Published: January 18, 2024 | Speaker: Dr. Chuck Hartman | Series: Leviticus - Part 1 | Scripture: Exodus 40:1-38, Numbers 1:1
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and it's the first day of the second month there's your 30 days it's very unusual in fact it's
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without precedent in at least the Books of Moses to have this kind of a a book in so it seems to me that being so specific um there's a reason for it and
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I do think there is because what happens on the first day of the second month of the second year verse two of Numbers Chapter 1 take a census of all the
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congregation of the sons of Israel so here we have the Tabernacle erected now we have a census you spell
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Israel I think what we're what we're dealing with here in the Book of Leviticus then needs to be interpreted with these two bookends in
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mind that we have the Tabernacle erected then we have the counting of the people but we have a 30-day period in which an entire book of Moses is given to us so
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it seems reasonable that the interpretation of what we read in Leviticus is going to have these two events to kind of circumscribe it or at least give it or orientation and what we're dealing with
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here then very very simply is on the one hand we have God who has come to dwell in the midst of his people and on the other hand with
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the censes we have the
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people this is the we talked a little bit about this last week this is the basic orientation of of The Book of Leviticus which again it's unfortunate that we call it Leviticus because it's
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not really about the Levites it's about the people but it's about the people in relationship to the Tabernacle which means it's about the people in
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relationship to their God who is now dwelling in their midst so I think that that's the that's the rubric under which I'm approaching the Book of Leviticus um
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and I I think it is um uh a fair statement to say that what we read in Leviticus if if we take what we read in
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Leviticus for the burnt offerings the meal offerings the peace offerings if we pull them out and try to dissect them and analyze them we're really taking them out of
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context because each of the sacrifices that we are going to learn about in Leviticus is mentioned in details
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somewhere else and each of these sacrifices have various different uh applications sometimes they were done um
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by the priests so for example the burnt offering there was a burnt offering in the morning and in the evening every day and twice on the Sabbath two in the morning two Lambs in the morning two
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Lambs in the evening every single day we read in Exodus as we look at the erection and dedication of the of the um Tabernacle it it chapter 40 begins with
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the Lord saying to Moses on the first day of the first month you shall set up the Tabernacle of the tent of meeting now they must have been really hoofing it but they got it done in a day okay
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I'd like to know who their superintendent was but they they they were done and ready to Bill out um in one day but he goes on in the first part telling them what to do where to put
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everything this this tie in of course with what we read in Hebrews chapter 8 Moses did not design the Tabernacle himself and he didn't hire an architect
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he built it he erected it he put it together according to the pattern he received on sin and the reason for that we're going to get into as we look at the Tabernacle is what the Tabernacle
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actually foreshadowed it was a an Earthly copy of something else and that's what the writer of Hebrews tells us we don't actually see that in Exodus Leviticus
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Numbers or Deuteronomy we don't and we don't see it as much either in Solomon's Temple um we don't have the full full interpretation of the symbol the
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symbolism as we do in Hebrews nonetheless Moses records the Lord told me to do this and then after verse 17 where we read came about in the first
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month of the second year on the first day that the Tabernacle was res erected well that's what we read in verse one then starting in verse 18 it basically tells us that Moses did
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what God told him to do so there's some repetition here but it's a repetition that means Moses obeyed God he did what God told him to do and so after that
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verse 29 and he set the altar of burnt offering before the doorway of the Tabernacle of the tent of meeting now that's the that's the setting for the first seven chapters of
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Leviticus the burnt the um the altar of burnt sacrifice in front of the Tabernacle entrance so what we're
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dealing with here um just by way of diagram this is not to
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scale the two tents we looked at that a little bit last week Hebrews 9 veres 1-5 the author of Hebrews gives a summary of the place where the ironic
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priests keep in mind not any levite could go in these tents only those who were descended from Aaron uh and we know from the story of John the Baptist's
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father that they were drawn by lot as to who would Minister inside the first tent so there was a
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entrance this veil was open almost 247 okay this is this was the daily sacrifices the ones that were prescribed morning and evening and then the ones we're going to be reading about in Leviticus they're also mentioned in
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Exodus and numbers and some in Deuteronomy um that is where the ironic priests ministered before the Lord every single day this is where we find the table of
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showbread the lampstand and the altar of incets then incets then this curtain here of course was the veil before the holy of holies entered once a
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year by the high priest and only with blood after having sacrificed for himself and for the people but the point of all this is that we're going to spend most of our
