You probably will agree with me, if Revelation was confusing, Leviticus is going to be much more confusing. But part of the reason why I wanted to tackle Leviticus, there's several reasons. One is I think it's important for us to have some working knowledge of every part of Scripture. There's no part of Scripture that God wrote where it says, "We can understand God if we don't really need to have this book." Every part of it has something that God has placed where it's essential for our understanding of who He is and what He is doing.

So whether you fully understand it or you get just a glimpse of understanding of what it means, it's important that at least we have some working knowledge of His intent in the book of Leviticus. Leviticus is one of those books that if you do not commit to it, I can already tell you, if Revelation went over your head, and I know that some of it did, I hope you were able to catch a lot of it, but if Revelation went over your head, Leviticus is going to sound nothing more than studying legal document about something that you have no interest in ever applying.

It's no different than if I just gave you a law book and just say, "Read it." And you just have to, just out of duty, you just have to read one chapter this week, next chapter next week. So I really encourage you to engage. Even if you can't study it diligently, at least read what the content is and at least know what the questions are, right?

Even if you don't know the answers, at least know what the questions are in the text that we're looking at. Say, "I don't understand it. Why did the bulls need to be given? Why is it unclean to do this or to do that?" At least if you know those questions, when we deal with it, you'll know what we're talking about instead of just it going over your head.

So again, just want to really encourage you to commit to the study. And I can personally say that of all the books that I've studied personally, Leviticus, again, was one of the books that I've probably benefited from the most. Partially it's because I knew so little about it before I studied it.

And then when I did study it, I realized just how crucial it was to my understanding of all the rest of Scripture. So I guarantee you, if you didn't know the content of Leviticus and you studied and committed with us from now until we finished the book of Leviticus, I guarantee you, you're going to come out of it thinking, "Wow, I really did not fully grasp the gospel until I came," or at least you had a very superficial understanding of it until you began to understand the content of Leviticus, okay?

So I can't emphasize enough how important this book is. In fact, in the Jewish synagogue, the very first book that was taught any child was the book of Leviticus. So again, it was that important to them. So today, for the New Testament church, we typically say, "What book should we study?" If you're a brand new Christian, probably the Gospel of John is the first one that somebody would recommend.

If you want to really dive in and really understand the gospel, we would recommend the book of Romans to really go and dissect that. And if you understand the book of Romans, you'll say you understand what God has been doing. In the Old Testament, if you were to pick a book to understand God and what He is doing, it would be Leviticus.

So many commentators will call Leviticus the Romans of the Old Testament, okay? So considering how important it is to have very little knowledge of its significance and its meaning, again, it means that there's a big gaping hole of our understanding of God and what He's doing in the Old Testament.

Again, so I can't emphasize enough how important this is. Just as some logistics, just to kind of give you a heads up, obviously I'm headed out to India this Friday, so I won't be here next Wednesday, but Pastor Mark will be here teaching. He won't be teaching specifically in a text, but just covering over the subject of holiness.

And so the Bible study will continue. So we will not have a break next week, so Pastor Mark is going to cover for me until I come back. And when I do come back, we'll jump into the text chapter one, two, and three. And so the homework will be given to you at the end of the session, okay?

Another thing is after my teaching, a quick overview of the book of Leviticus, we're going to break you guys into small groups. So Pastor Mark has assignments, the group assignments, and he's going to post it up here. So that way the small group leaders know who's in their group.

And so we're going to have you guys look for your small group. So it's going to take a little bit of time, but we want to get the chaos over with today. And if your name is not up there afterwards, please go see Pastor Mark and then he'll assign you to a group, okay?

I'm going to repeat this again at the end so that you'll know this. And then another announcement is in our schedule, one of the things that we wanted to address in the coming year is we want to address corporate prayer and worship. We used to do this a while back, but for whatever the reason, we stopped doing that.

But once a month, about once a month, instead of our normal Wednesday Bible study, weekday Bible study, we're having praise and prayer. So the whole church, this is our group, the college group, and the youth group, once a month on Friday, it's going to be about once a month.

The whole church is going to come together and we're going to take time in extended prayer. And so prayer is one of the things that we've identified and discussed in evaluating where we are as a church. We really want it to be devoted to corporate prayer. Once a month is not enough, right?

