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. Leviticus chapter 22. Let's read each one of the words with reverent hearts.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his sons, and so that they abstain from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they do not profane my holy name. I am the Lord. Say to them, If anyone of all your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, While he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence. I am the Lord. None of the offspring of Aaron who has a leprous disease or a discharge may eat of the holy things until he is clean.

Whoever touches anything that is unclean through contact with the dead, or a man who has had an emission of semen, and whoever touches a swarming thing by which he may be made unclean, or a person from whom he may take uncleanness, Whatever his uncleanness may be, the person who touches such a thing shall be unclean until the evening, and shall not eat of the holy things, unless he has bathed his body in water. When the sun goes down, he shall be clean, and afterward he may eat of the holy things, because they are his food. He shall not eat what dies of itself, or is torn by beasts, and so make himself unclean by it. I am the Lord. They shall therefore keep my charge, lest they bear sin for it and die thereby when they profane it.

I am the Lord who sanctifies them. A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing. No foreign guest of the priest or high worker shall eat of a holy thing. But if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food. If a priest's daughter marries a layman, she shall not eat of the contribution of the holy things.

But if a priest's daughter is widowed or divorced and has no child and returns to her father's house as in her youth, she may eat of her father's food, yet no lay person shall eat of it. And if anyone eats of a holy thing unintentionally, he shall add a fifth of its value to it, and give the holy thing to the priest. They shall not profane the holy things of the people of Israel, which they contribute to the Lord, and so cause them to bear iniquity and guilt by eating their holy things. For I am the Lord who sanctifies them. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and his son and all the people of Israel, and say to them, When anyone of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering for any of their vows or freewill offering that they offer to the Lord, if it's to be accepted for you, it shall be a male without blemish of the bulls or the sheep or the goats.

You shall not offer anything that has a blemish, for it will not be acceptable for you. And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a vow or as a free will offering from the herd or from the flock to be accepted, it must be perfect. There shall not be blemish in it. Animals blind or disabled or mutilator, or having a discharge, or at each, or as calves, you shall not offer to the Lord, or give them to the Lord, as a food offering on the altar. You may present a bull or a lamb that has a part too long or too short for a freewill offering, but for a vow offering it cannot be accepted.

Any animal that has its testicles bruised, or crushed, or turned, or cut, you shall not offer to the Lord, You shall not do it within your land, neither shall you offer as the bread of your God any such animals gotten from a foreigner. Since there is a blemish in them because of their mutilation, they will not be accepted for you.' And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, When an ox or sheep or goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother, and from the eighth day on it shall be acceptable as a food offering to the Lord. But you shall not kill an ox or a sheep and her young in one day. And when you sacrifice a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Lord, you shall sacrifice it so that you may be accepted.

You shall be eaten on the same day. You shall leave none of it until morning. I am the Lord. So you shall keep my commandments and do them. I am the Lord.

And you shall not profane my holy name. that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the Lord who sanctifies you, who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the Lord. Amen.

This is the perfect word of our Lord. Now, brothers and sisters, we are almost arriving to the end of this book. And this chapter that we have here, chapter 22, in a sense, is connected, of course, not only sequentially, but also topically with chapter 21. And this section here is going to be about the wholeness of the priest and the wholeness of the sacrifice, or better, the necessity of the wholeness of the priest and the wholeness of the sacrifice. When I say wholeness, I mean the completeness or the perfection of the priest and the wholeness, the completeness, the perfection of the sacrifice.

It is necessary that both the priest and the sacrifice will be perfect, that is without blemish. So those are some of the things that we studied last week in chapter 21. And what I'm going to argue tonight is that it's not only that it's necessary for the life of Israel, but also it is necessary for the sanctification of Israel. We can see, first of all, those two points, the wholeness or the necessity of the completeness of the priest, if you see in verse 3. In verse 3 here, the author says, If anyone of all of your offspring throughout your generations approaches the holy things that the people of Israel dedicate to the Lord, while he has an uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from my presence.

