THROUGH THE BIBLE - Leviticu..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. to open up your Bibles to the book of Leviticus chapter 27. By God's grace, we are concluding this book.

And next week, we're going to start with numbers. So our task today is to complete this book in chapter 27. So beloved of Christ, paying much attention to each one of the words of Holy Scripture, we Spirit given reverence, let's approach this chapter and let's pray that the Spirit of God might guide us to see Jesus Christ and Him exalted in all the Scripture. So this is Leviticus chapter 27, and I'm reading from the English Standard Version of the Bible. Let's read together, beloved of Christ.

Leviticus chapter 27. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, If anyone makes a special vow to the Lord involving the valuation of persons, then the valuation of a male from 20 years old up to 60 years old shall be 50 shekels of silver, according to the shekel of the century. If the person is a female, the valuation shall be 30 shekels. If the person is from five years old up to 20 years old, the valuation shall be for a male 20 shekels and for a female 10 shekels. If the person is from a month old up to five years old, the valuation shall be for a male five shekels of silver, and for a female the valuation shall be three shekels of silver.

And if the person is 60 years old or over, then the valuation for a male shall be 15 shekels, and for a female 10 shekels. And if someone is too poor to pay the valuation, then he shall be made to stand before the priest, and the priest shall value him. The priest shall value him according to what the vower can afford. If the vower is an animal that might be offered as an offering to the Lord, all of it that he gives to the Lord is holy. He shall not exchange it or make a substitute for it, good for bad or bad for good.

And if he does, in fact, substitute one animal for another, then both it and the substitute shall be holy. And if it is any unclean animal, There may not be an offering to the Lord, then he shall stand the animal before the priest, and the priest shall value it as either good or bad. As the priest values it, so he shall be. But if he wishes to redeem it, he shall add a fifth to the valuation. When a man dedicates his house as a holy gift to the Lord, the priest shall value it as either good or bad.

As the priest values it, so he shall stand. And if the donor wishes to redeem his house, he shall add a fifth to the valuation price and he shall be his. If a man dedicates to the Lord part of the land that is his possession, then the valuation shall be in proportion to its seat. a homer of barley seed shall be valued at 50 shekels of silver. If he dedicates his field from the year of jubilee, the valuation shall stand.

But if he dedicates his field after the jubilee, then the priest shall calculate the price according to the years that remain until the year of jubilee, and a deduction shall be made from the valuation. And if he who dedicates the field wishes to redeem it, then he shall add a fifth to its valuation price, and it shall remain He's. But if he does not wish to redeem the field or if he has sold the field to another man, you shall not be redeemed anymore. But the field, when it is released in the jubilee, shall be a holy gift to the Lord, like a field that has been devoted. The priest shall be in possession of it.

If he dedicates to the Lord a field that he has bought, which is not a part of his possession, Then the priest shall calculate the amount of the valuation for it up to the year of Jubilee, and the man shall give the valuation on the day as a holy gift to the Lord. In the year of Jubilee, the field shall return to him from whom it was bought, to whom the land belongs as I possession. Every valuation shall be according to the shekel of the century. Twenty gyres shall make a shekel. But I firstborn of animals, which is I firstborn belongs to the Lord.

No man may dedicate, whether ox or sheep, it is the Lord's. And if it is an unclean animal, then he shall buy it back at devaluation, and add a fifth to it. Or if it is non-redeemed, it shall be sold at devaluation. But no devoted thing that a man devotes to the Lord of anything that he has, whatever man or beast of his inherited field, shall be sold or redeemed. Every devoted thing is most holy to the Lord.

No one devoted who is to be devoted for destruction from mankind shall be ransomed. He shall surely be put to death. Every side of the land, whether of the seed of land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wishes to redeem some of his side, he shall add a fifth to it.

And every side of herds and flocks Every tenth animal of that pass under the herdsmen staff shall be holy to the Lord. One shall not differentiate between good or bad, neither shall he make a substitute for it. And if he does substitute for it, then both it and the substitute shall be holy, shall not be redeemed. These are the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses for the people of Israel on Mount Sinai. Amen.

This is the word of the Lord, and this is the end of this book of Leviticus. Beloved brothers and sisters, the chapter 27 that we have here, it is about what we're told in verse 2, these vows or special vows. This perhaps may be the title that you have in your Bible. And a vow, beloved of Christ, is just simply a promise or a commitment that anyone in Israel will make to consecrate someone or something to the Lord. Okay, a vow or a special vow.

It is a promise. It's a commitment that a person from Israel will make a promise or commitment to consecrate someone or something to the Lord. We are told in this whole chapter, in the end of the book of Leviticus, that people can be consecrated unto the Lord. That is, that people can enter into these vows, which are promises or commitments, so that they will be consecrated to the Lord. Male and female and children, also the poor, or we are told about the animals, those were offerings and the unclean animals and also the land and even houses.

