Alright, so schedule-wise, we have this Bible study. Next Wednesday is going to be an overview review of the 17 chapters that we've been in and then we're going on an extended break for about six to seven weeks. And then, but during that break, again, we're going to encourage the small groups and the home groups to be intentional with that time because it is a long break.

We have praise and prayer, we have VBS, we have retreat, and so we have things to kind of occupy that time. But at the same time, as far as our normal Bible study is concerned, there's going to be about a seven-week break. And so we want to encourage you guys to be intentional and we're going to send out an email and talk to our small group leaders and to kind of give you some guidance in that, but just letting you know that's what's happening.

So if you look at the bottom of the question, review questions for Leviticus, I made it, somebody pointed out on number one, it says, "Try to put to memory chiastic outlining of the book of Revelation." Okay, so if you haven't done that, you're going to have to go back and review Revelation.

Obviously, I didn't mean Revelation, I meant Leviticus. Okay, so I'm going to cross that out. If you can review that. So next Wednesday, we're going to get together and take some time to review the 17 chapters before we go on our break. So let me pray for us and then we'll jump into the text this evening.

Gracious Father, we thank you for this evening and we thank you for all the brothers and sisters that you've gathered together. Help us to glean from your word what you desire for us, that we may learn and grow and continue to keep you at the center of all that we do.

We pray for your blessing over this time in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so in the chiastic form of the book of Revelation, chapter 17 is the beginning of the next section. So I kind of debated not to do 17 and wait for us to start it next time, but I don't think it matters too much because we're going to end up reviewing anyway.

Okay. All right, so the chapter 17 is the beginning of the structure of the second part. So if you remember the chiastic form, and again, please try to put that to memory. And I'm not talking about, you don't have to know like what's in every single chapter, but at least that broad outline, right?

Chapter 1, like A, I, 1A, and then going backwards. And then the last two chapters is sort of a blessing discipline response. It's sort of a summary chapter. Okay. But at least know the chiastic structure. So if I asked you what's in chapter 17, 18, 19, that you kind of have some idea that it's talking about the laws of cleanliness.

If I talked, asked you what was in chapter 11 through 15, that you also know that it's also about laws of cleanliness. Okay. So at least have that structure in mind so that you know exactly where we are. So let's say in the future you're studying and you're learning about the gospel and you say, well, you know, what does the Bible say about blood?

And then you kind of have a general outline of where you would want to go in the book of Revelation, not Revelation, Leviticus. Okay. All right. So I'm going to ask you guys to do your best to put this to memory, this outline to memory. In chapter 17, fits into the number two, after the day of atonement, laws of clean and unclean things.

Obviously you can see from 17 to 20. What was the difference from the first part of the kiastic outline versus the second part? What is the distinction between the first part and second part? Or is he just going to repeat what he said in the first part? Do you guys remember?

We talked about this briefly when we went over the outline the first time. Okay, good. All right. So the first part, chapter one, all the way to chapter 15, highlighted in chapter 16, if you look at the outline, it says almost the exact same thing. But then the first part of it up to chapter 15, the emphasis is at the tabernacle and the priest, right?

For the purpose of staying clean and pure and their sins atoned for, for the purpose of the tabernacle. The second part of it, the emphasis is in the life of the community. Okay. So it's going to follow the same outline backward, but the emphasis, it doesn't mean it's not going to talk about the tabernacle, it's going to talk about the priesthood, but it's working backwards, talking about with the emphasis on the community of Israel.

Okay. So that's where we are. Chapter 17 is going to kick us off into that section. So after the introduction in verse one and two, we go straight into the regulations concerning location. So the two broad outline of this chapter is regulations on the location of the sacrifice and regulation of eating blood.

And it falls into verses three to nine, the first section, and then eating the blood in verses 10 through 16. So that's a broad outline that if you've read it, you probably already noticed. So everything that we're talking about is going to be falling under those two categories. So the regulation concerning the location is concerning the sacrificial slaughter of sacrificial animals.

