Turn to Leviticus chapter 22. All right, let me pray for us and we'll jump right in. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you again for just the privilege that we have to be able to come and study your word together. We know that there are parts of scripture, especially in Leviticus, that are difficult to understand.

Help us not to shy away from digging, asking, and even if we don't get the answers that we want and hoping for, help us, Lord God, that in our pursuit that we would get a greater glimpse of who you are and that we would come closer and closer, Lord God, each week to understanding your heart and your desire.

Help us to have a greater understanding of the gospel, what you have done, and all of this, Lord, prepare for the coming of Christ and what he has done for us. Help us, Lord God, as we have a deeper understanding of your mercies, that it would have a deep effect on our thoughts, our worship, our singing, our giving.

Our very lives, Lord God, may truly be offered up to you as a living sacrifice. So we pray for your blessing this afternoon, this evening. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so we're looking at Leviticus chapter 22. Chapter 21 and 22, you probably already noticed that in your outline it belongs together.

So chapter 21 was about the regulations on who can and cannot be priests, what kind of defects or whatever impurities that the priest would have and that would disqualify him. In chapter 22, we get to the talking about who are able to handle and eat and participate in the meals that were, or the meats that were sacrificed to the tabernacle.

So really in outline, it really belongs together. But I want to jump in, so I want to give you enough time with as small a group as possible. The first part of it, verse 1 to 3, starts as an introduction and basically the outline is that no impure priest may present a sacred offering, that he's not able to touch it, he's not able to participate in it.

Just as a quick, broad overview, the book of Leviticus is an instructional manual on how to worship God. So back in seminary, we had to take classes, depending on which seminary you go to, they have different classes on this, but the theology of worship. And depending on which tradition you come from, whether you're Baptist or Presbyterian or whatever background, there's long history and theology behind why they do what they do.

So if you grew up in a Presbyterian church or a Methodist church, you'll notice that the pulpit is usually on the side. The middle, there's a kind of an altar where they do communion and then you have on the left side, typically, you have on the left side, you have where the presider comes and gives announcements and maybe a prayer and then the pastor typically gives his message on the right side, the pulpit that's standing on the right, because the philosophy behind it is that at the center is the altar.

And so that's where the communion takes place and everything else takes place on the side. If you go to a typical Baptist church, you'll find that the pulpit is in the middle. And the theology or the philosophy behind that is that the foundation of the church is God's word.

So behind everything that we do, we want the word of God to be centered. So if you typically go to a non-denominational church, you'll see a pulpit in the middle. If you go to a traditional Presbyterian church, I've noticed that more and more Presbyterian churches are kind of bringing the pulpit to the middle because of a call to make the Bible central.

But again, if you go to a traditional Presbyterian Methodist church, you'll see it on the side. Now all of this to say that the book of Leviticus really was meant for the Jewish community an instructional manual on how to worship God, because that's what the tabernacle ultimately is. We're talking about giving sacrifices and different kinds of offerings and all of that is a manual as to how a sinful people can approach a holy God for the purpose of worship.

And so everything that we're learning here are instructions on how to approach this holy God. The Lord made sure that no one ever approached Him in a casual manner. So He didn't just give general instructions and say, "Make sure that you're clean. Make sure you do this. Make sure you do it on the Sabbath." He gave specific instruction.

And remember what happened in Leviticus chapter 10? The very first offering that was given, it just says, "There was a sense of seriousness." Sense of seriousness. That's the puzzle. Sense of seriousness. And again, every part of the book of Leviticus was to instill in the people when they were approaching God to take it very serious.

In fact, the word for glory literally means to be weighty. That's a literal understanding of the word glory, is to be weighty. Something heavy. So everything about approaching the glory of God was meant to instill something very heavy. So you were never to casually approach the throne of God.

But just kind of walk in. You know, you've just played BBA and then you just wiped off sweat and you just kind of walked into the tabernacle. That never happened. And God did that deliberately so that when it was your time to go to the tabernacle to make the sacrifices, there was plenty of preparation that took place to examine yourself, examine the animal, examine to see what you came in touch with, what kind of clothes you wore.