But at least we want to start there. So just to give you a heads up, so those are things that are a little bit different for this session. So normal Bible study, but once a month we're having praise and prayer. So we'll be giving you a heads up when those times come, okay?

Let me pray for us and we'll jump right in. Gracious Father, we pray for wisdom and your Holy Spirit's direction as we study this book. There's so much in here that is so significant and yet so much of it, Lord God, escapes us. I pray, Father, that you would give us wisdom and insight, not simply to understand, but to be convicted that as we gain insight into your work in your heart, that we may know who you are in a deeper way and how we ought to respond to that, Lord God, in a way that honors you.

I pray that you would bless the time that we have, again, that it would be more than just simply academic knowledge, but that you would move us, sanctify us, rebuke us, encourage and strengthen us, Lord God, that we may be better worshipers of you. We thank you in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

All right, so as you can see, the picture is a picture of the tabernacle. Let me just... So this introduction to the book of Leviticus, the study of Leviticus is vital to understanding the full gospel message. So we've been going through the book of Romans and obviously we're going to detailed message of redemption, propitiation, adoption, and all these things in the book of Romans.

But the foundation in understanding the gospel really is you have to understand the book of Leviticus because so much of the language of the gospel comes from this book. The idea of atonement, redemption, sanctification, holiness, wrath, clean, unclean, all of these ideas that are embedded in the gospel message, the foundation comes from the book of Leviticus.

So you probably heard of many of these terms or you know it because you've heard it so many times, but Leviticus will give you the context in which these ideas of atonement comes from. Okay, so again, I can't emphasize enough how important this book is. Second Timothy 3, 16, 17, as you guys know, it says, "All scripture is breathed out by God and profferable teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness, that the man of God may be competent and equipped for every good work." So when Second Timothy 3, 16 is referring to all scripture, is it talking about the New Testament or the Old Testament?

The New Testament hasn't been put together yet. It's in the context of writing the New Testament. So when Paul says, "All scripture is God-breathed and is profitable," the only collected text that he had was the Old Testament. So our study of the Old Testament is vital. All of it is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training, and righteousness.

So to a New Testament Christian, to be so ignorant about the Old Testament means that there's a huge chunk of our Christian life that we don't fully grasp. And I think partially the reason why there's superficial application of our Christian lives is because we only have a partial understanding of our faith, partial understanding of the gospel.

Okay? The book of Leviticus is quoted in the New Testament over a hundred times. Again, just to clarify how important this book is to the New Testament writers and understanding of the gospel. Because so much of the content of what Christ has done on the cross and the meaning of the kingdom and all these things come from this book.

Leviticus is a shadow of the gospel that is ultimately fulfilled in Christ. See that in Colossians 2, 16 and 17? "Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink or with regard to festival, new moon, or Sabbath, which is all taught in Leviticus. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ." So what we're studying in Leviticus is a shadow of the gospel.

This is basically a pre-gospel. Again, in Hebrews 8, 3 to 5, "For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now, if we were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

They serve a copy in shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect a tent, he was instructed by God, saying, 'See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.'" So again, in Hebrews it says what they are practicing here is a pattern of the reality in heaven, ultimately in Christ.

So what we are studying is a shadow of the gospel. So Leviticus, the study of Leviticus is a challenge because it's mostly about the law. And it's an instruction manual for something we will never build, so unless we understand what it points to, we won't profit from the study.

So let me make that absolutely crystal clear. If you don't understand, the way that we are going to study the book of Leviticus ultimately is we're going to, just like we do any other interpretation, what did it mean? How did the recipients of the letter receive this? Before we spiritualize and point to anything else, we want to understand in the historical context that it was written.

But our ultimate goal is not simply understand how they understood it, but what does it point to? Because it is a book of rules and regulations, for the most part, 95% of the writing in the book of Leviticus are rules and regulations. What kind of sacrifices to give, how you ought to give it, what is considered clean and unclean.

And so if you read it without understanding what it points to, it'll just sound like an instruction manual to build a building that you have no intention of ever building. So it's going to tell you how to give sacrifices when you will never make give these sacrifices. You're never going to offer up a bull.

