one, Leviticus chapter one, again have the Tabernacle of Moses paper handy. It won't prove to be handy, I think. I'm going to pretty much focus on verses one and a little bit of verse two, but I'm gonna read through a little longer just to give you a feel for what's starting in this chapter. We'll pray again. Lord, I ask that you, by your Holy Spirit, would work in us this morning, that the things going forth from this pulpit would be true and in piercing and lovely. In Jesus' name, amen. Leviticus 1.1. And following the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them. When any one of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. In Aaron's sons, the priest shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar, but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water, and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. And it goes on and on. I'm going to stop there. There's seven chapters of these types of instructions. You may be seated. Again, I said that the first verse and a little more is what I was going to spend time on today. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them. This is just the first and second verses of Leviticus. I'm not preaching through the whole book of Leviticus. I think you understand that already. I'm pulling from within the pages those things that are considered the moral law of God. But I do want to consider aspects of the entire book. Lord called Moses, spoke to him from the tent of meeting. We're told that the Lord initiated here communication from his tent. He called to Moses, the verse says, and spoke to him from the, what? The tent of meeting, it's called. The tent of meeting. This is referring to the wilderness tabernacle. God spoke to him from it, God's tent. And he speaks to Moses frequently as recorded throughout Leviticus. You see the phrase everywhere. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him. The Lord spoke to him. Now, for quite some time, God had been speaking to Moses. He began speaking to him from the burning bush in Midian, if you recall, where Moses had been living with Jethro the priest. Moses married one of Jethro's daughters and kept flock for him. After the burning bush, God spoke to Moses as he traveled to Egypt to rescue the Hebrews. We're not given the details of the venue or setting when God spoke in these circumstances, just the refrain, the Lord spoke, or I should say, the Lord said to Moses, we see it in Exodus 4, 19, 421, 61, 62, 610, 613, 71, 78, et cetera. You get the idea. God speaks to Moses. However, we do learn at some point of a tent of meeting that isn't the tabernacle. A tent of meeting that Moses pitched, his own tent basically. After he left Egypt with the Israelites, there was this tent referred to as the tent of meeting. Joshua cared for it. Joshua did. And it existed before the tabernacle that we're going to discuss here today. That was later put up. In fact, it records the putting up or the erecting of the tabernacle in Exodus 40, the last chapter before the first chapter of Leviticus. where God tells us how to use it. Not much is said about that first tent of meeting. It just appears in the narrative. It was this tent that God told him how to judge people from. It was in this lesser tent. if I can call it a lesser tent. And we read of it in one location in Exodus 33. I'm going to read this to you beginning in verse 7. It says, now Moses used to take the tent, not the tabernacle, used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. This is in verse 7 of chapter 33. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all of the people would rise up and each would stand at his tent door and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent and the Lord would speak to Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship each at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent. Joshua would stay there and tend to it. And this private tent of meeting, if I can call it that, was the place where God met with Moses until the tabernacle was erected. Until this was erected. You find where God gave the instructions to make this more glorious temple the tabernacle in Exodus 25 and 26. Don't need to turn there. Now the tent of meeting mentioned in Leviticus 1 verse 1 was the official and lawful sanctuary of God, the tabernacle where God would meet with his people by ceremonial design. We know it to be the tent that was built according, we know it to be a tent that was built according to a heavenly blueprint. As Hebrews 8.5 says, when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. The tabernacle was not cared for by Joshua, who was descended from the tribe of Aphraim, but it was cared for by the Levites, and ministered in by the Levitical priests who were Aaron's sons, Aaron's descendants. Certain furniture was positioned in the tabernacle, and if you look at that sheet right now, I just want to give you a feel, the tabernacle itself is represented by the almost perfect rectangle going all the way around. That's all considered the tabernacle. And if you see that 20 at the bottom, that stands for 20 cubits. That is the doorway, more or less, the way in to the tabernacle. Inside of the tabernacle, you'll find the Ark of the Covenant. It is way up high there. It says Ark. the Ark of the Covenant, and it says that that Ark is in the most holy place. If you look at that little apartment, that square, that's holding the Ark. The golden lamp stand and the table of showbread and the altar of incense, they're all located in a different spot, a spot called the holy place. those items. The bronze basin and the altar of burnt offering, in this case, the laver and the bronze altar, I should