Through the Bible - Leviticus

How many of you have set out before to read the Bible in a year and hit the third book, only to have a problem there? Well, after this week, I decided we’re just going to go on back to the Pauline epistles tonight. Just kidding! We are going to be in the book of Leviticus tonight, so if you want to open your Bibles to the book of Leviticus, we will do our best to cover this whole book.

How many of you took the time this week to read through the book of Leviticus? Good! Part of it? Some of you made it through the first few chapters and thought, "Man, let’s just go to Numbers." You’ll notice that just from the title, the name Leviticus contains the word Levi. This book surrounds the Levites, as the word Leviticus means pertaining to the priesthood or pertaining to the Levites.

Let’s pray before we get into the Word and see what the Lord has to speak to us here.

God, we do thank You for the opportunity to come before You tonight and worship You, especially as we consider this book and how it was in the Old Testament that man was able to come before You through the sacrificial system. Yet, Lord, as we will consider tonight, You are that sacrifice once for all so that we could come before You tonight by the blood of Jesus. We thank You, Jesus, that You have made the way straight. You told Your disciples in John 14 that You are the way to the Father, and we thank You for opening that way tonight. We praise You and ask that You would speak to us by Your Spirit, through Your Word, and give us understanding into this passage. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

The things that pertain to the priesthood are significant. As we have already been going through Genesis and Exodus, we notice that in the first two books of the Bible, God has sacrifices that He required for fallen man to come before Him.

Even all the way back in Genesis chapter 3, right after the first sin, it appears that there was the first sacrifice. God took clothing of skins for Adam and Eve after they had sinned to replace what they tried to use to cover their nakedness. Remember, what did they use? Fig leaves, right? Any of you ever touched a fig leaf before? I don't know. But man's way is inadequate. We saw that in the book of Genesis. His covering, even from the very first sin, trying to cover up the first sin with fig leaves, is inadequate. It doesn't work.

God had to show man how he was to come before Him and approach Him, and it was through the sacrifices. In both Genesis and Exodus, we see burnt offerings mentioned several times. A burnt offering was offered to the Lord by Abel in the book of Genesis. There were burnt offerings that were offered to God by Noah after the flood, and there were burnt offerings that Abraham offered to God. Various times in the book of Genesis, we consider burnt offerings, and then we consider further offerings given in the book of Exodus.

Exodus showed us the way of redemption, as God brought His people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. We left off last week with the children of Israel building the tabernacle at Mount Sinai. They were in the wilderness, but primarily they were at Mount Sinai, which is distinct and different from just their wilderness wanderings. They spent what appears to be about two years there at Mount Sinai.

The book we come to tonight, the book of Leviticus, covers only about a month of time where God gives to Moses and the children of Israel how they are to approach Him. God gave them a tabernacle in the book of Exodus. He gave them the law in Exodus chapters 20 through about 25, and then He called them to build this tabernacle. The last chapter, Exodus chapter 40, ended with the cloud of the glory of God descending upon the tabernacle.

So they have a tabernacle, this place of meeting, where God was going to meet with His people. God's whole desire in bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt was that He could dwell in the midst of His people, restoring fellowship. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was able to walk with God in the cool of the day. But after sin, that wasn't possible. Fallen man is redeemed by God out of Egypt, brought out of the world. Egypt is a picture of the world in Exodus.

And then God gives him His commandments, His law. This is how you are to serve Me. This is how you are to follow Me. He gives them this tabernacle and says, "I want to dwell in the midst of you." But now, what is this tabernacle for? How are they to meet with God? So, there was a priesthood established.

The interesting thing about this priesthood is that it was not only supposed to be for the Levites. God desired that the nation of Israel would be a nation of priests. But they fell. Remember, they had told God in Exodus, "All that You have commanded, we will do and be obedient." Did they do that? No. In fact, it only took them about 40 days of Moses being up on the mountaintop for them to turn to Aaron and say, "As for this Moses, we don't know what happened to him. So make us a god of gold."

What does he make? He says, "Give me your earrings and all this stuff." They give it to him, and he says that he just put it into the fire and out came this golden calf. Well, no. He fashioned this golden calf and told the children of Israel that this is the god that brought you out of Egypt. They bowed down to it. God tells Moses while he's up on the mountaintop, "Get down the mountain. These people have already transgressed."

Right after that point, God tells Moses to call unto Himself all the people in the nation that are faithful. The only people that show up outside the camp were the Levites. They were the ones whom God told Moses to tell to put the sword on their side. They were to go into the camp and slay anybody who was bowing down to this false god, this golden calf. About 3,000 people were killed that day.

But it was the Levites who followed the Lord and faithfully did what they were commanded to do, even though that had to have been hard. Their brothers and sisters, cousins, and family members were the ones they were striking down and killing because of this sin. As a result of their faithfulness, God called them to be the priestly tribe. Initially, it was God's desire that the whole nation would be a nation of priests.

When we read the book of Leviticus, things pertaining to the priesthood were not only supposed to be for the Levites; they were to be for the entire nation of Israel. These things were given to them, but the nation of Israel failed, as do all of us.