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time out here at the entrance now this is this is beyond the court of the Gentiles and it's beyond the court of women it is now the court
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of Israel and and any Israelite male could go this go this far because they were the ones that actually did the hard labor for their
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own sacrifices they slew the animal they skinned the animal they dismembered the animal and then the priest arranged all the parts on the burnt Al altar now the
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priest also did that but for other offerings like the morning and the evening so this is the this is the altar it is the altar of
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Fire or the altar of Ola the burnt offering we'll get into um we'll get into the the the
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offerings because as I said they are mentioned various places right here in in Exodus 40 we read that he he put everything together verse 28 he set up
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the veil for the doorway of the Tabernacle and he set the altar of burnt offering before the doorway of the Tabernacle of the tent of meeting and offered on it the burnt offering and the
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meal offering just as the Lord had commanded Moses um just to to get a little bit ahead of ahead of oursel he offered up the ol
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which is the bird offering and with it he offered up the
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M which is the meal or grain offering these are almost always together that's why I'm putting it up here whenever we see a burnt offering
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the next one we read is going to be the meal or the grain offering okay so this is the what what what The New American Standard calls the meal but that is the
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old sense of the word meal meaning grain or grits okay not meal as in what you had for dinner so we might say a little bit modern versions might say something
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like a grain offering so this was a dedicatory this was a consecrating offering as as Solomon did when he built
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the temple so you know Moses earlier does when the Tabernacle is dedicated or consecrated um this we don't know that this was done
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frequently there there were offerings that were at specific occasions some were not repeated because they were dedicatory but it's the result of his
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sacrifice his offering um that really matters and verses 30 through um 32 the the con consecration of the priest he placed the labor between the
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tent of meeting and the altar put water in it for washing and from it Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet when they entered the tent of meeting and when they approached
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the altar they washed just as the Lord had commanded Moses and he erected the court all around the Tabernacle and the Altar and hung up the veil for the Gateway of the Court thus Mo Moses
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finished the work that's a significant it doesn't seem significant but that's the point at which kind of like when um Elijah was offering
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up you know dueling with the priests of ba there's a point at which God's either going to answer or he's not and that's this point Moses has done everything
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that's the point of the repetition he's done everything the way the Lord told him and then he finished what's going to happen well
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this is what happened then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting
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because the cloud had settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle that's the shikina so that that goes back here in
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terms of our timeline yes the cloud had been going before them in the pillar of
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fire but God had not yet made a house for his name to dwell now this is something very very common in the ancient near Eastern
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culture a sacred tent it's a tent not a temple because the people are going to be moving they are mobile and and they
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they've already been told you're going to be moving around for the next 38 years and so Moses goes on in the in the latter verses of this chapter he says and throughout all their Journeys
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whenever the cloud was taken up from Over the Tabernacle the sons of Israel would set out but if the cloud was not taken up then they did not set out until the day when it was taken up for throughout all their Journeys The Cloud
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of the Lord was on the Tabernacle by day and there was fire in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel okay so they are given
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a visible manifestation of the presence of Yahweh in their midst now that
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now that becomes an becomes an ongoing won't call it a mantra but an an ongoing uh prophetic hope and promise
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and Paul actually uses it in 2 Corinthians chapter Corinthians chapter 6 I will dwell among them and be their God and they shall be my
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people so this this is really the reversal of Eden and the fall when God casts Adam away from his presence and
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sets up a flaming a sword-bearing angel which is actually woven into this Veil here the imagery is there
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um this is the beginning of the reversal of that of that separation so we we'll read this you read this frequently in the Old Testament but I think what is what
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really ties it together for us is that passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 go ahead and read that and you know we've talked about this before but so much of
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the New the New Testament is immersed in the Old Testament that if we have not also immersed ourselves in the Old Testament
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well let me put it in a more positive way the more we immerse ourselves in the Old Testament the more the New Testament reveals of God's glory of our salvation of the Majesty of Jesus Christ of the
