinosis and stuff
like that. And people want to say that this
is merely an instruction that God gives to the people so that
they would be protected from getting all these kinds of diseases. That has nothing to do with it.
Most of these animals were unclean because of their very nature.
Some of these animals were scavengers, like vultures, which ate the
dead. To come in contact with something dead means that you
were unclean. To touch or handle the dead meant
that you had to be cleansed. Other animals, those that hunted
their food, like wolves, those that had paws, They ate the animals
alive that had the blood still within them. As we just saw,
that's an unclean act that would make you unclean. Likewise, the fish of the sea,
things that scavenged like lobsters and ate the dead things were
unclean and therefore should not be clean. These animals were
unclean because of their actions. Their actions made them unclean.
Therefore, to eat or to touch one would make you unclean. And
two, once again, these were restrictions that were put in place for people
who were always present with God. All diligence had to be
made to ensure that no unclean thing came anywhere near the
dwelling place of God. After Christ's sacrifice, something
changed, though. The Apostle Peter, when he had
his vision in Acts 10, saw unclean animals, and he was told to eat.
But he said, by no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything
unholy and unclean. But then the voice responds,
and he hears this, what God has cleansed no longer consider unholy. There is no longer any such thing
as a clean or unclean animal. After the animals, we read a
lot about things on or within the body that could make somebody
unclean. It talks some time about women
and the cycles they go through, often with a discharge of blood,
or the same which is noticed through childbirth would make
the woman unclean, and then she would have to go through a cleansing
ritual. And then it goes on for some time about leprosy, and
this is another instance where we should see the word sin. Where
you see leprosy, where you see sores, you should see sin. It's very representative here
in the book of Leviticus. We, uh, man was not created to
be a host of diseases. We were created clean. We were
created, uh, without spot or blemish. It is sin, the sin of
Adam and Eve that has corrupted us and left us exposed to these
things, which attack and destroy and even kill us. Go ahead, Bob.
Yes. And I would agree to an extent,
I would say this, that all these things are a symbol of sin. they may not have a practical
benefit to the issue they like at the time. But that was sort
of like, you know, one of the things was, like, you know, don't
boil baby dope in its mother's milk. That's not, that's not
like, you know. Well, that's kind of Celtic origin,
because Egyptians didn't know how to say it. They sort of encompassed
the depth of it, but it doesn't seem like there's any one pattern
that fits at all. were very often made of wood. And the milk was sour, and when
interacted with meat, it would be toxic. So some of the moths
were also very practical at times. Like leprosy. Clearly, you want
to alienate somebody. That's the word, amen. Absolutely. I mean, from what
I read in the context of Leviticus, it seems primarily that these
animals were unclean because of how they interacted with dead
things or with things with the blood still in them. Possibly, yeah. I don't want
to say it's impractical. In my studies, everybody that
brought it up like that, as if it was a practicality, seemed
very liberal in the way they were trying to portray it. That
was the only purpose in it. God was merely trying to protect
these people, and that's why God could just brush it off after
Christ came. I wanted people to understand
that there's a purpose, and that it's right here in the text,
that you couldn't touch anything dead, or you were unclean, and
therefore these animals that ate the dead, that clearly would
make them tainted by that. So I'd like to read more. I had
very little time to study. I'd love to read more, and I'm
sure there is practicality to it. There's a practicality in
a lot of things God does. God is wise, but just go ahead. I need more water. Yeah, and I mean, as deformities,
I mean, even the Levitical priests, if they had any deformities,
they couldn't even worship. They couldn't carry out any worship.
The only thing they had to look forward to was the meals of the
burnt offerings. That was it. There was nothing.
They had no inheritance. They couldn't worship. They couldn't
carry out any worship. All they had to do was eat. That
was it. Yeah, that's true. Earmuffs, Terrence, earmuffs.
