back to indexWed Bible Study - Leviticus Lesson 1
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You probably will agree with me, if Revelation was confusing, Leviticus is going to be much 00:00:12.640 |
But part of the reason why I wanted to tackle Leviticus, there's several reasons. 00:00:16.360 |
One is I think it's important for us to have some working knowledge of every part of Scripture. 00:00:24.040 |
There's no part of Scripture that God wrote where it says, "We can understand God if we 00:00:30.860 |
Every part of it has something that God has placed where it's essential for our understanding 00:00:37.040 |
So whether you fully understand it or you get just a glimpse of understanding of what 00:00:43.600 |
it means, it's important that at least we have some working knowledge of His intent 00:00:52.000 |
Leviticus is one of those books that if you do not commit to it, I can already tell you, 00:00:57.400 |
if Revelation went over your head, and I know that some of it did, I hope you were able 00:01:03.960 |
to catch a lot of it, but if Revelation went over your head, Leviticus is going to sound 00:01:10.160 |
nothing more than studying legal document about something that you have no interest 00:01:19.600 |
It's no different than if I just gave you a law book and just say, "Read it." 00:01:23.800 |
And you just have to, just out of duty, you just have to read one chapter this week, next 00:01:34.080 |
Even if you can't study it diligently, at least read what the content is and at least 00:01:42.520 |
Even if you don't know the answers, at least know what the questions are in the text that 00:01:53.960 |
At least if you know those questions, when we deal with it, you'll know what we're talking 00:01:57.000 |
about instead of just it going over your head. 00:01:59.160 |
So again, just want to really encourage you to commit to the study. 00:02:04.840 |
And I can personally say that of all the books that I've studied personally, Leviticus, again, 00:02:13.080 |
was one of the books that I've probably benefited from the most. 00:02:16.520 |
Partially it's because I knew so little about it before I studied it. 00:02:19.940 |
And then when I did study it, I realized just how crucial it was to my understanding of 00:02:25.900 |
So I guarantee you, if you didn't know the content of Leviticus and you studied and committed 00:02:31.160 |
with us from now until we finished the book of Leviticus, I guarantee you, you're going 00:02:35.320 |
to come out of it thinking, "Wow, I really did not fully grasp the gospel until I came," 00:02:41.960 |
or at least you had a very superficial understanding of it until you began to understand the content 00:02:48.440 |
So I can't emphasize enough how important this book is. 00:02:50.960 |
In fact, in the Jewish synagogue, the very first book that was taught any child was the 00:03:01.940 |
So today, for the New Testament church, we typically say, "What book should we study?" 00:03:06.880 |
If you're a brand new Christian, probably the Gospel of John is the first one that somebody 00:03:12.480 |
If you want to really dive in and really understand the gospel, we would recommend the book of 00:03:19.360 |
And if you understand the book of Romans, you'll say you understand what God has been 00:03:23.640 |
In the Old Testament, if you were to pick a book to understand God and what He is doing, 00:03:29.360 |
So many commentators will call Leviticus the Romans of the Old Testament, okay? 00:03:35.520 |
So considering how important it is to have very little knowledge of its significance 00:03:40.160 |
and its meaning, again, it means that there's a big gaping hole of our understanding of 00:03:45.400 |
God and what He's doing in the Old Testament. 00:03:48.240 |
Again, so I can't emphasize enough how important this is. 00:03:52.520 |
Just as some logistics, just to kind of give you a heads up, obviously I'm headed out to 00:03:57.200 |
India this Friday, so I won't be here next Wednesday, but Pastor Mark will be here teaching. 00:04:04.800 |
He won't be teaching specifically in a text, but just covering over the subject of holiness. 00:04:13.080 |
So we will not have a break next week, so Pastor Mark is going to cover for me until 00:04:17.360 |
And when I do come back, we'll jump into the text chapter one, two, and three. 00:04:20.920 |
And so the homework will be given to you at the end of the session, okay? 00:04:25.800 |
Another thing is after my teaching, a quick overview of the book of Leviticus, we're going 00:04:34.380 |
So Pastor Mark has assignments, the group assignments, and he's going to post it up 00:04:40.720 |
So that way the small group leaders know who's in their group. 00:04:43.360 |
And so we're going to have you guys look for your small group. 00:04:45.880 |
So it's going to take a little bit of time, but we want to get the chaos over with today. 00:04:49.920 |
