THROUGH THE BIBLE - Leviticu..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Let's please open up our Bibles to the book of Leviticus. Leviticus chapter 1.

And we are going to be starting with this new book of the Bible as we usually do our corporate reading of scripture. We come together and we read one chapter of the Bible together and then we give a brief Christological overview. So brothers and sisters, let's please open up our Bible. In Leviticus chapter 1, we're going to be reading the whole chapter 17 verses. Let's pay attention to each one of the words.

And with reverent hearts, we are going to approach the glorious, perfect, ever-enduring, never-changing, all-sufficient Word of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This is His Word. Leviticus chapter 1. The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any of you brings an offering to the Lord, you shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from the flock. If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a meal without blemish.

He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron's sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. Then he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into pieces. And the sons of Aaron, the priests, shall put fire on the altar, and arrange wood on the fire.

And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall arrange the pieces, the head and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar. But its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock, from the sheep or goats, he shall bring a male with a blemish and he shall kill it. on the north side of the altar before the Lord.

And Aaron's sons, the priest, shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar. And he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat. And the priest shall arrange them on the wood that is under fire on the altar. But the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar.

It is a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord. If his offering to the Lord is a burnt offering of birds, then he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or pigeons, and the priest shall bring it to the altar, and wring off its head, and burn it on the altar. Its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar. He shall remove its crop with its contents, and cast it beside the altar on the east side, in the place for ashes. he shall tear it open by its wings but shall not severe it completely and the priest shall burn it on the altar on the wood that is on the fire it is a burnt offering a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the lord amen brothers and sisters this is the word of our savior as i said brothers and sisters we're gonna start this is the beginning of a very exciting book this is the beginning of the book of leviticus sometimes this book is known as the book that outlines the sacrificial system of israel or that book that outlines the priestly duties of aaron and his sons these are the levites or this book that presents the different feasts that are given to israel or as we have mentioned it perhaps in first peter chapter one and two this is the holiness code that it was given to the people of Israel.

And brothers and sisters, sometimes this book is considered to be a rather boring and difficult book. But, oh, brothers and sisters, that this may not be the thought that we, the people of God, have in our hearts or in our minds. That we may not treat the Word of God that way. Everything that is given to us in Scripture is sufficient for growing in likeness to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is needed, it's necessary.

All of the details and all of those sacrifices might be difficult for the mind to comprehend. But with the assistance and the light of the Holy Spirit, we are to grasp the completeness of the Word of God because it is indeed very important. And actually, let me tell you of the importance of this book of Leviticus. And let me admit to you that if we do not understand the book of Leviticus, we will not be able to understand the book of Hebrews, for instance. Or if we do not have a good understanding of the details and the structure that are found in the book of Hebrews or in the book of Leviticus better, We will not be able to understand the different uses of the Law and the courses of the Law and the sacrifices by Paul the Apostle.

But more importantly, beloved brothers and sisters, if we do not understand or comprehend the depths and the beauty of the Book of Leviticus, we may miss on some very important elements the gospel and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm not saying that in order for you to understand the gospel you are to understand perfectly the book of Leviticus but I'm saying that we may miss some of the depth and some of the glory of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of all of these sacrifices that we're pointing to the Savior. So the book of Leviticus is actually not only going to be very important but it is going to address a very specific issue question, a very specific question. If we were going to ask ourselves, how can we summarize the book of Leviticus, then the book of Leviticus will be answering to a very particular question. And that is, how can a holy and perfect and seamless God dwell and remain in the midst of a sinful people.

This is the people of Israel. How can the triune God of the universe dwell and remain in the midst of a sinful people, the people of Israel in this case? And we are to understand that the sinfulness of the people of Israel is not only a sinfulness that is by nature a sons of Adam, but the sinfulness of the people of Israel was by the breaking and through the breaking of the covenant through their disobedience. So this book of Leviticus tries to answer the question of how can the people of God remain in a relationship, ongoing and continual relationship with the manifested presence of their God. And this word is going to be very important.

How can the relationship between the people of God and God himself, how can that relationship be preserved? And the way that the book of Leviticus is going to answer to that question, at least in the first five chapters, it is by providing what we know as the sacrificial system. And actually in the first five chapters, this book is going to present to us five different sacrifices as part of this process of preserving that relationship between the people of Israel, but more particularly the individual, the Israelite and God. And in this chapter that we have here, we have something that is called the burnt sacrifices. The burnt sacrifices, all sacrifices contributed to the preservation of the relationship between the individual, the Israelite and God.

But these burnt offerings are going to be particular. Now, first of all, we need to understand in general what a sacrifice is. And this word sacrifice is actually an offering. This is going to be an offering from the worshipper, that is the person, that is meant to be a manifestation of that intimate relationship That they or that he or she has with God. So, bringing offerings, bringing sacrifices to the Lord.