Everything you did, you had to be thoughtful and careful because if you went in there nonchalantly and you didn't follow instructions, there was sometimes capital punishment. So everything about worship was to instill a sense of heaviness that you're approaching the holy, holy, holy God. And that's why all of these instructions that are given, even though it may be tedious and difficult to understand, the overarching theme behind it is don't come to God nonchalantly.

Make sure you're prepared. Make sure you're thinking thoroughly. Verses four to nine, no impure priest may eat of the sacred offering. Chapter 21, again, as I mentioned earlier, was dealt with who was able to serve as a priest. Those who did not qualify were still able to eat of the sacrifice food.

According to chapter 21, 22. But chapter 22 gives guidelines as to who can and cannot participate in eating of the food. So that's basically the outline of the rest of the chapter. Chapter four through chapter 22, verse four through 30. Who can, who cannot participate in this. A broad outline.

Holiness in the book of Leviticus is symbolized with wholeness. So we've already gone through maybe about six or seven different lists up to this point of what kind of defects disqualify the priest, what kind of defects disqualify the animal. And so again, the overarching teaching is that whatever you bring to God, whether it is the person representing the people or the animal sacrifice itself, it had to be perfect without defect.

So holiness is symbolized through wholeness. And that's what he's describing. So I'm not going to go through every single one of these, but no man is to come if he's a no man who is a leopard is allowed to touch the sacrifices. No man who has a discharge and now none of these things are new to chapter 22.

It's all been mentioned previously, but it just kind of, he just kind of rapid fire. No man who touches anything unclean by a corpse, no man who has seminal emission and no man who touches any teaming or crawling things. So all of these things would cause the man to be defected and to be unclean.

Now we talked about this last week, that all of this ultimately is not to say that if you have leprosy, that somehow you're a greater sinner than somebody who doesn't have leprosy, or if you had certain kind of discharge or somehow you came in contact with, with a dead animal or human being that you became defiled and you became a greater sinner than somebody else.

Right? We already talked about that last week. This, if this doesn't mean that you are a greater sinner because you have these things, right? Every part of this is a shadow of the reality that was coming in Christ. So when it says that anything that is not completely pure cannot be in the presence of God, all of this is to point to what was going to happen in Christ.

If you became unclean and it was something that you were able to rectify, he says in verse 6 and 7 that you are to go through a ritual bathing, then he will be considered clean when the sun sets. And again, all of this is mentioned in the previous chapters and he's just reiterating.

No man shall eat any animal that dies or is torn by wild animals. Only meat that is sacrificed officially to the Lord. An animal that may have been killed is lying on the street and may be perfectly edible. It hasn't rotted, maybe it just happened. But purpose of doing that is to make sure that whatever sacrifice that is given to the Lord, that it was intentional.

It was not just something worthless that was picked up and then you just threw it on the altar to kind of, you know, to satisfy God. He says God, the sacrifice that we offer up to God ought to be intentional. And then he says if any priest profanes the sacrifice of God, his penalty is death.

Again, for the priest, so imagine if you're a priest and if you violate any of these things, just like Neydevin and Nebiu, it wasn't just a slap on the hand saying, okay, you're going to get punished, time out for a month and you can't serve. He says if the people who are representing God, these priests, and a greater consequence for the high priest, if you come before the Lord nonchalantly without taking seriously the position that he's in, he says that the penalty is death.

So imagine what was going through the mind of a priest every time he came to the altar. I mean, I could imagine that the priest, that even if you had only one hour of sleep, if you were approaching the altar, that nobody fell asleep on duty. That's my guess, right?

My guess is nobody came into the tent nonchalantly, nobody touched the animal nonchalantly. There was a sense of seriousness, right? Because they understood the consequence. Just like if you're going into an operating room, right, having open heart surgery, you don't just go in there with dirty hands. You don't walk in there because any little taint, anything that happened, you don't chew gum and then drop spit into an open cavity.

