Then there's that rotten flesh of ours. Those admitted to the place of worship are those who recognize that they are unfit to worship. that they are sinners. And yet, the whole book of Leviticus is God saying, Just as he says to Moses, the entire book of Leviticus is God saying to sinners, come. I'll meet you.
I'll dwell with you.
Now, the Holy Spirit dwells with us now. In those days, the Lord dwelled here in His temple. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Leviticus.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Leviticus chapter 1. as he begins his message called Personal Devotion. Leviticus chapter 1, personal devotion is a title. And at a glance Readers of Leviticus might find God's appointed rites of worship crude if not repulsive, Relying more of a slaughterhouse than a house of God or house of worship.
But wherever sin is glossed over, there will be greater sin. And how many times do we have to watch this movie to find out how it ends? And God is He certainly is on top of things with His Word. And we learned that to counter sin on the soul there must be blood. Christians know this.
The world, as a rule, does not. Blood is the stuff of life. And we don't like to leak out any blood. And I know for me, if I see a red something on me that's liquid, I'm wondering, where is this coming from? How bad is it?
It's blood serious stuff. Sin involves the forfeiture of life. And God uh certainly doesn't uh turn the other way. on this subject. Salvation is Blood red.
in vivid colour, Salvation is um something that the lost don't seem to care about. And by these rights, These rites in Leviticus and other parts of the Bible, but we're in Leviticus and they certainly are the dominant theme. He exposes through illustration the violence of sin upon the will of man and on others.
So now verse 1.
Now Yahweh called to Moses and spoke to him. from the tabernacle of meeting, saying now we'll Before we get to what he said, Leviticus opens right away with God's call to Moses.
Now, liberal theologians. They refuse to accept this fact. They simply say no he didn't. God didn't talk to Moses.
Somebody added that. They do this whenever they want to. Get from under the accountability of Scripture. But here's the interesting thing about these liberal theologians of Western civilization, which we belong. Prior to Christianity, There are no traces of objections As to who is talking to who here?
It's something that came out of the Renaissance. The Age of Enlightenment. Such ideas about Scripture are only useful to Satan. And that might be a helpful thing the next time he's throwing doubt your way. Who's who's this helping?
Doubting if God's word is true, doubting if God is faithful. Who who's that going to help? Going to help Satan for sure. In any case, Moses is no longer summoned to Mount Sinai. We covered that in the introduction.
But from Mount Sinai, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, the blueprints for the temple, and other commandments. Important commandments. But the tabernacle is now here, and here is where God is going to meet His servant, and it is within. The camp of the Israelites. God is right there with them and and just it's just this is Actually, it's pretty glorious.
I don't know how many of them appreciated it at the time. How many Christians appreciate a good church that they're in? A lot do, but how many do not? Maybe when it's too late they figure it out. We try to avoid that step.
The temple has become a portable Mount Sinai. Because of course it's going to move from Here at the base of the mountain. Exodus 25. And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat. From between the two cherubim which are On the ark of the testimony about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
So there's Moses at the time he received Exodus. He's on the Mount Sinai, the tabernacle's not. completed yet. It sort of progressively, you know, God revealed what he wanted from the tabernacle, and finally they got it built. But when he told him these words here, there's no tabernacle, he's still on the mountain.
And God's going to meet with him here.
Well, it's happening. Have we read this first verse without being acquainted with the book of Exodus? We might ask Who's Yahweh? Because that's we get that in Exodus. It shows up in Genesis, but that's Moses writing backwards.
He's telling the Jews, this is your God, but that the revelation of Yahweh doesn't come until Moses meets the Lord. You might ask, without knowledge of the book of Exodus, who's Moses? We don't meet him until we come to Exodus. And we might ask, what's this tabernacle of meeting all about?
Well, I just read it from Exodus 25, verse 22.
So these things may get stale to us, but they should not. We have to keep the fires burning. They will go out. If we don't service them, we don't stoke them, if we don't fuel the fires, For the Lord We're running a great risk. In fact, you can fuel the fires, and you're still at risk.
Because there's a tireless devil at work.