have referred to them differently in the sermon, but the altar, the bronze altar is where sacrifices occurred. They were burnt there. The laver was a basin. for washing and cleansing. These were functional pieces of furniture and God required them, God did, for proper worship. They were necessary for men to be permitted to approach God. You see, it's not up to men to decide how they want to approach God. It's up to God how he wishes to be approached. And often I think we're too cavalier, aren't we, in our attitude toward God and his worship. Something inside of us, you know, has told us we get to call the shots. To go or not to go, to come or not to come. How we approach Him. God is holy. He is set apart from His creation. He declares and we must listen. He commands, we must obey. It's that simple. And yet for sinners, it's that difficult. He is beyond us. And this Levitical tabernacle in the wilderness is what was required. There's an author, John Oswald. He says this, for God is not of this world, and he will not be manipulated through it. Because of these facts, he is the only one who can rightly be called holy. He is the only one who is truly other, other, which is at the heart of the idea of holy. Thus, Oswald says, fellowship with him is only possible if we renounce at the outset all attempts to manipulate him. In fact, there is only one way to receive the blessings he wants to pour out on us. Absolute renunciation of all efforts to control him. and complete surrender to him. Maybe it was a simpler time or I don't know. I'm just thinking this off the cuff. But there does seem to be an element of sobriety here. by which I think, doesn't that just make perfect sense? If God says it, you don't question it. You just do it. Who are you, right? I mentioned this in a previous sermon. My dad would say something that he wanted us to do something or not do something as kids, and if we didn't like What he was telling us, we kind of have that complaining attitude. And we try to reason with him or complain with him or to him or whatever. And we'd say, well, why? And sometimes the answer just came back, because I said so, right? And that was kind of like branded into us, because he said so. I'm not saying that's the perfect parental answer, but what it did in my thinking was made sense of how we should approach God at least, right? Because he said so. That's enough. I think this should be our life's approach, your approach in life and mine. Humility before God because he said so. We should desire Him. Face it. Don't take this personality, this new form of, I want to do things my way, I'm a spiritual person, and so on and so forth, as if you get to call the shots here. It's so common and prevalent today in our society, it seems. If they're at all interest in spiritual things, it has to be on the basis of their spiritual desires. That's not humility before God. If you really are going to tell others that you desire him, if you really want to express to him that you desire him, then you have to want what he wants. no matter how difficult that sounds, no matter how uncomfortable that may feel. And desiring Him, it leads to worship, not away from it. If you desire God, you will be compelled to go to worship Him. And it won't just happen on the Lord's Day, which is imperative, but it will also take place throughout your life. Desiring him leads to worship, not away from it. It causes us to want to offer up our whole bodies, right, as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. That is the Christian sacrifice. Look how the tabernacle was marked off. You begin on the outside of the tabernacle, outside of the big rectangle. And you first enter by way of the courtyard. And there the people, they presented their offerings to the priests. And the offering was sacrificed. At the bronze altar, it was burnt. And the blood was splattered. However, if you are not from the tribe of Levi, you went no further than the courtyard. In fact, if you look closer, the person, a person got, got to God's glory. The closer he got to God's glory, the more holy The room sounded, right? After the courtyard, the next step in would be the holy place, and then the final step, deeper, was the most holy place. Outside of the tabernacle, then the courtyard, then the holy place, finally the most holy place, the location of the most holy place, only the high priest was permitted into it. Once a year. Now, at the start of Leviticus, the first words, as we said, are the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, speak to the people of Israel and say to them. It's from this tabernacle, and these words are followed by seven chapters, as I said. Seven chapters filled with instructions for the laity and for the priests regarding how to go about the different types of offerings that they would be making to God. The burnt offering, the cereal offering, the peace offering, the purification offering, and the reparation offering. These were brought to the tabernacle and given to the priests as sacrifices. And the sacrifice was not new to Israel or mankind's history with God. Before this tabernacle, we find men sacrificing to the Lord. What? Cain and Abel were offering sacrifices to God. One was more acceptable than the other. Noah offered sacrifices to the Lord after the boat stopped and the flood levels went down, he took animals and sacrificed them. Abraham sacrificed and others as well. All pursued God this way, by sacrifice. You remember Job. What did it say of him? There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. It talked about all the cattle he had. It talked about all the sheep and camels and land and then he had seven sons and three daughters. In