Leviticus Session 1 of 16 (Introduction) with Chuck Missler

[Music] well we're going to plunge into a review of the book of leviticus now here's a book that would seem really of interest just to uh religious antiquarians most of most people regard this with either indifference or in some cases doubt and it certainly seems distant from our lives it hardly seems relevant to the lives that you and i face day to day so it may come as a surprise to you to discover that there are a number of biblical experts who regard the book of leviticus as the most important book of the bible sam kellogg dr albert de dudley and of all be j vernon mcgee in fact j vernon mcgee says quote if it were possible to get the message of this book into the hearts of the people who are trying to be religious all cults and isms would end close quote interesting remark so let me open by asking this question what is the most important thing in the world what is the most important thing in the world and i'm going to suggest that the answer that question is holiness is holiness jonathan edwards said it he that sees the beauty of holiness or true moral good sees the greatest and most important thing in the world let's contrast holiness with happiness all of us whether we admit or not are really seeking happiness but see true happiness begins with holiness hebrews 12 14 says follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the lord matthew 5 6 says blessed are they who would you which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled and charles spurgeon made a rather dramatic statement if i had my choice of all the blessings i can conceive of i would choose perfect conformity to the lord jesus or in one word holiness that's quite a statement i don't ask for a show of hands but how many of you would make that choice any choice of anything would that be your choice that was spurgeon's choice and he characterized it by the way he lived see we want jesus to solve our problems and carry our burdens but we don't want him to control our lives or change our character or arrange our priorities and that's the problem eight times god has said to his people be holy for i am holy and that's the key verse verses in in in the in the book of leviticus chapter 11 incidentally somebody came up to me tonight and it's very anxious to get to chapter 11. because that was a bar mitzvah chapter for that particular person and uh it you know it's a dietary area we'll get into that you know when we do course but it's interesting that that emphasis is there it's interesting that the same issue is applied to the new testament church in first peter 1 verse 15 16 says but as he which hath called us exude he that is called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation and those that old english term really means your total conduct total behavior not conversation today means is much more narrow but in those days it was much broader term it says you know it paraphrases it slightly but as he he that hath called you is holy so be holy in all manner of your behavior because it is written be holy for i am holy he quotes that very passage from leviticus holiness is not a luxury it's an essential a necessity and it's not limited to the jews in ancient israel leviticus will instruct us as new testament christians how to appreciate holiness and to appropriate it into our everyday lives we're going to get that from this book as strange as it may seem the most frequent words of course are predictable holy is used 94 times in 77 verses and uncleanness is used 129 times in 96 verses the book is going to have five basic themes that it's going to address and the first of these themes deals with a holy god what do we mean by a holy god what is holiness it's the primary emphasis in the bible the word occurs 87 times in this book leviticus 20 26 says and ye shall be holy unto me for i the lord am holy and have severed you from all other people that you should be mine the word holy means set aside set aside for him the hebrew word for holy in leviticus is kadesh it means that which is set apart and marked off that which is different separateness apartness assuredness so that's really what it means are you really set apart for god all of us have come down the sawdust trail made a decision for christ that's great one of the things that's disturbing about our culture is that we tend to celebrate that as some kind of big victory and indeed it is it's it's it's by the act of the holy spirit that we can even do that and yet that's not a climax it's a beginning i'll often ask an audience how many of you are saved how much your hands go up he says what have you done with it you see that's just the beginning our problem is not life after death our problem is life after birth and that's what this book is going to focus on for us the sabbath was holy because god set it apart the priests were holy because they were set apart to minister the lord their garments were holy because they could not be duplicated for common use the tithe was holy you go through a whole list of things of this kind anything that god said was to be treated differently from the common things of life was something that was holy it was kadesh it was now the english word holy comes from the old english word haleg which means to be whole or be healthy so the word our whole our english word holy comes from being complete being healthy our related word sanctify comes from the latin sanctus which means consecrated sacred or blameless it's probably closer uh to the the the biblical intent than the word than the original word of the word holy and english now how did a holy god reveal himself and his holiness how does a god that's holy reveal himself and instruct people about his holiness see the religions in canaan that were contemporaneous with the israelis um and other religions as well were notoriously immoral they involved all kinds of gross acts temple prostitution and the like idols and and all that the religions later of greece and rome were not much better they were just echoes of those original in fact all religions tr actually can be traced back to babylon but that's another study you never call any of the heathen deities holy yet the holy one of israel is one of the most often repeated names for jehovah or yahweh however you want to say it in the scripture over 30 times in isaiah alone now god gave them a holy law that contained both promises and penalties and of course the ten commandments are the essence of that that's not limited to that but they're the essence of that exodus chapter 20. and it taught them right from wrong it defined things clean and unclean and the penalties of disobedience you know it's