So here God says to Moses, Come, talk to me. Moses now doesn't have to go up the mountain, he goes to the tabernacle, and in he goes, verse 1. Verse 2, God now says to him, Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When any one of you brings an offering to Yahweh, you shall bring your offering of the livestock Of the herd and of the flock.
Now, again, personal devotion is where this is going. There were two types of sacrifices. There were the national sacrifices, and then there are the personal. sacrifices which were made public, coming to the tabernacle with some offering. Not all of them were blood sacrifices, but that was certainly the the the dominant ones.
And they have s various subgroups. And Leviticus is the book of laws concerning the people's approach to God. in public That's going to be a big point I hope to make as we move through this. The five offerings named in the first five chapters of Leviticus deal with cleansing. and they deal with devotion or dedication.
to be devout. You read about the devout men who carried Stephen to his grave in the book of Acts. The Israelites Their first sacrifice of the day. was a compound sacrifice. They'd offer it in the morning at sunrise, and they'd offer it again at twilight.
And then it would be on Sabbaths, on new moons, which are the first of the month, and feast days. They were diligent about these things.
So the first offering dealt with cleansing and devotion. It was a sin offering and a whole burnt offering, all in one, a compound offering, as is this. And as you read Leviticus, you have to find out. You know, God, at certain points, He repeats Himself, at other points He doesn't. It's a few chapters later, but He's talking about the same thing.
You have to develop that. I don't know that most people have time, but those who still have time to study the word, pastors, for example, they should pick that up eventually. Anyway, the incorporated offerings, the sin and the burnt sacrifice, the atonement and the dedication. Exodus 29 verse 36 Instructions to the priest, and you shall offer a bull every day as a sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar.
When you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to sanctify it.
So that's the national offering for the nation, for all the people. Not the same thing as this offering, which is personal. But the same meaning The same meaning is there. Although the national offering is not a free will, it's a mandate. This is free will.
It is the desire of the heart. This one is for personal atonement and dedication, and you tell me which Christian is not interested in that. I think we all are. I think you come to Christ, you're very interested in salvation and dedication. Salvation for yourself, and then through yourself, if God would just use me to preach to others.
And dedication, of course, always high up on the list of the believer, but then there's that rotten flesh of ours. Those admitted to the place of worship are those who recognize that they are unfit to worship. That they are sinners. And yet, the whole book of Leviticus is God saying. Just as he says to Moses, the entire book of Leviticus is God saying to sinners, come.
I'll meet you. I'll dwell with you.
Now, the Holy Spirit dwells with us now. In those days, the Lord dwelled here in His temple. And by the time we get to Ezekiel, and you've heard this Time and time again, when the Shekinah, when the Holy Spirit is leaving the temple of the Jews because of their just. incurable idolatry. It is a reluctant withdrawal.
It's not instant. He slowly departs. His reluctance there.
Well, their offerings are were slain and they were burned. Instead of them. When Adam and Eve sinned, those animals that were skinned to cover their consciousness, their awareness of sin. of guilt? What happened to the carcass?
It should have happened to them. How can God forgive people if they make no effort to resolve their offense? Which was Cain, the story of Cain. He didn't care he killed his brother, he didn't care he brought the wrong offering. We meet people like that today.
They have names.
Some of them are called narcissists, others are called just Uh just criminals, just uh demented or or or uh um possessed in some cases This doctrine of substitution by blood began in Eden at the first sin, Genesis 3. Also, and I like how how It's put in the story. We read in Genesis 3 about the fall of man, how God deals with the characters involved. And then then there's this also. For Adam and his wife Yahweh God made tunics of skin and clothed them.
He does a similar thing with Elijah. When Elisha the prophet is Boo-hooing about how dedicated he is, and no one else is. God just continues with His, you know, I want you to do this, and I want you to do that. And then, before he dismisses Elisha, he says, Oh, by the way, I've got 7,000 people that haven't bowed to bow.
So the Lord is just, you know, He doesn't leave things undone. with his servants He understands. And yet we're to understand who he is in the midst of our Lack of perfection.
So these sacrifices were brought. As gifts to God, gestures of gratitude. And Ambition The ambition of being closer to God. We Christians, hopefully, you have that, not so discouraged, you no longer have that ambition. Sin will steal all this from us, given the chance.
