A free will relationship with God is a mutual friendship with God, and I think that is a very big point that comes out of our Bible. I think it was the intention in the Garden of Eden. And it reflects our being made in the image of God, though marred now, but still. Available to us. Sin can be neutralized.
That's the whole purpose of the tabernacle. The end result of sin can be neutralized, can be stopped. And that is what salvation is. 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.
Now here's Pastor Rick with part two of his study called Personal Devotion. He'll begin in Hebrews chapter 13 and then continue teaching in Leviticus chapter 1. 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 have Bother it. But it had no It trespass. Yet The guilt of the sinner was likewise transferred to 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 gonna 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 the his world, the ancient world, And the Jews were dispersed in the territories that fell under Alexander's influence. That means the Greshan language, the people spoke Greek wherever you went. It was all Greek to them.
So the Hebrews living in these various places like Alexandria and 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 are persecuted in the Second World War, leading up to the Second World War and then in through it, when they they put that word Holocaust, it was 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 when you get to the birds, the crop, that part that helps digestion 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 worshipper. 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, and God doesn't lose sight of it. A free will relationship with God is a mutual friendship with God, and I think that is a very big point that comes out of our Bible. I think it was the intention in the Garden of Eden. And it reflects our being made in the image of God, though marred now, but still. Available to us.
Sin can be neutralized. That's the whole purpose of the tabernacle. The end result of sin can be neutralized, can be stopped. And that is what salvation is. The practice may continue, but ultimately Uh and sometimes the practice may Undo your neutralization, make things worse.
Anyway, the Pharisees took this verse. And they corrupted the free will offering. Allowing adult children to withhold financial aid from their parents. Corban. They would say, which is free will.
That's what Corbin. means And they were saying, Well, we've dedicated this to the temple.
So you imagine you can just leave your money in the bank. I'd give you the, you know, you need the money, I'd give it to you, but I've dedicated it to God, and while it sits there gaining interest for me. You can't be helped. And Jesus called him out on that.
Well, that's a side note to all of this. At the door of the tabernacle of the meeting of Yahweh.
Now, this is the open area, the court of the tabernacle, according to Exodus 27. This is, I think, vital for us to walk away with from Leviticus 1.3. This made the Israelites dedication Or let me put it this way: this made their declaration. of their dedication, a public declaration of faith. He didn't say, take your offering to your prayer closet.
I'm not belittling the prayer club. We do have, you know, we're not to grandstand in front of people without faith. But for the Israelites, they were to make this confession of faith in front of everybody. And there was a lot of hard work involved. Whoever brought this offering was going to work.
So he had his breakfast. And God will not have us all make a confession Like the Jews did at the tabernacle, but he will have us all make a public confession of our faith. That's the takeaway for us. If the Jews were to make a free will offering concerning Atonement and dedication. Publicly, where to make our faith publicly.
Look, if you get a new job, or when you go out, you got to make it known at some point. I mean, you don't say, okay, thanks for hiring me. By the way, everybody, I'm a Christian. That's not the idea. But you don't hide your faith.
And so, when someone says, hey, let's go do this and that, say, no, I don't want to do that. Why?
Well, I'm a Christian, and that goes against my conviction. If you do not do that, Satan's gonna bite you. A lot more easily than had you not made your. profession of faith public. And so at the door of the tabernacle of the meeting of the Lord, They were to come, and so we are to make our again Christ Our confession of Christ a public thing.
Verse four. Then he shall put his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.
So you see why this is not only a dedication, it's also a sin offering. Else why introduce the idea of atonement? because it has to do with a a sin offering also. It's a compound offering. And Where it says here in verse 4, then he shall.
Well, that's the sacrificer. The one, the worshiper, he is the one bringing the offering, and he is to lay his hand on the head of the beast and press on it. Psalm eighty eight, verse seven. Your wrath lies heavily upon me. Same Hebrew word as where it says he shall put his hand on the head of the animal.