Let me make sure that you understand that. He's not talking about just any animals. These are animals that you've probably noticed in the earlier chapters where these animals, whether they were goats or whether they were different lambs or ox, all of them were animals that were prescribed to be offered as sacrifices at the tabernacle.

So these weren't just any animals, right? So that's verse three to six. So God regulated that these three animals had to be killed either inside the tent of meeting or had to be brought to the tent of meeting. So all animals that was being killed had to be sacrificed inside or had to be brought inside after it was killed.

Now on the surface, it doesn't seem like, you know, if you were to look at the degrees of different sins, right, what made somebody holy or unholy, you would think that the location of the sacrifice may not be as important. But the consequence of that was very severe if you didn't follow these commands.

We're going to get back to this subject later part of the outline, but the consequence was blood guilt shall be imputed to that man. And we're going to talk about what that means. And also that man shall be cut off from among his people. So just even on the surface, you can tell that the consequence wasn't simply being unclean.

So if somebody became unclean in chapter 11 through 15, what was their prescribed remedy? Do you remember? Just generally. They had to wash, right? They had to go through ritual cleansing and then what else? For how long were they to be unclean? Until evening. That whole day you were considered unclean.

So next day after you've done through ritual cleansing, you can go back into the regular society. So they were impure, but it wasn't a serious consequence. This is not that case. If you do not follow this prescribed what God tells you to do, you said the consequence is a blood guilt.

And we're going to talk about what that means. And then to be cut off from among his people. So this was not simply a slap on the wrist saying, "Hey, you didn't follow instruction." This would fall into the line of what God told Moses and Aaron. Remember how chapter 16 begins?

Do you remember how the day of Atonement, how does chapter 16 begin? He reminds him about the death of Nadab and Nebihu. In other words, it's serious. You need to pay really close attention to this because if you don't follow my instruction and you disobey, the consequences is severe.

So chapter 17, unlike the previous chapters, remember in the kiastic form? Like what led up to chapter 16, it was basically a slap on the hand for not being clean. But we get to chapter 17, and if you don't obey this, there's going to be serious consequences. Right? And we'll revisit that, the meaning of it.

He said that the sacrifice, that the animal had to be given to the Lord as a peace offering. Now why do you think it was a peace offering? What was unique about the peace offering? He said that if you're going to kill an animal, make sure that it is brought into the tent of meeting and it was offered as a peace offering.

But what was unique about the peace offering? I can't tell if it's a blank look because you don't know, you're tired, or you're just being Asian. What was unique about the peace offering? You ate it, right? You burned only the parts you couldn't eat, most of it was shared in a meal, like a picnic.

So he's saying the animal that was sacrificed outside, bring it to God and offer it as a peace offering. In other words, if you want to have a barbecue, kill the animal, bring it, sprinkle the blood on the altar, and then you can have this meal that you're going to have, that you're going to do it in the presence of God, share it with the priest and your family.

That these particular animals were to be eaten together in the context of honoring God. But the ultimate reason why he was preventing them to do that, he says in verse 5, that this was to prevent Israel from sacrificing to goat demons. He doesn't explain specifically what these goat demons are, but we know from history that this pagan sacrifice that involved this goat demon that he's talking about was something the Israelites picked up when they were in Egypt.

And they never completely got rid of it. In fact, Israel wrestled with this as long as they existed. Even in the wilderness, even from the very beginning, they escaped from Egypt, they're on the other side of the Red Sea, and you would think that they're starting over, we're only going to worship God, but right off the bat, before the Ten Commandments comes, they begin worshiping the calf.

And then you would think that after the judgment comes and half the Israelite camp is destroyed, that they would have learned their lesson, and then it didn't show up again. But if you look at Israel's history, this idolatry was in the camp as long as they existed. In some periods, it was heavier than others.