You don't go in there nonchalantly. Everything has to be scrubbed, it has to be sterile. Everybody needs to be on top of the game. So if the surgeon says, "Give me this," they have to jump and give it to you right away. I mean, everybody is supposed to be on high alert when they're in that room.

That's the kind of atmosphere that was created by all these commands. Anybody who was in the tabernacle, it was kind of getting into the operating room and it's sterile and it's perfect and everything has to be done exactly the way God wanted it to happen, right? As tedious as it is, again, because the consequence ultimately was death.

Verses 10-16, "Who may or may not eat of the sacred offering?" And he gives a list of boundaries, right? And it's limited to the people who are connected to the priesthood, the Levites. So one, no one outside of the priest's household could eat of them. No sojourners and no hired men.

The priest did not have the option to say, "You know, we have so many left over, why don't we give it to our neighbors?" Because the sacrifice was considered sacred, the only people who were able to participate in it were the family members. No guests were allowed to come, no sojourners, nobody who was hungry.

It had to be family members. A slave is given the privilege to eat the offering since he is considered family if his position is permanent. In other words, again, our idea of slavery, at least because of the evils that we've seen in modern history, but a lot of the things that there were then, if you could have been a good master, and maybe for financial reasons to help that family, he said if the person was purchased to be a slave, he was treated like a family member and he was allowed to participate in this meal.

Because if they didn't, there was no other way for them to eat. So slaves were considered within that family where they were able to handle the sacred thing or eat of it. If the priest's daughter is married to a layman, she will be disqualified to eat of it because she is now connected to a new family.

So she no longer is able to be connected and to eat of the sacred food. A daughter who is widowed or divorced may eat of the father's food. Again, because of their widowhood and divorce, they had no other place where they can be connected so God allowed them to be able to participate in the sacred meal.

If the holy gift is eaten unintentionally, he must follow the requirements given in the sin offering by adding a fifth to the cost of the holy gift that was consumed to the priest. Again, this is all mentioned in chapter 515. Sin offering, or another word for it is reparation offering.

When you taint the offering and as a result of that you have to pay them back, you pay them back and you're supposed to give one fifth back to them. So it said if you eat of it unintentionally and you defile it, you're supposed to pay it back. Then finally, they must not treat the sacred offering as everyday items by allowing lay people of Israel to eat them.

And to disrespect the sacred offering was to disrespect God himself, verse 15 and 16. Repeatedly, over and over again, it is emphasized. If you disrespect the sacred, anything that is sacred to God, God took it as you are disrespecting me. Remember why David, he would not slay King Saul?

Even though he had an opportunity, even though Saul was just committed to get rid of David, remember what David said? Because Saul was an anointed of God, because he was anointed from God, he was afraid that he was disrespecting God by disrespecting his anointed. Even though Saul was trying to kill him.

David understood this because this was embedded into Israel's history, Israel's day to day life. Anything that was set apart for God was to be considered belonging to God. So in this way, God took care of the Levites. The Levites were not given a piece of land. So if you, some of you guys who may, I'm assuming most of you are probably hazy with the book of Numbers, but the book of Numbers is about inheritance.

You entered into the wandering of the desert with 600,000 men, and then they walk out with 600,000 men. But each of the tribes, they grow or they decrease depending upon their faithfulness in the 40 years of wandering in the desert. So when they finally get into the promised land, based upon the number of people in your tribe, they gave them a piece of land.

So it was divided into various pieces of land, but the Levites did not get any. Levites got pieces of land within the large pieces of land. So they didn't have an inheritance in land. So their inheritance was that whatever was given to the temple, the tent, the grain offering, the sacrifices, that was their portion.

And so God basically said that whatever is coming in, because that's the only portion that they have, this is dedicated for them. And so in that way, God took care of them. So when Jesus says in Matthew 6, 31 to 34, that idea of "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you," really was embedded before Jesus said that.

