Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of Leviticus.
[00:00:00] Leviticus chapter 1 verse 1 says, The Lord called Moses and spoke to him from the
[00:00:08] 10th of meeting saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of you
[00:00:14] brings an offering to the Lord, You shall bring your offering of livestock from the herd or from
[00:00:21] the flock. And so begins our study of the book of Leviticus. Now in a sense, you could say
[00:00:29] that it took one night for God to get the people of Israel out of Egypt but that it would take
[00:00:38] a lifetime for God to get Egypt out of the heart of the people of Israel. And really, that's what
[00:00:46] the book of Leviticus is about God giving to the people of Israel, the template or instructions for
[00:00:56] the worship that would happen in the tabernacle that they just built. If you've followed along with
[00:01:01] us in our study of the book of Exodus, you saw Moses receive on the mountaintop the command of God and
[00:01:10] the instructions from God specifically on how to build the tabernacle and also the instructions
[00:01:16] on the priesthood itself that would serve inside of the tabernacle along with the instruments that
[00:01:24] would populate the tabernacle. But now in Leviticus, we learn specifically how the instruments,
[00:01:31] how the priests and how the tabernacle would be used in order for the people of Israel to
[00:01:38] approach God. And God would use this tabernacle and the sacrifices and the priesthood and the
[00:01:45] instruments inside the tabernacle to pull the customs and habits of Egypt out of the heart of his
[00:01:56] people. So really, the book of Leviticus is a book about the separation of God's people. Now Leviticus,
[00:02:05] to me, is a wonderful book, though, of course, it can be difficult for a modern Christian to study.
[00:02:14] For many modern believers, it's a dull book because it lacks very much narrative. There's a
[00:02:21] couple of passages where a story or an episode is told, but for the most part we have laws and
[00:02:27] customs and ceremonies laid out for the people. It's the handbook that the Levitical priesthood would
[00:02:35] use to or refer to to worship the Lord. And so for many modern Christians, the lack of narrative
[00:02:43] is dull for them. And then secondly, I think many modern believers mistakenly believe that the book
[00:02:51] of Leviticus has nothing for them because it's clear that Jesus fulfilled the Levitical
[00:02:58] priestly tabernacle system of worship. And so because it's fulfilled, we don't have anything to do
[00:03:06] with this today, therefore we can't learn or receive from the book of Leviticus. But the thing about
[00:03:14] this book is that it is important on a lot of levels. First of all, this was the first book
[00:03:21] that a Jewish child would study as they grew up. So the very first book that was brought to them,
[00:03:27] not Genesis, not Exodus, but the book of Leviticus. It's quoted about 40 times in the New Testament,
[00:03:35] so it has New Testament importance. And it also presents us with the theological framework,
[00:03:46] or a more robust theological framework for sin and defilement and sacrificial atonement. And
[00:03:54] on top of all of that, it's God's Word. So we should study it today. And in our study of Leviticus,
[00:04:05] there's a bunch of things that we're going to learn and be confronted with, but I think we'll
[00:04:09] focus on three main things throughout these 27 chapters. First of all, we're going to see
[00:04:17] a lot of truth taught to us about who God is and who man is especially in relationship
[00:04:25] to God. One of the keys to the book of Leviticus, or one of the things that's held out most often
[00:04:31] is the holiness of God, or that the people of God should be holy like God. Over 80 times,
[00:04:39] holiness, or holiness will be referred to here in the book of Leviticus, a key idea of the book
[00:04:48] is echoed in Leviticus 11 verse 44 where God says, be holy for I am holy, sort of a theme statement
[00:04:58] of the entire book of Leviticus. So in thinking about who God is and who man is, we're going to
[00:05:04] confront the awfulness of sin, the necessity of blood sacrifice, the costliness of these
[00:05:12] sacrifices. And we're going to basically be presented with the problem sin that the gospel came
[00:05:20] to eradicate. But another thing that will be held out to us in the book of Leviticus is not just
[00:05:29] the basic truths about God and man, but also there'll be a prefiguring of the redemptive ministry
[00:05:36] of Jesus. You know, Jesus does fulfill the Levitical sacrificial system, and so it's through him
[00:05:43] that we're cleansed, through him that we approach and have fellowship with God. We have confidence,