You're never going to sacrifice a pigeon or a bird. You're never going to practice these things. So if you don't understand what it points to, then the study of it is not going to be profitable. So just to kind of give you a heads up, that's going to be the context in how we're approaching this that ultimately, what do these things, like how are these a shadow of the reality that we find in Christ?

What does it point to? And that's what we're going to be looking for as we are studying. John Stott, in Study of the Leviticus, he says, "Reading Leviticus is like rummaging through an old chest in the attic. Though confronted with many strange items from bygone era, the photos you encounter present faces of ancestors with striking resemblance to your own.

Likewise, the rituals of Leviticus are unfamiliar relics of bygone era. But in them, we discern the early outlines of the same gospel we cherish as Christians." So I wanted you to read that because I thought he really grasped the spirit of the study of the Book of Leviticus, where the way he describes it is, it's just kind of going to the attic and finding old pictures.

It's not pictures of you, but it's pictures of maybe your great-great-grandfather, and you begin to see the traces of, "Hey, maybe my son looks like that grandfather." And you could see the lineage, even though it was many, many years ago. And so that's exactly what you will find in the Book of Leviticus.

So many things that you already understand about the gospel, about blood atonement, about sacrifice, about redemption, all of these things, these ideas that you already know, and you're going to see where these ideas and these vocabularies came from in the Book of Leviticus. So it's not going to be as clear to you as the Book of Romans, but it's going to be, again, it's going to be like looking at ancestors' pictures.

And so I thought John's thought really captured that well. What is the benefit of studying the shadow before seeing the reality? Why does God give us the gospel in the form of a shadow to begin with? I listed a couple. One, it builds anticipation. Years ago, there used to be a game show where a famous person would stand behind the screen, and then you would see their shadow.

And the whole game was trying to guess who they are, and then they'll give you hints. And the point of this game, again, was to, again, identify the reality. And so studying the shadow builds anticipation for the reality, right? So God gave what he was going to do in Christ in a shadow form so that when Christ came, if you were paying very close attention to the shadow, you would have recognized him, right?

That only Christ's nose would fit that, only Christ's hair and his arms and his height and all of this. But if you weren't paying attention, and you know nothing about the shadow, then you probably would not have recognized him, right? So the point of why he gave us preparation for the coming of Christ in the form of shadow, again, was to build anticipation.

And then it brings clarity, right? Certain things that you were looking at intently, the height, maybe the measurements and all this stuff, and then when Christ comes, it becomes much more real. So it's kind of like if you were watching black and white TV and then you had color, right?

I mean, the contrast is much bigger than that, but that would be a good way to understand where you saw something dimly lit, and all of a sudden they turn on the light and you say, "Ah, that's what it is," right? So when the light gets turned on, so that the picture will become even more clear because you paid attention to the shadow, okay?

Thirdly, it keeps the reality a mystery until the right time to fully reveal it, right? So much of the prophecy that God gives, he gives it to us in bits and pieces, just like when we're studying the book of Revelation. He doesn't say, "Jesus is going to come in 2035 on Tuesday at 6 p.m." He doesn't say that.

He gives us all of these imageries, right? So that if we paid very close attention, we don't know exactly when he's going to come, but if you've been studying and paying close attention, that you'll be able to recognize, "Ah, that's what he said," right? You'll be able to recognize, "Oh, there's the white horse," or, "There's the red horse." We don't know if it's going to be fulfilled literally, but he gave us glimpses of the end times so that when the reality comes, you'll be able to connect the dots, right?

But until then, he keeps it a mystery, right? Mystery, not that he's trying to hide it, but the fullness of time has not come for that to be fulfilled. So it says that Christ came when the fullness of time had come. So the reason why the Old Testament saints studied about the atonement and coming of the Messiah was because the fullness of time had not yet come.

So if they studied and paid very close attention to it, they should not have been caught off guard. That when Christ came, they should have been able to recognize and say, "Jesus fits the shadow that we've been looking at," right? And so that's what we're studying in the book of Leviticus.

We're studying the shadow of the reality we already know in Christ, right? Another illustration, I found this in commentary, says, "Studying Leviticus is like studying a marriage ceremony. Marriage ceremonies are filled with rituals that point to the gospel message, and each ritual is followed to highlight the drama of redemption acted out through the ceremony.