In the New Testament, we do not have a Levitical priesthood. There is a different priesthood that we read of. In fact, we find it in the book of 1 Peter, chapter 2. There is a verse that you may have heard before, verse 9. It says, "But you, now remember, Peter is speaking to the church, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation, a peculiar people."

Some translations say "a strange people," that you should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Notice that it says you are a royal priesthood. The church is filled with priests. What is our purpose? What is our job? He tells us our job and our purpose right there in the end of verse 9: that you should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

There was the function of the priesthood in the Old Testament, and we're going to consider that a little bit tonight. But there is also the function of the priesthood in the New Testament. We believe in the priesthood of all believers. God desires that every single one of us would be used as ministers of His gospel to show forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

God called the children of Israel out of darkness. Remember, they were in Egypt in bondage. He called them out and brought them out by His own strength, by His own power, and by His own mighty, stretched-out arm. He brought them out of Egypt, as we saw in the book of Exodus. It was God's grace that He went down there, hearing their cry, and delivered them from bondage. It was His power that brought them out of bondage. They could never have gotten themselves out of bondage.

I don't understand where Christians today come up with the idea that the children of Israel in the Old Testament were saved by their sacrificial works. They were saved out of Egypt by God's grace and His power before they even had a tabernacle, before they were given the law, and before they entered into the covenant with God. Leviticus does not surround how the nation of Israel was going to be saved; they were already saved and redeemed out of Egypt. God had already redeemed them.

This book surrounds how they are going to approach God. The primary and major theme of this book is the theme of holiness. Holiness is what this entire book is about, and we sang a lot about that tonight. Holiness is not just the end result; it is what God desires to bring us to. We will consider a few verses regarding that in a few minutes. God wants to bring us to that place of holiness.

The other themes that we see in this book are those of sanctification. God sanctifies us, which is just a big word for cleanses us. He cleans us and wants to set us apart so that we would be holy or consecrated unto Him. Holiness simply means it is the end result of sanctification. It is being set apart; you are set apart to the Lord.

You're completely His. It has been said many times before that it took God one night to get the children of Israel out of Egypt, but it took Him 40 years to get Egypt out of the children of Israel. God had to cleanse them; He had to transform them.

As we go through the Bible, particularly the New Testament, over the next year, you will see that God is doing the very same thing with us. He has taken us out of the world and redeemed us by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus is the Lamb of God, slain before the foundation of the world. We saw the Passover Lamb last week. God sent His Son, the Lamb, to take away the sin of the world. He has redeemed us out of the world.

Yet, how many of you still struggle with sin? We all do. This struggle is described in Romans chapter 7: "The good that I want to do, I don't do, and the bad things that I don't want to do, that I practice. I find in my flesh dwells no good thing. Oh, wretched man that I am." We're all in that place.

In many ways, we find ourselves in the place of Leviticus because God desires to cleanse us and sanctify us. We have been redeemed; we are no longer in Egypt, but Egypt has to get out of us. We must be purged by the Lord.

One of the things you find as you read through the book of Leviticus, and something you probably noticed if you read through it this week, is that the thing God uses to cleanse and transform is the blood. The blood is mentioned constantly in the book of Leviticus. In fact, we sang about the blood tonight: "What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus." The blood is referenced 66 times in the book of Leviticus, which has only 27 chapters. God emphasizes it over and over again.

Not just the blood, but the altar is mentioned 71 times in the book of Leviticus. Again, God speaks to us repeatedly about the blood and the altar, all surrounding five offerings—five sacrifices that are given in this book. Ray Stedman once noted that it is probably not an error that God gave us five fingers to learn these five offerings.

The first offering we read about in this book is the burnt offering, which is mentioned 49 times. God speaks of the burnt offering, but not just the burnt offering; there is also the grain offering, which the King James Bible refers to as the meat offering or the meal offering.

The burnt offering, the grain offering, the sin offering, the trespass offering, and the peace offering are given to the children of Israel as the way that God is going to sanctify and cleanse them, to transform them. But not only do we see offerings in this book, we also see commands. There is a lot of "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not" in the book of Leviticus. These are things that God is speaking to His people, the children of Israel, indicating how they are to approach Him. God brought them out of Egypt unto Himself for the purpose of sanctifying and creating in them this holiness, to make them His own special people, His own peculiar people.

We see a similar theme in the New Testament in 1 Peter chapter 2. We just read it: "But you are a chosen generation" (1 Peter 2:9). You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar or special people, that you should show forth the praises of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Notice this in verse 10: God took us out of the world and brought us to Himself for the purpose of making us His people, a people who would show forth the praises of the One who brought us out of darkness and into His light.

The way that we show forth those praises is to shine forth His light. The only way we can shine forth His light is to be sanctified, to be cleansed, and to be set apart wholly and completely. When I say "wholly," I am not referring to holiness as in H-O-L-Y; I mean wholly as in W-H-O-L-L-Y. God has brought us out to make us wholly His and to make us complete. Colossians tells us that we are complete in Him. We are only complete and wholly in Christ. As we will see tonight, every one of these offerings and sacrifices is fulfilled in Jesus.

