From this that serving God is hard on the flesh, which if not careful, can put us into the flesh. You get tired of serving. Emotionally, I oh man, I just served. And if you're not careful, you'll be in the flesh. And Satan, of course, he'll hijack you after that.
But if you stay strong and understand, you know, hey, the priests were called to do work in the flesh. Then you say, okay, I'm not blazing a new trail here. This is something very common amongst the people of God. 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 9. with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Leviticus chapter 9.
Before I start, With Leviticus I'd like to reference something out of the Gospel of Mark. Jesus had sent his disciples out, And they had returned, and they were telling him. about what they were doing and what they were teaching. And he said, You know, people have been coming back and forth. Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place And rest a while.
So they got in the boat and they Sail the cross. the Galilee, but the people saw them and followed. And by the time he arrives, there are the crowds again. And the scripture says he had compassion on them. He's exhausted, he's tired.
Wanted a break. But there was no room for a break. And then it says, And Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude, and was moved With compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.
So he began to teach them many things. What'd they do at those things? What they do with what they were taught what are we doing with what we are taught? In the book of Leviticus, is Jesus still teaching us many things? He's teaching out of the Old Testament.
As we are going through the Old Testament ourselves.
Well, tonight. activating the priesthood. That's the top. Topic given to us.
Now God gave Israel rituals, these Offerings the rights of the Jews to help them Get their act together out of Egypt. They had spent over 400 years in Egypt. That's a lot of influence, even though they. maintained their identity and separation To a large degree they still were under the influence of and crazy things. And if not from the Egyptians, just coming out from themselves.
And this would even go back before they got to Egypt. They were under the influence of the Mesopotamian. Idols Rachael hiding the idols she stole from her father Hebrews chapter seven, verse nineteen, Paul said, the law made nothing perfect. But it bought time. And it did create opportunity for people to be righteous before the Lord.
And so these rituals that are to us obsolete. Yet very informative. and encouraging was to them vital for their survival. In the seventh chapter, We talked about the priest being supported. Through the offerings of the people.
Well, there's an education, God is beginning to teach them how to behave. How to think when they go to the temple. the generosity, the support necessary for their clergy, Then in the eighth chapter, which you had last Wednesday, We read about the priest being ordained. All right, Aaron was selected. As the high priest and Only the descendants of Aaron, only Aaron's sons and grandsons and on, could be.
Priest In Israel. They were separated. Consecrated? And now we come to this ninth chapter where they're going to be activated because so far. No One other than Moses has made any offerings on the brazen altar.
The temple is functioning, but Moses alone is doing the offerings, and he's doing a lot of them. And so we'll get to some of that in the first verse. We look at verse 1, Leviticus 9. It came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.
Now that eighth day refers to the day following the seven days. Consecration. and confinement that was put upon the sons of Aaron, They still have not yet ministered. They've not been activated. And during those seven days, according to Exodus 29, Moses is making offerings.
connected with their consecration. This dramatically emphasizes the need. For holiness and faithfulness, hard work, dedication. In public ministry, because that's what this is now. That's why, you know, the summoning the elders to call the people to the tent is public ministry at this point.
And that's a lot harder to do public ministry. Churches Could use An understanding of this, the hard work, the faithfulness, and public ministry. The need to stick by As Moses was told by God, he told the people, and that's the way it was supposed to be. And Satan knows this.
Well, this eighth day, eight, according to biblical numerology, if you look for patterns in the scripture, it surfaces eight is the number of new beginnings. Seven days in a week, then that eighth day, which we would say Monday for the Jews, would be the new beginning, the eighth day. It would be their Sunday. How are Monday? For the beginning of the new week.
And here is a new beginning for them. The temple is going to be activated now. The people are going to bring their offerings, and it will not be Moses, it will be their priesthood. It is incidentally morning. We pick that up in verse 7.
And there you go, the Bible again has these twists and turns. They're all over the place. Why can't he just say, and in the morning?