And if your name is not up there afterwards, please go see Pastor Mark and then he'll assign 00:04:55.960 |
I'm going to repeat this again at the end so that you'll know this. 00:04:59.000 |
And then another announcement is in our schedule, one of the things that we wanted to address 00:05:04.040 |
in the coming year is we want to address corporate prayer and worship. 00:05:08.440 |
We used to do this a while back, but for whatever the reason, we stopped doing that. 00:05:14.120 |
But once a month, about once a month, instead of our normal Wednesday Bible study, weekday 00:05:21.280 |
So the whole church, this is our group, the college group, and the youth group, once a 00:05:26.400 |
month on Friday, it's going to be about once a month. 00:05:29.600 |
The whole church is going to come together and we're going to take time in extended prayer. 00:05:33.360 |
And so prayer is one of the things that we've identified and discussed in evaluating where 00:05:39.440 |
We really want it to be devoted to corporate prayer. 00:05:46.740 |
So just to give you a heads up, so those are things that are a little bit different for 00:05:50.800 |
So normal Bible study, but once a month we're having praise and prayer. 00:05:54.780 |
So we'll be giving you a heads up when those times come, okay? 00:06:05.000 |
Gracious Father, we pray for wisdom and your Holy Spirit's direction as we study this book. 00:06:11.400 |
There's so much in here that is so significant and yet so much of it, Lord God, escapes us. 00:06:17.280 |
I pray, Father, that you would give us wisdom and insight, not simply to understand, but 00:06:22.160 |
to be convicted that as we gain insight into your work in your heart, that we may know 00:06:27.600 |
who you are in a deeper way and how we ought to respond to that, Lord God, in a way that 00:06:33.480 |
I pray that you would bless the time that we have, again, that it would be more than 00:06:38.160 |
just simply academic knowledge, but that you would move us, sanctify us, rebuke us, encourage 00:06:45.200 |
and strengthen us, Lord God, that we may be better worshipers of you. 00:06:53.600 |
All right, so as you can see, the picture is a picture of the tabernacle. 00:07:04.680 |
So this introduction to the book of Leviticus, the study of Leviticus is vital to understanding 00:07:10.920 |
So we've been going through the book of Romans and obviously we're going to detailed message 00:07:15.600 |
of redemption, propitiation, adoption, and all these things in the book of Romans. 00:07:21.580 |
But the foundation in understanding the gospel really is you have to understand the book 00:07:26.360 |
of Leviticus because so much of the language of the gospel comes from this book. 00:07:31.120 |
The idea of atonement, redemption, sanctification, holiness, wrath, clean, unclean, all of these 00:07:38.560 |
ideas that are embedded in the gospel message, the foundation comes from the book of Leviticus. 00:07:44.480 |
So you probably heard of many of these terms or you know it because you've heard it so 00:07:50.320 |
many times, but Leviticus will give you the context in which these ideas of atonement 00:07:55.760 |
Okay, so again, I can't emphasize enough how important this book is. 00:08:01.040 |
Second Timothy 3, 16, 17, as you guys know, it says, "All scripture is breathed out by 00:08:04.680 |
God and profferable teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness, that the man 00:08:09.440 |
of God may be competent and equipped for every good work." 00:08:11.920 |
So when Second Timothy 3, 16 is referring to all scripture, is it talking about the 00:08:20.760 |
The New Testament hasn't been put together yet. 00:08:22.520 |
It's in the context of writing the New Testament. 00:08:24.680 |
So when Paul says, "All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable," the only collected text 00:08:37.400 |
All of it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness. 00:08:41.000 |
So to a New Testament Christian, to be so ignorant about the Old Testament means that 00:08:47.320 |
there's a huge chunk of our Christian life that we don't fully grasp. 00:08:50.880 |
And I think partially the reason why there's superficial application of our Christian lives 00:08:56.440 |
is because we only have a partial understanding of our faith, partial understanding of the 00:09:02.320 |
The book of Leviticus is quoted in the New Testament over a hundred times. 00:09:09.760 |
Again, just to clarify how important this book is to the New Testament writers and understanding 00:09:17.600 |
Because so much of the content of what Christ has done on the cross and the meaning of the 00:09:22.920 |
kingdom and all these things come from this book. 00:09:26.920 |
Leviticus is a shadow of the gospel that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. 00:09:36.640 |
"Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard 00:09:41.400 |
to festival, new moon, or Sabbath, which is all taught in Leviticus. 00:09:46.160 |
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." 00:09:51.340 |
So what we're studying in Leviticus is a shadow of the gospel. 00:09:56.520 |
Again, in Hebrews 8, 3 to 5, "For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. 00:10:03.720 |
Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 00:10:08.120 |
Now, if we were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who 00:10:13.480 |
They serve a copy in shadow of the heavenly things. 00:10:16.040 |
For when Moses was about to erect a tent, he was instructed by God, saying, 'See that 00:10:19.680 |
you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.'" 00:10:23.680 |
So again, in Hebrews it says what they are practicing here is a pattern of the reality 00:10:30.480 |
So what we are studying is a shadow of the gospel. 00:10:35.740 |
So Leviticus, the study of Leviticus is a challenge because it's mostly about the law. 00:10:42.040 |
And it's an instruction manual for something we will never build, so unless we understand 00:10:46.520 |
what it points to, we won't profit from the study. 00:10:51.200 |
So let me make that absolutely crystal clear. 00:10:55.000 |
If you don't understand, the way that we are going to study the book of Leviticus ultimately 00:10:59.000 |
is we're going to, just like we do any other interpretation, what did it mean? 00:11:04.760 |
How did the recipients of the letter receive this? 00:11:09.720 |
Before we spiritualize and point to anything else, we want to understand in the historical 00:11:15.360 |
But our ultimate goal is not simply understand how they understood it, but what does it point 00:11:22.160 |
Because it is a book of rules and regulations, for the most part, 95% of the writing in the 00:11:30.120 |
What kind of sacrifices to give, how you ought to give it, what is considered clean and unclean. 00:11:34.120 |
And so if you read it without understanding what it points to, it'll just sound like an 00:11:39.960 |
instruction manual to build a building that you have no intention of ever building. 00:11:45.300 |
So it's going to tell you how to give sacrifices when you will never make give these sacrifices. 00:11:52.640 |
You're never going to sacrifice a pigeon or a bird. 00:11:57.400 |
So if you don't understand what it points to, then the study of it is not going to be 00:12:04.040 |
So just to kind of give you a heads up, that's going to be the context in how we're approaching 00:12:08.440 |
this that ultimately, what do these things, like how are these a shadow of the reality 00:12:16.960 |
And that's what we're going to be looking for as we are studying. 00:12:21.160 |
John Stott, in Study of the Leviticus, he says, "Reading Leviticus is like rummaging 00:12:29.680 |
Though confronted with many strange items from bygone era, the photos you encounter 00:12:34.760 |
present faces of ancestors with striking resemblance to your own. 00:12:38.360 |
Likewise, the rituals of Leviticus are unfamiliar relics of bygone era. 00:12:42.760 |
But in them, we discern the early outlines of the same gospel we cherish as Christians." 00:12:46.760 |
So I wanted you to read that because I thought he really grasped the spirit of the study 00:12:53.000 |
of the Book of Leviticus, where the way he describes it is, it's just kind of going 00:12:59.280 |
It's not pictures of you, but it's pictures of maybe your great-great-grandfather, and 00:13:03.640 |
you begin to see the traces of, "Hey, maybe my son looks like that grandfather." 00:13:08.400 |
And you could see the lineage, even though it was many, many years ago. 00:13:13.040 |
And so that's exactly what you will find in the Book of Leviticus. 00:13:16.680 |
So many things that you already understand about the gospel, about blood atonement, about 00:13:21.880 |
sacrifice, about redemption, all of these things, these ideas that you already know, 00:13:27.680 |
and you're going to see where these ideas and these vocabularies came from in the Book 00:13:32.460 |
So it's not going to be as clear to you as the Book of Romans, but it's going to 00:13:36.280 |
be, again, it's going to be like looking at ancestors' pictures. 00:13:39.560 |
And so I thought John's thought really captured that well. 00:13:44.600 |
What is the benefit of studying the shadow before seeing the reality? 00:13:49.260 |
Why does God give us the gospel in the form of a shadow to begin with? 00:13:59.840 |
Years ago, there used to be a game show where a famous person would stand behind the screen, 00:14:07.480 |
And the whole game was trying to guess who they are, and then they'll give you hints. 00:14:11.280 |
And the point of this game, again, was to, again, identify the reality. 00:14:15.320 |