interesting that our culture has deemed that truth is relative that is not only illogical is also undermining the the whole uh uh our whole culture i i again another thing you probably have seen in the news there was another attempt that paralleled the columbine high school incident they fortunately found out about in time and nailed it but here was a whole scheme of a group to do the same insanity ending in their own suicide you wonder what's going on and yet why should we be surprised because we have we have undermined the very pinnings of our culture what is true there you the early idea is you want to learn what's right from wrong we say there is no right from wrong well that's that is probably the ultimate lie against god because god writes the rules and he's made it very clear what's right and wrong so in both declarations but also demonstrations jehovah made it clear to the people of israel that he is a holy god righteous in all his works and just in all his judgments you see the the main thing is going to come across as we get into the details is that the requirements for holiness is uncompromising by its own definition if you're to be defect-free you can't have any defects near misses don't count well they always say near misses only count in what grenades and horseshoes huh romans 6 23 says the wages of sin is death period no exceptions and ezekiel says essentially the same thing the soul that sinneth it shall die you know it's interesting it startled me to realize that socrates this highly venerated greek thinker of 500 bc uh contemporaneous with ezekiel and the old testament prophets even socrates recognized the problem he said it may be that deity can forgive sins but i don't see how that's a profound statement he recognized that a holy god can't just wink at sin he's not holy anymore he's compromising if you're going to be holy you can't be compromising there's a basic paradox here well let's look at it first from the predicament of man and i i was really intrigued that i decided to quote it from joseph science one of the commentaries that is in the bibliography for the study one of about a dozen but is joseph a science he wrote in 1850 before the civil war uh did an excellent commentary on the book of revelation also is he has an excellent commentary in the book of the leviticus in fact he calls it the gospel in leviticus but he describes the predicament of man as i would say it as follows in his fall of degenerate condition man is lost darkness which he cannot dissipate is all around him stains of guilt which he cannot wash out or upon him the curse of condemnation stands written against him beyond his power to expunge you to check it off a foul disease is fretting through all his nature against which there is no earthly antidote remedy death and decay are on him and cling to him as part of himself and he cannot cut loose from them eternity itself as far as his own strength goes can only bring him sorrow and despair there's another recognition here by the way just to intrude a comment is that we're all eternal whether we like it or not we're soft we're not hard software has no mass mass has no time we are eternal whether we like it that's the problem where are we going to spend it but the size goes online says but god came to us in this desperate estate and pro offers through christ and eternal deliverance for darkness he proposes to give us light for sin he holds out the means of an effectual cleansing for condemnation he tenders to us a present and full reprieve for all our ailments he engages to work for us an abiding cure and for our corruption and death he offers us glory and immortality in one word he proposes to save us you know we use that term yeah we use that term so commonly it gets to be almost a trite platitude are you saved you know saved from what well you better understand what you say your need for it it's exciting restoration that is complete restoration is now proclaimed from the heavens as a portion of those who will receive it through jesus christ it is a blessed proclamation it is indeed good news glad tidings of great joy and this proclamation is the gospel well that's the predicament of man let's look at it from god's side the particular what i call the predicament of god god hates sin it's intrinsic in his nature because he's a holy god he hates sin he can't tolerate sin and yet he loves sinners so what does he do because he loves sinners and he wants to forgive them he has provided a substitute to die in the sinner's place the whole sacrificial system that we're going to get into here that was declared to israel is that a substitutionary death would be required to die in the sinner's place and all this of course is prefiguring a promised savior who would lay down his life for the sins of the world these sacrifices that we're going to study were foreshadowings no one was saved by the blood of bulls and goats except in the sense that it foreshadows and links one to the efficacy of christ at the cross see the death of christ was not a tragedy it was an achievement he didn't just die he fulfilled myriads of precise specifications detailed in the scriptures the entire sacrificial system pointed toward this most significant event in the universe and the very definition of the gospel is built on the on on these specifications in first corinthians 15 verses 3 and 4 it defines the god we use the terms so commonly the gospel is the gospel what is it it's amazing once you realize what the gospel is to discover how few pulpits of popular churches really preach it what is the gospel that christ died for our sins according to the script he didn't just die he didn't just disappear he didn't just die he died according to the scriptures what scriptures among them leviticus he fulfilled all kinds of things that we'll get into and that he was buried and then he rose again the third day according to the scripture he didn't just happen to be a miracle no it was according to the scriptures this is the plan a plan agreed between the father and son before the foundation of the world adam was not a surprise god had anticipated that adam would blow it and it would take nothing less than the death of the son to extricate adam and his descendants from the predicament they got themselves into science can tell of god it can see its fingerprints throughout the creation it can trace its footsteps everywhere but science cannot tell us of any remedy for sin it cannot tell us about any savior for the soul and it can't tell us or give us any peace for the guilty it's more important for you and i to understand the laws of grace than the laws of nature it's interesting god has only devoted a couple of chapters to