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Eternal plan that God has made to to save a people for his name and just that concept of having a place for his name to dwell which is first in the
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Tabernacle then in the temple but now we know it's in the church so so this is not really about burnt offerings and sin
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offerings and guilt offerings this is more about how can a people dwell before a holy God and a holy God dwell in the
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midst of his people that that's really and and really that's more the theme of Leviticus certainly more than the ministry of the priests but also more than the sacrifices that are enumerated
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there uh and we're going to get into them we're going to look at you know what what was the meaning of these and there is subtle differences between them and those differences are meaningful but
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there's also a lot of repetition um in terms of how the offering the various offerings were presented before Yahweh and how they were disposed of there is some
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commonality there is some common denominators between them um but the it's it's in the differences especially in the disposition position of the remains of
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the sacrificial victim that we see the subtle differences of the actual sacrifices so we'll get into that that's that's coming but in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 he um uh he's saying in verse
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13 or verse 14 do not be bound together with unbelievers for what partnership has righteousness and lawlessness or what Fellowship has light with Darkness
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or what Harmony has Christ with bile or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever okay unbeliever okay um what's that uh the idea of common
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ground in apologetics and evangelism you know that we try to find common ground with the unbeliever um I think Paul would say that's going to be a hard thing that's like looking for a Seeker
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you know for a Seeker sensitive church when Paul says no one seeks after God not one so now we're gonna now we're going to find common ground when Paul says what does a Believer have in common
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with an unbeliever okay I think if people would read their Bibles more they wouldn't come up with these programs but I guess they still would so in verse 16 or what agreement
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has the temple of God with Idols for we are the Temple of the Living God just as God said now again what is a temple it's a it's a place where the deity
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dwells that's the idea behind the the uh and and again the tent was simply a mobile Temple and and that was true in in all of the ancient cultures as far as
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we can find in the archaeological records and even the written records the bins the nomadic tribes they would have a sacred tent and their God traveled with them in fact the
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um Caba in Mecca that's essentially was it was what it was was a repository for all the different gods including Jesus Christ of the beduins okay so that they
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there was a you know just a structure um that that would that didn't move around but um most of the Sacred tents would be would be transportable so he says or what agreement has the temple of God
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with Idols for we are the Temple of the Living God just as God has said I will dwell in them and walk among them and I will be their God and they shall be my people therefore come out from their
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midst and be separate says the Lord do not touch what is unclean and I will welcome you and I will be a father to you and you shall be Sons and Daughters to me says the Lord Almighty chapter
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7:1 therefore having these promises beloved let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of Flesh and spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of the
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Lord that phrase right there could bid quite well as the motto and purpose of the Book of Leviticus that we might be perfect
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perfecting Holiness in the fear of God now I would imagine that having the shikina in the temple was a fearsome
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sight I I don't imagine in 38 years they ever got used to it I don't I don't think they did because it was clearly a living Cloud a living
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fire it was it was divine and we read in scripture of course the the times that men have encountered the Divine they have
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trembled for their very life so the fear of God is represented by the glory of the Lord in the Tabernacle of
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Moses so this presents a challenge to the people and I think that challenge remains for the church which is why I think one of the
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reasons I think Leviticus is so important to us today one commentator I want I want to read a few comments because I think they're well put one commentator writes
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The Narrative placement of Leviticus within the order of the pentet took is clear at the beginning of the second year after their departure from Egypt
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and following the initial setup of the Tabernacle at the foot of Si built according to the specifications given to Moses by God the glory of the Lord
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filled the filled the Tabernacle Exodus Ends by explaining how the continuing journey of the Israelites through the Wilderness was always directed by the Lord's Cloud lifting
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from the Tabernacle and leading them forward Leviticus itself takes up this situation and provides a long series of instructions given by God to Moses and
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the people of Israel from the now erected Tabernacle so it's a it's a long series of series of instructions but as I mentioned last
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week it is not wholly instructions regarding the people's relationship to God and we're going to talk about that some this evening and and that's where I
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think Leviticus um kind of does get a bum wrap there's a there's far more in Leviticus about how the people were to live with one another and in the
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presence of the world than there is with the levitical priesthood and the sacrifices so again the title I think Leviticus and just the the reputation