One of the theme verses I want to point out is Leviticus chapter 11, verse 44. There, God says,

For I am the Lord your God; you shall therefore sanctify yourselves. God says, "I am the Lord your God; you shall therefore, because I'm your God, sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy." Now, some people think that this is just for the Old Testament people. However, we are told in the New Testament that Peter recounts this to us again. He quotes it in his letters and says, "God has said, you shall be holy, for the Lord your God is holy."

So, God says here, "I am the Lord your God; you shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy." Neither shall you defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creeps on the earth, for I am the Lord. Notice this in verse 45: "I brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy."

God tells us the purpose of this whole book right there in verses 44 and 45 of chapter 11. He has brought us out of Egypt, out of the world, so that we could be completely His and not be defiled with all the things of this world.

Again, in Leviticus chapter 20, God speaks to us about why He brought us out, the same reason He brought the children of Israel out. Notice in Leviticus chapter 20, verse 25, it says, "Mine." God desires that you and I would be completely His. He took the children of Israel out of Egypt, but there was still a lot of Egypt in them.

We saw this very clearly in Exodus. Remember, as they were wandering in the wilderness in Exodus chapters 15 through 19, every single time they faced a lack—whether it was a lack of water, food, or when things got difficult—they wanted to go back to Egypt. Throughout the entire book of Exodus, and we will see this again next week in Numbers, every time a problem arose, the children of Israel wanted to return to Egypt.

Now Moses, every time the children of Israel cried out to him saying they wanted to go back to Egypt, what did he do? He went to God. That is exactly what the law does; the law points us to God, always. That is the purpose of the law, and Moses is a picture of the law in the Old Testament. Every time a complaint arose, every time murmuring came up among the people, Moses went to God. This is what God was seeking to instill in His people.

Remember, Moses had been in the wilderness for forty years, and perhaps it was during that time that God was proving Himself faithful to Moses, just as He was going to prove Himself faithful to the children of Israel during their forty years in the wilderness. However, they constantly wanted to go back to Egypt, and I have no doubt that Moses had wanted to go back to Egypt while he was wandering in the wilderness too. Remember, this is the man who was raised in the house of the Pharaoh. He had everything at his fingertips, and now he found himself as a shepherd out in the middle of Midian, in the wilderness. Yet, he learned to come to God because God was sanctifying him.

The children of Israel needed to be sanctified, and you and I need to be sanctified because God wants us to be completely His. He said, "I've brought you out of the land of Egypt. I've severed you from other people that you should be Mine, holy and completely." The only way that we can be His is to be holy. In verse 7 of chapter 20, it says, "Sanctify yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God."

What is the purpose of wanting to be holy? Why should we desire holiness? Because He is our God, and He is holy, and He has redeemed us. He has taken us out of the world, and as a result of Him taking us out of the world, we should want to follow Him and be like Him. Yes, there are still those things that hold on to us, those sins that so easily ensnare us, and that is why we have the book of Leviticus to speak about how God removes those things.

However, to clarify, we are not going back to the Levitical system; understand that all these things have their fulfillment in Christ. You are complete in Him, as Colossians tells us. Everything in Leviticus points to Jesus in some way and has its fulfillment in Him. All of this is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, the way that God was bringing the children of Israel unto Himself was through these practices. This is how they were to approach Him. They were not saved by these things; they were not redeemed by these things. They were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, God's power, bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

Egypt, but they were to approach God in this way. Now we have a new high priest who has broken down the middle wall of separation, and we have a different approach to God. We don't follow the same practices as they did in that day, but I think it's still important to study these things because they point to Jesus and what He has done for us. Every one of the offerings and every one of the feast days points to Jesus.

The Passover was the first feast day that God gave to His people in Exodus. As you read through the book of Leviticus, you find that it was to be a perpetual feast every year. All the households of Egypt were to celebrate the Passover. Why? To remember what God had done in Egypt? Yes, but the whole purpose of it was to point to the Lamb of God. The Lamb of God that Abraham spoke of in Genesis chapter 22. When his son Isaac asked him, "Where's the Lamb for the sacrifice?" Abraham replied, "God will provide Himself." Some translations say "for Himself," but that word "for" is not in the original language in Genesis 22. It says, "God will provide Himself the Lamb for the burnt offering."

When John saw Jesus coming to him in the Gospel of John, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God." The Lamb of God has come to take away the sin of the world. God brought these people out of Egypt to make them His. For them to be His and to shine His light to the rest of the nations and the world, He had to sanctify them. He had to cleanse them.

In Leviticus 20:7-8, it says, "Sanctify yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep My statutes and do them. I am the Lord." So, who sanctifies us? Not us, right? Notice this: Who gave the children of Israel the tabernacle? God did. Who gave them the sacrifices? God did. He is the one who provided the way to be sanctified. He is the one who sanctifies them.

The same is true in the New Testament for you and me. God washes us with the washing of the water by His word, as Ephesians chapter 5 tells us. God wants to do the same work in you that He desired to do in the children of Israel. A verse that we've begun with the last two weeks brings something very important to light. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 tells us that all these things were written as examples for us.