You know, there's certain places you can't leave. your wallet or your purse on the table. is guaranteed to be taken. That's the environment of the flesh. It loves its sin.
And uh We understand this because the Holy Spirit has taught us. Not only in our private time, But through his teachers and through fellowship What I loved about being in my early days in Christianity is talking with Christians who were ahead of me and just picking up so much with little comments, little statements they'd make. Those were good days. The Holy Spirit has taught us these things, but most outside of the faith, they don't have it. And it's hard to sometimes it's hard when you're speaking to an unbeliever and the door opens.
It's not always easy just walk in and say, you know, you're a sinner, Christ died for your sins, make a confession of faith. There's sometimes so much rubbish around them, like the days of Nehemiah. that where do you start? Where do I move out of the way first? What misconception does this person have about Christ?
Or what sin is in their life that is so Is strong that they're they're cling they're holding to it and they don't want to hear anything that's going to take them from what they want. And where do I start, Lord? And so one of the things I find about Sharing the faith, an important feature is don't rely on your skill. Don't rely on your Bible knowledge. Rely on the Holy Spirit and let him draw from those things.
Those things aren't useless. They're just not useful if you're using them in the flesh. It's like using the wrong end of the sword. There's a better way. And he continues here in verse 2: You shall bring your offering of the livestock.
of the herd and of the flock. that domesticated animals Uh now not all domesticated animals. But many of the domesticated animals, the clean ones, including certain birds. Three categories for a person to choose from to express their personal devotion. three categories or three sets.
Of two.
So you have six. You have two from the herd. You could bring a bull. from an ox, for example. You could bring from the flock a goat or a sheep.
You can bring a turtle dove or a pigeon, so there were some options there. Carnivores are excluded. Because they live by the death of others. That cannot foreshadow the Christ for which all of these or pointing to. These could never typify Christ who gave his life not taking the lives of others.
The unclean could not be taken as a type of him either, because he's the holy victim, the spotless offering of the future. At the time Moses received this, for us, of course, it's in the past.
Okay. That altar that the Jews put their sacrifices on. Typified Christ, who is the new covenant altar. He is the altar of the new covenant. And the ancient, the brazen altar of the Jews was all about sin.
It was a place where you addressed sin. Anything put on that altar had to do with confession of sin. Hebrews chapter 13.
Now, again, Hebrews is Paul telling New Testament Christians. Don't participate in the Old Testament temple. Yet Christ has fulfilled these things. You'll be insulting him if you go back to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.
They're not saved. Regardless of whatever rituals they're going through that God instituted, they're now obsolete. And He uses that. word in our English translation, and it means that in the Greek.
So types, they transfer the literal into the future. That's what the Bible types are all about. And they're all over. Every book of the Bible has them. pointing to Christ, pointing to salvation.
pointing to the Christian walk even, pointing to the Antichrist, pointing to evil. Symbols retain their timeless meaning. That's why they're so beneficial. A lion is always, that characteristic of a lion does not change. He never behaves like.
A rabbit. And the symbols are very helpful. They get right to the point.
So as with the sacrificial victim, Christ had no sin of his own, nor guilt to be cleansed from.
So if you went down to the temple and you brought your bull, that bull had no guilt. It was under the curse of sin and that it would die and would suffer in this life. I mean flies alone would ha would have bother it. But it had no It trespass. Yet The guilt of the sinner was likewise transferred to the offering that you would bring.
And we'll hit that a little harder when we get to verse four. Jesus fulfilled these types in that He removed our sin, whereas these animals only covered the sin. Again, you know these things. Others don't. And the thing about training to be good at something, you have to train.
And training is repetition. And repetition will separate you from those. Who neglected? to train and to be prepared. The priests were to be skilled at what they do.
They were to know these books of Leviticus and Exodus and Numbers like the back of their hand. That required training.
Well, we're a holy priesthood. We require training too.
Well, Since Old Testament rites are fulfilled in Christ, We don't have to repeat the Old Testament ones, but Paul takes that a step further again in Hebrews and says, if you do, there's no forgiveness for you. You're making mockery of what Christ has. Finalize. Verse 3 now. If his offering is a burnt offering, of the herd.
Let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it. of his own free will at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before Yahweh.