Right? So we're talking about the Levites, that because they were dedicated for the Lord's service, the Lord will take care of their family. Right? At least it's not a direct connection, but the idea is embedded into what we see here. Proper animals for sacrifices, chapter 22, 17 through 25.

The first thing that he mentions, the votive or the vow offering and freewill offering, which sometimes we call it the fellowship offering, given as a burnt offering must be a male, cattle, sheep, or goat without defect. Again, none of this is new to you because this was all mentioned before, but when you choose to give this offering, give the burnt offering as a freewill or a vow offering.

It has to follow the stipulations and the commandments given in the earlier chapters. Those that are blind or fractured or maimed or having a running sore, eczema, or scabs will not be accepted as a sacrifice to the Lord. Again, the sacrifice, not only the priest, but the sacrifice itself has to be without defect.

But he does give one condition. For a freewill offering, an ox or a lamb with overgrown or stunted members will be accepted. Only a freewill offering, God accepts a defected animal, but not for a vow offering. Why do you think that is? Why does God give room for a defected animal for the freewill offering?

Every other offering was mandatory. It was for the purpose of rectifying a sin. A freewill offering was out of thanksgiving, right? And so God wanted to give from the abundance of your heart, so God gave room. Give what you can. So only in the freewill offering, God gave permission to give a defected animal, but everything else had to be exactly what God told him, without defect.

Any animal with crushed testicles are considered corrupt and with defect and will not be accepted before the Lord. You probably will never read that phrase anywhere else, maybe in your life, or maybe if you go into, you're going to be a veterinarian or something. I don't know where you would ever hear this.

Maybe go to the medical field, like those of you in the medical field, do you read this somewhere? Like how to treat people with crushed testicles? I mean, you probably, this statement, you probably only hear it in the book of Leviticus, right? And it's not mentioned once in passing.

It's actually pretty significant. It's mentioned several times with the priests, with the animals, and it starts and ends sometimes highlighting this. Why do you think that is? And certain other diseases that are emphasized, like leprosy, right? Leprosy ultimately pointed to sin and the damage of sin. And he specifically mentions all the things that he could mention.

It's like, oh, you can't bring an animal with one ear, right? Could have said that. Or one nostril bent, right? Or four fingers. I don't know. There's so many things that you could have mentioned, but specifically crushed testicles, right? Why is that? You read before you came. All right.

So it's directly connected to when God created Adam and Eve, he's told them to be fruitful and multiply, right? So remember the whole holiness is represented in wholeness, right? And one of the key qualities of being whole is to be able to carry out what God intended mankind to do.

And so a human being and an animal, again, all of these are symbolic and shadow of what God will restore in the future, right? So again, just because a man or an animal had crushed testicles doesn't mean that it can't be a whole human being, right? But basically in the symbolism, in the shadow of the fall of man and not being able to carry out what God commanded them to do, that in the end it's highlighted, right?

They are not able to be fruitful and multiply. So it emphasizes that these animals and these human beings who have these defects cannot approach the Lord, right? In Malachi chapter one, seven through eight, Malachi highlights the sin of Israel. And he says, "You are presenting defiled food upon my altar, but you say, 'How have we defiled you in that you say the table of the Lord is to be despised, but when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil?'" Right?

He doesn't say it's a mistake. He says, "When you do not follow the command of the Lord, it is considered evil. And when you present the lame and the sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you or would he receive you kindly, says the Lord of hosts." In other words, you have these defected animals.

If you're coming to the Lord, right? If you're going to a governor, like, would you ever give a defected animal a sacrifice? He's going to look at it and, you know, and sees that this is something that is not as worth the best. If you're going to the governor's house to present the gift, wouldn't you choose what is best?

Why would you not have the same reverence or more when you approach the Lord? Right? Think about that, how that translates in the way that we approach God. The kind of reverence that we have toward job applications, right? Job interviews, right? Into certain things like, "Oh, I can never be late.