Leviticus is following rituals that highlight the drama of redemption that points forward to the coming of Christ and his death and atonement." So all the ritual things that we will study in the book of Leviticus is kind of like a marriage ceremony. Like some of you, some of you, a few of you who've been married and went through the ceremony, you know, we go through and we talk about like, "Why do you walk down the middle aisle?

Why do you have the lighting of the candles?" Right? You know, "Why do you have, you know, one side sit on the other side? How come, like every part of the ceremony, there's meaning behind it, right? There's, especially for Christians." And all of that points to the marriage drama that we're going to see when Christ comes, right?

It points to the marriage drama that the scripture prophesies about the future. So every time somebody gets married, we play out this drama. Sometimes people know, a lot of times people don't know the meaning. They just do it because out of tradition. But a lot of these traditions are the gospel message is embedded, looking forward to the coming of Christ.

So the rituals that we see in the book of Leviticus are dramas that basically is acting out the gospel message about redemption, about sacrifice, about judgment, that ultimately points to the fulfillment in Christ, right? So it's almost kind of like somebody, if you've never attended a traditional Christian-American wedding, you know, maybe you come from the jungle and you've never seen it, and you walk in, you sit there, and you're just, imagine what you would be thinking if you're sitting there watching this wedding ceremony.

"Oh, she's wearing all white with a veil. And no one else dresses like that. She's dressed like a princess. I wonder what that is about, right? How come everybody's, how come she's coming down the aisle? What is the meaning of lighting of the candle? Why are they bowing? Why are they in the middle?

Why is that guy talking in the middle?" So you can imagine coming and thinking not understanding the ceremony because you don't understand what it points to. So it's kind of like that. Leviticus, if you don't know what it points to, you're basically sitting and watching a foreign ceremony, and you're just doing it because they told you to do it, but you don't know the significance, right?

So that's what our study is going to be, is trying to figure out the significance of these rituals that God embedded into the culture of the Jews that ultimately is like the Christian marriage ceremony that, again, is fulfilled in Christ. Some background information. Exodus concludes in Exodus chapter 40, 34 through 38, where the tabernacle is constructed, right?

And the glory of God fills the tabernacle. So let me just read that passage real quick. Exodus chapter 40, 34 through 38. And this is how the book of Exodus ends. "Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, and in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys." So the glory of the Lord comes upon the tabernacle, and that's how it ends.

So if you look at chapter 1, verse 1, "The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, 'Speak to the people of Israel.'" So Moses is speaking to God, or God is speaking from the tent of meeting. I want you to turn your Bibles to Numbers chapter 1.

I want to see if you can see the difference between Leviticus chapter 1 and Numbers chapter 1. The Numbers chapter 1, verse 1, "The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting on the first day of the second month in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 'Take a census.'" So okay, it's just verse 1.

Can somebody tell me that this difference between Leviticus chapter 1 and Numbers chapter 1? Leviticus chapter 1, verse 1, Numbers chapter 1, verse 1. What is the key difference? There's one particular word. I mean, obviously, there's a lot of different words that are different, but there's a key word that is different in Leviticus and Numbers.

Called and spoke. Yes, there are many things that are different, but that's not what I'm looking for. There's a key word. Say it. From and in. From and in. Okay, so if you look at Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. Exodus, God is at a distance from Israel. In fact, God says, "If I go with these people, I'm going to kill these people." So God stays at a distance.

Leviticus, he draws near. He's in the tabernacle, and he's speaking from the tabernacle. In Numbers, after he establishes how to come to God, and through these rituals and sacrifices and being pure and impure, after he establishes and tells them how an unholy people can be in the presence of a holy God, and then he begins to set out to go to the promised land.

And so Book of Numbers is the history of Israel getting ready and going to the promised land. But the way he speaks to Israel in Numbers is he speaks in the tabernacle. It was wild for me. It doesn't look like it was wild for you, but it was wild for me.

So you see the progression of God's presence in the nation of Israel, right? Where before the tabernacle is established, God says, "If I go with these people, these people are going to die because I can't tolerate their sin." He establishes a way for Israel to come to him through the tabernacle, and before he establishes it, he's speaking from the temple to the people outside.