verse four of the very first chapter, it says, his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send out and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them, and when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For, Job said, it may be that my children have sinned. and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did continually. So offerings of sacrifice was the way godly men of the past dealt with their sin as they approached God. For you must already know, men, women, and children are not holy, but he is. Our souls are not fit to meet with God. And there's no getting to God either because of our sin. Unless, unless God tells us a way to do it. As Oswald said, fellowship with him is only possible if we renounce at the outset all attempts to manipulate him. The alternative to us trying to come up with a way to get to God is for him to come rescue us. Thankfully, we see him coming to the rescue of the Hebrew people here. God offers them a system through Moses. It's a system of blood to cover their sins so that they might approach him and he might forgive them and stay with them. Listen to this from Leviticus, chapter 17, verse 11. It says, the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Again, this is God saying this is how it happens. We have no say. The system of blood is built, although you can't see it here, it's invisible to the eye, the system of blood is built upon a foundation a sure foundation that we'll speak to in a moment. Because that system of blood, you'd have to keep doing it over and over and over again to pay for sin in order to meet with God and it would be never ending and you'd really never fully pay what you needed. For now, I'd like to read about the establishment of the tabernacle from the last chapter of Exodus there, beginning in verse 16. Exodus 40, 16. This Moses did, according to all that the Lord commanded him, so he did. In the first month of the second year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was erected. Moses erected the tabernacle. He laid its bases, set up its frames and put in its poles and raised up its pillars. And he spread the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over it, as the Lord had commanded Moses. He took the testimony and put it into the ark and put the poles on the ark and set the mercy seat above the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle and set up the veil of the screen and screened the ark of the testimony as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the table in the tent of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the veil and arranged the bread on it before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the lamb stand in the tent of meeting opposite the table on the south side of the tabernacle. and set up the lamps before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the golden altar in the tent of meeting before the veil and burned fragrant incense on it as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put in place the screen for the door of the tabernacle and he set the altar of burnt offering at the entrance of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting and offered on it the burnt offering and the grain offering as the Lord had commanded Moses. He set the basin between the tent of meeting and the altar and put water in it for washing, with which Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet. When they went into the tent of meeting and when they approached the altar, they washed as the Lord commanded Moses. And he erected the court around the tabernacle and the altar and set up the screen of the gate of the court. So Moses finished the work. Verse 34. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. So it's final. The tent of meeting has been erected, and the glory of the Lord has filled it. Day and night, his presence was visible. And as God moved, so did the people of Israel. When he lifted his cloud up, then the people would know it was time to move on. It was his transportable wilderness tent. The goal was for God to lead them where? Into the promised land. In Jerusalem, the tabernacle would be transformed into a temple built of more permanent materials, limestone and cedar wood, not tent. But for now, God was tabernacling with his people near Sinai. And it's God's nearness and glory, his holiness, that accounts for much of the difficult sounding language we find in Leviticus. His holiness is the reason priests must not have defects in order to serve in the tabernacle. Indeed, the high priest himself wore a crown that said, holy to the Lord, so the priests could have no defects or they were not allowed to serve as priests. Some of the things that sound difficult in Leviticus have to do with the nearness of God to his people, the holiness of God, and how they should approach him. In the nearness of God's glory is the reason the unclean must be cleansed in order to remain part of their social community. Becoming unclean happened in various ways as we will see. And not all of those ways were a result of sin. But still, it had to be fixed because of God's holiness. It is his holiness that also required his people to separate from all the other peoples of the earth. They were in a different position than the rest. We read in Leviticus 19 verses 1 and 2, And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel, and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. And this included not only the ceremonial aspects of the tabernacle, the sacrifices, priestly labors, but it also required the people's obedience to God's moral law. For I tell you, sacrifices from a person who has a cold, unbelieving heart were of no effect, just as going to church worship has no effect for a person with a cold, unbelieving heart. It is the morality of the people, whether they love God and obey Him, that even determines the genuineness of their sacrifices. The Apostle Peter applies the holiness requirement to the Christian community, to you and me, saying, as obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written. And then he goes ahead and quotes Leviticus. Since it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. 