the one and it's devoted over 500 to the other well that's the first of the major themes in in that we'll encounter leviticus we'll see that unfold as we go the second one is a holy priesthood now you realize i think the jewish uh priesthood belonged only to the tribe of levi the third son of jacob and leah and uh levi was the father of gershom kohath and murari the three families of the levites son amram was the father of aaron moses and miriam of course it's the descendants of aaron that are priests you can't be a priest unless you have levi jeans we always have to work that in just to get the tired pun out here see so all priests are levi's but not all levites are priests the non-priest levites were assistants of various kinds to the priesthood or at least that's the concept and so uh they were assigned all kinds of different jobs they were all levites by the way were substitutes for the firstborn males of israel all of whom were dedicated to the lord if you go back in exodus 13 and numbers 3 you'll find that the first born of anything was the lord's and uh the levites in it were concept in one's conceptual excuse me conceptualization were substitutes uh for the firstborn males of all israel david divided the levites into 24 courses as they're called 24 are partitioned in 24 groups and each of these then would officiate at certain times when their turn came and because there were thousands of them obviously and it's incidentally it's a key to understanding this uh to understand the book of revelation when you get to the 24 elders because they are they define themselves kings and priests and the redeemed so it's very important to understand that now the title of the book leviticus as we have it derives from levi meaning pertaining to the levites and uh even though the levite's only mentioned once in the book now the pre the the priests had not only to come from the tribe of levi they had to be free of any physical defect and they could not marry women whom whom god disapproved they're subject to all kinds of laws of bathing of garments and diets and details that did not apply to the common people in that way they were set apart and therefore holy to the lord the levites in general were in charge of the sanctuary and during the in wilderness wanderings they arranged for its transport and so forth and its furnishings place to place they're responsible to guard the sanctuary to teach the people the law and lead the worshipers and praising god here's what's disturbing as you look through the rules that they had to comply with almost all of them if they were violated were subject to the penalty of death see only a holy priesthood could approach god's altar and be acceptable to serve god if they weren't dressed properly they were subject to death that's ezekiel 28. excuse me exodus 28 if they didn't wash properly if they tried to serve while unclean if they were careless with the tabernacle furnishings any of these things they were they were in danger of death now it's an of course to carry the analogy so we know where we're headed here jesus is of course our high priest but every true believer in jesus christ is a priest of god with a privilege of offering spiritual sacrifice through jesus christ that's in first peter 2. he deals with that in the old testament the people had a priesthood in the new testament the people are the priesthood big difference through christ we've been washed through christ we've been clothed in his righteousness and we've anointed by the holy spirit and we've given access to his presence all those are specifically addressed in the new testament epistles well a third topic that's going to develop as we go forward here is a holy people the whole concept of a holy people and that was that that was god's concept in calling israel out to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation in exodus 19 the chapter before the ten commandments that was his purpose in it everything was either holy that is set apart for god's exclusive use or it was common everything is either holy or common one or the other it can't be both it's either set aside for god's exclusive use or it's common now common things were divided in two categories clean that means you could use them or unclean you are forbidden to use them those are levitical definitions now let me ask you an interesting question how many of each animal did noah take in the ark we're leaving leviticus for a moment flashing all the way back before exodus back to genesis back to genesis 6. how many of each animal did noah take in the ark the the the general answer is two no two of the unclean seven of the clean presumably so they had some for sacrifice now the question that never occurs to anybody is how did noah know what was clean and unclean those aren't intrinsic characteristics of those animals they're levitical definitions the point i'm trying to suggest here is these ideas these concepts were installed long before israel long before abraham back in eden we'll link that as we go we're going to link what we leviticus from eden and then into the new testament and that will that will give it a perspective that is missing if you fail to make that connection and by the way when israel started to live like the pagans they robbed god of his glory and he had to chasten them now the frailties of our own genetic defects and what have you are provided for if we too comply for his provisions for those inadequacies well a fourth theme that we're going to deal of the five is the holy land the whole concept of a holy land god wants his holy people to live in a holy land and he lays out the word land from leviticus 18 to 27 the word land is used 68 times what are the sins that defile the land and invite divine judgment we need to understand that the sins include immorality we'll deal with that in chapter 18. deals with idolatry and yes we are idolaters madison having to make sure that all of us have things that tend to preempt what we should be doing for the living god all coveting is idolatry we'll do that in chapter 19 capital crimes chapter 20. the concept of imprisonment was not in israel this country never had prisons they punished the guilty and it was death penalty they ended it well they didn't you know restore the guy they're more concerned with the land and the people capital crimes we'll deal with that chapter 20. blasphemy in chapter 23 and refusing to give the land its rest even though man has rest one day and seven the land had ordained rest one year in seven and when they failed to keep that for almost five centuries god says you owe me seventy and that's why they went to babylon captivity specifically to the day for seven years god means