So this goat demon that I was just talking about was prevalent enough where he was mentioning that they didn't want the sacrifices to be given anywhere, right? Concerned that it may be something that they would offer up to the goat demon. In fact, Joshua, chapter 24, 14 to 15, at the end of his life, I mean, you know this famous verse where it says, "Now therefore fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness.

Put away the gods that your father served beyond the river and in Egypt and serve the Lord." By the time Joshua is here, they've already gone into the promised land. He's at the end of his life when he's saying this. So this isn't like a couple of years removed from Egypt.

So the idolatry that they had in Egypt was never completely abolished. And that's why he's saying, it's about time that you make your decision. Are you going to serve God? Are you going to keep looking back to Egypt? If it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day from whom you will serve, whether the gods of your father served in region beyond the river.

Obviously talking about Egypt and the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord again. So we know that the Israelites, even at the peak of their success, even out in the desert, they wrestled with this. Where after the kingdom splits, you had King Saul, King David, King Solomon, and after that Jeroboam and Rohoboam, the two kingdoms split, the northern kingdom and then the southern kingdom, if you know Israel's history.

The northern kingdom, led by Jeroboam, they set up two separate sites in direct rebellion against God, where God said only to make sacrifices, where he prescribed it. He sets up two different places, Dan and Bethel. He remakes the golden calf, introduces that as Yahweh, because he was concerned that after the kingdom split, that people were going to keep going down to Jerusalem to worship God and he was afraid that he was going to lose his people.

So in order to keep the people that he took out with him, he set up two separate places. That was detestable before God's eyes. All throughout the northern kingdom's history, God continues to mention that as a stench before him. And as a result of this rebellion, of this disobedience, that eventually God was going to bring destruction upon the northern kingdom.

That's exactly what happens. The southern kingdom, on the other hand, they were better, but they weren't good. If you remember the southern kingdom's history, majority of their kings were evil as well. And their problem was, even though they didn't have the same issue as the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom kept on establishing the altar in the high places.

So if you read through Old Testament history, you'll see over and over again in the southern kingdom, God says that revival can't be yet, they kept on establishing, kept on offering to God in the high places. And basically what that means was, the way that the pagans in the places where they would offer sacrifices were usually on top of hills.

And so when the Israelites were making offerings, even when it was to Yahweh, it was done in the wrong place. Where God specifically told them in Leviticus chapter 17, that all the sacrifices needed to be made where God prescribed it to be. So we see evidence of this. This was not a small problem in Israel.

All throughout Israel's history, they disobeyed this command in chapter 17. This regulation applied both to the Israelites and to the strangers. So you'll notice, if you read chapter 17, that he mentions two or three separate times that this applies to Israelites and all the strangers and the sojourners that come into Israel.

Which signifies that this law was to be kept, not only for the sake of the individual, but also for the community. That these sacrifices were not simply meant just for a personal relationship with God, but to keep the community of Israel clean. I want you to really remember this, because I don't know how many of you are reading through the Bible this year, whether you're reading two chapters or three chapters.

This sin is repeated in almost every single book of the Old Testament. Almost every single book in every period of Israel's history, where they are worshipping God in a different place. And so on the surface, it may look like, "Oh, what's the big deal? He gave a sacrifice to God, but he did it in a high place." It was a specific disobedience to this particular command.

And this happened over and over again. This section, chapter, verses 10, all the way to the end of the chapter, regulation concerning eating of blood. This was a huge, huge deal. God warns Israel that eating blood of an animal would cause his face to set against the person, for him to be cut off from among his people.

What does it mean for God's face to be set against somebody? The whole point of Israel's history is to get the blessing of God, right? So Psalm chapter 1, remember how Psalm chapter 1 begins? "Blessed is the man," right? How did the Jews greet each other? "Shalom," peace, right?

Not my peace, not your peace, but may God's peace be upon you. So the whole Israel's history, Israel's culture is to receive the Lord's blessing. So when God says, "If you do not obey this command, his face is going to be set against you." In other words, God's peace is going to leave you, right?