All these things happened unto the children of Israel as examples to us. They were written for our instruction. In the Old Testament, we see someone fail pretty miserably at being God's chosen people. We kind of laughed about this a little bit in one of our studies, noting that none of us would like to have all of our failures written down as Abraham did in the book of Genesis, or as the different patriarchs of the faith who have their errors recorded in the Old Testament. But God recorded those things so that we might learn from them. We do fail, and we do fall, but we need to understand that I am the Lord who sanctifies you, as stated in Leviticus chapter 20, verse 8. He is the one who is purposed to cleanse us.

Paul tells us that we can be confident of this very thing: He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it, as mentioned in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. God is going to complete the work. He told the children of Israel when they were in Egypt, "I am taking you out of Egypt and I am bringing you to a land that flows with milk and honey." He was bringing them to this promised land, the land that He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, and all the other ites. He was bringing them to this land; it was theirs.

Now, it took them 40 years to get from Egypt to the land of Canaan, when it should have been just about a two-week journey. Of course, God wanted them to go to Mount Sinai and meet with Him there, and they were there for two years constructing the tabernacle and receiving all the law. After that, it should have only taken them about 11 days to get to the land of Canaan, yet they wandered in the wilderness for 38 more years. Did God get them into the promised land? Absolutely. We will see that in the book of Joshua. God's purpose will be accomplished, but the process sometimes takes a little bit longer than He would desire.

His purpose will be accomplished; He will finish the work that He started with the children of Israel. However, the process, because of their hard-heartedness and their holding on to the things of this world, kept them from entering into what He had truly called them to: to be completely and wholly His, in His land. In fact, the book of Leviticus records for us that they were coming into a promised land, but it is God's land. He says, "You shall never sell it because it is My land." He was calling them to come into His land, His place, to be His people, shining to the rest of the world. Yes, they did fail miserably, and they continue to walk in darkness today. Blindness has come upon the Jews until a certain time.

God has still yet an appointed work for the Jewish people. But in this day, He has called out another group of people. We just looked at this in Luke last week. When Jesus tells the parable of the vineyard, He describes how the vine dressers of the vineyard, to whom He leased it, did not do a good job of tending the vineyard. So He asks, "What am I going to do with it?" He decides to give it to other people to take care of the vineyard. God has given us the leadership; He has given us this priestly ministry today to show forth His praises in this world.

Another important verse in this context is found in Leviticus chapter 17. God says, "I am the God who brought you out to sanctify you. You shall be holy." The end result is holiness, and the process is sanctification. How is that done? Notice what God says in Leviticus chapter 17, starting in verse 10. "Whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel or the strangers that sojourn among you that eats any manner of blood, you cannot eat the blood here. I will even set My face against that soul that eats blood, and I will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you; I have given you the blood upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul. It's the blood that cleanses."

God has said, "I have called you to Myself. You shall be holy because I am holy." He explains that this is the process of your being made holy. You must be sanctified, and this is the way that you're sanctified: through the blood. There were all these offerings, and you know, Leviticus is a bloody book. When you go through the book of Leviticus, the blood is mentioned 66 times in 27 chapters, and the altar is mentioned 71 times. God says, "I will give you the blood upon the altar to make an atonement for your sins, to cleanse you."

He has already saved you out of Egypt; He has already redeemed you out of the world. But to cleanse you, the work of salvation is more than just God taking you out of the world. It is the process of sanctification. We look at this in our school of discipleship as well in course two. Full salvation involves justification.

That act of God taking you out of the world redeems you by the blood of the Lamb. However, it also involves sanctification and ultimately glorification. You and I, right now, if we have come out of the world by faith in Jesus Christ and received Him as Lord, are in the process of being cleansed and sanctified. This sanctification, this cleansing, happens by the blood.

In Leviticus 17:11, it states, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls. It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul." God called His children out of the land of Egypt to make them holy, that they would be set apart as His people—completely His people. The process of being set apart is the process of sanctification, which is something that God works in us, as we see in Leviticus 20:7-8. The way He does this is through the blood.

The key themes of this book are atonement, sanctification, and holiness. We see these themes throughout the text. The first 16 chapters deal with the sacrifice, focusing on the blood and the sacrifice made for you and me so that we can approach God. The laws of the acceptable approach to God and the laws of the priests are given in those first 16 chapters. The laws of Israel regarding purity are also discussed, including the concepts of being unclean and clean.

You read about how one can make themselves unclean and the different things in this world that will cause you to be unclean, as well as how you are to be made clean. There are discussions about washing with water and being unclean until evening, along with various sacrifices that are given so that the people could be made clean. God is seeking to take Egypt out of them. Egypt was filled with all kinds of polytheism and false god worship, with the people bowing down to many different gods. Yet, God brings them out of the land of Egypt and says, "I want you to be Mine completely, and I want you to serve only Me."

As we get to Deuteronomy in a couple of weeks, we will see that God tells His people in Deuteronomy 6:4, "I, the Lord your God, am one Lord. You shall love Me, and you shall serve Me." The law was about them coming only to Him.

Departing from the things of this world, even though we're still in the world, we're not to be of the world. The same is true in the New Testament as it was in the Old Testament. The New Testament gives us the principles, while the Old Testament provides the pictures that reveal those principles. We see this in the lives of the children of Israel. There are many things we would call typologies—things that foreshadow the coming of Jesus Christ.