Well How do you write? For people 3,500 years away. 3500 years ago this was taking place. How do you write things down in such a way that the integrity and the main things will remain the main things. And the people will get it.
and be taught by, and closer drawn to their Lord. And strengthened in the days of not only trial. But the days of boredom Those are serious days, too. When you get bored Idle hands are tools of the devil. And so, when you look at the scripture, you see, you know, this is actually a magnificent piece of work.
To preserve these documents through all these cultures and generations and languages and still come up with getting the point. And that's what we have. Leviticus is not a dead book for us. We're going to get some good lessons even from this chapter. And he said to Aaron, Take for yourself a young bull as a sin offering, and a ram as a burnt offering without blemish, and offer them before the Lord.
Well, Malachi's day, they're going to be offering blemished animals. He's going to call them out on it, but coming back to this, take for yourself a young bull as a sin offering. and a ram is a burnt offering.
So the newly ordained priest, We're to get right to work. This was going to be for Aaron, the high priest, this first sacrifice. His sons would have to help. When Aaron cuts the throat of the bull, someone's got to catch that blood. And we'll get to that because they're going to hand it to him so he can then.
Uh administer the blood. But the high priest has to make his sin offering before anything begins. It is the first one up. And then comes the dedication. offering.
Uh the sin offering Is pointed out in verse 7 that it is the first one to be made. A basic tenet of leadership is to be to lead through example, not exception, though there are. What you might say executive rights from time to time. Of course, there are exceptions for the leader because of that position. But it is not to be an exception, an example.
And there's a difference between being a manager and a leader. And one of the great differences is. A good leader makes People want to follow them. Trust that leadership. and when that leadership is removed, If there's not as good a leader or one of that caliber, Then everybody finds out very quickly.
How they missed the last one. And that's not a slight against a manager. A manager can be a good manager, but not a good leader. And a leader could be not so good of a manager, but he is able to get a manager to manage.
Well, anyway, right after Aaron's offerings, and it's going to be mixed up a little bit, but it's clear enough to follow. Right after he makes his sin offering and his burnt offering, he's going to have to make the offering now for the nation, for the people. And he'll have to offer for himself the sin offering, then the dedication offering, which is the burnt offering. And for the people, the same thing: the sin offering, the burnt offering, then thanksgiving and peace offerings also on behalf. of the nation.
Uh So Aaron's first act Was bringing the sin offering, the burnt offering for himself, and obvious reasons for us New Testament Christians. We understand you cannot minister on behalf of Christ. in a position, an unofficial position, as a mediator, a go-between between God and man, For worship. Service Until you've dealt with your own sin. Your own relationship with God of course as we've been going through this, sin separates us from God.
But there are sins that we struggle. And the struggle alone is enough for God. to be very active with us, none the less. I'm going to come to a good one in a minute. This protocol that we're getting for the high priest will be followed on the day of atonement.
In verse 3, now to the children of Israel you shall speak, saying, Take a kid. Of the goats? As a, I'm glad he specified of the goats. And a sin offering. And a calf And a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish as a burnt offering.
Verse 4: Also, a bull. and a ram as peace offerings. To sacrifice Before Yahweh And a grain offering mixed with oil, for today Yahweh will appear to you. And so verse 3 tells us these are for the children of Israel. The two extra offerings.
You know, you could miss that if you read through it too quickly. And there is some significance to this. The nation being represented one more time by tribal leaders. You couldn't get two million people in front of the tabernacle here. And when things go bad or go exceptionally, Miraculous, if they go, you know, some miraculous event, word will travel through the camp.
People will get hold of this information. We're going to have one, a couple in this chapter, and we get a big one in the next one, also. And so the priest, once the high priest was. made his offering and is activated. He will get right to work.
on behalf of the people. And the nation would show Their recognition of sin, their devotion to the Lord, their gratitude to the Lord. And then the peace with the Lord. Very labor-intensive. And there's then the daily morning offering that Moses would likely have been offering because no one else was offering at this time, and that would be every day and every evening.