[00:05:49] Hebrews 10 verse 19 tells us to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, not bulls and goats
[00:05:57] that we'll see mentioned in Leviticus but the blood of Christ by the new and living way. It says
[00:06:02] in Hebrews 10 that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh. And then as I
[00:06:08] mentioned last week in a study that I gave on Joshua chapter 5, we're also going to see in the book
[00:06:16] of Leviticus timeless principles that we can glean from temporary laws. And one of the examples
[00:06:23] that I gave was we're going to see in the book of Leviticus a law about building structures
[00:06:32] to protect people from falling off of a roof. This is part of the law of God and the principle
[00:06:41] for today is what you want to make sure that you take care of people and that you're not negligent
[00:06:46] and the things that you build and stuff like that. It might not necessarily mean that you have to
[00:06:50] build a balcony around your roof because we don't hang out on our roofs in the west like they
[00:06:56] would in these ancient cultures. So in Leviticus we're going to see specific laws that though they
[00:07:03] might be fulfilled today and though we might not follow them exactly as they were followed amongst
[00:07:08] the people of Israel, we should be able to glean principles that are biblical from those old
[00:07:16] testament laws. And so we're going to try to do that as well. Principles that are timeless,
[00:07:20] gleaned from temporary laws that the people of Israel were under. Now if you think about it,
[00:07:28] what Leviticus is is if you think about it in its relationship to Exodus, it is
[00:07:37] too exodus what the epistles are in the New Testament to the gospels. So what do you have in
[00:07:43] the gospels? You have the big event. You know, Jesus coming, Jesus living, Jesus testifying,
[00:07:51] Jesus dying and Jesus rising from the grave. This is the big event upon which our justification,
[00:08:00] sanctification and glorification is founded without that event we have nothing but then the epistles
[00:08:08] come along and they explain that event. They show us the benefits of that event and they tell us now
[00:08:15] how to live in light of that event. And the book of Leviticus is that to the book of Exodus, Exodus,
[00:08:23] the big event occurred. God took the people of Israel descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and
[00:08:29] he purchased them to be his own. Now Leviticus tells that group of people how to apply that original
[00:08:38] Passover event, the purchasing of God, the covenant that God brought them into, how to apply that
[00:08:44] event and how to walk in it today. So in Exodus you've got the forgiveness or the pardoning of their
[00:08:54] sin and now in Leviticus we see how to continue on in a life of purity. In Exodus, God approaches
[00:09:02] humans, he approaches man in Leviticus, we learn how man was to approach God. In Exodus,
[00:09:10] man's guilt was dealt with but here in Leviticus our repetitive defilement is dealt with. In Exodus
[00:09:20] the people were saved but in Leviticus they are sanctified. And in Exodus there was one momentary
[00:09:29] great and massive act where God rescued them from Egypt but Leviticus is a life long process
[00:09:38] of approaching the Lord and having him continually rescue us from ourselves. So I want you to be
[00:09:47] thinking about that as we go through the book of Leviticus because a lot of people mistakenly
[00:09:51] believe that the book of Leviticus was somehow a paradigm for people to in the Old Testament era
[00:09:56] get saved or come to know God for the very first time but these people are God's covenant people
[00:10:03] already. He's already purchased them, already bought them, already done the Exodus thing to them.
[00:10:08] Now they belong to him how should they then live before him? Now all that said I'm giving you a
[00:10:14] 10 minute introduction to the book of Leviticus and in a sense I'm trying to give you a framework
[00:10:20] from which to look at this entire book. And I'm trying to tell you this is a beautiful passage
[00:10:26] of scripture and there are so many things we can glean from it, it is a wonderful book in God's
[00:10:33] Word but on the other hand I do want to admit it can be tedious at times, it can be difficult,
[00:10:40] I don't want to act like it isn't, I've known many Christians who have set out to read through
[00:10:44] the Bible, read through Genesis, read through Exodus, got to Leviticus and just lost heart that is
[00:10:50] a normal experience. So on the other hand as much as I want to elevate the book of Leviticus and
[00:10:55] celebrate it and hold it up to where it is the Word of God, I want to do anything to diminish that.