1 Peter 1, 14 and 16. You see, some things don't change. The tabernacle is God's meeting place that eventually would draw yearly worshipers. They would come home to it to celebrate the three feasts. Jesus called it his father's house. Upon one such visit. Truly. God and his glory came near to the Hebrew people. He came to be with them. Meet with them. And God provided a way. And the tabernacle of the Hebrews was a fine system, but it was really designed upon a blueprint from heaven. And so the earthly elements, the sacrifices of bulls and goats and the priestly labor and the tabernacle itself could only ever foreshadow, anticipate really, the necessary sacrifice and priestly work of Jesus Christ. in that greater heavenly temple. Hebrews 8, 1 through 7 says, now the point in what we are saying is this, this is a New Testament passage, now the point in what we are saying is this, we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in heaven. A minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if we were on earth, he would, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. They serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain, the pattern that was shown you on the mountain. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates. Sorry, I didn't come out right. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. So, Christ was the most excellent sacrifice, the perfect priest with the better ministry and covenant. And if that's the case, you may wonder, then why has God taken away his glory? Why is he not Tabernacling with his people as he did in the tent and then in the temple. Ah. The answer is that he has not taken it away. He has actually come closer. He has come into his people. We don't go to Jerusalem to get to God. He has come to us. The sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ that tore apart the earthly veil that once separated the most holy place from the holy place. Even more, God, he pushed through it, so to speak, and out of the earthly house and made his people to become his temple. Or do you not know? as Paul says, that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God. You are not your own, for you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body, 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. Elsewhere, Paul says, do you not know that you are God's temple, that God's spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. You see how glorious this is. Of course, God's presence, you know, it goes beyond tabernacle language. The earth cannot contain him. He is not in one place. As Isaiah proclaimed, thus says the Lord, heaven is my throne and the earth The earth is my footstool. What is the house that you would build for me? And what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be. Nonetheless, the language is true. Today he tabernacles in us, his people. We are his earthly temple. It is holy. and marvelous for us. But why are we spending time discussing the old tabernacle if it's no more? My brief response is that it will help us understand where to make our lines, where to draw our lines, and make our demarcations so that we might know those portions of the law that still exist, that still come from Leviticus, that give us direction on how to live for him. For there are many laws still incumbent upon us Christians. These are the moral laws of God that reflect his character given in Leviticus. And if we are to be holy as he is holy, as Peter says, then we need to know what God is like as a person. We need to know his decrees in order to obey and become like him. We need to honor the one who has taken up residency in us. Lastly, Leviticus teaches us to be holy as the Lord your God is holy, but it also happens to be found in Leviticus, that place that Jesus quoted when he spoke of the second greatest commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. That is found in Leviticus. Jesus is quoting Leviticus, and that phrase In Leviticus 1918, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. It's found actually at the end of a litany of moral commands of how we're supposed to treat other people, how we're supposed to interact with other people. Then it says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. It sums up what had just preceded it. What about those laws? What about those items? Those items and the obedience to those things are what it looks like to love your neighbor as yourself. You need to know what those things are. Let's pray. Lord, I ask that you take this sermon and however tiresome it may have fallen upon this congregation, I just ask that you use it to embed in us that these are your things. They've been your things. They're built upon wonderful truths. that Jesus, you have made way for us and the Holy Spirit that resides in us. God, please work that work that you do in us and apply your word. We want to love you and we want to be close to you and we realize how much closer can we get. But oftentimes we don't walk like you're in us. We don't live like you're in us. And that's the goal here. The goal is to carry on that daily walk and learn what it looks like to obey and become like you, holy. Pray this in Jesus' name.