Everything that we have read in this chapter 27, it's about vows, which are promises or commitments of the person from Israel to consecrate either someone or something to the Lord. That consecration, that giving of that something to the Lord, someone or something, will be according to the value of that someone or that something. And the value of that someone or something in the land of Israel was defined by that which that someone or something could offer in labor to the community. So you can see that there's different values given to people and to things in this chapter in the way of shekels, silver shekels. Right.

We heard about 50 and 30 and 20 and 10, 15, 10, five and three. These different values given to male and female according to their age and even to the land, according to its fruitfulness or according to the house, according to the criteria of the priest, that value was determined according to that which the person or the thing could offer to Israel. We're not speaking about intrinsic value of male and female and that being different, but rather the value of the labor of men and women to the community. Hence, different values. So if a person was going to consecrate someone or something to the Lord, in a vow, then that person will bring that something or that someone to the Lord and then pay for the vow.

You may remember, as you have read your scripture in first Samuel, that Hannah, you remember Hannah, the mother of Samuel, that she was praying in the spirit because she was barren and she did not have kids. And she was saying, Lord, give your servant a kid, a son. and I will consecrate Him to you." So Samuel was consecrated to the Lord as a vow that Hannah entered into. That is the definition of a vow, just simply a promise or a commitment that a person from Israel will enter into to consecrate someone or something unto the Lord.

Now, these vows, brothers and sisters, were a serious matter. Because once a person enter into a vow, either consecrating himself or a son or whatever, you know, the house or the land, whenever a person enter into a vow, Then that person was submitted to the consequences of the vow and had to fulfill the vow. So it became an obligation to the person. Once a person entered into the vow, that became an obligation for that particular person, whatever they were offering to the Lord, either someone or some thing. So it was a serious thing.

And the Lord, in his mercy, Knowing not only the seriousness of the vows and also the weakness of people that they might enter into a vow and might break the vow, gave people the possibility of paying their way out of the vow. And that is what we heard here of this redeeming the vow. And we heard adding a fifth of it. You will read it many, many times. So if a person, just bear with me, I'm just explaining the text so then I can move to the point that I want to make.

Brothers and sisters, so if the person who entered into the vow, then that person wanted to remove him or herself from the vow, they added to it fifth or 20% or a fifth of the value in some of those cases, and they could redeem the value of the vow, and they would remove themselves from the obligation of the vow. That is simply what we have just read here. That was the mercy of the Lord, knowing that entering into a vow was something serious and that person or people may not be able to submit entirely until the end of the vow. So he gave them the possibility to purchase, to pay their way out of the vow. Now, I gave you the definition in the beginning.

I said that a vow is a promise or a commitment that a person enters into to consecrate someone or something to the Lord. And I said that once a person enters into that vow, that becomes an obligation. So that means that I vow. And this is when I need your attention. I vow moves from being not an obligation to move to be an obligation.

That is, that a vow moves from being not a law to become a law. That it is that a person does not have the need to submit to a vow. But once the person enters into a vow, then that vow becomes a personal law. So now I'm going to point your attention to Deuteronomy chapter 23. in which we see this component of obligation of a vow.

Go to Deuteronomy chapter 23. So difficult to pronounce that word. Chapter 23. Now, pay attention, beloved of Christ. Verse 21.

If you make a vow, chapter 23, right? Verse 21, If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it. For the Lord your God will surely require of you, and you will be guilty of sin. Now, what is sin? What is sin, beloved of Christ?

It's a transgression of The law is when you do not align to the law. Now, a vow is not an obligation for a person in Israel. But once the person enters into a vow, that vow becomes a personal law. And I'm saying a personal law because he's a law for the person, right? He's not a law for everyone, but it's a law for the person.

So then that person is required to fulfill the vow. Otherwise, if they do not fulfill the vow, then they are guilty of sin. They have broken a law. Verse 22. But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin.

You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth. Somewhere else, it says that it's better not to enter in vows with the Lord, right? In Ecclesiastes, it's better not to enter in vows with the Lord. So that means, beloved of Christ, that the definition of a vow, it is a free will offering or a free will promise, commitment that once you enter into it, becomes a personal law. And that is glorious because the book of Leviticus, when you go back to your chapter 27, it was ordained by the divine author, by the Holy Scriptures, by the Holy Spirit to give to us from chapter 21 to chapter 26, chapter 1 better, to chapter 26.

All the laws and all the instructions and all the regulations that were law to the people. That is that the people of Israel could not choose from whatever was from chapter 1 to chapter 26. They had to submit to the instructions and to the regulations of the law. They had entered into obligation and requirement to fulfill those ones. because they were people of Israel.