[00:11:02] I also just want to say you got to eat your vegetables man sometimes there's just a portion in God's
[00:11:08] Word that is not as easy as other portions but you will be held and the rest of scripture will be
[00:11:16] informed by even the difficult passages that you go through. All right, in the first two verses
[00:11:21] which we've already read together it starts out by telling us that the Lord called Moses, the Lord
[00:11:28] called Moses. The timing of this is a year after the original Passover so they've completed the
[00:11:34] tabernacle now it tells us the last chapter of Exodus they finished the tabernacle but now they
[00:11:40] leave instructions on what to do in the tabernacle so Moses is called by God again for another meaning
[00:11:47] so that he can hear from the Lord on what they're to actually do in operation, in worshiping him
[00:11:54] there in this new structure. So what you have now is the first month of the second year of their
[00:12:02] freedom they've been free now for a year they've built the tabernacle and now in the first month of
[00:12:08] that second year they're receiving directions on how to worship the Lord so this is very much
[00:12:13] is the successive story Exodus happened and now Leviticus is about to occur and we really won't get
[00:12:24] any more historical narrative the story kind of pauses now for these directions until we get to
[00:12:29] the end of the book of Leviticus and then on into the book of numbers the story will continue on.
[00:12:36] I like alluded to already the title that we have for the book Leviticus means or pertaining to
[00:12:44] the Levites so it's kind of a handbook for the Levitical priesthood but the Hebrew name for the book
[00:12:50] of Leviticus actually comes from the first phrase of verse one the Lord called the Lord called so
[00:12:57] the idea here is God is calling his people into this relationship with himself Moses is the one who
[00:13:06] wrote the book of Leviticus ancient tradition tells us this internal evidence points to this 56 times
[00:13:13] he has mentioned here in the book of Leviticus and Jesus described the entire Pentateuch two Moses when
[00:13:20] he walked the earth so Moses wrote this book and God comes to Moses and speaks to him it says in
[00:13:28] verse one from the tent of meeting that might have been the tabernacle or if you were with us in our
[00:13:32] study of Exodus there was a secondary tent that Moses used to seek the Lord well the tabernacle was
[00:13:38] being constructed well that was also called the tent of meeting so it could have been either one of those
[00:13:44] structures and God begins right away there in verse two by telling Moses some basics of the sacrificial
[00:13:53] system he says when any one of you brings an offering any one of the people of Israel brings an
[00:13:59] offering to the Lord here's how you need to do it usually bring your offering of livestock from
[00:14:04] the herd or from the flock now this is cool because what's being hinted at here is that not only
[00:14:12] is God a national God for the people of Israel in other words these are my people he took Israel out
[00:14:19] of their slavery but he now is addressing the individuals inside of this corporate gathering and as
[00:14:28] God's people today we understand that there is no nation on earth that is a Christian nation where
[00:14:34] everybody inside of it is Christian but we do understand that the church we are if there's any
[00:14:42] group that is comparable to the Old Testament Israel's the church today though we don't replace them
[00:14:48] and as the church God's people God directs us corporately in other words there's things he wants
[00:14:55] for all of us together but still he looks and says when any of you individually so God is calling
[00:15:04] his group of people to behave in certain ways by inviting his individual people to behave in certain
[00:15:13] ways and before we move forward in the text I just have to encourage you or exhort you in this
[00:15:18] direction there is a necessity for you individually to take very seriously your personal walk with
[00:15:28] God you know when Israel eventually came into times of moral collapse and corruption in the Old
[00:15:33] Testament era of course it was a nation or a group of people adrift but how did that occur? Well
[00:15:42] happened one individual Israelite at a time so when Sunday rolls around and you decide to neglect
[00:15:55] corporate worship when your moments of getting into the word and prayer come around and you decide
[00:16:03] to spend it on your phone instead when sin is presented to you and you're struggling to resist it
[00:16:12] and then eventually you just begin giving into it and you decide I'm not going to tell anybody I'm
[00:16:17] not going to confess this I'm just going to enter into this perpetually as all those things
[00:16:23] occur to you individually you have to remember you are affecting in a negative way the congregation
[00:16:31] invisibly in an unseen ways but you are most certainly affecting the power the vitality the health
[00:16:38] the strength the potential of the congregation but when you individually are in the word and prayer
[00:16:45] evangelizing in the spirit confessing your sins looking for accountability part of the corporate
[00:16:53] gathering when you individually are doing those things you are up building and strengthening
[00:17:00] the overall congregation and so God immediately this book it gets very personal there's the whole
[00:17:07] group but now I'm calling for individuals to walk with me now in the first few chapters of the
[00:17:17] book of Leviticus a bunch of different sacrifices are mentioned we have the burnt offering in chapter
[00:17:24] and then we'll go from there there will be the grain offering and a piece offering a sin offering