what he says and says what it means you know the more you understand god the more you realize he means what he says he take and and says what he means and you take him seriously i don't like to say take him literally because then everybody well figures of speech you know there's lots of figures of speech but still he articulates it very clearly and he make there's no ambiguity mark twain said it so well he says it's it's not the parts of the bible i don't understand that bother me it's the parts that i do understand that bother me so when the people of israel committed these sins they god chose to chase them by allowing babylon to destroy jerusalem take the people captive now the nations of the world do not have the same covenant relationship that god had with israel not even the united states but we're still responsible to obey his moral law and to use his gifts wisely amos deals with that in the first couple of chapters of amos now with our unique heritage i believe you and i will be held accountable before the throne of god for our stewardship of this heritage that has come to us at such a high price because it is so uniquely committed to him scripture clearly teaches that to whom much is given much will be required and i think that's going to pinch a lot of americans pretty hard and for a long list of reasons we won't go into now the united states i believe is overdue for judgment and thomas jefferson summarized that too is that it made him it disturbed him to realize that god is just in terms of what implications are for this country and we've talked before about how the rise and fall of nations can be plotted against the way nations treat israel but again since we've got a full plate let's just keep moving the last the fifth of these five major themes in this book is and it's the key theme in effect the climactic theme if you will and that's it's about a holy savior book of leviticus is about a holy savior lays down the requirements that he fulfilled for us every detail in the bible cover to cover points towards jesus christ that's my challenge until you find that connection you've got more study to do about anything you have to pick up in the scripture hebrews 10 1 says for the law having a shadow of good things to come law is predictive and jesus said for lo i come the volume of the book is written of me that's in psalm 47 it's also quoted in in hebrews 10. and jesus emphasized that on the emmaus road his first ministerial act after his resurrection was to conduct a seven mile bible study and and in verse 20 in luke 24 and in verse 27 to luke 24 says and beginning at moses and all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning what himself starting at moses and all the prophets who wrote the books of moses jesus tells us all these guys writing theses in their seminaries you can just make a nice bonfire for that stuff jesus told us who who wrote the the torah and that's that was that afternoon that evening in the upper room where they're all gathered including the two that went to emmaus they came back and told the guys wow you should see what happened guess who we had to dinner anyway they're up there he said and jesus appears to them he says these are the words which i spake unto you while i was that with you that all the things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of moses and in the prophets and in the psalms concerning me boy the psalms are full of prophecy of course none of these are more fundamental none of the allusions to jesus christ are more fundamental than those that deal with his substitutionary performance on a cross i wrecked in judea two thousand years ago on our behalf see no amount of good works of course or religious efforts can make us sinner holy only the blood of jesus christ alone can cleanse us from our sins first john 7 1 7 only a risen glorified savior can intercede for us at the throne of god as our advocate and high priest it's the only high priest that makes a difference unfortunately we've got one right there at the throne see just as the nation israel had to understand what was unclean and defiling we have to also and we're going to discover there's all kinds of things that can defile us that we haven't ever thought about first corinthians 7 1 says we must cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of god that's what this book is going to call us to take holiness seriously to understand it to realize our number one our shortcomings and repair those through christ now what's the occasion of the book you know the book begins with evolve connective that's usually translated and in other words it's a connective to the previous book the previous book is the book of exodus in genesis we saw a man ruined in exodus we see man redeemed in leviticus we see man worshiping god you can call it the book of sanctification if you like the kingdom of god was rejected by humanity at the tower of babel and the world power at that time that the the pagan this continued on the earth until a few loyal you know to the line of abram and his seed uh at last according to the promise were formally and finally visited at mount sinai with a lot of history in there of course and the fundamental law of the kingdom isn't contained in the ten commandments and certain applications of them and it was solemnly covenanted by israel with a sprinkling of blood there in exodus 24. once they did that then jehovah i'll call him the unpronounceable name we don't know how people call it jehovah or yahweh whatever he gave them specifications for a a portable sanctuary when charles heston came down from sauna he should have had the two tables of stone one army should add a role of blueprints in the other because he also brought down not just in command he brought down specifications for this portable sanctuary tent of meaning or the tabernacle the when that was finally built uh the shiganic cloud covered it and manifesting god's present among his people now with god presidents people that imposed on them all kinds of special requirements for holiness about 10 weeks after their deliverance from egypt they arrived at mount sinai and moses erected the tabernacle on the first day of the first month of the second year of liberation and we put this all together make a long story short the book of leviticus covers about one month in the second year now it's interesting to contrast leviticus from the book that just preceded because theoretically we've started the study having just come from the book of exodus in exodus we have an offer of pardon and leviticus offers purity exodus we have god's approach to man in the leviticus it describes man's response to god in exodus christ is the savior