I've heard stories, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But lobster's one of the most
delicious, filthy animals I've ever eaten, I gotta tell you
right now. It's so good. Yeah, you filthy animal. But
ultimately, everything that we're talking about here, it's not
about cleanliness. To be unclean or clean doesn't
have anything to do with cleanliness. It's merely God's way in which
he separates people from the whole in order to either bring
them closer to him or drive them further away, right? The next
section is chapter 16, the Day of Atonement. I really, really
wish I had more time to get into this. We're only going to touch
on it. I heard some commentarians say
that this is one of the most important chapters in all the
Bible. The Day of Atonement was a very important sacrifice that
happened in Israel. It took place only once a year,
and with it, the sins of the entire camp of Israel were covered.
It's also the only time in which the high priest was allowed to
actually enter into the most holy place, the Holy of Holies.
And he would go in there and he would offer two sacrifices.
He would go there and he would offer one sacrifice for himself.
He would cleanse himself through a strict regimen first. He would cleanse his whole body.
He would dress himself in these fine linen robes. And then he
would bring in a bull and sacrifice it to make atonement for him
and his family, the entire Levitical priesthood. And then he would
go in again and he would make a second sacrifice. And he would
take the hyssop and dip it in the blood and sprinkle it on
the mercy seat. of the Ark of the Covenant, and that would
cover the sins of the people. There's no more clear representation
of Christ than that. The one who's able to enter into
the presence of God and truly make that one sacrifice that
covers the sins of everyone that he's chosen. There's no greater
sacrifice than that. The other interesting thing about
this celebration is that there were two goats used. There was
one that was sacrificed and given to God. That was his lot. And
then there was another one where the priest would put his hands
on the goat, and he would confess all the sins of the people. And
all of those sins would be placed on that goat, and then they would
drive that goat out of the city. And he was a scapegoat, or a
zazel, as some translations call it. That was probably the desert
spirit, they called it. Yeah. No, I hope not. I'm guessing they took somebody,
somebody took him far away before, hope he got lost. Really? But that's such a clear picture
of what we're talking about. That's just another instance
where the thing that is considered holy is brought into the place
of God, and the thing that is considered sinful is driven out
of the city as far as possible. It's driven out of the presence
of God. Like I said, I'd love to get
into that more, but I just didn't have time for this study, I'm
sorry. But next section we go into is chapters 17 through 22,
which is also known as the Holiness Code. They're called that because
of what they contain, which is various rules and laws and commands
for the people of Israel, but also how often the term holy
is used. As well as how often the Israelites
are commanded to do these things unlike the nations around them
who were actually practicing these things quite a bit. It's
in this section that we read about the blood as we looked
at earlier. We read about the children that
were being sacrificed to Molech. We read about men who were practicing
homosexuality and other sexual sins. And we read a number of
laws which were given regarding neighbors. It's here where we
actually receive the command to love our neighbors as ourself
in Leviticus 19.18. And that's what true holiness
should produce, love, love towards our neighbors, but also towards
God. Now, there's so much application
to be found in any one verse of this portion of text that
I could be here till next week. But our purpose is to understand,
it's not to go into homosexuality or abortion or incest per se.
Our goal is to find out why these things are here in the book of
Leviticus. And there's one passage that I think does that very well
and also is very applicable to us here in our study. And that
would be Leviticus 18. Leviticus 18 verses 24 through
30. And I'd like somebody to read
that for me, please, when you get there. Leviticus 18 verses 24 through
30. Thank you, Fiona. So, like I
said, there's so much application you can get in any one of these
verses, you know, person to person, but there's just no time. I literally
spent hours listening to James White, who has an entire sermon
series on the Holiness Code. It goes on for like 20 or 30
sermons. There's so much that can be gotten out of just this.