And then after he establishes it, and then they begin to live this out and atone for their sin through these sacrifices, he's speaking to them in the tabernacle. Oh, now you get it? Okay. A few more people. Okay. Let it sink in. Okay. So that's Leviticus. Leviticus is the step, process that God is taking to dwell among sinful people.

And that's what the Book of Leviticus is. He's establishing who he is, he's establishing who they are, and then he's establishing a way for them to get to him. Okay? Okay. You can just fill in the blanks because we already went over that. And the title of the Book of Leviticus is appropriate considering most of the content of the book is about the rules and regulations given to the Levitical order of worship.

And again, that's why they call it Leviticus. It's instructions for the Levites to intercede on behalf of sinful people. Okay. So purpose and content. Now that Israel has been freed to worship God and the tabernacle is established, Leviticus is a detailed instruction on how to go about worshiping God physically, morally, and spiritually.

Physically, morally, and spiritually. Much of Leviticus is devoted to distinguishing between what is clean and unclean. So God is going to determine what is clean and what is unclean. Now when we get to start talking about what is clean and unclean, there are some things that you're going to understand and there are some things that you're not going to understand.

So he said if you have leprosy and you have boils and then it's running, you know, you're considered unclean. Right? So there are some things that just logically from the knowledge that we have, we understand why that would be considered unclean. And then there are some things that he's going to say we're not going to understand.

Right? Like the animals with split hooves or, you know, with certain type of birds. One type of bird is clean, the other type of bird is unclean. Now we don't understand because it doesn't explain why. But the standard of what is clean and unclean is established by God, not by us.

God tells them what he considers unclean. And if he says it's unclean, it's unclean. Right? You don't come before God and say, "Well, I don't, it doesn't make any sense. I'm going to bring him anyway." Right? I determine. So ultimately God determines what is clean and unclean. Leviticus tells us what he determines.

Okay? The ultimate goal of Leviticus is to reveal the extent of God's holiness and the need for perfect sacrifice to atone for our sins. So as we mentioned, that we know God's holy, right? But this is a drama acting out his holiness through the sacrifices. We know that we need atonement, but the scripture, the sacrifices are going to detail of what kind of atonement is needed for what kind of sins.

And so it'll give us insight into how God views sin. And it gives us insight as to when we say holy, that we don't just picture in our own mind what we think holiness is. God tells us what holiness is in this book. Right? So these are things that we already know.

We already know he's holy. We already know we need atonement. But this is the drama that acts it out so that we have a clearer picture. Right? So Leviticus is the foundation upon which all the explanation of the gospel in the New Testament covenant is ultimately built. The word holiness is mentioned 93 separate times in the book of Leviticus.

Our English word for holy comes from an old English word, halig, which means to be whole or to be healthy. But it is not complete. Again, the only reason I put that up there is to establish that we can't determine what is holy. Right? Even our idea of holiness is something that we create.

We have to make sure that when we say holy, that it's coming from a biblical understanding, biblical teaching of what he says holiness is. The book of Leviticus has five different categories of holiness that, again, we're going to just tackle one by one. A holy God. How does a holy God dwell among unholy people?

To what extent is he holy? What is the consequence of not taking his holiness seriously? All of these things are going to be acted out and shown through these ceremonies. A holy priesthood. Someone who comes to mediate. How does God view them? So you'll notice one of the things that early on in the sacrifices that when a priest sins, that the sacrifice that God requires for the priest is much higher than somebody from regular congregation.

And we see that reflected in the New Testament, too. That the higher calling of a leader, the consequences are greater. And so that idea is embedded in the very beginning of Leviticus. The holiness of the priesthood. The sacredness. God's calling for holiness of God's people. There are different degrees of punishment, different degrees of sacrifices based upon where you stand before God.

But again, God calls all of his people to be holy because he is holy. A holy land, meaning the nation of Israel, where they dwell, because God called his people to be holy, he declares the land in which they live to be holy. And one of the reasons why Israel goes into captivity is because they did not obey God and give the land the Sabbath.

Remember that? They didn't give the land Sabbath for 70 years. That's why they were taken out for 70 years, because for 70 years they neglected the Sabbath. Or more than that. Again, all of these ideas. And ultimately, a need for a holy savior. Sacrifice being the sacrifice, and over and over again, he'll emphasize that the offering has to be without defect.