So whatever it is that you're seeking from the Lord, you're not going to get. So he's turning his face. Not only is God going to turn from you, he said, "You're going to be cut off from your own people." So the consequence of this is serious. This was not just a slap on the hand saying, "Hey, don't do this again." In fact, the two reasons why he gives why you must not eat the blood is one, the life of the flesh is in the blood, and then the second was related to it.

Because the life of the flesh is in the blood, the blood was reserved to make atonement. So in other words, in God's eyes, the blood was considered very, very sacred. So if you put this in your mouth, he said, basically, you're drinking condemnation upon yourself. In fact, the blood was so sacred that if a man found an animal who was already dead, whether by natural causes or it was eaten by a beast, that that animal's blood was supposed to be spilt, drained of its blood, and then to be covered up with dirt.

You're not supposed to just leave the dirt out in the open. So the only place where the blood could be spilt and splattered, both on the altar, on the animal, upon the priests, and then the people themselves, was in the context of sacrifice. In any other place, they said it was forbidden.

It was forbidden, even if you spill it, you have to cover it, right? And you're not supposed to do that. And if you do do that, you're supposed to bring it into the tabernacle and give it as a peace offering. And then whoever eats this, eats an animal that was killed outside of the camp, that he had to go through ritual cleansing, he was considered unclean.

And this is repeated, I put four times, but if you, depending on how you count it, it's actually mentioned six separate times in this passage. I mentioned four, but within those verses, there are a couple others that are mentioned, right? So whenever something is repeated repetitiously, what does that tell us?

Extremely, extremely, extremely important, right? So anything said once from God, you pay attention, even if he just says it in passing, you don't just skip over whatever God says. If he says it twice, you pay very close attention to it because God for sure is trying to get your attention.

If he says it three times, you're supposed to sit there and memorize this thing, right? God is holy, holy, holy. That is not by accident. This commandment is repeated over and over and over and over and over and over in this text. So if you were to read this like a Jew, if there was any text that you put to memory, that you make sure that you don't disobey, it would have been this part because it is repeated over and over and over again, right?

This is how important this was. Any violation of these regulations brought very severe consequences, right? With the exception of the last part, what we just talked about, if a man eating an animal, this section, it says it was not considered a misdemeanor, but we would probably consider that a felony or even a capital offense.

In fact, that's the language that's being used here. The transgression, in most of the violations, identified as blood guiltiness. If you violate it, you will be guilty of blood guiltiness. And this is an expression used for murder. So this was equated with the same consequence as murder, to eat of the blood of the animal.

That's how serious, that's how sacred this was. So if there was anything considered sacrilegious that a Jew would have understood, and it wasn't just by chance, it wasn't just part of the culture because this is the way God communicated that, that if you eat drink of the blood, God's going to turn his face from you, you're going to be guilty of blood guilt, in other words, of murder, and then you're going to be cast out from the society.

So basically, what was it? It was no different than getting leprosy. The consequence of drinking blood in violation of God's command was no different than getting leprosy. It was basically a death sentence. That's how sacred, that's how important this was. Then the second part of it, obviously, talks about being cut off.

Now, I want you to think about what you know about the blood and what the scripture teaches about the blood in the New Covenant, and now think of it as a Jew. If there's one thing that you would have never done as a Jew, you would have eaten blood.

There's a lot of things you wouldn't have done, right? I mean, if you went into a house where somebody was during their monthly flow, you would have become unclean, if you eat in certain kind of foods, you would have become unclean, if you touch sacred things, you would have been unclean.

There's a lot of things that the Jew would have avoided, but if there's one thing that they probably made sure that they never did was drink the blood of an animal, right? Because it was a death sentence. It wasn't just a slap. You can't be cured. At the end of the day, you go through ritual cleansing.

He says, "God's going to turn his face from you. You're going to be cut off. You're going to be guilty of murder." Now, having said that, that's what a Jew would have understood, and then we come to the New Testament. What does Jesus say? "If you do not drink of my blood and eat of my flesh, I have no relationship with you." So imagine how shocking this would have been to a Jew, right?