And he doesn't go through the book of Leviticus, he just goes
through the Holiness Code, just these few chapters of Scripture
on homosexuality. There's such a resource there
where if you're interested in learning about how these things
can be utilized for us in talking with individuals, I would highly
suggest you check out those sermons. They're really terrific. One of the arguments that people
who want to become Christian make is that that's the What about all these other horrible
practices that are mentioned? Yeah, and I believe, I didn't
actually take a count of it, but I believe in 18 and 19 that
every commandment is reiterated. Both about if you dishonor your
parents, you should be stoned, if you worship other gods, if
you commit adultery, if you commit murder. Every single one of the
commandments, I believe, is listed in 18 and 19 specifically. Yeah,
Brother Steve? No, except for the Sabbath. But
the Sabbath is reiterated here, though. Go ahead, Amory. Paul
answers that in Romans 6-15 when he says, what then? Are we to sin because we are
not under law but under grace by no means? Yeah. People don't realize it's like
before the law was condemned, the law was condemned, three
testaments condemns it. It's straight through Scripture.
It's not one shred of evidence. And actually, you study Noah's
sons, specifically Ham, that the period when he was in, because
when you look at his father's nakedness, it actually is a situation
that there was a homosexuality. At least it was a homosexual
gaze. Plus, some people claim that
the Bible was failing the fact that he went in and actually
violated his father. It's the same language used as
what was actually discussed in a couple of years. Constance
Davis' youth memorial was sexual immorality. So I mean, before
he was considered a politician, and his son, Gene, was a terse
boy. Yeah, the Bible seems to be pretty
clear that it definitely sees homosexuality as a clear sin
against God. But like I said, in addition
to those ways in which we would see these one-on-one, the only
thing, like I said, I couldn't get too specific here, but I
just wanted us to see here, in the verses that Fiona just read
for us, It talks again and again about how the nations defiled
the land, and that's why they were being cast out. It is possible
for us as a nation to become defiled with sin. God has allowed
judgment to come upon the nations mentioned here. He has allowed
judgment to come upon nations since, and he could very well
allow our nation to come under judgment for the sins that we
are now calling good and legal and healthy in this country.
Go ahead. Well, he was, but the people
that were inhabiting that land were... Well, he certainly, I wouldn't,
I don't believe he's blessing this country anymore. I mean,
I think there definitely seems to be a sense in which he, you
know, it seems like Christianity is taking, now we could say whether
or not that's legitimate Christianity, because there's definitely a
lot of You could make that argument.
We'd have to have more discussion. We'd have to study more about
it, I think. I mean, from what I've seen in it, though, I mean, So that way it's symbolic. I
mean, I see it as being here in the midst of it. You have to be blessed. I mean,
you have to be so gracious and merciful. It was referring to
the divine covenant that God had established with the people
of Israel, blessing the Pharisees. So God entered into a covenant
with the people of Israel, and for specifically Islam. And Israel had opportunities
to impact the world for good. And so while principles of holiness,
principles of honor and God are going to bless any country, there
seems to be a specific, special interest in this piece of land.
And I don't think we can go to the United States and say, oh,
because we're Well, just to make a point on
that, my implication was not that we are a Christian land
and that we are specifically set apart from God as some kind
of holy land. You're right about that, and
that wasn't my statement. I'm sorry? Well, I don't know
about that, honestly. But my point in all this is simply
to say that God has never ceased to bless a nation when it repents
of sin. You know, even the Ninevites,
when they repented, God blessed their land. I think they eventually
turned against him again, but anytime they're called to repentance,
even the Israelites, you look at 1st and 2nd Kings, right?
Every time the land repented, you look at Judges, every time
the people repented, God blessed them, God returned to them, God
blessed them. Go ahead. I'd like to get a little comment. I've seen you get around this
issue in the distance. When you look at the prophets
of the Old Testament, God's judgment is on the nations,
and because of their weakness and sin, he's going to impose
it. He's going to overthrow it. And that's his job. And ultimately,
he's going to find a way, right? Possibly, he's going to have
to expose it. Possibly, he's going to say, well, somebody's
done it. But when God was doing it in Judah and Canaan, that's
part of the reason he had the covenant. And two comments on
it. Yes, the land was absolutely,
the land of Israel was absolutely part of it. Abraham and Tubby,
and God sold the land as holy. So much so, that the land had
to rest every seven years. There was a Sabbath year for
the land to rest. God was concerned about blood
to follow the land. He knew that, and he talked about
it. God consecrated, just like he consecrated the tabernacle,
just like he consecrated the ark. Nothing could be called
holy, or consecrated, or clean, David wasn't even allowed to
build the temple. But when we're talking about
Israel, it is a unique entity in itself. However, I think we
should be careful, because many people think Israel today, the
nation of Israel that exists, is God's fulfillment of the Abrahamic
covenant and purpose for the land. And I think we need to
be careful there. Some have different opinions.