I am Dolores, speaking to the priest. So in the previous chapter, we saw how the priest was supposed to be without blemish. And in this chapter, we're going to see how the approachings of the priest to the holy things are to be in a clean state. And also those people who are in the household of the priest are to approach the holy things in a complete, perfect, without blemish way. Remember that the person of the priest and his family was the Lord and that he would eat from the things of the tabernacle and the offerings.

So he was supposed to approach those holy things that were offering as sacrifices in the ceremonial things of the tabernacle with wholeness or perfection. But not only that, it was not only the priest that was supposed to be whole and complete and without blemish, but also the sacrifices were supposed to be complete and whole and without blemish. So if you turn your page and you go to verse 18, you will see that the same expectation of wholeness, completeness or without blemishness of the priest is also for the sacrifice. It says in verse 18, Speak to Aaron and his sons, that is, the priests, and all the people of Israel, and say to them, With any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering at his offering for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offered to the Lord, if it is to be accepted for you, it shall be a male without blemish, of the bulls or the sheep or the goats. And it will continue to give stipulations or instructions about how the sacrifice was supposed to be whole, complete or without blemish.

That's the only thing that I want you to have in your mind, brothers and sisters, that this section that we have here, it is about the wholeness, the completeness, the without blemishlessness of the priest and also of the sacrifice. And those two requirements or those two things are a necessity for the holiness of Israel. If you go to verse 31 of the last couple of verses of the chapter, it says, So you shall keep my commandments, everything that has been said before, and do them. I am the Lord, and you shall not profane my holy name. that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel.

I am the Lord who sanctifies you." So that is that the priest and the completeness, the perfection, the wholeness, the without blemishlessness of the priest and the completeness, the holiness and the the integral part of the sacrifice were essential for the presence of the Lord in the midst of Israel and for the sanctification of the people, because God was the one that sanctified the people of Israel. Now, this is very, very important because, brothers and sisters, remember that the people of Israel were already holy, as we have now repeated many times. They have been positionally holy, separated, set apart from the peoples, from the hidden, from the nations as the people of God. And as we have also said many, many times, they are expected to be experientially or practically holy.

So you shall be holy for I am holy. Now, the position of holiness of Israel was by grace, right? They were taken out of Egypt by grace. The Lord says in the end of Exodus chapter 2 or 3, when He's remembering the covenant or the promise of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and based on His remembering of this promise or this covenant given to them, is that He is going to free them from the bondage in Egypt. But now once they have been separated, positionally holy as the people of God, now they are required to be holy.

And the standard for them to be practically holy is going to be the obedience to the law that was given in Exodus and also the worship that is done through Leviticus. That is how experiential holiness was achieved under the old covenant, right? By obedience to the law, that is fulfilling each one of the requirements of the law, and also participating as the worshipper under the Leviticus law, right? The ceremonial law. Those two things were necessary for the practical holiness.

Now, the priest and the sacrifice were essential in the second part of obedience. The priest, if you remember in chapter 10, he was instructed to teach the people of Israel about all the commandments of the Lord, and also to distinguish between the common and uncommon. That is that the role of the priest was essential for the people of Israel to accomplish practical holiness. You see that, right? So the people of Israel were supposed to be practically holy by obedience to the law, and the ceremonial laws of the Leviticus, and the priest, and of course, the sacrifice were essential so that people will achieve this practical holiness.

So that means that if the priest or the sacrifice were not holy, complete or whole, then the whole people of Israel will not be able to have the presence of the Lord in the midst of them and therefore be holy. So that means, and I say it in a practical sense, if we're going to enter in a theoretical state, for a person under the old covenant to achieve practical holiness, they were already the people of God positionally holy, but for them to obtain holiness and favor before the Lord, they needed to obey perfectly the law, right? We know that. They need to obey perfectly the law, and second, they need to worship the Lord according to the laws that the Lord had instituted for worship, namely through the priesthood and through the sacrifices. If they tick, tick, tick those things, theoretically, they would have obtained this practical holiness.