You know, I have to do this." And you dress up and you make sure everything's great. But for whatever the reason, when we come to worshiping God, we have a lax attitude. I remember somebody saying, you know, making fun of me because I wear, you know, suits on Sunday, you know, especially we live in SoCal, California, where it's just casual, you know, maybe I just like wearing suits.

And again, the Bible doesn't say, "Bear wearing suits makes it more reverent." Right? And so that doesn't mean anything at all. It doesn't mean like you can wear a suit and be completely irreverent. But the general idea of approaching God with reverence, if you're going to, if you are a person who is casual all the time, maybe, right?

But in other words, he's saying, if you come to a governor, you would never come to the governor casually. Why do you approach the Lord casually? Right? Now, I'm not applying and therefore saying that you have to wear a suit, you have to do this, you have to do that.

Okay? That's not what I'm saying. But in our attitude, right? In the attitude that we have toward worshiping God, we should show a greater reverence toward God than a job interview. Right? Everything that he says here, it directly parallels the teachings about the priest. Right? So chapter 22, it talks about the blind, fractured maim, right?

The skin disease and scabs and then it ends with crushed testicles. Right? So it starts with the blind and then forbids crushed testicles. Leviticus 21, like these are the qualifications of the priest that he must not be blind or lame. Right? And then eczema, scabs and then crushed testicles.

So it kind of parallels. So the same defects that disqualifies a priest, it will disqualify the sacrifice itself. Fifth, the proper procedure for sacrifice for 26 through 30. The animal must be at least eight days old. Let's look at verse 27. When an ox or a sheep or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother and from the eighth day on it shall be accepted as a sacrifice of an offering by fire to the Lord.

Some have argued that maybe this was God's way of showing compassion. Right? And I've read that in commentaries and some people think that maybe that's the reason. We don't know for sure. I don't think it was necessary for compassion because giving the mother eight days to nurse the child or whatever you want to call it, right?

And then to take it away, I would think that that would be even more cruel. I think the reason why is to make sure that the offering that you're giving to God is an animal that's actually going to live. Right? Now, today, if the child is born without any kind of defect and health issues, you know, majority of the children will survive.

But a long time ago when there wasn't good medical facilities, you know, and doctors around, you know, it was a big deal that the children made it past 100 days. Right? And so in different cultures, and I know in Korean cultures, they have a 100-day celebration because not that long ago, children didn't make it past 100 days.

Right? And so I think that the reason why this is given is to make sure that the sacrifice that was going to be given to God wasn't a sacrifice that was going to die anyway. Right? To nurse the child, that it is a sacrifice that is going to qualify as what God has been saying up to this point.

Right? That is a sacrifice that's going to cost something. The animals and its young could not be slaughtered on the same day. Right? Verse 28. "For whether it is an ox or a sheep, you shall not kill both it and its young in one day." There are similar prohibitions that are given in other parts of the Bible.

It is forbidden to take a bird and its egg together. Right? In Exodus 23, 19, it says it is forbidden to cook a kid in its mother's milk. There are other parts of the Bible that kind of mirrors this commandment. Now again, we're not exactly sure why this was given.

It seems like to me that there is something sacred between a mother and child. Possibly. Maybe that's the reason. But clearly this principle is repeated in other parts of the Bible, in other areas. The sacrifice of Thanksgiving must be eaten on the same day and not leave any of it for the morning.

Because this was not considered just food for you to store up. It was a sacred food that was offered to God and you were to rely on God's provision. Right? And you were to rely on the sacrifices. So if you remember, in the Lord's Prayer, what did he say?

He said, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread." Why does it say daily bread? One, it points to the time that Israelites were in the desert, right?

And then God gave them miraculous food and God told them only pick up the food for that day. Right? And anything else that you pick up more than that will be rotten. And only on the day before the Sabbath, you are to collect for the Sabbath because you're not supposed to work on that day.