in leviticus christ is the sanctifier in exodus man's uh guilt is prominent in leviticus man's defilement is prominent in exodus god speaks out of mount sinai levatis he speaks out of the tabernacle he's speaking out from among them the nexus man has made knight unto god in leviticus man has kept nine to god so that's our warm-up let's jump into leviticus chapter one i think we'll get through one verse tonight give it a try leviticus chapter 1 verse 1 the lord called unto moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation saying and on it goes it opens up with the hebrew word viacara which means and he called that's really way that's the that's what it's called in the hebrew bible that's what it's the book of be called well what is the church what's the word ecclesia mean the called ones this book has a title that should fit us we're the call now literally denotatively of course it refers to israel being the call now the title we use comes from the greek translation with the greek when the hebrew bibles were translated into greek the so-called septuagint version the word leviticus was derived to deal with the institutions committed to the priests who were of the tribe of levi and the talmud also for similar reasons calls it the law of the priests but you see the real issue to me i think it's interesting when i discovered that realized boy that hits us right between the eyes because we are the church we're the ecclesia we're the called out ones and this is the book for those that are called out those this is a book for the saved if you're not saved you've got to do something before we go for before we go on we'll go on but i mean you need to deal with this this book presumes you're saved this book is for god's people this book is not for those that would like to be because people that aren't first how do you become one of god's people by receiving jesus christ you need to do that i'm going to i'm going to operate on the presumption you've all done that i'm going to adjure you by the living god to deal with that and if you're here tonight deal with it before you leave if you're hearing this on tape deal with it right now and uh i encourage you right now to to kneel by your chair or wherever you are where we can comfortably do it that cause you a traffic accident or whatever and acknowledge to god you need him that you are short of his requirements that no matter how hard you try you know you can't make what he needs and just uh to put yourself in total trust of the blood of christ to to to avail for you and to to put yourself in god's hands in christ's hands and to receive christ and he'll take it from there you don't clean your act up to go before god he's going to do that for you he'll help you step by step to do what needs to be done but but uh he's got to do it if you try to do it yourself you're you're going to misunderstand the whole story so this book is written for those that are saved it's interesting that god is the direct speaker on every page many all through the bible have the lord speaks to a prophet or this or that and so forth god is the direct speaker in almost every page the lord spoke unto moses directly this is asserted 56 times in the 27 chapters and the book is made almost is made up almost entirely by the very words of the lord more so than any other book of the bible now the rabbis of israel have an interesting perception they believe obviously that god created the universe but they also believe that the template the instructions to do that are all hidden in the torah that the torah is not only true and god's word is the very word by which he created the heaven now that may be one of these colorful rabbinical exaggerations then again from my background cryptography and the rest after doing our book cosmic codes i have to tell you that i wouldn't be surprised at the time when you discover that they're absolutely right it wouldn't surprise me also to discover that the bible is the book of life that those of us that are saved or anticipated and they're encrypted somewhere don't bother looking for it but there's much easier way to find out whether you're in there or not that's your your response to jesus christ if you're responding to him then that's by his by the holy spirit's initiative now um moses was the author of the book there are many scholastic books trying to challenge that but that's utter nonsense about a third of the old testament was written by this incredible man and he was and still remains the great lawgiver and historian of the world most of the history of the world is recorded by this guy moses now we're not going to trouble ourselves in this uh study to explore the various theories and conjectures of so-called higher criticism that's higher criticism what we call an oxymoron okay and um i started to say it's like some morning of the liberal seminaries i probably have to say it's an oxymoron of all the seminaries there i know if there are i think most of them are liberal these days unfortunately there are those that quibble about some redactory or editorial alterations during the days of ezra and we'll take up some of those as we go it may very well be that there was some editorial editing of it in ezra it doesn't matter because jesus sanctified that which we have and we're simply going to take we're going to take the most authoritative authentication possible to just dismiss all those other things we're going to take the authentication that's available through jesus christ himself he's spoken on this very matter as of the torah itself he called it the law of moses in luke 24 he declared to be such that till heaven and earth pass away not one yacht or one title shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled now a yacht or tittle are as i've often said a yacht is if you saw on a piece of paper looked like an apostrophe a tittle is a little decorative hook on some of the letters when he when he makes a statement like that if he were going to trans translate it into english the crossing of a tea or the dotting of an eye and when he expresses himself that way he goes as far as you can conceptually go to point out he's taking it very seriously very literally now his remarks about the law of moses would that exclude the book of leviticus hardly it's the core there are some other laws and exodus numbers but leviticus of course is the core document was it a forgery with 56 affirmations within it of mosaic origin jesus said if they had believed moses they would have also believed him in john 5. was he including leviticus as a forgery and more specifically when jesus healed the lepers remember matthew 8 he sent them to the priests on the ground that moses had commanded