Living for hundreds of years, thinking that if you eat the blood of an animal, that you will die, that God is going to curse you, right? You're going to be cast out of the camp. Now, Jesus says this, if you know John chapter 6, in the context of people whose hearts were hardened, right?

They were following Jesus, because this is right after he fed the 5,000, and Jesus calls them out because he sees ingenuine faith, and he's telling them that, "I am the bread of life," and they wouldn't believe him. So he's talking to a group of people whose hearts were already hardened, and he's talking to unbelievers, right?

And so he tells them, and obviously this is clearly he's pointing to what he's about to do on the cross, and when he says, "Drink my blood, eat of my flesh," obviously he's talking about symbolically, right? He was going to shed his blood, and his body was going to be broken for our sins.

He doesn't explain this to them, right? But he says, "You must drink of my blood." And as a result of that, he says, "This is too hard," right? And even though they were coming, and these are the same group of people in chapter 6 who wanted to make him king, just 20 verses before this.

They were going to forcefully make him king because they ate the miraculous food, they saw a lot of these guys saw Jesus walking on water, they saw him healing the lame, opening the eyes of the man who was blind, they were convinced that he was the Messiah. But because of this statement, they walk away, right?

So John chapter 6, 66, he says, "Many of the disciples turned away and no longer followed Jesus because of this statement." So as a Jew, you can understand why this was a difficult thing for them to, right? But Jesus says actually quite a bit of things like that. In the Old Testament, and some of you guys mentioned how you guys went together for the gospel and one of the speakers talked about how God forbid Adam and Eve to eat of the tree and yet Jesus says, "You must eat of me." If you eat of this, you will die, but if you want to live, you must eat of me.

He tells in chapter 17 that you cannot drink the blood and yet in the New Testament, if you want to live, you must drink my blood, right? In every other situation, it would have brought condemnation, but only the blood of Christ, only the flesh of Christ, his true bread would have reversed that curse, right?

You know what's interesting is, again, there's another office that was forbidden. Over and over again in Israel's history, whenever a king touched the sacrifices, because those offices were never to be mixed, only the priest could make sacrifices and king were supposed to rule. Kings could not make sacrifices and priests could never become king.

Jesus comes and he's a king who's a priest, right? He comes in the order of Melchizedek, so that particular office was reserved for Jesus and Jesus only and anybody else who touched that was judged by God. So in the same way, there are things that was reserved that was only meant for Christ.

You know what's again, interesting is that the sacrifice, where was the sacrifice meant to be made? Outside the camp or inside the camp? Inside the camp at the tabernacle and if you make the sacrifice outside, right, you'd be guilty. Where was Jesus sacrificed? Outside the camp. Now what is the significance of that?

I want you guys to just think through what you see in the New Testament and what you're learning in the book of Leviticus because all of these things have significance to a Jew. So if somebody was sacrificed outside the camp, chapter 17 says you must not sacrifice outside the camp, right?

When Christ comes, he sacrifices outside the camp, meaning the sacredness of Israel has left. So Jesus not only is sacrificed outside the camp, what does he do? As he's sacrificed outside the camp, what does he say? To come outside with him, right? To come join him outside the camp.

When John the Baptist comes, he comes in and he's a prophet, right? And he doesn't come through the system of the Pharisees. Where does he go? Outside. He preaches out in the wilderness, outside of the epicenter of the Jewish religion, right? All of these things have significance. So what was considered sacred now is because God has turned his face from them, now God is calling them outside.

Instead of coming in, he calls them outside. Christ is sacrificed outside. He says don't drink the blood. Jesus says no, but drink my blood. Don't eat the flesh, but he said no, you have to eat my flesh, right? I want you guys to let this percolate in your head because all of this has specific meanings, right?

In 1 Peter 1, 18-19, it said, "Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." So here in 1 Peter 1, 18, it says, "The blood of Christ ransomed us." Ephesians 1, 7, "In him we have redemption through his blood." Again, all of these things point to the sacredness of the blood.