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that the whole Mosaic sacrificial system has taken on since the Reformation you know we we really don't want to talk about it because that's all works religion and that has nothing to
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do with us we are we are not under law but under grace we are saved by grace saved through faith we don't have anything to do with those things except that then we say that
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Christ fulfilled them all and yet without knowing anything about them we pretend to know with great detail what it is Christ did well actually we don't until we go
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back and look at what was prescribed as a type and a shadow we really don't understand what we see in the light okay so um that's what we're going to try to
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do here so what we're dealing with and one one commentator I think very um very wisely says you know this is a problem
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Israel but the the problem is is a good problem to have uh Moses makes it clear in Deuteronomy 4 what other people has a God that dwells with them like your God
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and has given you such wonderful statutes and Commandments that you might live you know what other people has has this going on so it it's a good thing but it's also a
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problem and the pro it's a problem that's unique to Christianity if we understand and Judaism but if we understand them correctly what we're dealing with here
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is a holy God choosing to dwell in the midst of an Unholy people well now we think okay well that's his choice he can do that but what about an Unholy people dwelling in
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the presence of a holy God if we read our scriptures correctly we will come to the conclusion that that's not an easy one to pull off I don't think it's josu
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Bas we will do yeah don't say that not able no you're not able and and Moses in Deuteronomy uh 29 you know you're not able God has not not yet circumcised your heart he's not
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yet given you a heart to be able to obey and then verse chapter 30: 6 he says but God will circumcise okay so yeah um vaulting was was dangerous and and we
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see so many instances and and it's really sad the way especially modern unbelievers and even liberal Christians they they look at for example
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usza reach ing out to steady the ark being struck dead or as we're going to see in Leviticus 10 the sons of Aaron naab and abue getting all excited you
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know they're they're in the charismatic moment you know and they take their they take their sensors and they load up some poery and they go up and the flame comes out and it consumes them and we think
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well I don't that's not my God that's not my God it's because we have such an aversion to the concept of holy this is not a god who's capricious
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or arbitrary he not a god who's vicious mean he's a god who's holy in fact that's what he says in Leviticus 10 by those who come before me that's what
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we're dealing with here okay by those who come before me I will be holy so Aaron don't mourn the loss of your sons do not love your sons more than me
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and so you know this is all what it's about by those who will come before me I will be holy and this is what it looks like and this is what it looks like when
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not yeah yeah if you're a little bit off okay that's not a bad analogy you know when you when you re-enter the atmosphere the spacecraft the shuttle there's a there's a very specific angle of re-entry that allows the V The Vessel
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to survive and if they choose and it's not being it is being just a little bit off even
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inadvertently but if you're inadvertent with God there's a sacrifice for that but if you just take the wheel you know James Dean Rebel Without a Cause and you're going to go in the way you want to go in then you're going to flame out
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and there's no sacrifice for you because that's sinning with a high hand and all of that tells us that um you know sin isn't sin sin
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is it's a power that exists it's a power greater than all of us together can overcome because it is a power that ends
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all of our lives so it it it is um it is the cause of death and and we so we think of sins and we've been taught so much to think of sins as what we do and
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what we don't do and that is such a well I used the word a thinner Jesus last week well it's a thin sin when all we think about is behavior and morality
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and ethics because all we can get from that is either utter despair or horrible Pride nothing saving comes from that
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whole thought whole thought pattern we we are as God's image and his creation we are first cast away from
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him but here we begin to see God drawing a people back to himself and so that is what this is about it is God's people moving toward
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him and how must they do it and that's what Leviticus tells us now we don't do it the same way but he is still as holy so we come boldly before the throne of
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grace Hebrews 4 but we're still coming before an all consuming fire Hebrews 10 he's no less holy you know this idea that God in the gospel has kind of
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winked at sin and made the bar a lot lower like you know Monty Python's twit race so that we can actually get over it you know no the bar has never been
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lowered on gol gotha the bar was as high as it could be imagined because he doesn't he doesn't diminish his Holiness like a
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rat you know it's it's up here for the Jews but you Gentiles I'll I'll lower it no it it is full unadulterated eternal glory and the happiness and the
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purpose of purpose of man is to dwell and even bask in that Glory but Isaiah says your sin has made a separation between you and your God
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the psalmist says who can stand in your presence and who can Ascend your Holy Hill so the the the problem is recognized by the writers of the Old