That any animal given to God, whether it is a bird, whether it's a bull, whether it's a goat, or whether it's a sheep, over and over again, if there's any defect, it cannot be accepted as a sacrifice. What does that ultimately point to? That the lamb that has come to be sacrificed had to be perfect without defect.

And so again, that idea, imagery, is embedded in the book of Leviticus. Need for blood sacrifice. The word cleansing is mentioned 71 times. How God views sin. Sometimes when we talk about sin, again, we had this discussion earlier when our small group leaders meeting, and a lot of times people determine what is sinful, not sinful, based upon how they feel about it.

It doesn't bother my conscience, and so sometimes we determine whether something is profitable or not profitable, or sinful or not sinful, based upon if it bothers my conscience. You're going to see through the book of Leviticus that sin is not determined by your conscience. Sin is determined by a holy God.

What he says is sinful, even if it doesn't bother your conscience at all. So sometimes our conscience in and of itself is defective because of our sins. And so God's view of sin. And then ultimately, God's remedy for sin. So all of these things are embedded into this book.

Two key verses. The first one is Leviticus 11.45. So you'll notice that I don't have memory verses for you. I know some of you guys are very disappointed. I can send one to you personally if you want, but I don't have memory verses each week for this session. But I do want to strongly encourage you to memorize these two verses, because these are the two key verses of Leviticus.

The one is Leviticus 11.45, and then a very similar wording is mentioned in 19.2. "For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy." So that phrase that is repeated in the New Testament comes from Leviticus.

The second one is Leviticus 17.11. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life." So those two verses I want to encourage you, since we don't have memory verses each week, try to memorize those two verses as key verses.

God's call to holiness and God's plan for holiness. And then the outline of Leviticus. This is something I really want to encourage you guys to know. Because if you understand this outline, I think it will help you in your study. And it's going to be a very broad outline.

This outline of the whole book is written in a chiastic form. How many of you have ever heard that term before? Some of you guys. So the chiastic form of writing, if you understand what it is, it will help you to understand the writer's logical sequence in which he's trying to make a point.

So typically, if you're writing a paper, at least in our generation, you would start with an introduction and you would have some kind of a thesis. You know, the world's, you know, the, what do you call it? There's global warming is real, as an example, okay? Whether it's real or not.

But you would, hey, here's my point, here are my subpoints, here's my support, and here's my conclusion, right? That's typically how you would write it. Sometimes that conclusion may be in the, the thesis may be in the bottom, but typically you would begin with, here's my point and here's what I'm going to say to support my point, right?

In a chiastic form, the main point, main thrust of the message is in the middle of the book. And let me just give you, so in chiasm, the first half of the text presents a series of topics which the second half repeats in reverse order. I'm going to give you the outline, but I want you to understand what a chiastic form is, right?

So the first half gives you point by point what the point is, and then those points are repeated in the second half of the book in reverse order. So basically it would be ABC, CBA. That's kind of what a chiastic form is. And then right in the middle of that would be the main point.

So let's say it would be ABC and then X, CBA. And X would be the main point. That's a chiastic form. All right? You guys' brains fried from working too hard? Did you get that? Did you follow? All right? So Leviticus is written in a classic chiastic form. So let me just give you, okay?

Again, so the focal point of the text is in the middle. And if you understand this, you'll have a broad outline in your head, okay, how Leviticus is written, right? And it's really not that complicated. So the following chiasm points to the Day of Atonement as the focus of Leviticus, which comes out in chapter 16.

It's right in the middle of the book where there's a strict teaching about the Day of Atonement. Now, if you know anything about the Day of Atonement, I probably didn't have to tell you that. Because you probably already know the significance of this Day of Atonement that I didn't have to tell you that the Day of Atonement is what all of this ultimately points to, that it is the key, right?

Just because we know what that day is. But just following this chiastic form, even if you didn't know what the Day of Atonement was and you never read chapter 16, you would understand that whatever was written in chapter 16 was probably the main point, which happens to be the Day of Atonement.