Colossians 1, 20, "And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of Christ." So we are ransomed, we are redeemed, and peace was brought through the blood. And then Revelation 1, 5, it says, "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on the earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood." We are ransomed, we're redeemed, we were made peace by his blood.

We were freed from our sins by his blood. And then Hebrews 9, 22, it says, "Without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins." So chapter 17 reserves the drinking of the blood as sacred because the life of the animal is in the blood, and that life was meant to be for the purpose of atoning sins.

That ultimately pointed to Christ. And so we come to the New Testament, it points to the sacredness, not of the animal's blood, but chapter 17 points to the sacredness of the blood of Christ. You follow? Because all that is happening in the book of Leviticus is to prepare, it's kind of like learning the ABC so you would learn how to write poetry and novels later on.

So the root understanding of the sacrifice of Christ is mentioned in chapter 17 so that Israel understood the sacredness of the blood, that without the shedding of blood, there is no sacrifice, there is no forgiveness of sins. And so therefore, blood is sacred. That's what was embedded into their culture.

So when Christ comes, he says, "No, this blood you must drink because my life is in this blood. And if you don't drink of my life, you cannot live." And that's the language that we see here in Hebrews 10.29, "How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the Spirit of grace?" So if in the Old Testament, profaning the blood of an animal caused capital punishment, how much more when somebody profanes the blood of Christ, spurns his grace, in other words, rejects it.

Ultimately, that's what he's talking about. Christ shed his blood for them and he doesn't consider it sacred and he rejects it. So remember the scripture talks about there's one sin that cannot be forgiven, it's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. And what is that sin? Rejection of the blood of Christ.

So all of this to teach the sacredness of what it is that we already have in Christ as a Christian. And to not to live day to day recognizing what it is that's been done for us. You know, we're kind of like, "Yeah, Jesus died for us on the cross." And the longer you've been a Christian, the less and less fantastic it becomes.

Like you were excited when you were beginning, when you were telling your testimony, but after you've been a Christian for 10, 15 years, you're kind of like, "Okay, what else?" And part of that, or a lot of that, is because we don't understand the weight of what it is that has been done for us.

And that's what Revelation was for. And so the Jews had that embedded into their culture for hundreds and hundreds of years. So when they heard, when they understand the blood of Christ, they already had all the ABCs. They went from elementary, you know, from kindergarten all the way up to college and they're getting their PhDs in Christ, but they kind of took the proper steps to get there.

Gentiles, you and I, we jump in at the PhD. And so we graduate, but we don't know how to do the math. We don't know how we got here. That's why the study of the Old Testament is so important. Because we know the answer, we don't know how we got to the answer.

You know what I mean? We cheated. We went to the back of the book and we found the numbers and we filled in the dots and we passed the test and we got our PhD, but we don't know how we got here. And so it's important for us to study Leviticus and numbers and different books because all of these things were stepping stones that led to the cross.

You understand? And why we're going back, you look at the book of Hebrews and Galatians and Romans, why it makes so much more sense once you know what God was doing in the Old Testament. Right? So my point is, if you've been sleeping through the Bible study all this time, to wake up because it is important.

It's going to affect how you understand the New Testament in a different level, the more you understand what we're talking about Leviticus. Okay? All right. So that's where we're going to be ending it today. Next week we're going to do a review. So if you, some of you, and I know the study of Leviticus is not easy.

It's not something that you can jump in in the middle and then just kind of, you know, like you're doing the epistles, you really need to kind of wrestle with it. So I'm pretty sure even if you've been following, there's probably gaps in your understanding. So what I'm going to ask you to do is we're going to take some time to review.

We're going to take next session. And then the first session that we have after we come back from our break, I'm going to try to answer some of your questions. Okay? So next week I'm going to do an overview study or just a review. And then if you can send in, okay, if you can email and send in, like, I don't understand it.