But when it comes to chapter 27, in the end of the law given to Israel, we now have these vows which are not lost upon the people of Israel, but are rather manifestations of the free will of the Israelites that whenever they enter into them, now they have put themselves. under obligation to fulfill the requirements of the law. From chapter 1 to chapter 26, they were under the law. They were under the obligations of everything that we read from chapter 21 to chapter 26. In chapter 27, they were not under the law.

They were not in the obligation to enter in any vow. It was only when they out of their heart spoke a word of commitment to the Lord that they enter into an obligation of the law to complete that which they were committing to that which they were saying from their mouth. Brothers and sisters, vows are a precious and a glorious illustration of what obedience from the heart is meant to be. You see, people who were under the law, they were expected to obey from the heart, but according to what the written law required of them. But the person that entered into a vow, it was because his or her heart moved them naturally to commit themselves to whatever it was to the Lord.

That it is that the obedience of a vow was in nature different to the obedience of that which was under the law. And these two different types of obedience, one under the law and the other one under the self or the will of the person, portray the type and the comparison of obedience that we have under the law and under grace as it is portrayed in the New Testament. Come with me to Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6.

The apostle, inspired by the spirit of Jesus Christ, is going to tell us of the relationship that the Christian has to the law and the relationship that he has to the law after he or she has been redeemed. So if you go to chapter six, verse 14, it says. For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace, then he continues. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law, but under grace?

By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey? Pay attention to that language, that if anyone presents themselves as obedient or as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you have to obey, either obscene, which leads to debt, or obedience, which leads to righteousness. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness." Now, beloved of Christ, pay attention to this, because now when we are under the law, then the law becomes the standard of obedience that we need to fulfill.

And we are slaves to that particular standard. So obedience is the result of whatever the written law says. But when we are in the person of Jesus Christ, we have been made free from the bondage that we have to the law. So that obedience will be the result, a natural organic spirit given manifestation of the freedom of the heart. But this obedience is now corresponds to the role of master of righteousness.

So we are not slaves anymore to theme. under the law, but under righteousness or under grace better, we are slaves of righteousness. That's what the Bible says. We have to pay attention to verse 18. Having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

Now, what is righteousness? What is righteousness? Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Speaking now to Christians, the same apostle Paul.

1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 26, beloved of Christ. For consider your calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise according to worldly standards. Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise.

God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is slow and despised in the world, even things that are not to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being may boast in the presence of God. And because of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. Beloved of Christ, may the Lord give me grace to explain this to you now. Beloved of Christ, once a person has been, by grace, through the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, rescued from darkness and being lost and dead in our trespasses, Haters of Jesus Christ, lovers of self, dead in our sins.

Once a person, by the mercies of Christ, has been inserted into the person of Jesus Christ, saved by the power of the Spirit, genuinely saved, immersed in Christ. That person has been liberated from the bondage of thing that was under the law in which righteousness was focused on self and what I could do to fulfill the requirements of the law? Nothing. To be slaves of righteousness under grace and the life that this Christian lives is not his or her life anymore, but it's Christ who lives in him or her who is righteousness. And therefore, the obedience of that person will be a manifestation from heaven of the righteousness of Christ flowing through that person and being sanctified into the image of the beloved.

And that is called being a slave to righteousness from the perception of the world is freedom. Freedom to death, freedom to sin, freedom to self, because beloved of Christ, there's one person that you will struggle and fight against until the end of the days. And that is called self in the way of performance. You see, even as Christians, we derive satisfaction of what we personally do as if we were under the law and as if we were able to fulfill the requirements of the law and as if we were able, through works, to obtain the pleasing sight of the Lord. But once you do not only are baptized into Christ, but once, beloved of Christ, you walk by faith in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, you are liberated from performance.

You're liberating from the works. You are liberated from being the source of satisfaction. You're not waking up in the morning to tick boxes of really religiosity practices to appease your conscience, but rather you want to run to the one that is the source of righteousness. And you're not saying, do I have to pray? Tick.

Do I have to read? Do I have to do this? But rather you say, Oh, Lord, extend the time so I will spend more with you in prayer. Oh, Lord, extend the time so I will consume your scriptures and know you more. Lord, extend the time that I will remain where righteousness abides.

The brother read that because of righteousness, the spirit is life. Because of the imputed righteousness given to a person, That person lives in the Spirit, and the Spirit is a fountain of life, a fountain of peace, a fountain of power, a fountain of conformity to Jesus Christ. And praise the Lord Jesus Christ, because apart from Him, impossible for you, sinner, to accomplish that. Impossible for you, fallen man or woman, to accomplish that, only because of the glorious Jesus Christ. that sets us apart from the power of the law, and made us slaves of righteousness unto life, so that your voice, your mouth, could be opened to give Him praises as the children of Zion, and not the children of Babylon.

Praise Christ. Amen.