So let me give you a quick outline, okay? Here's the outline. So if you notice, chapter 1, so chapter 1 through chapter 7 are the five major sacrifices, right? Anybody know the five major sacrifices? You have the burnt offering, grain offering, do I have it up there? Peace offering, sin offering, and guilt offering.

So you have the five major offerings. And so chapter 1 through 7 deals with the five major offerings and how to handle that. So chapter 1 through 7. Chapter 8 through 10 lays out the priesthood. What are their requirements? How are they to be cleansed? How are they to enter the temple?

How are they to be prepared and to be established? Chapter 11 through 15, he begins to go through what is clean and unclean, what God views as clean and what God views as unclean. And then we get to chapter 16, the Day of Atonement, right? And so when you get to chapter 17, in the reverse order, chapter 17 to 20, what is considered clean and unclean?

So it's not the exact same content, but the theme is the same. So you'll read, when you get to chapter 17, you're not going to see the exact same thing repeated. But if you were to title it, the title would be very similar to what you see under point three.

It's basically laws about what God considers clean and unclean. And then chapter 21, again, it's about the priesthood, right? And then the sacrifices, again, in chapter 23. And then the last one, the blessing, discipline, and responses, is basically kind of like the application. So this main point is done.

And then the last point in chapter 26 is, therefore, this is what God is doing. Do you understand that? So if you can understand this outline, right? A, B, C, X, C, B, A. So what is the A? Without looking, what is the A? Sacrifice. What is the B?

What is the C? Huh? Clean and unclean. So all you need to know is that, right? Sacrifices, priesthood, clean and unclean, and then day of atonement, and then that in reverse order. So now you've got the whole outline. And then chapter 26, the very last part of it, is God's blessing and discipline and our response.

You got it? That's, you got the whole outline of 26 chapters, okay? Now another way to look at it, and it's going to be the final thing that I said before I conclude, Leviticus can also be in the two big parts. The first, A, B, C, talks about similar themes, but the emphasis is in priestly holiness at the tabernacle and what the priests are to do and how they ought to apply it.

In the chapter 17 to 27, the second part of the chiasm is talking about the practical holiness of the people themselves. So the emphasis in the first part of chiasm is toward the priest and the tabernacle. The second part of it is emphasis and application toward the people. Get it?

Okay. So if you can memorize that without me, without you having to look and you have that in your head, I think that'll help you when we're studying. If we're at a particular chapter, you know where we are in the outline, right? Hopefully. You seem very tired tonight. Okay, hopefully this is enough.

Okay, so that's all I have for today's study, but hopefully this is enough for you to kind of get a broad outline so that we can jump into the text next time we're here. Again, so just to reiterate, so this part of it is for priests. This part of it is for the people, but the theme is the same.

Okay. Your groups. One, what is the first thing you think of when you think of holiness? There's a tendency to view holiness and grace as opposing ideas by some. Why do you think this is the case? Hopefully you understand what I mean by that. Why is the practice of grace and holiness vital to our walk with God?

What is the danger of neglecting one or the other? Clearly the scripture calls us to both, right? Grace does not negate holiness and holiness does not negate grace. It needs to be practiced both at the same time. How do we do that and why is it important? And fourth is a very practical question.

In practicing holiness, and this is something that I've already discussed with our small group leaders that hopefully through our study of the book of Leviticus and as the subject of holiness comes up, I want our church to really wrestle with the application of holiness. We don't just talk about the idea of holiness, but how should holiness be applied in our daily lives, in what we watch, where we go, what we talk about, our conversations, the music that we listen to.

So what is holiness practically in the life of a Christian? Now we don't want to get into a situation where we say a holy life is these ten things, but I think we should be mindful about how to apply it in a practical way. And so the question that I have here is pertaining to entertainment because it is so prevalent in our culture.

What principles are given in the scriptures for us to follow and determine whether something is or is not wise for a Christian to participate in? So the other extreme of this is where I hear people say, "Well, where do we draw the line so we can't draw the line or else we become legalistic so we don't draw the line at all?" Where we're so in fear of being called judgmental or legalistic where we don't discuss enough about what it means to live holy lives.

So I'm hoping that your small group discussions will get into the nitty-gritty of what that means. Again, we're not determining for you what holiness is, but as we're studying it, I'm hoping that the small groups will lead to these practical applications of what we're talking about.