Turn to Leviticus 1. We'll just be reading the first verse. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You and thank You that You have decided to reveal Yourself to Your people. We praise You and thank You for not leaving us alone. We praise You for revealing Yourself. Lord, I pray that You block out all the distractions that we have here today and open hearts and minds so that What you have to say through all this, Lord, will be heard. Lord, I pray that you shut me up, Lord, and you speak. Give us all ears to hear. In your name we pray. Amen. I don't know how many of you know it, but this past Friday we had a blue moon. That's a good face. We had a blue moon. That doesn't mean the moon was actually blue. It's just something that refers to a second full moon within a month's time. In August, August 1st, we had a full moon. Then on the last day of August, we had a full moon. And this is a very rare event. That's why we have the phrase, once in a blue moon. The next one is supposed to happen in July of 2015. These things happen roughly every two to three years. It's a rare event. That's why we say, once in a blue moon. But, I think we can have another phrase to indicate a rare event happening. How about a church preaching through the book of Leviticus? You don't find that too much. It's rare to find. And even if they do touch on Leviticus, it seems to be some kind of a skimming over of it. We try here at Grace Chapel to do expository preaching, go verse by verse. We don't skip over the hard stuff. Obviously, we're going into Leviticus. We don't skip over the hard stuff. We plow right through it. And you'd be hard-pressed to find another church willing to go through this book in an expository fashion. Well, I looked on sermonaudio.com, where we post our sermons, to see about what kind of sermon series they have posted up there. They have well over 500,000, I think, sermons. posted on that website. So I wanted to see how much of those were Leviticus series. Well, that was a fair amount. But, I didn't count out every single one of them, but only five of those had more sermons in that series than chapters in Leviticus. So most of those, what they call series, is just that skimming over. We don't want to do that here. We don't want to do that here. And also, I decided when I looked for those series in Leviticus, I would look to see how many series we had in Genesis and Exodus, the two books before Leviticus. Well, Exodus had a huge amount of series on it. Exodus had a huge amount of serious on it. But for some reason, when we get to Leviticus, people shy away from it. Churches shy away from it. But it's not only churches that shy away from it. It seems to be individuals that shy away from it, too. There's actually a syndrome associated with this. It is actually in print, if you Google it, the Leviticus Syndrome. It is an actual syndrome. And it goes a little something like this. Someone, normally at the beginning of the year, I know many of us do the same thing, we will resolve to read the Bible all the way through in that year. Things get going pretty good. Genesis is interesting. The creation narrative. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and then Joseph. And then we have Exodus, where the people were brought into captivity, mistreated, and then God delivered them out of that. And then you kind of get towards the end of Leviticus, where part of the law was given, and how the tabernacle was to be filled. Things slow down a little bit. And then you hit Leviticus, and people really get bogged down in Leviticus syndrome. is where either they will move on to a different book of the Bible, or they'll just stop right there. Quit reading altogether. Go on, look it up. Google it. Leviticus Syndrome. You know, this is really unfortunate, too. Because I think as we go through this book, we will see that Leviticus will give us an incredibly rich understanding of the New Testament. An incredibly incredible understanding of Christ's work. We'll get into that. So I really consider it an honor and a privilege to be in a church that would consider going through the book of Leviticus. Take on the hard stuff. It's great. I love it. But it falls on me. My first day in the preaching rotation now to introduce us to this book, I know I've preached here before, but it was in the basement of the Nouns house, which was a long time ago. I'm glad to be back up here. So let's let's dive into Leviticus. I'm going to start us off with a little bit of background information. I'm not going to go in too deep of detail. That's what we'll do in the next several months is plow through this. But I want to give a little bit of background information and some themes that will be seen throughout the Book of Leviticus. First of all, some background information, the authorship of it. Well, Moses is the author of the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament. Penta, as in like pentagon, has five sides. Penta means five, two, books. So the first five books are written by Moses, which includes Leviticus, of course being the third book in the Old Testament. They probably penned these words sometime after they had left Sinai. That's where they're at right now. They're at the base of Sinai, that's where the tabernacle has been built. And so he didn't actually, when our first verse says, and the Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of Eden, he wasn't there with his cento-pad, writing down everything that was said. He wrote it down a little bit afterwards. Sometime after Sinai, sometime before his death. But more importantly than that fact of Moses writing it, we see clearly that this is God's revelation. You know, in studying for this, I heard it said that if the Old Testament had a red letter edition where the words that were considered God speaking, God's word, were in red, this would be the reddest book in the entire Bible. I mean, it starts off with the verse that we started off with. The Lord called to Moses and spoke to him from the ten of Medes saying. And then it ends in Leviticus 27, 34 with this. These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. So we see, beginning and end, this is the very Word of God, and it deserves our consideration. It doesn't deserve us getting bogged down in it and moving on or quitting. It deserves our consideration. And we, as children of God, should desire to hear what our Father has to say when He's speaking. And it's clear that He speaks all throughout this book. And what does our Father have to say to us in this book of Revivers? Well, here we're going to get into some themes that will flesh out and flow through throughout this book. And the first theme I have for us is the Divine Presence. The Divine Presence. And Leviticus picks up right where Exodus left off. So let's turn to Exodus 40, 34 through 38, the last, very last part of Exodus. 