And so studying the shadow builds anticipation for the reality, right? 00:14:21.540 |
So God gave what he was going to do in Christ in a shadow form so that when Christ came, 00:14:30.060 |
if you were paying very close attention to the shadow, you would have recognized him, 00:14:35.680 |
That only Christ's nose would fit that, only Christ's hair and his arms and his 00:14:41.800 |
But if you weren't paying attention, and you know nothing about the shadow, then you 00:14:45.680 |
probably would not have recognized him, right? 00:14:47.500 |
So the point of why he gave us preparation for the coming of Christ in the form of shadow, 00:14:59.760 |
Certain things that you were looking at intently, the height, maybe the measurements and all 00:15:03.480 |
this stuff, and then when Christ comes, it becomes much more real. 00:15:06.720 |
So it's kind of like if you were watching black and white TV and then you had color, 00:15:11.680 |
I mean, the contrast is much bigger than that, but that would be a good way to understand 00:15:16.240 |
where you saw something dimly lit, and all of a sudden they turn on the light and you 00:15:23.380 |
So when the light gets turned on, so that the picture will become even more clear because 00:15:33.040 |
Thirdly, it keeps the reality a mystery until the right time to fully reveal it, right? 00:15:40.200 |
So much of the prophecy that God gives, he gives it to us in bits and pieces, just like 00:15:46.360 |
He doesn't say, "Jesus is going to come in 2035 on Tuesday at 6 p.m." 00:15:57.800 |
So that if we paid very close attention, we don't know exactly when he's going to come, 00:16:01.280 |
but if you've been studying and paying close attention, that you'll be able to recognize, 00:16:08.760 |
You'll be able to recognize, "Oh, there's the white horse," or, "There's the red horse." 00:16:12.920 |
We don't know if it's going to be fulfilled literally, but he gave us glimpses of the 00:16:18.000 |
end times so that when the reality comes, you'll be able to connect the dots, right? 00:16:22.720 |
But until then, he keeps it a mystery, right? 00:16:27.400 |
Mystery, not that he's trying to hide it, but the fullness of time has not come for 00:16:33.000 |
So it says that Christ came when the fullness of time had come. 00:16:37.540 |
So the reason why the Old Testament saints studied about the atonement and coming of 00:16:43.480 |
the Messiah was because the fullness of time had not yet come. 00:16:47.600 |
So if they studied and paid very close attention to it, they should not have been caught off 00:16:53.600 |
That when Christ came, they should have been able to recognize and say, "Jesus fits the 00:17:01.280 |
And so that's what we're studying in the book of Leviticus. 00:17:03.360 |
We're studying the shadow of the reality we already know in Christ, right? 00:17:10.360 |
Another illustration, I found this in commentary, says, "Studying Leviticus is like studying 00:17:15.140 |
Marriage ceremonies are filled with rituals that point to the gospel message, and each 00:17:19.140 |
ritual is followed to highlight the drama of redemption acted out through the ceremony. 00:17:24.080 |
Leviticus is following rituals that highlight the drama of redemption that points forward 00:17:28.120 |
to the coming of Christ and his death and atonement." 00:17:31.040 |
So all the ritual things that we will study in the book of Leviticus is kind of like a 00:17:37.160 |
Like some of you, some of you, a few of you who've been married and went through the ceremony, 00:17:42.240 |
you know, we go through and we talk about like, "Why do you walk down the middle aisle? 00:17:45.480 |
Why do you have the lighting of the candles?" 00:17:49.080 |
You know, "Why do you have, you know, one side sit on the other side? 00:17:51.840 |
How come, like every part of the ceremony, there's meaning behind it, right? 00:17:59.440 |
And all of that points to the marriage drama that we're going to see when Christ comes, 00:18:06.520 |
It points to the marriage drama that the scripture prophesies about the future. 00:18:11.680 |
So every time somebody gets married, we play out this drama. 00:18:15.460 |
Sometimes people know, a lot of times people don't know the meaning. 00:18:20.080 |
But a lot of these traditions are the gospel message is embedded, looking forward to the 00:18:26.840 |
So the rituals that we see in the book of Leviticus are dramas that basically is acting 00:18:33.880 |
out the gospel message about redemption, about sacrifice, about judgment, that ultimately 00:18:42.360 |
So it's almost kind of like somebody, if you've never attended a traditional Christian-American 00:18:48.400 |
wedding, you know, maybe you come from the jungle and you've never seen it, and you walk 00:18:52.800 |
in, you sit there, and you're just, imagine what you would be thinking if you're sitting 00:19:06.640 |