But even before the miraculous manna happened, God told them here. Right? Because this tabernacle happened before the 40 days wandering. Right? Before they went and entered into the desert. So the idea of depending upon God for daily sustenance is embedded into their culture. Because what does he say later on in Hosea?

That the primary, one of the primary reasons why Israel kept on drifting away from God is when they were fed, they became proud and they what? Forgot God. And that was the pattern that you saw in the nation of Israel over and over again. When they were desperate, they cried out to God.

God answers their prayer. God feeds them. And then once they get fed and they're comfortable, right? They become proud. Hey, look at all this food. We're good. Then as soon as they're comfortable, they forget God. And then once they forget God, they begin to drift out into the idols.

Right? So God embedded into the Israelites culture to be dependent upon him. That's why Jesus said it is harder for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven than a camel through an eye of a needle. Because a rich man is constantly proud that he is good.

That he's not desperate before God. Does that mean that all poor people are desperate for God? Does that mean that all rich people are proud? Absolutely not. But there's a greater temptation. So give us this day our daily bread is not simply limited to the manna in the desert.

This was actually embedded into God's principle. To be dependent upon him. Concluding remarks in 31-33, two biblical reasons are given as motivation for obedience at the end. First, the Lord is their Redeemer who brought them out of Egypt to be their God. Verse 31, "So you shall keep my commandments and do them.

I am the Lord. You shall not profane my holy name, but I will be sanctified among the sons of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord." So first, he says, "Remember why you're here." Every time things got tough, what did they do?

They began to grumble. They forgot where they were. They were slaves, right? But when things got tough and they started grumbling, they said, "Oh, I remember how Egypt was so great." And they forgot. And God says, "I want you to obey my commandment because I'm the one who delivered you out of Egypt." And I think this principle is so important for us as Christians.

And this is why in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, it says, "In view of his mercy." As soon as his mercy becomes just an afterthought or we become apathetic toward our salvation and what he has done, our attitude toward God becomes nonchalant. Our desperateness and thankfulness, it disappears because after a while, it just becomes old news.

And that's why it's a constant necessity as Christians to remember. Remember what we've been saved from, right? Remember the ugliness of sin. Remember the bondage that we were under before we met Christ. And he says, "It's the Lord who delivered us out of Egypt." In other words, so pay attention.

Secondly, "The Lord who redeemed us is a holy God. Therefore, Israel must not profane his name." I think I have a... Redemption and obedience to the Holy Redeemer go hand in hand. So this kind of reminds me, like if you ask a child under a certain age, I don't know, I forget exactly when that happens, you know, probably around 11 or 12, you ask them, you know, "Do you love your mommy or daddy?" And they'll say, "Yes." And you ask them why and they'll tell you.

"Because you got me socks. Because you got me yogurt land." And they'll tell you the things that you did for them. And they'll say, "That's why I love you, because you did these things." If you ask a 19-year-old, you know, "Do you love mommy or daddy?" You say, "Yes." "Why?" "Because you bought me a car." Right?

Or, "You got me new shoes." Or, "You paid for something." It won't sound the same. It's not going to say, "Oh, that's so cute. I'm going to keep giving you stuff." At some point, you expect love to mature. You don't, if somebody in their 20s and 30s saying, "Well, I love you because you bought me this and you bought me that," you know, meaning that if you stop giving me this stuff, I don't know if I'm going to keep loving you.

That's okay as a child, but as you mature, hopefully they'll mature enough to understand that you have these things because you have your parents. And you love your parents because they're your parents. Right? And that's exactly what God is saying. He said, "Remember that I'm the one who delivered you out of Egypt, but the ultimate reason why is because the Lord your God is holy.

So therefore, you ought to be holy." Right? So, both of them are important. But at some point, every Christian needs to mature beyond, "What did God do for me?" And if a Christian doesn't mature, his affection for Christ is always going up and down based upon what God is doing or not doing.