It is a manifestation of this intimate relationship, covenantal relationship that the Israelite has with God. This is a personal relationship. of the individual with the Lord God of Israel. Of course there is a covenantal relationship of the whole nation of Israel with God, but when it comes to the offerings of these sacrifices, in this case of chapter 1, these are going to be individual sacrifices. That's what it says, if anyone among you brings a sacrifice, if anyone, this is an individual act.

And this Burnt sacrifices in chapter one of the book of Leviticus are divided in three different types of burnt offerings of burnt sacrifices. The first one is found in verse three. These are the burnt offering of the bulls or the herd and in verse 10 we are told that there's a second type of burnt offerings and these are the burnt offerings that are from the flock and these are sheep or goats and in verse 14 we are given the third type of this offering to the lord this burnt offering to the lord that is a birds and namely turtle doves or pigeons these are the three types of burnt offerings of sacrifices that the individual can bring to the Lord as means of preserving the covenantal relationship that he or she has with the Lord God of Israel. But brothers and sisters, there's actually four very important principles, four very important things that we must understand from this sacrificial system as we are going to start this book of Leviticus. These are going to be four basic fundamental principles that are going to help us to comprehend the depths and the beauty of the book of Leviticus and how this one is connected with New Testament teaching.

So the first principle, I said that there is going to be four of them, so the first principle is that the sacrificial system that is found in the book of Leviticus only atoned for unintentional sins. This is very important. So keep that in your mind, that the sacrificial system, as it is outlined in the book of Leviticus, only atoned for unintentional sins. And for that reason, I want us to go to Numbers chapter 15, because I want you to see this principle from Scripture itself. Scripture is going to tell us that the way that unintentional sins are treated is different to the way that an intentional sin is treated.

So if you go to Numbers chapter 15, verse 27 through verse 31, we will see this principle there. So now, we need to understand that an unintentional sin, that means a sin in which there is no intention, there is not an active intention to break the law of the Lord. While on the other hand, an intentional sin. It's a type of sin in which the will and the intention of the heart of the person, even though they know and they understand the law and the consequences of breaking the law, they continue to break the commandment. So that makes it an intentional sin.

And in the book of Leviticus and in the Bible, these intentional sins, these acts that are willfully committed, these are sins that are called even high-handed as having your hand high elevated or scenes that are great scenes. But now here in Numbers 15 in verse 27 to 31 we found that principle very clearly. In verse 27 it says if one person sins unintentionally he shall offer this is the sacrifice a female goat a year old for a sin offering and the priest shall make atonement before the lord for the person who makes a mistake when he sins unintentionally to make atonement for him and he shall be forgiven now this word he shall be forgiven is going to be found many times in the book of leviticus as we progress to it every time that people brought offerings and sacrifices it says, and it shall be forgiven to them. So that means that there was a type of forgiveness through these offerings in the Levitical system that were brought for unintentional sins. But now continue and pay attention to verse 29.

you shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally for him who is either native among the people of israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them now pay attention to verse 30 but now here comes the intentional sin But the person who does anything with a high hand, and this is going to be the term that the Bible uses to speak of intentional sins, but the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he's native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord and that person shall be cut off from among his people. That person will be cut off from the people. Because he has despised the word of the Lord, and has broken his commandment, that person shall be utterly cut off, his inequity shall be on him." So as you can see here, there are two types of sins that the people of Israel could commit. An intentional sin of which the result was to be utterly cut off, that is to be put to death, to be removed from the covenant people of God.

And on the other hand, we have unintentional sins for which there was atonement through the Levitical sacrificial system. And this is very important, brothers, because Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Levitical code, the Levitical sacrificial system. But we know that the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, is greater much greater than the sacrificial system that was given to the Levites as we're going to see in through the progress of the book of Leviticus. But what I want you to see here is that we have these two types of sin. Unintentional and intentional.

The one who sin intentionally, that person will receive the curses of the law. The law will come upon that person with whole punishment and they will be, as it says in verse 31, utterly cut off, removed, death. Think about the person who kills, the murderer, Or think about the person that breaks the Sabbath. Or think about the people that fall in adultery. Those are intentional sins.

You cannot commit adultery unintentionally. Or you cannot murder a person unintentionally, even though in Exodus there's some examples that it could happen. But generally speaking, killing someone requires the involvement of the will. And if that happens, then the result of someone intentionally killing someone and intentionally falling in adultery will be to be cut off or removed from the covenant people of God. But other type of sins, not like this one's intentional, will have this atonement.