How come everybody's, how come she's coming down the aisle? 00:19:08.920 |
What is the meaning of lighting of the candle? 00:19:14.680 |
So you can imagine coming and thinking not understanding the ceremony because you don't 00:19:22.480 |
Leviticus, if you don't know what it points to, you're basically sitting and watching 00:19:26.420 |
a foreign ceremony, and you're just doing it because they told you to do it, but you 00:19:32.140 |
So that's what our study is going to be, is trying to figure out the significance of these 00:19:36.340 |
rituals that God embedded into the culture of the Jews that ultimately is like the Christian 00:19:42.320 |
marriage ceremony that, again, is fulfilled in Christ. 00:19:51.200 |
Exodus concludes in Exodus chapter 40, 34 through 38, where the tabernacle is constructed, 00:20:14.960 |
"Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, 00:20:19.880 |
and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and 00:20:27.120 |
Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up over the tabernacle, the 00:20:32.360 |
But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken 00:20:37.240 |
For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, and in 00:20:41.480 |
the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys." 00:20:44.440 |
So the glory of the Lord comes upon the tabernacle, and that's how it ends. 00:20:49.160 |
So if you look at chapter 1, verse 1, "The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the 00:20:54.320 |
tent of meeting, saying, 'Speak to the people of Israel.'" 00:20:56.800 |
So Moses is speaking to God, or God is speaking from the tent of meeting. 00:21:04.360 |
I want you to turn your Bibles to Numbers chapter 1. 00:21:07.720 |
I want to see if you can see the difference between Leviticus chapter 1 and Numbers chapter 00:21:20.560 |
The Numbers chapter 1, verse 1, "The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in 00:21:24.680 |
the tent of meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they 00:21:32.840 |
had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'Take a census.'" 00:21:38.740 |
Can somebody tell me that this difference between Leviticus chapter 1 and Numbers chapter 00:21:52.200 |
Leviticus chapter 1, verse 1, Numbers chapter 1, verse 1. 00:22:08.400 |
I mean, obviously, there's a lot of different words that are different, but there's a key 00:22:11.720 |
word that is different in Leviticus and Numbers. 00:22:21.560 |
Yes, there are many things that are different, but that's not what I'm looking for. 00:22:37.800 |
Okay, so if you look at Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. 00:22:51.880 |
In fact, God says, "If I go with these people, I'm going to kill these people." 00:22:59.840 |
He's in the tabernacle, and he's speaking from the tabernacle. 00:23:04.120 |
In Numbers, after he establishes how to come to God, and through these rituals and sacrifices 00:23:10.880 |
and being pure and impure, after he establishes and tells them how an unholy people can be 00:23:17.280 |
in the presence of a holy God, and then he begins to set out to go to the promised land. 00:23:22.720 |
And so Book of Numbers is the history of Israel getting ready and going to the promised land. 00:23:28.040 |
But the way he speaks to Israel in Numbers is he speaks in the tabernacle. 00:23:38.480 |
It doesn't look like it was wild for you, but it was wild for me. 00:23:40.680 |
So you see the progression of God's presence in the nation of Israel, right? 00:23:45.680 |
Where before the tabernacle is established, God says, "If I go with these people, these 00:23:48.760 |
people are going to die because I can't tolerate their sin." 00:23:51.880 |
He establishes a way for Israel to come to him through the tabernacle, and before he 00:23:56.360 |
establishes it, he's speaking from the temple to the people outside. 00:24:01.160 |
And then after he establishes it, and then they begin to live this out and atone for 00:24:07.240 |
their sin through these sacrifices, he's speaking to them in the tabernacle. 00:24:19.720 |
Leviticus is the step, process that God is taking to dwell among sinful people. 00:24:28.960 |
He's establishing who he is, he's establishing who they are, and then he's establishing 00:24:44.240 |
You can just fill in the blanks because we already went over that. 00:24:53.280 |
And the title of the Book of Leviticus is appropriate considering most of the content 00:24:57.320 |
of the book is about the rules and regulations given to the Levitical order of worship. 00:25:01.280 |
And again, that's why they call it Leviticus. 00:25:04.160 |
It's instructions for the Levites to intercede on behalf of sinful people. 00:25:16.720 |
Now that Israel has been freed to worship God and the tabernacle is established, Leviticus 00:25:21.680 |