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Testament how does a Unholy people dwell in the midst of a whole in the presence of a holy God Isaiah says I am a man of unclean lips and dwell among a people of
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unclean woe is me so that that thought is not something that we read back into the Old Testament from the new it's there in the Old Testament the
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realization that this holy God Demands a holy people and yet no no provision has been
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made for their perfect cleansing that's something the writer of Hebrews makes very clear to us so um
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Kyle and dich in their commentary treat this um these two events here we have God coming and saying I am dwelling now in
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your midst this is my home and I will move with this Tabernacle and then after the 30 days of Leviticus let's let's count the people who who are my people
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and so Kyle andit right every treat as every treaty every treaty establishes a reciprocal relation between those who are parties to it so not only did Jehovah as lord of
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the whole earth enter into a special relation to his Chosen People Israel in the covenant made by him with the Seed of Abraham which he had chosen as his own possession out of all the nations
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but the nation of Israel was also to be brought into a real and living fellowship with him as its God and Lord and whereas Jehovah would be
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Israel's God God manifesting himself to it in all the fullness of his divine nature that's the
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shikina so was it also his purpose to train Israel as his own Nation to sanctify it for the truest life in fellowship with him and to bless it with all the fullness of his
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salvation well again that's kind of what Leviticus is all about God is training I mentioned last week that their 40 years in the wilderness was not simply
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punishment when they came out of Egypt they were not a ready people either religiously or
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militarily they had been 400 years as basically slaves so if they could conquer the land by building bricks they were ready maybe throwing the bricks
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okay no and so they're they're marching you can even see the the the uh orientation of the tribes around the
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tent was a military layout and then as they went out they went out by camps and you can you can
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actually kind of read you know the the field Marshal saying Judah you know and then and they March out in tribes okay they're they're learning military
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discipline even the you know the the the cloud settles and then the next morning it's up and going they're up and going the cloud settles and 40 Days Later he's
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still settled there and two years later it's still there they don't move so they're learning obedience but they're also learning something that was almost
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unheard of in the ancient world and that monotheism they're not learning that Yahweh is our God only they're learning that Yahweh is
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God alone and and see that's not something that they would have heard in in elementary school in Egypt or whatever you know they didn't get that that's not what they learned there was a
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pharaoh who tried it not Jehovah I mean the one God but was it Amon hotep anybody you remember uh one of them he PR monotheism utterly failed
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okay uh there that's not what the ancient people wanted to hear they were given over to the depravity of their minds and they were polytheists so God is training a people
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for himself and the fundamental characteristic in both Testaments Old Testament New Testament the fundamental characteristic of the people of God anybody want to give a shot one word the
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fundamental characteristic fundamental characteristic of the people of God
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is Holy I mean that's obedient it's also righteous but you shall be holy for the Lord your God is Holy right Sermon on the Mount you shall be perfect you shall
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be holy okay that's all through Leviticus for I am the Lord am Holy so the requirement then is that the people if they are to dwell in the presence of
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a holy God they must be holy and so Christopher Wright comments Holiness is rather a way of
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being and you can imply there as he says in the context more than a way of acting it's a way of being a way of being with God in
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Covenant relationship a way of being like God in clean and wholesome living a way of being God's people in the mid of an Unholy and unclean
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world so when we look at Leviticus we shouldn't even be tempted to fall back into some ritualistic work salvation or even get down in the weeds
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and try to figure out what the meaning of each of these sacrifices was because frankly the text is going to leave us scratching our heads as as to some of
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them you know why why what what does this mean uh and I'm not sure it meant anything more to the Israelites than it does to us today I don't think necess that it's NE
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necessary that the distance of time and culture or even the the the um interposing of the Fulfillment in Jesus Christ makes it any harder for us to
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understand these things than it was for them okay and if you read the rabbis you'll you'll see that they didn't understand because they all have a different understanding of what this or
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that sacrifice men so when we look at this I think we do have to try to find you know what is what is at the root here well I think what is at the root is
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this concept that now God has chosen to dwell among a people and therefore as as kyl and dich mentioned the reciprocal response of that people in the presence
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of a holy God is to be holy but that's not possible