The book of Leviticus foreshadows the coming of Christ significantly. Why is that? I want you to consider this book, which contains 27 chapters of God saying, "This will make you unclean. This will make you clean. This is the sacrifice for a peace offering. This is the sin offering. This is the trespass offering. This is the grain offering. This is the burnt offering." He details all aspects of the priesthood, including how the priests are to offer these sacrifices, how they are to kill the animals, and what they are to do with the skin, the organs, the fat, and the meat.

As you read through this, it can be easy to get bogged down. You might find yourself thinking, "My goodness, sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. Blood, blood, blood, blood, blood." It raises the question: why did God spend so much time going through all of this? Here is the whole point of it: sanctification and holiness are not easy, and they are not cheap. There is work involved.

Consider all the work that the children of Israel had to do to be able to approach God. It was a lot of work. Let me see the hands of those who have read this book in the last week. Just a few of you. There is a significant amount of work mentioned here. In fact, the priestly garments we saw in Exodus were made out of linen that could breathe. Why did they need to be breathable? Because these priests were working hard, all day long, from sunup to sundown.

There was a sacrifice that needed to be offered in the morning, another in the evening, and yet another in the middle of the day. The oil needed to be filled in the lights all night long. This was a 24/7, 365-day-a-year commitment. God says, "This is how you are to approach me, and this is what it means to be my people." It was a lot of work, and it was not cheap. In the latter chapters of Exodus, we saw Moses stand up to the people and say, "Bring an offering to God of gold, silver, skins, and all this material to make a tabernacle."

That stuff was costly. There was so much gold in the tabernacle, even more so in the temple, along with silver and all kinds of marvelous works. In the priestly garments, the stones were cut a certain way. All these things that we read about in these books were costly to have a tabernacle.

However, the cost of the tabernacle didn't end after its construction. Every male over 20 years old had to pay a shekel unto the tabernacle. On top of that, every time you went to the tabernacle, you had to bring a sacrifice with you. It was costly. Additionally, the nation had to provide all the other sacrifices for the feast days and for the various sacrifices that were offered every single day, along with the extra offerings that were made on the Sabbaths. When you read through the book, it becomes clear: it is very expensive to have this approach to God.

We may see the expense of this again in our lifetime because there is a third temple coming. I can guarantee you will see it on MSNBC and CNN, and people around Western civilization will be asking, "Why are you spending so much money on this? Why are you sacrificing all these animals, which seem so barbaric and outdated? You shouldn't do that anymore." But I'm telling you, it was costly to do these things. Sanctification and holiness are not cheap, and that is what Leviticus shows us so clearly. It was costly for these people to have God in the midst of them.

Yet, all of these things are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus, being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, was not cheap. Yes, it is offered freely, but it is not cheap, nor was it easy. Beyond simply redeeming us from the world, God now desires to sanctify us. The same blood that He used to release us from Egypt is the same blood that He uses to sanctify us now: the blood of Jesus Christ. That is what sanctifies and cleanses us, and it is not cheap.

It took a lot of work for the Lord to do these things on our behalf so that we could be His priesthood, His people—a people wholly and completely given unto Him. It is just not cheap, and it is just not easy.

The tabernacle, the temple, the blood, the gold—these things, these animals, these sacrifices that were given, were not cheap and they were not easy. But it was what God desired to do so that He could separate unto Himself a people that were His own chosen people. Every single one of these things that you see points to the Lord. The Lord God is seen supremely in this book. The Lord is mentioned 282 times in 27 chapters. If the book of Genesis was about man and his inadequacy with God, and if the book of Exodus was about God's redemption, then the book of Leviticus is all about the Lord. It is all about the Word of God and what God said. The phrase "And the Lord spoke" is seen 35 times in 27 chapters. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying—this is all God speaking.

The author of the book is very clear. Who was God speaking to? The Lord spoke to Moses. It has been held for centuries that the one who wrote this book down is Moses. He very likely wrote it during that two-year period when they were at Mount Sinai. He went up and received all this from the Lord. No longer on Mount Sinai, because now where was God meeting with His people? At the tabernacle. There in the tabernacle, God says, "This is where I will meet with you." He no longer had to go up on the mountaintop; God came down to man. This is what we constantly see throughout the Bible.

Jeff Jackson always talks about God being a missionary God. He comes down to man. It was God who came to Adam in the cool of the garden and said, "Adam, where are you?" It is always God who comes down to man. He made the way for this to happen. He told them, "Listen, this is how you have to build this tabernacle. Once you've built it, I will dwell in the midst of you." But it was very clear to them that it wasn't going to be cheap and it was not going to be easy. Not only did they have to provide for the tabernacle and the sacrifices, but the entire nation had to provide for the tribe of Levi. The Levites were not going to receive an inheritance; they were going to be completely supported by the nation of Israel. God wanted to dwell in the midst of His people, and He basically left it up to them: if you want to dwell with Me, this is the requirement.

There's only one way to come before the Lord, and it's through these things that we see here. In fact, if you look over at Leviticus chapter 24, verse 22, we read there that there is just one way that they were to offer these sacrifices. There was just one place for these sacrifices to be offered. You shall have one manner of law, and this is what the Lord spoke. Why shall you just have one manner of law? Because I am the Lord your God. Our God is immutable, which means He does not change. There is not going to be a day where He says, "You know what? I don't really like the way that this sounds," or "I don't really like the way that this worked out." He will not change everything and start over.