I'm not going to debate each one. But I think there's good
evidence in the New Testament to show us that the whole Abrahamic
covenant was supported by Christ. Israel is no special state that
is the land of America or the land of Iran or the land of Baghdad.
I'm not saying that Israel is a country of bad people. I love
the people of Israel. I think it's the only democracy
and good country in the Middle East that exists right now and
that's our ally. But what I am saying is that
Israel, they're not going to build a temple in Israel. God
doesn't have this plan to restore You know, we have to see that
in Christ, all of this is fulfilled. You know, Abraham looked for
a city whose builder and maker was God. It wasn't an earthly
city, it was a heavenly city. And I'm afraid too many people
put too much emphasis on Israel, even today, to the fact that
they'll send money to certain issues. I think I'm going on
a bunch of everybody. I'm having to get out of here. People like Michael Pence, for
instance, is a dispensationalist. A dispensationalist. that Israel
must be, you know, has this theological progress. And I think the Trump
administration should be informed by dispensations around this.
A lot of Americans are, I would think. I'm not a dispensations.
I don't think it's good theology. I've reached out and I think
revelation. But yeah, but on the other hand, I think Israel
is a good country. I think that we should be allies
and protect them, because they're the only Western democracy in
the Middle East. And, you know, they've got their
own problems. But who am I to tell you that
they're just as wicked, addicted, their culture, as here in America,
homosexuality, drugs, the same nonsense is going on there. So
don't think of it like this holy place where prophets are running
around and prophesying the word of God, and everybody's going
to the temple. It's just a sinful movement.
But relative to most of the countries that surround it, you know, the
night may be worse. So Stephen, I was just wondering,
because I thought that's where you were going with the terms
of Canaan. No, no, no. What I was saying
is that some people will imply that these promises or these
codes, because we're Christian and we're a Christian nation,
we go ahead and we can claim the promises of that for our
land as well, like the Puritans did. And I think there are Republicans,
too. I think there are Republicans
who believe that this is a Christian religion. Yeah. And especially
down south, if you ever go down there, I mean, I've heard so
many sermons on, if we humble ourselves, God will restore our
land. That famous line, you know, seek
my faith, you know, and humble yourselves. Okay. Yeah, and it wasn't wrong for
you to make the distinction, but that wasn't the point I was trying
to make. Ultimately, it was a call for
evangelism. I never got to that, but that's okay. Yeah, but ultimately,
we're called to repentance. And I wasn't trying to say that
we had promises coming to us, but that the way our country's
going, there's clearly a downward spiral we're in, where we're
falling further and further into sin. We're calling evil things
good. Just look at the past 10 years, and it's striking the
things that we were calling evil 10 years ago and the things we're
calling good today. So that was my point. But I'm running out
of time. I'm going to hopefully get the rest of this done in
five minutes. Okay. Well, the second to last section
was the Feasts of Israel. This was another thing I didn't
get a chance to go into very much. In chapters 23 to 25, we
talk about the Feasts of Israel. There were many feasts, among
those being the weekly Sabbath, the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened
Bread, the Feast of Trumpets, the Feast of Firstfruits, the
Day of Atonement was another that we already looked at, and
then there was the year of Jubilee. And though we could teach an
entire lesson on each of these, there's actually a wonderful
book, if anybody wants to read about the Feasts of Israel, there's
a book I read a few years back called Meeting Jesus at the Feasts
by John R. Satima. A really good book about
how you can find Jesus in all of the feasts, how all of these
things sort of point to a Savior and a Redeemer and a Christ. But ultimately, there's just
a couple of aspects of these I want to look at. First of all,
these were feasts that were implemented by God for God. God was the one
that told these people to have these feasts. He's pointing everybody
during these feasts towards Him. He wants everybody to see holiness.