Can you re-explain this? And I'm going to try to touch upon some of that to try to get you up to speed so that next time we open this up, you'll be at a better place. So you don't kind of feel like you're lost and you're just kind of getting bits and pieces.

Okay? So I'm going to ask you to take the initiative if you're lost, say, "Hey, can you cover this?" But don't say, "Can you cover all of it?" Because obviously I'm not going to be able to do that. Be specific and I'll try to target some of that. Okay?

All right. So the discussion question, God made it very clear that he did not want his people to worship him in a manner that reflected pagan worship. Where do we draw the line between worship that reflects the world and biblical God-centered worship? You understand the question? All right? God made it very clear that he didn't want the worship of Yahweh to look anything like pagan worship, like the demon goat or goat demon worship.

Right? So today, and I'm not saying that that's what it is today, but if we're not careful, we're so concerned about making non-Christians comfortable in the church that we could easily, not deliberately, but easily twist certain things to make it more comfortable and the next thing you know, the worship of God starts to look like, you know, some rock concert or whatever.

Right? But where do we draw the line? Number two, why do we think idolatry was so attractive to the Israelites? In what form is idolatry practiced today? Obviously, we don't have the same kind of idolatry we have in the Old Testament where you actually have figures that they bow down to, but idolatry is described as anything that takes the place of God in worship.

So do we worship idols today? Yes. It's just not carved out by hands. Right? Worship money, worship success, worship family, worship children. Right? Why were these things so attractive to the nation of Israel? They had the living God who was performing miracles and God was speaking to them and yet they kept on falling back to idolatry.

What was going on in their heads? And why was it so attractive? And then how does that reflect what's happening today? Right? Number three, the communion table is partaking of Christ's blood and flesh to remember his sacrifice for us. So take a few minutes to read 1 Corinthians 11, 26 to 32.

How seriously should we be taking the communion table? So in 1 Corinthians 11, 26 to 32, basically it says some people were falling sick or even dying because they were not taking the covenant cup seriously. Right? So even in the New Testament communion table, the communion table was considered very sacred and we see that ideology embedded in what we studied today in chapter 17.

Right? The blood was considered sacred. So the blood of Christ that we partake in was considered sacred. So anybody participating in a nonchalant manner where unconfessed sins and in that context where they were ignoring the poor brothers and it was causing division in the church. So as a result of that, some were actually falling sick and dying.

Just like it says in chapter 17. Right? So how important is communion table today? Right? At least in our attitude that it is a sacred time and that's why we always say that this is reserved for people who are repentant sinners. Right? So it's not meant for the non-Christians and I know, you know, I know a church, a pastor, and I'm not going to say because I think, you know, many of you will know, and I remember having a serious conversation with him because he was opening up the communion table to non-Christians and he was asking non-Christians to come.

So I was very concerned about what I heard. So I went and talked to him and I said, "Hey, I heard that you're doing this and is this true?" And he told me that he was doing it because he didn't want the non-Christians to feel awkward during that time.

You know? And so obviously we had a serious discussion about that and he didn't like what I had to say, you know, but it was like even the communion table was open because they're concerned about the non-Christians but communion is meant to be a sacred time, a sacred place.

Right? So take some time to discuss this in your small group. Then let me pray for us and I'll have you guys go into your small group. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your blessing. We thank you, Lord God, for all these intricate details that help us to understand what it is that we already have in Christ.

The sacred blood, Lord God, that was shed for us and each time we think of our own lives, Lord God, it's because you've imputed your righteousness in us and by your sacred blood of your flesh that was broken on our behalf. Help us to understand the depth of grace and depth of love that we have in you that we would not walk nonchalantly, Lord God, as if it's a peripheral priority in our lives.

Help us to see the importance of it, Lord, that we may be consumed with it, to understand the depth of what it is that we have, that our life would truly be a reasonable response. Bless our time of discussion. I pray that you would help us to be open and honest and as iron sharpening iron, let us be sharpened as a result.

In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.