There is just one way that the children of Israel were going to approach God, and for us, there is still just one way that we are going to approach God, and it is through the blood. Now, the sacrifices changed; the sacrifice is different for us because the sacrifice for us is Jesus. He is the last Passover lamb that needed to be slain. That's why we don't have a temple in Jerusalem any longer. That's why it was destroyed in AD 70. God didn't need that anymore, and I believe it was of God's mercy that He had it be destroyed. If the temple wasn't destroyed, I guarantee the Romans would have used it as a pagan temple. They would have turned around and started to desecrate what God had intended to be His temple and used it for their own purposes. Titus would have probably given it to Caesar as a gift and said, "You know, now we're going to worship Caesar here in this temple." So God destroyed it in His mercy and in His grace.

God desires to dwell in the midst of His people, and the only way that He can do that is to have a temple, to have a tabernacle. We know from 1 Corinthians that you and I are the temple of the living God. But what did Jesus do when He went into the temple the very first time in His ministry in John chapter 2? He cleansed the temple. What did He do at the end of His ministry when He went there? In Luke, we just saw this a few weeks ago; He cleansed it. Isn't it interesting that He had to cleanse it twice in the space of three years? Why is that?

Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but we have a tendency of cluttering things up. We need the Lord to clean us out and sanctify us. That's why it is so important to be in God's Word. Why? Because His Word cleanses us.

He sanctifies and cleanses us by the washing of the water of the Word. God desires that we would be His spiritual house, that we would be His priesthood. In fact, we see that again in 1 Peter chapter 2. If you want to turn back over there real quick, just before the passage we looked at a few minutes ago, 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 5. Peter, speaking to the church, says that we offer acceptable sacrifices, spiritual sacrifices to God, not by lambs, goats, doves, and all these different bulls and things that you see in the book of Leviticus, but by Jesus Christ. He desires that we would be a temple for Him.

The body of Christ is the church. Yes, the Holy Spirit dwells in you; you are the temple of the living God. Yet, God desires that we, as the body of Christ, would be built together as living stones so that He could occupy our lives. But He has to sanctify and cleanse us. He makes it clear in the book of Leviticus that this cleansing comes by the blood. Leviticus 17, verse 10 states that it comes through the blood. The altar, the Lord, the priest—these are the key words of this book. The priest is seen 145 times because God used these men, the Levites, the sons of Aaron. They were used by God to offer these sacrifices.

We just looked at 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 5, which tells us that you and I are to offer spiritual sacrifices to God. We are His priests. We offer sacrifices today; we just did it a few minutes ago when we were singing. Hebrews chapter 13 says, "Let us offer the sacrifice of praise, the fruit of our lips." It is a spiritual sacrifice, but a sacrifice nonetheless. In fact, Jesus would tell the woman at the well in John chapter 4 that God is seeking those who would worship Him in spirit and in truth. We are called to offer spiritual sacrifices to Him.

Furthermore, we are to be a light to this world, showing forth the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. All these things in Leviticus ultimately have their fulfillment in Jesus.

The offerings, the blood, the lamb—all this stuff that we see here ultimately points to Jesus. But how does it point to Jesus? Well, Jesus is the burnt offering.

Look at Ephesians chapter 5. While you're turning to Ephesians chapter 5, I want to read to you a verse from Hebrews, specifically Hebrews chapter 10, verse 12. Speaking of Jesus, the writer of Hebrews says, "But this man, Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down at the right hand of God."

As you read through Leviticus, you probably noticed there was very little time for the priest to sit down. They were on their feet all day long, working, offering sacrifices, dealing with the skins of the burnt offering, taking them outside of the camp to burn them, and managing everything in the temple. They were constantly on their feet. But notice there, the high priest, Jesus Christ. Hebrews chapter 10 states, "But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down in a position of rest. He sat down at the right hand of God."

Now, Jesus is the burnt offering. In Ephesians chapter 5, we read in verse 1, "Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us as an offering and a sacrifice to God, as a sweet-smelling savor." Remember, it was the burnt offering that was a sweet-smelling savor to God in the book of Leviticus.

I don't know if you have noticed that smell—the sweet-smelling savor of barbecue. Just the other day, Josh and I were setting up chairs in this room for the class on Thursday night. When I walked out of this room, I caught a whiff of barbecue. I think someone was barbecuing over at the mobile home park or something, and the scent was a sweet-smelling aroma.

My mom was telling me a few years ago, when they first moved to Phoenix to work out there, they were driving through Glendale, Arizona, with their windows down. My mom said, "Do you smell that?" My dad looked at her and asked, "What?" She replied, "There's an In-N-Out burger around." He questioned, "How do you know that?" She said, "I know what In-N-Out burger smells like." Sure enough, they came around the corner, and there was an In-N-Out burger.

But that sweet-smelling aroma of the burnt offering was a continual burnt offering at the camp of Israel. It ascended to God constantly, this burnt offering. It was a sweet-smelling savor to the Lord.