Right? If he has a good job or not good job, if people are nice to him, if his circumstance is great, like God is great. If it's not, where is God? And he has an infant understanding, an infant relationship with God the rest of his life. And so when the Bible says, "Be holy for I am holy," it's never a real motivation for them because, "What have you done for me lately?" Right?

Ultimately, the reason behind our obedience and wanting to be holy is when God is the one who provides, God is the one who delivers, but ultimately it's because he is holy. Christ ultimately is both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice. As we mentioned last week, that all of this ultimately points to Christ the perfect priest, Christ the perfect sacrifice.

Right? Hebrews chapter 7, 26, "For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens." Hebrews 9, 14, "How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God." Okay?

1 Peter 1, 18, 19, "Knowing that you are not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood as a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ." So all of this ultimately points to Christ perfect priesthood, Christ perfect sacrifice.

Right? So, a Jew who read these passages would have automatically connected it to the tabernacle. You see why the book of Leviticus is so important? There's so much language in the New Testament that if you knew it, when you read it, it has a completely different perspective. Because a Jew would have read this and automatically connected to everything that they were doing for hundreds and hundreds of years.

And then they may have said, "Well, God told us to do this." And can you imagine having done this for generation to generation to generation, having it embedded into your culture, and it didn't make full sense until Christ came? And then when this revelation started to really unfold, you start realizing, "That's why he told us to do that." That's why he needed to be without defect.

That's why the priest had to be perfect. That's why they had to be clothed in this way. So everything that was a shadow, all of a sudden, they came out from behind the curtain and say, "This is who I am." That's exactly what it says, Hebrews chapter one. Christ is a radiance of God's glory, exact representation of who God is.

All of this ultimately fulfilled in Christ. Finally, his perfect priesthood and his perfect sacrifice was to redeem for himself a perfect church. As it states in Ephesians 5, 25-27, "Husband, love your wife just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself a church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless." So again, the whole point of this tabernacle and all these tedious requirements and weightiness and without blemish, without defect, all of it, so that Christ's perfect priesthood would give Christ perfect sacrifice to establish Christ's perfect church, covered by his blood.

So again, as we wrap up for this evening, I'm going to give you time to have time for discussion. What do we learn from this? Because all of this was embedded. So clearly it's fulfilled in Christ, but imagine what this did to the nation of Israel. What kind of mindset did they have when they approached God?

How did they look at sacrifices they offered up to God? What kind of teaching did they give to the priesthood, anybody who represented God? And how does that translate into how we ought to view God and the things of God today? So the three questions, do you think your attitude toward worshipping God is done in reverence?

What does that look like on Sunday and in private worship? Number two, 2 Timothy 2.20-21 says that, "In a large house there are items that are honorable and dishonorable, and that we ought to rid our lives of dishonorable things to be prepared for God's use." What is the first thing you think of when you think of what is dishonorable in your life?

So I'm not asking you guys to take all night to talk about every little dishonorable thing, and it doesn't necessarily have to be something external. It could be internal. But what's the first thing? What's the biggest thing that you think of when you think of dishonorable? And what way are you making an effort to purge yourself from that?

Three, if Jesus died to make us perfect worshipper, why do we still experience so much struggle with our flesh? What does Christian perfection look like in the Bible? When I say Christian perfection, I'm not talking about like somehow after we become Christian, we have the ability to be absolutely perfect.

God calls us holy, right? God says His church is without blemish, without a spot. And why do we have so much struggle? Is it simply being forgiven to do whatever we want, or does God actually command and expect the church to practice holiness in our lives? Explain your answers with Scripture if possible.

Okay? Hopefully, that's self-explanatory, but let me pray for us, and then you can break up into your small groups. Father, I pray for your blessing upon our small group time. I pray for our leaders, Lord, that you give them wisdom to be able to guide the discussion. I pray that you would bring fruitfulness in all the things, Lord God, that we have gleaned from your Word, that it would be fortified, strengthened, and to have a deepening effect of it, Lord God, through our discussion.

So I pray, Father, your Holy Spirit would lead and guide us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.