this in such cases this command is only found in leviticus 14. so he's authenticating it by his instruction here in justifying his disciples for plucking the ears of corn on the sabbath day and that was in matthew 12 he alludes to the example of david who ate the show bread when he was at flight from saul you may recall it which was not lawful for him to eat but only the priests that's a law found only in leviticus 24 and the citation is only pertinent on the ground of the prohibition of the showbird that the same inspired authority as the obligation of the sabbath itself he's tying it all together jesus refers to moses as having renewed the ordinance of circumcision he does that in john 7 having been first given to abraham but this renewal is recorded only leviticus 12 12 3 the lord himself rests the obligation of certain duties upon the fact of this law of leviticus was a revelation from god to moses for the children of israel jesus declared that moses wrote of him in john 5. and he highlighted on the emmaus road that he all the things concerning himself so the defense rests on the testimony of the creator of the universe the messiah himself leviticus is quoted over 100 times the new testament first corinthians 10 paul tells us now all these things happen unto them for examples and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come first corinthians 10 6 now all these things are our examples he hammers it all through that chapter the one that i like is romans 15 4. boy does this hit it right on paul says to his definitive statement of christian doctrine called the book of romans chapter 15 he says for whatsoever things were written aforetime not most things not some things for whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning that we through the patient comfort of the scriptures might have hope and he's not talking just to jews he's talking to the romans to timothy second second letter timothy second timothy 3 all scripture is given by the inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproven for correction and for instruction in righteousness that the man of god may be perfect or complete thoroughly furnished unto all good works so this is for us strangers may seem it's gonna so much of this is gonna sound so strange to our ears until we put it in the light of christ a lot of other places you go first first peter 1 and hebrews 11 whatever but it's a book of worship it's got sacrifices ceremony ritual liturgy instructions washings convocations holy days observances conditions warnings they can make up the book but worship today is no longer by ritual or confined to a specific place in john 4 we deal with that god is a spirit we worship with spirit and truth but that doesn't mean that that worship need not reflect what we're going to learn about god's specific requirements for worship in the book of leviticus the laws of leviticus constantly held before israelite the before the israelites the absolute holiness of god as the only standard of perfection and the three emphasis the awfulness of sin that's blood as mentioned 88 times without the shedding of blood there's no remission boy does that give a jew a problem today no blood's been sacrificed since 1870 when the temple is not always gone what do they do their entire history is focused on without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins and because the provision had been made the provisions that that was all anticipatory had been accomplished so the first key point is the awful sin the second is the graciousness of god this book is not about penalties this book is about god's incredible graciousness he's found a way to solve his predicament how he can forgive us without impugning his righteousness his holiness see with equal clearness to all these specifications the book is going leviticus will proclaim that with the shedding of blood there can be remission of sins that coin has two sides without the shedding of blood there is no remission with the shedding of blood there is remission not the blood of the goats that's anticipatory in figure we're talking about the messiah himself so he provided god in his grace provided us the remedies for our inevitable failures and our need for restoration and of course that all focuses in on the third issue and that's the sacrifice of christ and i like you know i like the way says this apart from any relation in the new testament the prescriptions given in leviticus dwindled down to a burdensome round of uninviting and meaningless ceremonies seemingly unworthy of so high in origin or solemn a method of inculcation but for it's linked to the new testament i'll put it i'll put another way without the new testament if you've studied our learned the bible in 24 hour package we go through the first half of those going through the old testament but when you get to the end of the old testament you discover that it closes with unexplained ceremonies unachieved purposes unappeased longings and unfulfilled prophecies it has unexplained ceremonies namely the sacrificial rituals are unexplained without the new testament they're meaningless that's silliness it would seem it closes with unachieved purposes the covenants there's a bunch of them with unappeased longings all the longings of the political books the whole book psalms depends on the millennial age which is you know coming and of course unfulfilled prophecies the whole testament that's by itself is a whole barrage of over 8 000 unfulfilled prophecies see the new testament is in the old testament concealed and the old testament is in the new testament revealed you've heard me say that so often i finally found where it came from it came from augustine i've realized that for a guy that was an allegorist that's a surprising insight but in any case well what's the relevance of this today the reverence is that it is a revelation of the character of god and god has not changed we're not subject to the rituals as such but we'll learn about his character from understanding them we'll also have a revelation of the fundamental conditions of true religion you see the spiritual truths still abide the sin there is no there's for sinful man no citizenship in the kingdom of god apart from a high priest and mediator with a propitiary sacrifice for sin those are the basics beyond the self offering of a worshiper of god stands the constant testimony that is only through the shedding of blood not his own that man can have remission of sin see even shedding your own blood isn't enough for your sin and that that it's not the magnitude of your sins the issue it's the magnitude of god that's the issue your most trivial sin is being done against an inconceivably