is a detailed instruction on how to go about worshiping God physically, morally, and spiritually. 00:25:33.440 |
Much of Leviticus is devoted to distinguishing between what is clean and unclean. 00:25:38.360 |
So God is going to determine what is clean and what is unclean. 00:25:41.640 |
Now when we get to start talking about what is clean and unclean, there are some things 00:25:46.560 |
that you're going to understand and there are some things that you're not going to understand. 00:25:49.680 |
So he said if you have leprosy and you have boils and then it's running, you know, you're 00:25:56.960 |
So there are some things that just logically from the knowledge that we have, we understand 00:26:02.480 |
And then there are some things that he's going to say we're not going to understand. 00:26:07.240 |
Like the animals with split hooves or, you know, with certain type of birds. 00:26:12.540 |
One type of bird is clean, the other type of bird is unclean. 00:26:15.800 |
Now we don't understand because it doesn't explain why. 00:26:19.220 |
But the standard of what is clean and unclean is established by God, not by us. 00:26:32.320 |
You don't come before God and say, "Well, I don't, it doesn't make any sense. 00:26:38.400 |
So ultimately God determines what is clean and unclean. 00:26:43.960 |
The ultimate goal of Leviticus is to reveal the extent of God's holiness and the need 00:26:52.440 |
So as we mentioned, that we know God's holy, right? 00:26:56.200 |
But this is a drama acting out his holiness through the sacrifices. 00:27:01.980 |
We know that we need atonement, but the scripture, the sacrifices are going to detail of what 00:27:09.200 |
kind of atonement is needed for what kind of sins. 00:27:13.200 |
And so it'll give us insight into how God views sin. 00:27:17.600 |
And it gives us insight as to when we say holy, that we don't just picture in our own 00:27:35.080 |
But this is the drama that acts it out so that we have a clearer picture. 00:27:41.500 |
So Leviticus is the foundation upon which all the explanation of the gospel in the New Testament 00:27:48.200 |
The word holiness is mentioned 93 separate times in the book of Leviticus. 00:27:54.520 |
Our English word for holy comes from an old English word, halig, which means to be whole 00:28:06.480 |
Again, the only reason I put that up there is to establish that we can't determine what 00:28:16.400 |
Even our idea of holiness is something that we create. 00:28:19.080 |
We have to make sure that when we say holy, that it's coming from a biblical understanding, 00:28:24.640 |
biblical teaching of what he says holiness is. 00:28:28.560 |
The book of Leviticus has five different categories of holiness that, again, we're going to just 00:28:41.240 |
How does a holy God dwell among unholy people? 00:28:47.120 |
What is the consequence of not taking his holiness seriously? 00:28:51.440 |
All of these things are going to be acted out and shown through these ceremonies. 00:29:01.560 |
So you'll notice one of the things that early on in the sacrifices that when a priest sins, 00:29:07.680 |
that the sacrifice that God requires for the priest is much higher than somebody from regular 00:29:15.520 |
And we see that reflected in the New Testament, too. 00:29:18.040 |
That the higher calling of a leader, the consequences are greater. 00:29:21.480 |
And so that idea is embedded in the very beginning of Leviticus. 00:29:33.840 |
There are different degrees of punishment, different degrees of sacrifices based upon 00:29:40.620 |
But again, God calls all of his people to be holy because he is holy. 00:29:50.400 |
A holy land, meaning the nation of Israel, where they dwell, because God called his people 00:29:56.740 |
to be holy, he declares the land in which they live to be holy. 00:30:02.160 |
And one of the reasons why Israel goes into captivity is because they did not obey God 00:30:13.200 |
They didn't give the land Sabbath for 70 years. 00:30:15.480 |
That's why they were taken out for 70 years, because for 70 years they neglected the Sabbath. 00:30:28.000 |
Sacrifice being the sacrifice, and over and over again, he'll emphasize that the offering 00:30:36.000 |
That any animal given to God, whether it is a bird, whether it's a bull, whether it's 00:30:41.120 |
a goat, or whether it's a sheep, over and over again, if there's any defect, it cannot 00:30:51.720 |
That the lamb that has come to be sacrificed had to be perfect without defect. 00:30:57.520 |
And so again, that idea, imagery, is embedded in the book of Leviticus. 00:31:13.480 |
Sometimes when we talk about sin, again, we had this discussion earlier when our small 00:31:18.160 |
group leaders meeting, and a lot of times people determine what is sinful, not sinful, 00:31:26.480 |
It doesn't bother my conscience, and so sometimes we determine whether something is profitable 00:31:32.480 |