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 him. 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 until the day that it was taken. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night. And the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys." And then that brings us to the first verse of Leviticus, the Lord called to Moses and spoke to him. from the 10th meeting. So the fact that God is present with his people kind of structures this whole book. It begins with it and it structures this whole book because the fact that he, that the creator of the universe is dwelling with his people, something should be considered here. And what should be considered is the reaction. What are we to do in light of that fact? In light of the fact that God is dwelling among us, what should his people do? Well, praise God he doesn't leave us alone in that. He tells us what we should do. We should be like him. We should be like him. And that brings us to the next theme of Leviticus. Holiness. And I think what Leviticus is trying to do is summarize in Leviticus itself in chapter 11, verse 45, where it says, For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. Praise the Lord again that he has not left his people. to figure out what that means. I tell you, just be holy, or I'm holy. What does that mean? Well, you can't really. Okay, holy. I'll be holy. But He doesn't leave us alone in that to figure it out. In chapter 17 through 26 of this book of Leviticus, it's commonly called the holiness code. The holiness code. And these are commands that the people of God require to obey in order to be holy as God is holy. Now, I'm sure most of you, if I asked you to find holiness for me, most of you could give a pretty good answer. Me sanctified, me set apart, me separate. And that's true. And what the holiness code and all of Leviticus really for that matter is trying to do is set the nation of Israel apart from the rest of the world. Make them a distinct nation for himself. You see, in the book of Exodus, God gets his people out of Egypt. But then we come to Leviticus. And God is trying to get Egypt out of his people. They've been surrounded by paganism, by idols. And God wants to purge his people from this, as well as warn them about the nations that they're going to come upon in the land that's promised to them. And this is seen in Leviticus 20, 22 through 24. You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules, and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things And therefore I detested them. But I have said to you, you shall inherit their lands, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the Lord your God, who separated you from the people." He's saying, do not be like the people of the world. You're my people. I expect a higher standard from you. And he gives that standard to us in Leviticus. But as we look at the Holiness Code, we'll see what Paul says in Romans 3.23 really rings true. And I'll just quote it. It says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Taylor's been talking about our communion with God in the past two or three Sunday school lessons. And he brought up this passage also in Ezra. The very last part, 915, Behold, we are before you in our guilt, for none can stand before you because of this. In light of his law, in light of what he says in the holiness code, as we go through that, we will quickly see that we fail and we fail miserably. And none can stand before you because of this. So here are the people at the end of Israel, at the end of Exodus, with the tabernacle built, and the cloud covers the tent of Eden. And it said in the cloud that the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle. So God is with them. The glory of God is right there with them. And they can't get to it. Because none can stand because of their sins. all have fallen short of the glory of God, because all have sinned. And the first thing was divine presence, and I asked the question, what should be done? The answer is, be holy, for God is holy. And holiness was the second thing. However, all have sinned, and we cannot reach that perfect standard of holiness. So once again, God does not leave us with that. He does not leave us alone with that. It doesn't end there. It brings us to the third theme of Leviticus, which is atonement. Atonement. So given the reality that man has sinned, we are in a sinful condition, how can man be purified of this sin and made acceptable in the sight of the Lord? How can we draw near to that presence that is the will of God? in the tabernacle. A means of atonement is needed in order to pardon the transgressions, in order to pardon what is making us fall short of the glory of God. This is where the sacrificial system comes in on the business. And the business gives us a very good description of it. Most of the descriptions of the sacrificial system are given in chapters 1 through 7. And the role of the priesthood is given in chapters 8 through 10, with a little more detail given in chapters 21 through 22. Again, I'm not going into, this is more of an overview of Leviticus. I'm not going into the details of all of these, or we'd be here for a long time. And some more detail is given on the sacrifices in the descriptions of Israel's festivals, given to us in chapters 16, 23, and 25. All of these sacrifices were meant to bridge the gap. To bridge the gap between God's holiness, divine holiness, and human sinfulness. To wash our sin in order that we may draw near to God. That we can come before God. We come then to the lens by which we need to to see everything in Leviticus. Ken always likes to say, this is a phrase I first heard him say, the New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed. The Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed. So what is revealed in the New Testament that sheds light on everything that we're going to see? as we play out through Leviticus. What is the lens by which we need to look at it? Well, the simple Sunday School answer would suffice. Jesus. Jesus. Christ is the lens by which we need to look at all of Leviticus. To point this out, I'd like to go back through those three themes that I pointed out of Leviticus. First of all, the divine presence. Just as the Lord dwelt in the midst of his people by the Lord filling the tabernacle, the glory of the Lord filling the tabernacle, so also God has dwelt with his people through the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity, the incarnation of Christ. And let's look at the beginning of the New Testament to flesh this out. Matthew 1, 18 through 23. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. Which means God lit us. And we also see this in the prologue of John, John 1, specifically verse 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, Leviticus lets us know that God desired to be with his people, to dwell among his people. If not, he wouldn't have made a way for it. He wouldn't have made a sacrifice. He wouldn't have presented a holiness code to us. But in Leviticus, his desire to dwell with his people foreshadows the incarnation of Christ. And our second theme was holiness. The duty of God's people is to be holy because God is holy. And what we must do to be holy is obey God's law perfectly. And Jesus himself accomplished that feat. And he tells us he did so. In Matthew 5, 17, I'll just read it. Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. He accomplished what we could not. He achieved perfect holiness. He lived a life of perfect obedience to the law, to everything that God requires of us in Leviticus. In the law and the prophets. and filled it perfectly. It was all about me. Our third theme was atonement. Since we can't live up to God's standard of holiness, we need an atoning sacrifice to cleanse us of our sins and reconcile us to God. Christ accomplished that as well. In the Gospel of John, we see John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the Lamb of God who has taken away the sins of the world. Christ being the Lamb of God symbolized, is symbolism for his being the fulfillment of the Passover lamb and all the Old Testament sacrifices. We see in chapters 1 through 7 what those sacrifices are. And what we should have in our mind is Christ fulfilling every single one of them. And we'll flesh that out as we go through every single one of them. Now, Christ being the fulfillment of the sacrifices we see in Leviticus is nowhere better spelled out for us than in Hebrews 9 and 10. I'm starting in verse 11 of chapter 9. And I have a feeling that we will definitely spend a whole bunch of time in these passages as we fly through the books. Right now, I'm just going to read these passages and let them speak for themselves about Christ being our atoning sacrifice. Hebrews 9-11. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, Then from a greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For the blood of goats and bulls, and sprinkling of defiled persons with ashes of heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh? How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Therefore, he is the mediator of the new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. Since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant, For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For every commandment of the law has been decreed or been declared by Moses to all the people. He took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you. And in the same way, he sprinkled with the blood, both the tents and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. And that harkens back, I remember a few weeks ago, we were talking about not eating the blood. This is what it's talking about. We can't obtain it because there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. Thus it is necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made in pans, which are copies of the true things, but it is of heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy place every year with blood not his own. For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for men to die once, after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, It can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having one king cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sin. But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When He said above, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings, in burnt offerings and sin offerings. These are offered according to the law. Then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sin, He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for that time until his enemies could be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." So these, even when we're reading about these sacrifices in chapter 1 through 7, and a little bit later on when we read about the thieves, these sacrifices do not take away sin. They all point to Christ, who by a single offering has perfected for all time those who are being sacrificed. So Christ's atoning sacrifice makes us perfectly holy. Where these other sacrifices fail, He perfects it. Makes us holy. and enables us to draw near to that divine presence. Atonement, holiness, divine presence. Those are our themes that we'll be looking at in Leviticus. And I hope as we walk through Leviticus, we'll have a great understanding of this fact, that it will enrich our understanding of it. It was short and sweet, but it was a short overview of what we're going to be looking at, and I hope you keep all of that in mind. Put on your Christ goggles, because we're digging in. We're mining. We need to focus on Him clearly. Put on your Christ goggles. Let's get ready for a ride. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for your salvation. We praise you that you have condescended to us, Lord. That you have come to be our atoning sacrifice. That you thought enough of your people to hang your son on a cross. To make a wretched man like me holy. so that I can draw near to the presence of my God. I praise you and thank you. I praise you for being with us as we plow through this book. Sometimes difficult passages, but Lord, let us rest when your Holy Spirit is doing its work. Open our ears, open our minds, open our hearts to receive what you have to say. Be with us and keep us safe throughout the week. In your name I pray. Amen.