holy god that's the problem so there has to be shedding of blood but not your own and we can't appreciate the sacrifice in christ until we discover and understand and appreciate the requirements that had to be met and that leads to the sacrifices and what we're going to be doing is getting into those in our next sessions the word atonement covers it comes up 45 times this book the word atonement means to cover up people get cute they say well it means at one moment well really it does it could be used that way in a sermon's context i guess but it means to really cover the sins they're covered until they're dealt with on the cross one of the key verses in leviticus in leviticus 17 11 for 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 maketh and atone for the soul now the blood here is covering it up until christ's blood is shed it's anticipatory and you you you you make that commitment if you're a jew making that that that offering as a way of putting faith in the in the blood that's going to be uh shed the the these sacrifices that we're going to study are codified here in leviticus but they were instituted in the garden of eden and you won't understand several things that go on there unless you really have read genesis after having read the rest of the bible there's some very subtle hints you remember when adam and eve sinned they were hiding they had they realized that they were uncovered so they made themselves some aprons of fig leaves and there's a very interesting verse in genesis 3 verse 21 little one-liner god took those away and gave them coats of skins when we read that first time through genesis we started figuring sure okay that's more durable and more serviceable than the you know it's a more suitable form of clothing we think we get we get blinded by the pragmatics of the situation no i believe that there's something else hidden in that verse that you'll understand when you come back to that after having said leviticus no god was teaching them about the shedding of innocent blood they'd be covered some innocent animals had to die they weren't using for food yet that comes after noah innocent animals had to die to cover them there's a there's a there's a object lesson there and you won't understand chapter four unless you understand that because here's cain and abel and caine's all that cain ends up murdering his younger brother because his offering was accepted and keynes was not keynes would see that he happened to be a farmer and the other one happened to be a shepherd that's not the issue we get blinded by the fact that happened to be the profession that's not the issue abel was offering the offering that had been instituted which was a sacrificial lamb and it was accepted because it's an offering of faith because that blood of that lamb pointed to the lamb of god when when john the baptist introduces christ publicly for the first time he says behold the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world that's an echo of the passover lamb but even more so it's an echo of the lamb in eden cain offered the fruits of his labor from accursed ground it could have been wonderful but it's not what god specified god means what he says and says what he means and as again as cain felt the envy that his younger brother's offering was accepted he murdered his brother and we all know this rest of the story but you may not get the dynamics there unless you get the subtlety of what those those offerings are all about by the way another part that isn't obvious how did cain and abel know their offerings were accepted or not there wasn't a priest that we know of fire from heaven came down and consumed the offering there's a couple there's two places where that's incl indicate we don't we have a very naive perception of of the environment that we lived in we don't even know it was limited well it's another issue but um anyway the shedding of blood is the issue yet the shedding of animal blood couldn't change a person's heart or take away sins but god did say that their sins were forgiven because they were given an anticipation of the the the cross the sacrifice of jesus the cross in hebrews 10 5-14 hammers at home now like people in churches today jewish worship worshipers could in the levitical days and following merely go through the motions at the altar without putting their heart into it and that that meant of course that god hadn't truly forgiven them because that's an issue of the heart that's true of the day many people are very diligent going to church but their heart's not really in it they do it as a matter of rote of procedure god does not want our sacrifices he wants our obedience in our heart that's what he's after there were six basic offerings that we're going to explore in the next couple of chapters which could be brought to the tabernacle actually you can make a list there's actually believe it or not you go to encyclopedia judaican so you'll find about 17 different kinds of offerings but you'll also discover many of those are derivatives of a basic group of six some even say five and i'll explain that when we get to but um there are they can be these six offerings can be classified in three categories the first category deals with your commitment to god the burnt offering the grain or uh meal offering there's a vocabulary problem the king james they speak of the meat offering that's confusing because you and i today the word meat means meat but it really was meal the word was a had a broader connotation back in the old english so you we might better call it the grain or meal offering it often accompany the bernoff and the drink offering from numbers 5 15. golfing happens in one of those item numbers the burnt offering grain offering and drink covering these three met this uh specific needs in life about the worshiper and expressed some truth about the person and work of jesus christ god's perfect sacrifice we'll deal with that as we get there but they deal with our commitment to god our demonstration our commitment to god there's another offering called the fellowship offering or sometimes called the peace offering that dealt with our communion with god and then there's a couple that really deal with our cleansing from god the sin offering and the trespass offering or the guilt offering these labels are not convenient until we really get into them a little bit and but these offerings will be detailed in the first seven chapters of leviticus and i encourage you between now and our next meeting to read the first seven chapters of leviticus it'll probably take us a couple of times to get through them not more than once but i encourage you just to literally read them through to give