or not profitable, or sinful or not sinful, based upon if it bothers my conscience. 00:31:38.120 |
You're going to see through the book of Leviticus that sin is not determined by your conscience. 00:31:45.120 |
What he says is sinful, even if it doesn't bother your conscience at all. 00:31:50.560 |
So sometimes our conscience in and of itself is defective because of our sins. 00:32:06.800 |
So all of these things are embedded into this book. 00:32:20.060 |
So you'll notice that I don't have memory verses for you. 00:32:24.720 |
I know some of you guys are very disappointed. 00:32:28.480 |
I can send one to you personally if you want, but I don't have memory verses each week for 00:32:37.600 |
But I do want to strongly encourage you to memorize these two verses, because these are 00:32:43.720 |
The one is Leviticus 11.45, and then a very similar wording is mentioned in 19.2. 00:32:50.040 |
"For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. 00:32:56.400 |
So that phrase that is repeated in the New Testament comes from Leviticus. 00:33:03.800 |
"For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to 00:33:08.560 |
make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life." 00:33:13.980 |
So those two verses I want to encourage you, since we don't have memory verses each week, 00:33:18.560 |
try to memorize those two verses as key verses. 00:33:22.280 |
God's call to holiness and God's plan for holiness. 00:33:34.720 |
This is something I really want to encourage you guys to know. 00:33:38.560 |
Because if you understand this outline, I think it will help you in your study. 00:33:46.000 |
This outline of the whole book is written in a chiastic form. 00:33:49.160 |
How many of you have ever heard that term before? 00:33:54.480 |
So the chiastic form of writing, if you understand what it is, it will help you to understand 00:34:01.120 |
the writer's logical sequence in which he's trying to make a point. 00:34:07.120 |
So typically, if you're writing a paper, at least in our generation, you would start with 00:34:12.720 |
an introduction and you would have some kind of a thesis. 00:34:16.920 |
You know, the world's, you know, the, what do you call it? 00:34:21.880 |
There's global warming is real, as an example, okay? 00:34:26.320 |
But you would, hey, here's my point, here are my subpoints, here's my support, and here's 00:34:34.800 |
Sometimes that conclusion may be in the, the thesis may be in the bottom, but typically 00:34:39.120 |
you would begin with, here's my point and here's what I'm going to say to support my 00:34:44.800 |
In a chiastic form, the main point, main thrust of the message is in the middle of the book. 00:34:51.840 |
And let me just give you, so in chiasm, the first half of the text presents a series of 00:34:57.080 |
topics which the second half repeats in reverse order. 00:35:00.360 |
I'm going to give you the outline, but I want you to understand what a chiastic form is, 00:35:04.840 |
So the first half gives you point by point what the point is, and then those points are 00:35:09.240 |
repeated in the second half of the book in reverse order. 00:35:19.500 |
And then right in the middle of that would be the main point. 00:35:23.220 |
So let's say it would be ABC and then X, CBA. 00:35:36.220 |
You guys' brains fried from working too hard? 00:35:42.940 |
So Leviticus is written in a classic chiastic form. 00:35:48.260 |
Again, so the focal point of the text is in the middle. 00:35:53.260 |
And if you understand this, you'll have a broad outline in your head, okay, how Leviticus 00:36:06.440 |
So the following chiasm points to the Day of Atonement as the focus of Leviticus, which 00:36:14.420 |
It's right in the middle of the book where there's a strict teaching about the Day of 00:36:20.260 |
Now, if you know anything about the Day of Atonement, I probably didn't have to tell 00:36:25.100 |
Because you probably already know the significance of this Day of Atonement that I didn't have 00:36:29.620 |
to tell you that the Day of Atonement is what all of this ultimately points to, that it 00:36:40.380 |
But just following this chiastic form, even if you didn't know what the Day of Atonement 00:36:45.420 |
was and you never read chapter 16, you would understand that whatever was written in chapter 00:36:51.100 |
16 was probably the main point, which happens to be the Day of Atonement. 00:36:59.160 |
So if you notice, chapter 1, so chapter 1 through chapter 7 are the five major sacrifices, 00:37:11.940 |
You have the burnt offering, grain offering, do I have it up there? 00:37:20.940 |
Peace offering, sin offering, and guilt offering. 00:37:27.020 |
And so chapter 1 through 7 deals with the five major offerings and how to handle that. 00:37:34.480 |
Chapter 8 through 10 lays out the priesthood. 00:37:41.900 |
How are they to be prepared and to be established? 00:37:44.460 |