Continuing, it lies heavy on me, Psalm 88:7. And you have afflicted me with all your waves, Selah.
So there he it goes in a different direction a little bit, but the point I wanted to draw from Psalm 88. is that the Hebrew word here for putting the hand on the beast carries the idea of pressing on that animal. It is a deliberate act. It is unmistakable. It is a sort of a hands on moment.
Symbolically transferring The sacrificer's sin to the sacrificial animal. My sin slew the victim. That's it. This animal would not die this way had it not been for me. The sin was no fault of the victim, as is the cross.
The substitutionary sacrifice, the doctrine of substitution. Yeah. That allows a way for sinners to be embraced by God. If God didn't have these kind of things in place, then you couldn't come to Him. But He has them in place.
And this is Isaiah 53 in action, this idea of substitution, 2 Corinthians 5, 21.
So, Christ's death on the cross finalized the substitutionary sacrifice. We get that. The substitution was Under the curse of sin, like the offerer, Though without guilt, but still under the curses mentioned earlier. Here the substitution is not worth more. than the sinner.
The sinner is worth more than the goat or the lamb or the ox, whatever he's offering. The sinner is worth more to God. than that animal. Matthew 12, chapter 12, of how much more value then is a man than a sheep?
So, you know, you get these verses from me because I'm hoping you understand.
Okay, he's not just saying this is a colorful thing to throw into the. consideration is a reason why these that these things are here. And at the cross a sinner is, however, In contrast, infinitely less in worth Then the victim. Which is the Lord, the one offered. And that's amazing to us.
That's why we love him. One of the reasons we love him so much. He's worth more than me, yet he's dying as a victim. As a substitute. He doesn't have to.
So always the sacrificer's heart meant more to God Then the ritual. as covered in the introduction. God looks at the heart. The free will evidences the heart, ideally speaking, if the person is being honest. But By God's refusal of the hide.
He says, don't put the outside in front of me. You you I I love that. Don't put that on my altar, the hide, the outside. I'm interested in the inside. And so when you read about the animal being butchered and the kidneys placed over here and the fat placed over here, God is saying, I'm interested in the inside of the animal, and I'm giving you a graphic picture of this.
They didn't have to wait for Samuel to hear God say, I look at the heart, not the outside. They already had it in Leviticus. He says, and it will be accepted on his behalf. To make atonement for him. And of course, that word atonement is the kofar, the outside of the covering, pardon me.
It appears 51 times, no less than 51 times, in Leviticus, the most in Scripture.
So, the hide could not cover the sin. The hide couldn't hide the sin. And that's why it's not accepted. The priests will get that, and that will come out and. and other verses as we move move forward.
Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. whose sin is covered. That's the best the law could do. And we know John the Baptist, the Lamb of God, he says, that takes away the sin which the law could not do.
And Paul didn't miss that, and the whole Roman letter is about that. One of the great functions of the Old Testament is to cast light onto the New Testament.
So we can do something with it. You can reference Hebrews 9:26. That's a good reference for this section. We'll take 1 John 2. Verse 2.
He himself is the propitiation, the atonement. For our sins. This is the Greek language though. and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. And he had already said in his letter, The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.
Verse 5 now, he shall kill the bull before the Lord. I should pause here. The first nine verses are taking up our time. After we get past verse nine, Everything he's going to say about the lesser offerings we've already covered.
So we can Catch up some time there. Verse 5, he shall kill the bull before Yahweh. And the priest Aaron's sons shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
Now catch this. The blood is applied by somebody else. You bring your offering. It's a sin offering, it's a dedication offering. It was just what we do when you come to give your life to Christ.
It's a sin offering, it's a dedication offering. You give your life to Christ, you confess your sin, you repent. But who applies the blood?
Well, Christ does. And here the priests are a type of the high priest. And God makes this distinction in this verse between Aaron the high priest and his sons. And he's going to bring that distinction out a little bit more as we move through.
So the animal had to be offered. Not in life, but in death.