Very important principle and I hope that that is clear because now we move on to the second principle that I wanted to share with you and that principle is founded through verse 3 to verse 6. From verse 3 to verse 6 and this is the principle that I call this morning the principle worship the principle of worship and I called it that way because I want you to see the high level of involvement of the person who was bringing the offering to the tabernacle namely the worshipper he was bringing that offering to the tabernacle and I want you to see the high level of involvement in the whole process of the sacrifice sometimes we think that the sacrifice was only performed by the priest but I want you to see from the text how how high was the level of involvement of the person that was bringing the offering to the tabernacle now verse 3 it says if his offering his is referring to the person that is bringing the offering to the tabernacle if his offering is a burnt offering from the hurt he shall offer a male without blemish he the person offering the sacrifice shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting that he the person offering the sacrifice may be accepted before the lord verse 4 he the person offering the sacrifice shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and he shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him then verse 5 then he the person offering the sacrifice shall kill the bull before the lord he was the person offering the sacrifice that was to kill the bull before the lord this is a high level of involvement in this act of worship before the lord with the intention to preserve the relationship between God and the individual of Israel. But continue in verse 5, it says, Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord. And here's when we have the involvement of the priest. And Aaron's sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting.

Then, verse 6, Then he, the person who brought the offering to the tabernacle, shall flay the burnt offering and cut it in two. Now brothers and sisters I wanted to see the high level of involvement not only of the Levites and those conducting the sacrifice but of all the people of Israel were highly involved in the process of worship and this is a teaching for us that the church The community of God, the new covenant people of God are to be highly involved in the worship activities of the people of God. Now the third principle that I wanted to give you is that principle of substitution. So I have given you the principle of intentional and unintentional sins. Now the second principle is of the principle of worship or high level of involvement in worship.

And then the third principle, it is the principle of substitution. In verse three, we are told that the animal that this person is going to offer is meant to be a male without blemish. And then in verse four, we're told that this person, the person bringing the offering shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. It is a male, it's an animal that is a male without blemish, symbolizing the sinlessness of the animal. And then also that the hand is going to be laid upon this animal as a burnt offering to be accepted as atonement.

Now here we have this principle of substitution. The animal is going to become the substitute to the worshiper. And by the laying of the hand, the person is going to be transferring something to that animal. and that symbolic transfer is of at least two things. The first thing, it is authority.

That means that that animal is going to represent who the worshiper is. He's going to be in place or instead of the worshiper. But the second important thing is that by that person laying hand on the animal, the guilt of that person is going to be also transferred to that animal so that the debt of sin before the Lord can be atoned by the death of the animal. This is the principle of substitution. And this is a glorious thing, brothers and sisters, because Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, He is the full substitute for the people of God.

When He died upon the cross, He was representing each one of the saints who were chosen before the foundation of the world to be in Him. And the guilt, the unrighteousness was transferred to Christ so that He will be able to atone for the sins of His people. And then His righteousness is imputed, given to us by grace through faith. This takes us, brothers and sisters, to the final principles of this teaching that I want you to have in your mind. And that is the principle of restitution of the relationship.

There's going to be a restitution of the relationship between the person and the Lord. This is this principle of restitution. And here in chapter one, that principle is clearly seen in the expression, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. For these three sacrifices, all of them finished with the acceptance from the Lord and this being a pleasing aroma to the Lord. This means that the sacrifice has been accepted and there has been a restitution or a keeping or a preservation of the relationship of the individual who is bringing the offering and also of the Lord God of Israel as the ruler and the king of the people of Israel.

But now, brothers and sisters, the thing that this is actually interesting is that independently of how pleased the Lord was with the offering that was offered by this person, This pleasing of the Lord will be temporal in nature. That means that the relationship, the preserving of the keeping will be temporal because it only took better than the person that was offering a sacrifice whose sacrifice was accepted as a pleasing aroma before the Lord. would commit a sin the next day and then that person will need to come back to the tabernacle to offer another sacrifice and continually like that. This was a temporal way of preserving the relationship between the person and the law even that person could end up in committing an intentional sin and all of the previous all of the past sacrifices that that person would have offered would have come to be of non-value because that person would have broken the law intentionally and therefore that person would have been cut off from among the people now brothers and sisters this is a glorious shadow of our Lord Jesus Christ, an opposite shadow in a sense, because the book of Hebrews in chapter 9 says that all of these gifts and sacrifices that were offered under the Mosaic covenant were not able, were incapable of making the worshippers perfect. They did not have the ability or the power to make the worshipper perfect.

That is Hebrews chapter 9 verse 9. But The only thing that they did is that they temporarily preserved the relationship between them and the Lord. And this is glorious because opposite to that, the author of Hebrews in chapter 10 says that the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient in chapter 10 verse 10. to sanctify us once for all. He says that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest, he continues in verse 11, and every priest that stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins but when christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sin he sat down at the right hand of god it was completely finished waiting from that time until his enemies should make should be made a footstool for his feet for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified the glorious power of the sacrifice of the lord jesus christ is that it was not only means to restore and to bring reconciliation between us and the father but the sacrifice of the lord jesus christ has the power to give us life and love eternal and this life transforms us into his likeness to the point that once the consummation of things come We can say that the presence of sin will be in us no more. All of that will be removed. And this is because the eternal divine sufficiency and power of the sacrifice of God, who is Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world and who makes the bride, the church, blameless and without a spot, so that no more sacrifices will be needed for us, not only to preserve our relationship with the Lord, but to come into his eternal presence. Amen.