There's no mention of a gantry.
So you slay a bull. A gantry is a or an A-frame or some Makeshift. Rigging to hold that animal up in the air so you can. Dress the animal. Or so it's kinda weird, right?
You're gonna skin them, but you're gonna dress them. Anyhow. Uh I've never had to do this, but I know what it is all about. Minus the orders. And, you know, so you put this frame up nowadays, you know, maybe a guy has a bull, and he wants to.
Slay that bolt for meat. He's going to hang it up on this Post. And it's dangling there. He's probably going to use a chainfall or something to hoist it up. This thing weigh about 1600 pounds.
And then he'll begin to make his cuts and pull the skin off, and then the task of gutting the animal. And there's a lot of stuff inside of a bull. And these guys are doing this plus the other offerings. There's no mention of these things. They had to have a protocol in place to make this happen.
without burning everybody out. to get it done the right way. And you see from this that serving God is hard on the flesh, which, if not careful, can put us into the flesh. You get tired of serving. Emotionally, I oh, can I just serve?
And if you're not careful, you'll be in the flesh. And Satan, of course, he'll hijack you after that. But if you stay strong and understand, you know, hey, the priests were called to do work in the flesh. Then you say, okay, I'm not blazing a new trail here. This is something very common amongst the people of God.
What a great lesson from Leviticus. We had a whole chapter on the law and laboring. And we shouldn't pamper ourselves too much. But we still have to be wise and pace ourselves, lest we burn out. And as I started with Jesus saying, you know.
A lot of people coming and going. We need to get away, get a break. If we don't come apart and rest, we might just come apart. And so, to learn how to balance these things, we have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. In verse five, So they brought what Moses commanded before the tabernacle of the meeting, and all the congregation drew near and stood before.
Yahweh Well the significant and perpetual Significance belongs to what's going on here. Exodus 29, verses 42 and 46 give us a little bit more information about this. You're looking to um Dig into it. Verse 6 now. Then Moses said, This is the thing which Yahweh commanded you to do and the glory of Yahweh will appear to you.
Now, this will be a manifestation of God. an acknowledgment of his pleasure, But not a full manifestation. It would be a theophany. And we know it that because later, well, in Exodus, Moses asked God to show me now your glory that I may know you, if I have found grace in your sight. And the Lord says You cannot see my face, for no man shall see me and live.
So we know that this will be a manifestation of God. They'll know this is a manifestation of God, but he will not appear to them in human form. Verse seven And Moses said to Aaron, Go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people Offer the offering. of the people and make atonement for them. As Yahweh commanded.
Now, that little Yahweh commanded, a big deal. Again, no creative license when it comes to faith. That's what makes heretics heretics. They just, you know, well, not how the Bible commands it. Let's just do it this way.
This is a new time, a new era, a new generation, new culture. Nest the road to heresy. A heresy is an A serious offence before God. The heretic would violate the first and second commandment very quickly and justify themselves doing it. But as covered, sin must always be addressed first, and so your sin offering, and then again the same pattern for the peace offering.
Um When we get to verse 15, we'll Get a little bit more detail on the people. I don't really have to talk much to this audience about the sin offering. If you are unbelievers or if you belong to a church that didn't have expository teaching, then get into it. But I would be preaching to the choir. He's clearing the way for devotion.
And gratitude and peace in dealt with first, of course. To claim to be devout. A devout Christian or Christian. Even a non-devout Christian, say, I'm a Christian. Without the cross of Christ, means that you are an impenitent soul and not a Christian.
You cannot. You've got to have your sin dealt with at the cross. And this shows up early on in the here it is in Leviticus. God making sure that sin offering presented first.
Now, we do come to this big word here. A big not in the sense of a hard word to learn in our language, but Big in its How profound it is, atonement. Kofar.