In Ephesians chapter 5, we read of Jesus as the fulfillment of the burnt offering. We are instructed to walk in love, as Christ has also loved us and has given Himself for us as an offering, as a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. He is the burnt offering, the last burnt offering needed. No more do we need this Levitical system because we have a new high priest. The writer of Hebrews shows us that the Levitical system is nothing compared to the priesthood of Christ after the order of Melchizedek. The priesthood of Christ is supreme to the Levitical system.

Jesus also fulfills the meal offering, or the grain offering. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 20, we read, "But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept." The grain offering was offered as the first fruits. The first fruits were to be brought to the Lord as a grain offering. Jesus is the fulfillment of the grain offering; in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 20, Christ is now risen from the dead and has become the first fruits of those who have died or have slept.

Not only is He the burnt offering and the grain offering, but in Romans chapter 5, we read of Jesus as the peace offering. Romans chapter 5, verse 1 states, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by this faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Jesus is the fulfillment of the peace offering. All those offerings point to Him: the peace offering, the grain offering, the burnt offering, and the sin offering.

We read about the sin offering in Leviticus chapter 4, but now as we come to 2 Corinthians chapter 5, one of my favorite verses in the Bible, I probably refer to this more than any other verse. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21, it says, "For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."

Jesus is the sin offering. He made Him to be sin for us. When you would go and offer an offering for sin, you would place your hands on the head of that offering. It is interesting, as you read through the book of Leviticus, that God is not a respecter of persons. Yet, He says, "If you're too poor to bring a bullock, bring a lamb. If you're too poor to bring the lamb or the goat, then bring the doves."

They would place their hands upon that animal and confess their sin in the hearing of the priest, and then they would offer a sacrifice. They would kill this animal in their place and take the blood of that sin offering, pouring it out upon the altar. The sin offering is significant because God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That animal didn't do anything wrong, did it? In fact, it needed to be an animal without spot or blemish. It couldn't have been some animal that, a couple of weeks ago, gored one of your slaves, and now you think, "I might as well just use it as a sacrifice. I've got to kill it anyway." No, you couldn't do that.

You had to take an animal that was without spot or blemish. As you confessed your sin and placed your hands on the head of that animal, it was as if God accounted your sin on that animal. There was a transference that took place in God's accounting book. When you killed that animal, remember, sin brings death. You passed your sin over to this animal, and it died in your place. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ.

So, Jesus is the burnt offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, and the sin offering. The last one is the trespass offering, or the guilt offering. He stands in our stead, taking our guilt for us. In Romans chapter 4, verse 25, we read, "Who was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification." Jesus takes upon Himself our guilt; He is the guilt offering.

We see this prophesied not just in the New Testament, but also in Isaiah 53, that great messianic prophecy. In Isaiah 53, verse 10, it says, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him, and He hath put Him to grief. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, and shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."

And so, there we read that God has made His soul an offering for our sin. By His wounds, you and I are healed. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him. By His stripes, we are healed. Jesus is the fulfillment of all these things, of all these offerings that you read of over and over again. The blood that is spoken of repeatedly in the book of Leviticus ultimately points to the blood of Jesus Christ that makes atonement for our sin. There is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood, and the book of Leviticus makes that very clear.

It's costly. Leviticus chapter 5 talks about it being costly. In verse 11, it says, "If he is not able to bring two turtle doves or two young pigeons, then he that sins shall bring for his offering a tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering. And he shall put oil upon it, and neither shall he put any frankincense thereon, for it is a sin offering."

Here, just as I mentioned a few minutes ago, it is spoken of. The person who can't bring a bull should bring a goat. If he can't bring a goat, then let him bring the turtle doves. If he can't bring those, then he is to bring this fine flour because it has to cost him something. It is costly to take care of sin.

The phenomenal thing, the mind-blower of the scripture, is that God paid it for us by giving us His Son and took care of every one of these things that we see in here: all the sins and the trespasses. One of the things you see in the book of Leviticus is that all sin is against the Lord. When we talk about trespass, when we talk about sin, if the soul that sins commits a trespass against the Lord, you continually see those words used over and over again in Leviticus chapter 6. All sin and iniquity is against the Lord.

There is a payment that needs to be given for sin, and Jesus is that payment. He is the burnt offering, the peace offering, the trespass offering, the grain offering, and the offering for sin. It was His blood that was given upon an altar that God ordained—there at Golgotha. The very same place that God had told Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 to take now your son, your only son Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there on a place that I will tell thee of: the top of Mount Moriah.

The place is called Golgotha. The interesting thing is, if you look at the topography of it, you will see that it is 777 meters above sea level. There is a rock upon that mountaintop, which was the altar that God had prepared for His sacrifice. This is the exact same place where Abraham said, "God will provide Himself a lamb for the burnt offering." There, Jesus, thousands of years later, would be offered on the altar of God. His blood would be shed as the Lord commanded.