Now, there was a problem. There was a problem because even if the Israelites will fulfill in their mind the commandments of the written law and in their mind fulfill the stipulations of the regulations of worship, namely through the priest and through the sacrifice, Every time that they tick, tick, tick, and tick, they would have seen themselves as all of this system not having power on them to giving them the holiness that it was promised. Now, they would have ticked the requirements one after the other, but then experientially, they would have had the reminder of sin, and therefore it would have been needed that they repeat and repeat and repeat this process. Even if they had a priest who was an example of a priest, and even if they had the sacrifices without blemish, without spot, and even if they follow all the stipulations of the worship part of Leviticus, step by step, they offer the sacrifice, everything is nice, and then they go back to their lives and there's still sin in them. I reminded of sin.

So that is that the old covenant, even if you fulfilled the law completely, the written law, and if you follow the worship stipulations of the priesthood and the sacrifice, did not have the power to sanctify the worshiper. And now guess what? These are not my words. These are the words of the author of Hebrews. So go to Hebrew chapter 9.

So in Hebrews chapter 9, now I'm not going to read the long portion because we're trying to make this shorter, but just go to verse 9. After the author of Hebrews has spoken of the Old Covenant and the loss of the, the vertical loss of the priest and all of that, he says something in verse 9. According to this arrangement, that is the arrangement of the tabernacle and the priest and all of that, According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshipper. but deal only with food and drink and various washings regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation." So, all of those sacrifices cannot make the conscience of the worshiper perfect.

Now, this word is a very important word. It's like kind of fulfilling, completing, making something whole, making something as it's supposed to be, feeling something to the complete measure. That is the concept of Perfection. So all of these things of the old covenant cannot make that worshiper perfect. But then he says that this was until the time of the Reformation, not the Reformation of the 16th and 17th century, but the biblical Reformation, right?

The Reformation that is given to us in verse 11. It says time of Reformation. Time is a word of time. And then verse 11 speaks of when, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, the tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood. Sacrifice, right?

Whole priest and whole sacrifice. thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of the heifer sanctify or purify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offers himself without blemish to God, purify you or sanctify you or perfect your conscience? from dead works to serve the living God. Now, stay with me.

Just turn to chapter 10, a couple of verses, and then I will make my point. Chapter 10, verse 12, okay? Now, just read carefully what Christ does here. Chapter 10, verse 12. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, that is Himself, right?

He sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until His enemies should be made a footstool for His feet. For by a single offering that is of Himself, He has perfected..." Exactly the same word. "...He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

Now, the beautiful thing of the new covenant, it is not only that all the requirements are completed and that the high priest and the offering is completely whole and pure and absolute and without lacking anything. But that high priest and that sacrifice has the power to sanctify and to perfect those who receive the blood of the sacrifice. And they are perfected ones for all. Now, the question that you should ask, at least I asked myself this morning, is what is that perfection? What is that perfection?

Now, perfection in the sense of wholeness and completeness. Well, that's what the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8. And there is no controversy about that. Chapter 8, the Apostle says, in verse 29, it says, For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed, or to be made like, or to be perfected into the image of his Son. He who is the firstborn among many brothers, brothers and sisters, beloved of Christ.

The old covenant did not have the power, not through the law or not through the worship system with a priest and with the sacrifice to do anything to the worshiper other than being a reminder of sin. Every time that they tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, there will be an experiential reminder of the power and the dominion and the presence of sin on the worshiper of the old covenant. But when a person by grace through faith has genuinely been saved and united to the person of Jesus Christ and belongs to the new covenant by the blood of the Savior, then that person is positionally holy, set apart by the sprinkling of the blood of the Savior, and that person is once for all made holy. Now you will say, but I'm not holy, right? Because in the mind of the apostle, what he says in verse 28, And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good.

For those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. I meant thirty, anyway. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.

And those whom he justified, he also glorified. In the mind of God, the wholeness, the completeness, the perfection given to the saint is something that is already accomplished by the Savior. Now, experientially, we are to reach the point in which we're either taken up in glory or the Lord comes and takes us so that this glorification is now experiential and sin is no more. And then we can be partakers in the fullness of the presence of Christ, because His blood is sufficient. Amen.