He wants people to see sin. He wants people to see redemption.
He doesn't want people to lose sight of what's important. We
can see that in this country, not to make it another country
thing, but we can see what happens when we don't give reverence
to something that used to be given reverence when you look
at Christmas. It's just a sensational holiday now where people just
spend ungodly sums of money and they do so starting at Thanksgiving,
another holiday that we used to use to come to church and
we used to pray and worship God. Now that's the day people start
shopping. That's when people get the best deals on things.
But God didn't make these feasts for that. He didn't make these
for presents. He wanted everybody to take time throughout their
year to stop and think about the things that God had done
for them. The things that God had either by providing means
for atonement or protection from judgment or by providing them
with harvest and food, providing them with rest and ultimately
redemption. And as I said, Christ can be
found in all of those things. You can see Christ readily in
all of these feasts if you just look. The final section in the Book
of Leviticus is chapters 26 and 27. 27 seems to be just sort
of an appendix. Yes, go ahead. You know, honestly, I hadn't
until this past Saturday. I was at my niece and nephew's
graduation party, and my other niece, who is a Christian, said
that she recently celebrated a Passover feast at her church.
And she said, you'd love it. It was good. And I was like,
I don't know if I'd really appreciate that. I mean, I appreciate the
idea of looking and celebrating and worshiping God. But these
feasts were something, I see them as the sacrifices. These
were things that were supposed to point us to Christ. That's
why we don't commit sacrifices now, because now we have the
Lord's Supper, which points us back to Christ, as opposed to
having these feasts that point us forward. I say, if you want
to have a Seder feast, you have it every time you have the Lord's
Supper. It was all a Passover feast. That's where it was implemented.
That stream, that theme that runs through the Passover to
the Lord's Supper, it's all pointing towards Christ from both ends.
So I don't think I would be too keen on that unless somebody
could give me another reason why. Okay. Thank you. So like I said, this
final section was the blessings and the curses in chapter 26.
Like I said, 27 seems to just be an appendix about vows and
taking oaths. But it's really chapter 26. There
was a lot I got out of this, and I'm not going to talk much
about it because I want to read more of it than talk about it.
There are far more curses in here than blessings, I can tell
you that, but there's so much mercy as well when you look at
it. I'm gonna start real briefly with the promise of blessing.
When I read Leviticus chapter 26, I'm gonna read verse three
and then I'll read verses nine through 12. If you walk in my
statutes and keep my commandments so as to carry them out, skip
ahead to verse nine, so I will turn toward you and make you
fruitful and multiply you, and I will confirm my covenant with
you. You will eat the old supply and clear out the old because
of the new. Moreover, I will make my dwelling among you, and
my soul will not reject you. I will also walk among you and
be your God, and you shall be my people." That is quite a blessing. I think that's some of the strongest
language I've ever seen in the Bible. It's almost Eden-type
language, isn't it? almost reminiscent of what we
also read in Revelation 21. God is dwelling with his people.
It says he will make his dwelling place with the people. He will
make them fruitful and multiply. This points to, especially when
you consider that the Garden of Eden is reflected in the new
heavens and the new earth. The tree of life is there. God
is there. He's walking with his people. All this imagery, this
sort of takes us right through there. It's sort of like a jumping
off point. But then in verses 14 through 45, another three-fourths
of the chapter, I'm sorry, just about to the end of the chapter,
are where we find the curses. But I don't want to look at the
curses themselves. As you'd expect, they're filled
with promises of wrath, and disease, and judgment, and slavery, et
cetera. But rather, I want to focus on the opening line of
each part of the curse, and there are seven of them. I'll read
them out as I go. Leviticus 26, I'll start with
verse 14. But if you do not obey me and
do not carry out all these commandments. Then verse 18, if also after
these things you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven
times more for your sins. Verse 21, if then you act with
hostility against me and are unwilling to obey me, I will
increase the plague on you seven times according to your sins.