Remember when Jesus met with those two disciples? We will be studying this in a few weeks on Sunday morning. In Luke chapter 24, the two men were on the road to Emmaus. He reasoned with them and showed them from the Scriptures how that the Christ must suffer. I guarantee that as Jesus walked along that road, He spoke to them about the things in Leviticus and how the sacrifice must die. It has to die. If ever there was a portion of Scripture that I wish was on an audio tape recording for us, it is that passage where Jesus tells these two disciples from all the Scriptures how that Christ must suffer. I look forward to listening to that when we get to heaven one day.

We finish with just a couple of things that I think are very important to note from the book of Leviticus. In the midst of this book that talks about offerings for sin, peace, and trespasses, it discusses the priesthood and how the blood is to be sprinkled. It talks about the feasts and all these different things. In these 27 chapters, there are two little narrative stories—two things that are somewhat separate from the account. I think they are very important to consider.

The first one is found in Leviticus chapter 10. You probably remember this story even if you didn't read through Leviticus this week. Leviticus chapter 10, verse 1 says, "And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them a censer, which is where they would carry the fire, and a shovel. They put the fire therein and added incense, and they offered strange fire before the Lord, which He commanded them not." Fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord. In the midst of these 27 chapters comes this little refrain from everything.

That's kind of almost out of place. This story about Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, tells us that they offered strange fire, and when they did, the fire came off the altar and struck them down. God sent His fire that devoured them before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the Lord spoke, saying, 'I will be sanctified in those who come near to Me, and before all the people, I will be glorified.'" And Aaron held his peace.

Here is Aaron, the father of these men. As the Lord brought His pillar of cloud upon the temple, some believe that Nadab and Abihu may have been intoxicated, which is suggested by the next command given in this passage in Leviticus chapter 10. They went and offered strange fire before the Lord, and God struck them dead. The reason that God gives is, "I will be sanctified, and those who come before Me must be sanctified." They have to be cleansed if they are going to approach God, and these men obviously were not sanctified. They had not confessed their sin or made an offering for their sin. They had no right to approach God, and as a result, they were struck down.

A couple of interesting things we see from this story include a warning about the improper approach to God. This story serves as a warning about an improper approach to God and an improper witness to the people. Notice what God says: "I will be glorified before all the people." Nadab and Abihu did not show a proper witness about how God is to be approached; they did not approach God rightly.

Additionally, they did not use their priestly office correctly, which led to judgment. There was a burning that came as a result of their actions. In Matthew chapter 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that there is coming a day when many will say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many marvelous works in Your name?" He will respond, "Depart from Me, I never knew you."

When you look at that correlating passage in the book of Revelation, He casts them into the lake that burns with fire. There will be a burning upon those who do not approach the Lord correctly, who do not witness for the Lord in a right way, and who do not use the priestly office as intended.

As they should, we see in the story of Nadab and Abihu. There is another story in Leviticus chapter 24 that stands out as somewhat unusual in the midst of this book. In verse 10, it says, "And the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel. This son of the Israelitish woman, a man of Israel, strove together in the midst of the camp. The Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord and cursed, and they brought him unto Moses. His mother's name was Shalometh, the daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan. They put him in custody so that the mind of the Lord might be shown."

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Bring forth him that hath cursed outside the camp, and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let the whole congregation stone him. You shall speak unto the children of Israel, saying, 'Whosoever curses his God shall bear his sin. He that blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, as well the stranger as he that is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death.'"

The first story about Nadab and Abihu serves as a warning about an improper witness and the improper use of the priestly position. In this story, we receive a warning about blasphemy, that one sin which even the New Testament tells us will not be forgiven to man: the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

In the midst of all the sacrifices and the work that God has done, there are two things that God detests and will judge: blasphemy and hypocrisy. Jesus spoke to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 23, saying, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites!" They were like Nadab and Abihu in chapter 10 of Leviticus.

There is also a judgment and punishment that shall come upon those who blaspheme. God tells His people that whether one is born of Israel or is a stranger in the land, he that blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death. God will judge, even in the midst of the great costs.

Of the sacrifices, even there with the people who had the altar, the blood, and all these offerings given unto them, there was still a judgment for those who were hypocritical, like Nadab and Abihu, and those who blasphemed the name of the Lord. I think that those warnings, particularly the two stories in the book of Leviticus that stand out, are separate from the rest of the writing. These two stories provide a great warning for us to consider.

As we wrap things up tonight, the most important thing to consider is that this book, which gives us 27 chapters detailing all the costs and all the work involved in being able to approach God and have His presence and power in our midst, ultimately points to one fulfillment: in Christ. God has redeemed us out of Egypt by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, by the blood of the Lamb. Now that He has brought us out, He wants to dwell in the midst of His people. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

He desires, as He dwells in our midst, to cleanse us and sanctify us because He has called us, just as He called those in the Old Testament, to be holy, for I am holy, says the Lord. Furthermore, He has called us to be His priests, to show forth His praises and declare to the rest of this world that there is a God, the one true God, who desires to call people out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Amen?

Let's stand and pray together. God, I thank You that Your word is truth. Jesus, You said, "Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth," as You prayed Your high priestly prayer in John chapter 17. We pray that You would sanctify us and cleanse us by the washing of the water of the word. Help us, Lord, to daily spend time in that spiritual sacrifice of studying Your word and praising Your name, so that we may shine brightly Your light to this world and fulfill the office of the priest that You've called us to. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.