So let's just consider this word a kofar. Because it has everything to do with us. shows up first in Genesis chapter 6 That's the Ark of Noah And there in verse 14, God commands Noah To Put pitch inside and outside the ark. Oil-based, it's like caulking. to insulate the ark.
Help keep the water out, even preserve the wood. And the word cofar. That's the covering that he that's used in Genesis 6.14. Then here, for example, other places too throughout the Old Testament. But here in Leviticus 9, 7, atonement, same word, kofar.
But what about Exodus 25, 17, the mercy seat. That Hebrew word is kofar. It's a covering. That's what the word means: a covering. And then the men had to pay the temple fee, a ransom fee.
In Exodus 30, verse 12, and that word ransom there is kofar.
Now some of verb and noun, same word though. Yom Kippur. Kippur comes from the Hebrew kofar. A covering for cleansing. But in the Old Testament, from the New Testament standpoint, it's only on the surface.
And when we talk about The Leprosy. On the soul, on the life, the skin. If it goes deeper than the skin, it is a leprous sore.
Well, there's very many metaphors in that. The implications are quite remarkable. The covering is not going deeper than the skin. We'll have to wait till they get to the New Testament. Before the Antidote is strong enough To take away the sin and not just cover it.
So, the implications are soul changing. Ultimately, sin must be permanently put out of God's sight. In the end, only God Himself could do it. Didn't happen in the Old Testament. The Old Testament sacrifices could not finish the work.
And so we read John 19, verse 30: Jesus on the cross.
So when Jesus had received the sour of wine, he said, It is finished. And bowing his head, he gave up his spirit. What's finished? They're dealing with sin. Because now he has gone deeper than the skin.
It's not a covering, it's a removal. The biblical use of this single word introduces a dynamic doctrine concerning Jesus Christ.
Now this Root word for kofar. There's an equivalent in the Arabic language which has the same root meaning, to cover, to conceal.
Now the scholars will go into all of that and that's good. But we don't need them to get us there. We can simply watch the application of the word. Noah covering the wood in the ark, How far? Atonement, a covering for the sins, the mercy seat covering the chest.
of the ark, where the tablet and the word and Aaron's rod would be. And uh Then, of course, the ransom. We follow, it's a covering. We don't depend upon the etymology of the word language of that world, but it does. it does lends its support to cover the sin.
But then, when the New Testament comes along, and we all should know this, John. Chapter 1. The Apostle John writing about a day in his life when John the Baptist, it says, saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, a Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. no longer an atonement. in a sense of the Old Testament word.
It's an atonement ultimately. The result is that sin is dealt with before God and makes the sinner. Able to approach God. But this is why we find Abraham and Lazarus. In righteous sheol, and not in heaven.
But on the day of the crucifixion, The outlaw that confessed Christ was promised to be in paradise. Abraham couldn't get in because sin was only covered. But on the day that Christ died, the sin was removed. and now heaven is open, To those Who come to Christ? And so we know the Old Testament system of atonement.
At the brazen altar, symbolized. Covering, not removal, that had to wait for Christ.
So the Old Testament system. Dealt with surface sin. If you follow The analogy. But the New Testament plan of salvation removed the penalty. It removed the sin.
by going beneath the surface and into eternity, And Satan wasn't happy about that. The New Testament Christians didn't even know about this until after the resurrection. Not really. That's why Peter was trying to talk Jesus out of going to the cross. He didn't understand what he was doing.
He was trying to stop Christianity.
So the point is, and here it is in Leviticus. We are getting the gospel in Leviticus. Verse eight Aaron therefore went to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering. Which was for himself. This one again is for him, the high priest, not for the other priests.
But for him personally, Now if Aaron's first attempt At being Israel's high priest. Found him making a golden calf For the people to worship. In the name of Yahweh, here is who brought you out of Egypt. And that's in Exodus 32 verse 29. His first sacrifice As not only the appointed high priest, but the consecrated high priest.
What? A calf. Not a golden one. On his behalf, It is his own sin offering. Uh By the cute.
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. Yeah.