So it wasn't like, well, here you go, priest, I'm giving you my ox.
Well, we're going to kill that ox because that's what's required. Without blood there's no covering of sin.
So the animal had to be offered, Ephesians 1:7. New Testament parallel. You know, if you had to parallel some of these books, Leviticus and Hebrews go together. Joshua and Ephesians, they go together. There are a few of them.
But anyway, reading Leviticus may be dull to you. But there's nothing dull about doing it. The person that brought that sacrifice had to slit the throat of that animal. Except when we get to the birds. I know, I'm so tempted to s use for the birds But I'm not.
You probably did in your head.
Well, this Is again the spotless life that saves us is the life of Christ. And and not the animal. Um I mean not not his Let me get back on course here, still thinking about the birds. It's not the spotless life of Christ. that saves us.
It is his death that saves the sinner. Verse Hebrews 10, 4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Well, but it is possible that the blood of Jesus Christ can. But their blood Mentioned that we're pointing to him. We know that.
Okay, so verse 6 now.
Well, you know, before we go to verse 6, again, he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and the priest, Aaron's sons, shall bring the blood and sprinkle the blood all around the altar that is by the door of the tabernacle.
So remember that: the priests are the handle of the blood and not the person that is coming with the offering, because that comes out at the end of this chapter also. Verse 6, and he shall skin. The burnt offering and cut it into pieces.
So the worshipper slew the animal, skinned the animal. Butchered the animal. Remember, I said they're going to work that day. When they bring this divorce, are you devoted?
Well, let's see you do something. And there's a lot of people that are that are would would want to be Advisors, that's how they help. But these guys weren't advisors, they weren't there to tell the priest how to make the offering. They were the one doing all the hard work. The worshipper had to deal with the outside by skinning the animal, but he also had to deal with the inside.
And such a scene today would be anything but worshipful to most of us until we gain some knowledge. When you first come to Christ, you may say, man, this is gory. But these people, they did these things regularly for meat to eat the animals.
So it wasn't way out for them. And now most of us, when we want to eat the animals, we go to the supermarket. Um so um and even those of us or those of you Hmm. Shoot the animals or kill the animals and butcher them, you still get other meats from the butchering store. You get your pork chops, bacon.
as a rule. This reduced the workload of the priest on the practical side. Because the priests had to perform so much. You know, there's just so much, again, the hauling, the water, the wood, the fire, the animals. Who cleaned up after all these beasts that were around the temple ground?
They were all tied up. I mean, they weren't just roaming around, but there were a lot of animals there. Do you think they just left the animals be animals or just watch your step? Especially with sandals on? No, there was a lot of work going on and a lot of people showing up, a very active place.
So to say, okay, the priests get a break on this one. They don't have to skin and butcher this and slay this animal. The one who brings it are to do these things. And I'm sure they were grateful for that because. This is one of the reasons why you get to Leviticus 21.
If you were handicapped, you could not serve in this capacity as a priest. You could serve in other capacities, but not concerning the offerings at the tabernacle and just the amount of walking that was involved and plugging things around. Anyway, the ritual, this ritual, kept a clear division between the priest and the worshiper. And uh what the priests were responsible for.
So Leviticus puts both to work. The clergy and the parishioner. is a picture for us.
Now they would remain there to assist people. Because certainly there would be those who couldn't skin a bull or goat or a lamb. There's nothing in the scriptures that says the women couldn't bring an offering. There's nothing that says the handicapped cannot bring an offering. Only in the capacity of priests.
That is clearly stated, but not as just worshipers. Man, if the law is so tricky. If you know of a spot that says otherwise, you could feel free to tell me. I won't like you as much. Just to be fair.
I've read it all, but I don't remember it all, and I didn't see it all. Who can? But as far as I know, there's no indic no prohibition. was frail. From bringing an offering.
Well, that frail person is not going to be able to do all this alone. And so the priest, of course, would be there to assist them. Bye, are you? 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.