you a preview what's following that the consecration of the priests will be detailed in chapters eight nine and ten we'll take those as a group they'll reveal how shallow and inadequate our thinking is on christian consecration then we're going to talk about diets everybody's interested in diets well god provided a diet for his people in chapter 11. that's both hygienic and therapeutic and more importantly has some spiritual food in it for our souls in chapter 12 we're going to talk about god's attitudes towards motherhood and womanhood in general and they'll be profiled there then we're going to get to chapters 13 through 15 and we're not going to uh shortchange those it's all about leprosy that's not a problem today and yet it's our biggest problem today because it's treated as a type of sin you need to understand that to really understand what's all going on there because they had other diseases but why does leprosy get these three you know these 13 453 chapters the cleansing of the leper finds its fulfillment in the death and resurrection of christ as typified by the the the unusual sacrifice of the two birds the very very interesting um glimpse we get there and we need to know a great deal if we're going to escape the defilement of the world we need to really understand the death and resurrection of jesus christ and how to apply it to our lives and then chapter 16 we'll deal with a specific feast the day of atonement we're going to deal with all the feasts when we get to chapter 23 but there's a specific one the yom kippur that we will deal with in chapter 16 because it's a complete portrait of the sacrifice of christ chapter 17 will deal with the role of the brazen altar and it will highlight the essential characteristics of the cross in the chapters 18-22 details a lot on my new details of the daily lives how the human family are to be involved with him god wants to be involved in your business in your family life and in your social life and we'd be very very cautious that we don't shut him out of our lives there's one chapter we're going to set aside and do spend an evening on that will be chapter 23. the ancient rabbis say that the jews catechism is his calendar and the feasts that are detailed there in chapter 23 lay out god's prophetic program through all all of time yes they're commemorative they're all built on certain historical incidents on the other hand they're also prophetic and there's some tremendous fascinating insights we'll get from chapter 23. chapter 24-27 will be a interpretation of the promised land it's checkered history and an insight into its prominence in god's future program it's really surprising to discover leviticus is actually a book of prophecy it's going to be very timely because of all the international meddling and all the controversies of israel's right to the land which dominates global politics today it's going to have a different perspective when we get through this book just a quick word about hermeneutics what's uh what's our interpretive approach here because but the the book of hebrews is our primary commentary i've availed myself of a substantial librarian commentaries but i can tell you candidly the core of all of this is the book of hebrews that interprets the book of leviticus more eloquently and more authoritatively than any others the examples of types here are a model for guidance other cases you can't make just types out of the air you want to be very cautious of that but where types are there are authenticated as they are hebrews it's a it's very useful analogies allegories and types prove nothing but they do declare and open up our understanding to the text like nothing else does and the typical character the ordinances are affirmed that the tabernacle was an example and shadow of heavenly things in hebrews 8 and the sacrifice is prefigured better sacrificed than these even the one offering him who put away sin by the sacrifice of himself hebrews says in hebrews 9 and the holy times and seasons are declared a shadow of things to come by paul in colossians 2 16-17 you see that but there's more coming see we all talk about yom kippur and the cross let me ask you some questions we've seen the type of the day of atonement fulfilled when you know entering the heaven heavens were entered by a high priest but in the type he came out again after that to bless the people has he done that yet that has been full has he yet proclaimed absolution of sin to guilty israel not yet but he will in the time of israel how about the feast of trumpets and that of the in-gathering of the harvest have they been fulfilled yet no they haven't been what about that consummate type of all the year of jubilee we talk about it we read about it and yet how does that lay out in terms of a predictive predictable prophetic period leviticus looks forward to the most incredible future yet to come where all the requirements of holiest will be met so fasten your seat belts it's going to be a very exciting and highly privileged excursion god willing the holy spirit being with us let's stand for closing word of prayer for next session i'm going to expect to be a quiz a written quiz on uh no i'm kidding on uh leviticus uh first seven chapters that's bar hearts well father we thank you that you have provided such an elegant solution to the predicament that we share the fact that we're sinners and that nothing we can do can make us eligible for the destiny that is on your heart for all of us and we we just thank you father you've gone to such extremes to make us to brighten eligibility and that that eligibility is available to us for the asking and yet fathers we even begin to understand your heart and your desires and our part we do pray that through your holy spirit you will illuminate these texts that we might understand how to what they really mean and how to really apply them in our personal lives which of course is so distant from those ancient rituals on the one hand and yet still is intended to be in compliance to your requirements that our lives might be pleasing in your sight that our lives might be a blessing to you father not by power nor by might but by your spirit father so we just seek that spirit you promise father for any of us lack wisdom that you would give it liberally we do ask for that wisdom and that discernment father that as we plunge into your word that it might be illuminated to our growth and understanding that we might be more fruitful stewards of these incredible gifts as we commit ourselves once again into your hands in the name of yeshua pleading his shed blood on our behalf amen [Music] you

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Published: Mon Mar 01 2021