Chapter 11 through 15, he begins to go through what is clean and unclean, what God views 00:37:51.860 |
And then we get to chapter 16, the Day of Atonement, right? 00:37:55.740 |
And so when you get to chapter 17, in the reverse order, chapter 17 to 20, what is considered 00:38:02.660 |
So it's not the exact same content, but the theme is the same. 00:38:06.500 |
So you'll read, when you get to chapter 17, you're not going to see the exact same thing 00:38:12.260 |
But if you were to title it, the title would be very similar to what you see under point 00:38:18.900 |
It's basically laws about what God considers clean and unclean. 00:38:21.740 |
And then chapter 21, again, it's about the priesthood, right? 00:38:26.200 |
And then the sacrifices, again, in chapter 23. 00:38:29.100 |
And then the last one, the blessing, discipline, and responses, is basically kind of like the 00:38:37.880 |
And then the last point in chapter 26 is, therefore, this is what God is doing. 00:38:45.220 |
So if you can understand this outline, right? 00:39:09.740 |
Sacrifices, priesthood, clean and unclean, and then day of atonement, and then that in 00:39:17.980 |
And then chapter 26, the very last part of it, is God's blessing and discipline and our 00:39:26.140 |
That's, you got the whole outline of 26 chapters, okay? 00:39:29.500 |
Now another way to look at it, and it's going to be the final thing that I said before I 00:39:32.540 |
conclude, Leviticus can also be in the two big parts. 00:39:39.340 |
The first, A, B, C, talks about similar themes, but the emphasis is in priestly holiness at 00:39:46.580 |
the tabernacle and what the priests are to do and how they ought to apply it. 00:39:50.540 |
In the chapter 17 to 27, the second part of the chiasm is talking about the practical 00:39:57.940 |
So the emphasis in the first part of chiasm is toward the priest and the tabernacle. 00:40:02.780 |
The second part of it is emphasis and application toward the people. 00:40:10.380 |
So if you can memorize that without me, without you having to look and you have that in your 00:40:14.980 |
head, I think that'll help you when we're studying. 00:40:17.820 |
If we're at a particular chapter, you know where we are in the outline, right? 00:40:27.540 |
Okay, so that's all I have for today's study, but hopefully this is enough for you to kind 00:40:34.220 |
of get a broad outline so that we can jump into the text next time we're here. 00:40:39.940 |
Again, so just to reiterate, so this part of it is for priests. 00:40:45.380 |
This part of it is for the people, but the theme is the same. 00:40:51.940 |
One, what is the first thing you think of when you think of holiness? 00:40:56.100 |
There's a tendency to view holiness and grace as opposing ideas by some. 00:41:01.940 |
Hopefully you understand what I mean by that. 00:41:04.180 |
Why is the practice of grace and holiness vital to our walk with God? 00:41:07.480 |
What is the danger of neglecting one or the other? 00:41:10.100 |
Clearly the scripture calls us to both, right? 00:41:13.380 |
Grace does not negate holiness and holiness does not negate grace. 00:41:15.900 |
It needs to be practiced both at the same time. 00:41:22.800 |
In practicing holiness, and this is something that I've already discussed with our small 00:41:26.640 |
group leaders that hopefully through our study of the book of Leviticus and as the subject 00:41:32.760 |
of holiness comes up, I want our church to really wrestle with the application of holiness. 00:41:38.240 |
We don't just talk about the idea of holiness, but how should holiness be applied in our 00:41:43.840 |
daily lives, in what we watch, where we go, what we talk about, our conversations, the 00:41:52.880 |
So what is holiness practically in the life of a Christian? 00:41:56.480 |
Now we don't want to get into a situation where we say a holy life is these ten things, 00:42:02.360 |
but I think we should be mindful about how to apply it in a practical way. 00:42:07.100 |
And so the question that I have here is pertaining to entertainment because it is so prevalent 00:42:14.520 |
What principles are given in the scriptures for us to follow and determine whether something 00:42:17.920 |
is or is not wise for a Christian to participate in? 00:42:21.600 |
So the other extreme of this is where I hear people say, "Well, where do we draw the line 00:42:26.520 |
so we can't draw the line or else we become legalistic so we don't draw the line at all?" 00:42:31.160 |
Where we're so in fear of being called judgmental or legalistic where we don't discuss enough 00:42:40.160 |
So I'm hoping that your small group discussions will get into the nitty-gritty of what that 00:42:46.040 |
Again, we're not determining for you what holiness is, but as we're studying it, I'm 00:42:52.320 |
hoping that the small groups will lead to these practical applications of what we're