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and everything they do and this is again where the writer of Hebrews comes in and shines that light everything they do should have shown them how impossible it was right because they had to do it all
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the time and even if they did it perfectly the high priest still had to do it once a year for the whole nation so this is the law being that
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school Master leading us to Christ me mentioned last week and we'll talk about it in detail when we get to Leviticus 16 Lord willing that that one annual
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sacrifice that the high priest brought into a place where no one else could go that itself was a powerful statement that someone had to
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intervene and when you couple that with the promise of the seed of woman and the Seed of Abraham and then the you know the son of David and later you know when you when you couple that with the other
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prophecies you can begin to arrive at the place where Simeon was in his old age looking for the consolation of Israel and rejoicing that his eyes had
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been able to see it okay so you get that you finally realize after all these many centuries Millennia even someone needs to be able to do this as the writer of
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Hebrew says once for all okay and and and that was the faith of preist pre-advent Israel not their faith
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wasn't in the the the believing the faithful of faithful of Israel knew that the just shall walk by faith they knew that God did not take
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Delight in rivers of blood in heom of bulls but a a a a a humble and contrite heart you know so the Psalms and the prophets
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begin to show us that they weren't ignorant of what all this showed them that Israel was to be obedient but what does Isaiah start out he starts out by saying God is saying through Isaiah
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this is a stench in my nostrils your your feasts and your and what he's saying in Isaiah 1 is not the feast that you have made up no these are
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the ones that were prescribed for you to do by Moses and I hate them God says I hate them because of your hearts you have blood on your hands and your hearts
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are a deep Hue of black he says just stop it just stop it you know stop wait a minute Lord you told us to do this okay but he never you know the purpose
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of it was to show that yes they needed to do this because they dwell in the presence of a holy God but they needed to understand by doing
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it that that Holiness that Holy presence was entirely by Grace it was not because of these and that's that's something that in interpreting these sacrifices we need to
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avoid the word appeasement you see the pagans offered up sacrifices to appease a God who was
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already angry and to try to buy off the Divine favor for the coming Harvest for the coming War for the for the um uh the
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procreation of the livestock and of the tribe whatever it may be that was Superstition and that was not the worship of the true God God is not to be
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appeased these sacrifices and and uh Le Leviticus 1 makes it clear in the first section verse
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4 and then of course well let me let me read it in uh Leviticus um 17 because it's it's even clearer there and you're probably familiar with
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this chapter 17: 11 for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood by
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reason of the life that makes atonement back in Leviticus 1 talking about the burnt offerings uh verse four and he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt
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offering that it may be accepted for him to make atonement on his behalf God has given them this is an act of Grace he has
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given them these sacrifices that they might make atonement not atonement not appeasement they are not trying to buy
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God off they're simply maintaining the Covenant relationship and the and the fellowship that they have with the God
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who saved them The God Who delivered them out of Egypt The God Who now dwells in their midst and The God Who has given them the blood because if he hadn't
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given them the blood of the sacrifice he would demand their lives he has given an interposition and we talked about that
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last week we had first of all the priesthood that stood between the Israelite and his God then we had the first Veil and then the ultimate second Veil
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so that the mercy seat was something that only one man saw and when the when the Levites disassembled the
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Tabernacle the ironic priests were in charge of the two tents and it was completely covered what did what did what did O wrong what did David
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do wrong they were moving the ark they were from Judah okay I
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mean it's it's on Jerry Jerry's uh car quote from John Wayne life is tough it's tougher if stupid I was like David what are you doing here you got
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the manual why you trying to move the ark using your own people okay you think God's going to be pleased because you build you're going to build him a fancy house no Moses did it exactly the way
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God said and God's glory descended upon it okay so again that kind of teaches the regulative principle so the problem is how can s Sinners dwell in the
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presence of a holy God and vice versa how does a holy God dwell in the midst of an Unholy people well I think we can all admit that the church is not holy it is
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not intrinsically holy nor are believers who make up the church so the only thing we can do is and what we have done is that we've
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basically theistically pushed God off to after we die we really don't think much about about the fact that as the Temple of the Living God God dwells in our midst and