Verse 23, and if by these things you are not turned to me but
act with hostility against me, Verse 27, yet if in spite of
this you do not obey me, but act with hostility against me.
Verse 36, as for those of you who may be
left, I will also bring weakness into their hearts, and the lands
of their enemies, and the sound of a driven leaf will chase them,
and even when no one is pursuing them, they will flee as though
from the sword, and they will fall. And then verse 40, if they
confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their forefathers
in their unfaithfulness, which they committed against me, and
also in their acting with hostility against me. And then I think
this all culminates in verses 44 and 45. Yet in spite of this,
when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject
them, nor will I abhor them. as to destroy them, breaking
my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God. But I will
remember for them the covenant with their ancestors whom I brought
out of the land of Egypt, in the sight of the nations, that
I might be their God. I am the Lord. Despite these
people being described as unfaithful, disobedient, and hostile against
God, he still offers them mercy. He gives them chance after chance
after chance, and even then, when they still refuse to repent,
he is still patient and willing to give them yet even another
chance. He is still willing because he is faithful, he is loving,
and he is not like man that he should lie, but he keeps his
promises. That's a really important thing.
Even in the midst of curses, there's blessing from God because
he's a merciful and loving God. So we can conclude this study
by summing up the book of Leviticus much in the same way in which
we defined it. It's a book about holiness. It was God's instructions
for God's people for how they were to act and interact with
those around them. in order to show themselves as
being set apart, not just set apart from the world and against
its inhabitants, but as people who are set apart for God. A
people who dwelled with God and worshiped God and depended on
God. If I were to encourage you in
only one thing through this study, it would hope that you would
be encouraged to seek to make yourself holy as the Lord is
holy. show that you are truly set apart from this world and
towards God, and to love the Lord with all your heart and
all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind,
and to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Amen? Yes. Well, that holiness means to
be set apart from. That God is separate. He is set
apart. He is truly separate from the
people. There's nothing within God that is anything like the
people that he's dwelling among, and yet he's present with them.
At all times, he's present. In a way, it's vice versa, too. We're separate. We're unholy.
We're unrighteous people, and yet we're still present with
God. But that's by His mercy, not
ours. That's by God being a loving, merciful God that wants to dwell
with His people. Any other questions? Okay. Do you know something about
the prosperity preachers? They use the blessings and curses
of Leviticus and Deuteronomy all the time in their preaching.
That's the basis of their prosperity theology. They misinterpret the
blessings and curses as being applicable under the new covenant.
And so they say, if you obey God and keep his commandments,
God will keep you alive. Amen. Anyone else? Okay. Brother Terrence, would you pray
for us? I'm studying. You want to touch me? Yeah. You're
unclean. I'm unclean. I'm cast out. Thank you, guys. I could tell you studied and
did your work, and I really enjoyed your teaching tonight. Thank
you. Thank you. You're going to press out? Oh. Once again,
thank you for bringing us here to hear this book about the people
of Madison. Thank you for that. What we learned tonight that
we remember. And we encourage to study deeper
and much more. And there are studies that we
don't do right now. We just thank you for this time.
And we ask, oh Lord, for mercy for each and every one of us
trying to respect the poems. Until we meet again on a Sunday,
we ask and pray. And bless your holy name and
my precious name we pray. Amen. Thank you guys. Have a
good night.
Separate, Yet Present - A Survey of Leviticus
Series Old Testament Survey
| Sermon ID | 52918321530 |
| Duration | 1:12:56 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Leviticus 1:1 |
| Language | English |
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