So, the most costly of animals was mentioned first, and the least costly will be the last one, the birds. This offering included recognition of one's sinful nature, as I mentioned, Exodus 38 concerning the altar. He made the altar of burnt offerings. See, that tells us it's about guilt, it's about sin. It's an altar of burnt offerings.
It's And not our offering of anything less than that which is bloody, but this is a. Looking at verse 3. Burnt sacrifice In the Hebrew, It's A single word. And the word literally is smoke. The whole burnt offering.
The idea is what you put on that altar on this burnt sacrifice, the whole burnt offering. Is to be completely consumed, turned to ash. That means they gotta get it pretty hot. And the grease from the animal, the fat and all is going to help it. But they got to burn up the whole thing, and they have to know what they're doing, and they have to be prepared.
They have to haul the wood, they have to haul the everything that's needed to make this happen. And it wasn't for one sacrifice, even though there's one altar and there's a nation bringing their offerings. We'll get to the priests and their hard work in a little bit. But It required that the animal be completely consumed by fire.
Now the g and When Alexander the Great conquered much of His world, the ancient world, and the Jews were dispersed in the territories that fell under Alexander's influence. That means the Gresham language, the people spoke Greek wherever you went. It was all Greek to them.
So the Hebrews living in these various places like Alexandria, in Egypt, and other places, they began to speak the Greek. And the Hebrew began to fade out of their culture. They became Hellenistic Jews.
Well In time, they said, We need a Bible that our people can read.
So the rabbis got together, they got their scholars up, and the scholars began to write. Uh the Hebrew Bible in Greek. known as the Septuagint.
Well, when the Septuagint translated this verse and it came to, it reads this way: if his offering is a Holocaust. That's the burnt sacrifice. A whole burnt offering, An up-and-smoke offering. And so, yeah, when the Jews are persecuted in the Second World War, leading up to the Second World War and then in through it, when they put that word Holocaust, it was an accurate description, but that's where it comes from, and they knew that.
Well, they would bring this offering and the whole thing would burn up except the skins of the mammals. I'm just keeping the birds on the side for a moment. The skins went to the priest. In verse 6 and Chapter 7 will bring that out. And if it when you get to the birds, the crop, that part that helps digest them below the the throat area in the throat area and the feathers, that went to the trash.
We'll get to that in verse 16. But this offering symbolized the unconditional desire to be rid of everything displeasing to God. Actually inside and out. Utter devotion. This burnt sacrifice, where is it first mentioned in the Bible?
Abraham, Abraham, take now your son, whom Isaac, whom you love. And take him to Mount Moriah and offer him a burnt sacrifice. I can't even imagine receiving instructions like that. And yet Abraham, so faithful, wavered not.
So yes, this This offering was all about devotion with the confession of guilt at the same time. Lord, I'm devoted to you. I don't deserve to be devoted to you, but I am. You don't have to receive me, but you do. He shall offer it of his own free will.
The very first approach to God listed in the book of Leviticus of God Almighty is the exercise of free choice. In other words, It was a priority. Let me put it this way, it is a premium. characteristic of the worshiper. to willfully Want to do something for God and not feel forced.
Now, again, some things were mandated, but this one was not, the first five.
Well, the first three are not. The sin offerings, trespass offerings are different. Anyway, If these were forced, it would have been ruined. You know, Revelation 22:17, and the Spirit and the bride say, Come, whoever desires, let him take the waters freely. What if he said, You better take these waters?
That would just mess up. The whole fellowship thing, the mutual friendship. Friendship, to be called friendship, has to be mutual. If only you're the friend and they're the enemy, it's not a friendship. But when you're friends, you walk together in agreement, as Adam walked with God before the fall.
Something very special about that. God doesn't lose sight of it. Um Mm-hmm. Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Pastor Rick Gaston is currently going through the book of Leviticus.
We're glad you joined us. We trust that you're gaining some valuable insights into God's Word as we go through this Old Testament book. Cross-Reference Radio comes to you from Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. If you'd like to subscribe to our podcast, you can do so by going to your favorite app store and downloading from there. For any additional information about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreference radio.com.
Make sure to come back again for the upcoming edition in the book of Leviticus, as Pastor Rick has much more to share. We thank you for being with us right here on Cross Reference Radio.