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we in his presence because that's not a comfortable thought is it it wasn't for the Israelites they said to Moses you you go up we'll stay here okay send us a
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text no you know take a selfie with God send it to us but no they didn't want to be near that mountain and God actually praised them not that they were holy but at least they were afraid of
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him because of his Holiness that's largely lost in the modern Church um sadly very very very sadly so um how
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does a Unholy people live in the presence of a holy God one author writes Exodus Ends by EST stablishing the problem that dominates
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Leviticus I I like the way he phrases that again I said earlier it's a good problem but I think we need to just like you're you're kind of reading you're reading any novel you want to figure out
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what what is the what's the issue here what what is the problem okay so he says establishing the problem that dominates Leviticus the Holiness of yahweh's
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presence the problem or at least the reality of the Divine Holiness is the game Cher that necessitates the teachings of Holiness for Israel and the
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attent exegetical enhancements of several scriptural several scriptural Traditions unlike the legal collections of EX Exodus and Deuteronomy Leviticus speaks to Israel priests and Le I would
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argue that it speaks more to the Le than it does to the priests okay pertaining to coming into the courts of Yahweh personal social and economic concerns
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need to be explained in terms of how these could damage Andor help Israel as a tabernacle goinging people Leviticus views all of life relative to its
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effects on effects on worship should we view life as Believers and in the church any differently John tells us that the word
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became flesh and tabernacled Among Us and as far as I know that's the only place that word is used he makes a verb like Googled right
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he made a verb out of the tent he tented among us and then Paul goes on to say that we are the Temple of the Living God so we are not as Israel was and that's
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what these arrows are we are not a tabernacle going people we're a tabernacle bearing
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people that puts us not only in the same position as position as Israel as people who have the shakina Pentecost now dwelling within them personally and
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personally and corporately so we're not in the same position as Israel we're actually Israel without the
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veils it seems to me to appreciate that status we have have to come to some appreciation of what it meant when all those those three things were still standing that's what the writer of Hebrews talks about the
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parable when the two tents are still standing or literally when they still have standing then the way unto God is not
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yet open but that's not true anymore okay that that is what is so significant about what Christ did relative to the Tabernacle and really
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the concept of him tabernacling tabernacling Among tabernacling Among Us takes us back to this time and to these people and to this place and it
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really takes us back to Leviticus so I don't think the problem has changed uh I think it's very much the same for us as it was for Israel if not
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even more so and it might be comforting for us to think well Israel didn't do so well so I guess the church you know if God grades on a curve the church isn't worse than Israel was well yeah at times
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it has been it is discouraging um it is it is perhaps the most discouraging aspect of being in a
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pastoral Ministry to see the church in every age fail in its reciprocal its reciprocal duties of being a holy people or or even
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not even to go that far to even consider the god whom they claim to claim to approach to be holy Holiness has never been a popular
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Doctrine so we think our time is worse than any other s just just read some preachers from previous ages and hear how they Lament The worldliness and
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unholiness of the church in their day and then when we look at how those people live we think they had a good no they they had it just as bad as we do
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I is supp to I don't know if we have really understanding what that word means I I
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would agree we do not understand what the word holy means but instead of trying to find out what that word means we've essentially either domesticated it or abandon it all together where do we
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find out what holy means we find out in the Old Testament we find out at Sodom and gomor we find out at the flood we find out in Eden but that doesn't pertain
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to God's people we can look at them and say well they were Sinners you know look at Sodom okay it even vexed lot's soul to
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see how they lived we say well they deserved it like New Orleans you know wipe it out San Francisco see we we can get around it we can um we can justify ourselves by
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saying they deserved it but that's not what this is about this is about the Holiness of God in the midst of his people people people that he has called that's who we
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are is Hol the same thing as Purity it produces Purity in my opinion it's not the same thing because we are a holy
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people the word sanctification the word holy essentially means separated and so the the uh incense that
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was burned in the altar in the first tent was holy and no one was allowed to use its formulation for domestic use because it was set apart the vessels
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were holy once the sacrifice was given brought presented it was holy no refunds no takebackspace
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but there there is a word that kind of covers all of these sacrifices that we're going to be talking about and it's a word that you're familiar with from the New Testament that word is Corban okay in the New
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Testament we know it because Jesus condemns the scribes and the Pharisees for withholding any benefit to their parents of what they have declared to be Corban but their sin was not to
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dedicate something to the Lord but they gave with one hand and kept back with another they were still gaining the use of what they had declared was Corban but the word
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essentially means presented as a present you don't take it back so holiness means separate Purity is something deeper than
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that in terms of an individual or the church only God is pure we are pure because we have have been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ
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I think this is where we have the biggest hurdle is getting into our head that Holiness does not mean not
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anybody no us we we make God out to be a liar and we deceive ourselves we we' already talked about the fact that for high-handed sins there was no sacrifice but we have been taught that Holiness is all about
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sinning or not sinning it's about our behavior and I think that is one of the hugest the largest obstacles to us understanding the concept the beginning of understanding the concept of anything
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is to understand its source is that a fair statement the only way we can even approach an understanding of Holiness is to focus our attention on a
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holy God and so much of the Old Testament reveals to us the Holiness of God that his eyes are too pure even to look upon evil now what is our when we get into
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our heads even even in a small way but hopefully a growing way that though by those who approach him he will be holy and we begin to immerse ourselves in
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what that means to God basically study
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original what that results in is a greater awe and appreciation that he has brought us not only into his presence but he has adopted us as his
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children does that make
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anybody basically it's like who am I that I should find favor in the
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be we can be holy if we focus on the definition of the word the basic definition we are set apart we are yeah Paul Paul makes that clear because he made us he made us he he chose us for himself that's what he's doing with
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Israel he's saying you're holy but he's not saying it okay you're holy now do what you want okay because you're holy
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because I have chosen you I have set you apart for my service and this is what that looks like so I think you know I'm going to I'm going to mention as we talk
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about the sacrifices and it's very easy to to realize oh yeah this is the this is the actual Israelite who's bringing the sacrifice right so he's bringing the lamb or he's bringing the bull or the
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goat or whatever and it's it's it's he's the one who's slitting and he's the one who's cutting it up okay this is a very bloody operation what we don't realize
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is that there are thousands of other Israelites doing the same thing at the same time that the blood is running from the altar into the brook Kidron from
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Jerusalem it is just absolutely running in the temple and the fire never goes out and even when the temple sacrifices were done the priests stayed up all
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night making sure the fire on the altar kept burning the burnt offering so that in the morning there was nothing left and they started all over with the morning burnt offering okay so I mean
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this is just a an entire panorama of death that we might live that's what
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holy means it is it is so um it is such
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Perfection that we really can't even fathom how such a God would allow us into his presence much like boldly so the more we study the Holiness of God the more we understand the
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Majesty of Jesus Christ and we also understand that you know this whole idea of me being a good person that is such a slap in the Divine
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face that you think that your righteousness which is as filthy rags which actually mean menstrual Rags bloody rags you're
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going to bring that before the Lord you know you see where this goes I hope you can see where where this is heading the the Old Testament teaches us the Holiness of God and through that the
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Majesty of Jesus Christ and through that the absolute abject un inability of me to do anything for my own salvation all I can do is give thanks which I think
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quite remarkably is the sin that Paul lays at the feet of all of mankind knowing god knowing god what did they refuse to do give
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thanks isn't that amazing now he's going to go on about their other sins but really the fundamental sin is giving not
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ex not unho the Babylonian exile was wor was not because of worshiping other gods it was because of Disobedience they were not obeying God in fact the length of the Babylonian exile was established as
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the sabatical years they refused to observe so they refused to be the holy people that God called them to be they did not trust God that seventh every
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seventh year when they were to leave the land phow they thought I got I got Investments here I I got to plow the land and you know I can't trust that
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there will be a harvest at the end of a year that I don't do anything even though on the Sabbath God gave them the Mana right they didn't you know the day
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before I should say they gave he gave them twice as much so that on the Sabbath if they went out there was nothing there but they They carried on that stiff necked rebellion and the Exile was largely
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because of their Disobedience of the ordinance of God but all that that was the one toward God but also toward one another you know you have the the prophetic
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denunciations of the priests who were