[00:17:30] and a guilt offering that will be detailed and I will admit to you that there is a line of
[00:17:37] interpretation that gets very metaphorical or typological in their interpretations of these sacrifices
[00:17:45] you know little things that are mentioned will then be connected to some aspect of the life of
[00:17:51] Jesus and I think for the most part I'm going to resist that temptation I want to think about what
[00:17:57] Leviticus meant to the original hears and then try to mine those truths for our modern time today but
[00:18:04] we're going to start out here in chapter one with the burnt offering let's read verse three through
[00:18:09] eight together it says if his offering is a burnt offering from the herd he shall offer a
[00:18:15] male without blemish he shall bring it to the entrance of the ten of meeting that he may be
[00:18:20] accepted before the Lord he shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering and it shall be
[00:18:25] accepted for him to make a tone in for him then he shall kill the bull before the Lord and
[00:18:30] Aaron's sons the priest shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar
[00:18:36] that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting then he shall play the burnt offering and cut it into
[00:18:42] pieces and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire
[00:18:48] and Aaron's sons the priests shall arrange the pieces the head and the fat and the wood on the
[00:18:54] wood that is on the fire on the altar but it's entrails and its legs he shall wash with water
[00:19:01] and the priest shall burn all of it on the altar as a burnt offering a food offering with a pleasing
[00:19:08] aroma to the Lord so like I said the first offering that's mentioned here in Leviticus right off
[00:19:14] the bat is this burnt offering now nationally later the burnt offering would develop into a sacrifice
[00:19:24] that was offered every day in the morning and in the evening every Saturday or Sabbath for the whole
[00:19:32] nation and on the first day of every month as well as at some various festivals and feasts throughout
[00:19:40] the year so this sacrifice had a real national identity and sense to it and that might be the reason
[00:19:49] that it's mentioned first because it was so regularly observed in Israel but it wasn't only a
[00:19:56] national sacrifice it was also a very individual sacrifice if you as a worshiper wanted us to serve
[00:20:03] and worship God in this way with a burnt offering you could voluntarily give this sacrifice to the Lord
[00:20:13] now it's probable that there are you know movements and details that are not mentioned because
[00:20:23] this is a condensed version of the instructions for instance when the worshiper came in with the
[00:20:30] bowl or with the goat to offer this sacrifice to God it wasn't probably something that was done
[00:20:40] in complete silence but it's just not mentioned what they say but in other passages and in even some
[00:20:46] of the Psalms there are various words that the worshiper probably said as they put their hand
[00:20:50] upon the sacrifice prayers that they would have prayed things that they would have confessed
[00:20:55] to the priest or to God through the priest all of this was done this burnt offering it says in verse 3
[00:21:02] and 4 so that the worshiper could be accepted before the Lord to make a tonement for himself
[00:21:12] so there's the idea here that this person wants to be in fellowship with God they want to be
[00:21:16] clean before God there's something that they want to confess to God there's just a sense that
[00:21:22] they want to approach God now later there were sin offerings guild offering so specific sins could be
[00:21:28] dealt with with the sacrificial system but this seems to be more general in nature
[00:21:37] and of course we understand in our new testament era that personal fellowship with God is
[00:21:45] necessitates and we deal with sin you know we John tells us that we want to walk in the light as he
[00:21:51] is in the light so that we might have fellowship with him now thing that's fascinating to me about
[00:21:58] this burnt offering is that the worshiper is intensely involved with this sacrifice
[00:22:05] he comes in the worshiper with the animal he brings it to the priest he slays it with his own hand
[00:22:15] and kills it he then takes it and cuts it up into pieces before the Lord and he washes those
[00:22:22] pieces with water it's the priests who take them and burn them it's a priest who do the rest of the
[00:22:27] sacrifice but the individual worshiper is intensely involved laying his hand killing cutting
[00:22:35] he's very involved the worshiper in other words is conscious of the cost of this animal
[00:22:42] he's made a decision to live this way before the Lord he's identifying with the cost of his own sin
[00:22:52] and what it's doing and his need for blood sacrifice so that he can approach God he's conscious
[00:22:59] of the consequences of his sin and what it's doing to his this animal and to his finances and
[00:23:09] he's very conscious of that sacrifice and then to be able to be the one who does not die on the
[00:23:14] altar but walks away he is thankful to God so he's intensely involved in this whole process
[00:23:23] now in verse 10 it says if his gift for a burnt offering is from the flock from the sheep or goats
[00:23:32] he shall bring a male without blemish and he shall kill it on the north side of the altar before
[00:23:36] the Lord and Aaron's sons the priest shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar
[00:23:42] and he shall cut it into pieces with its head and its fat and the priest shall arrange them on the
[00:23:46] wood that is on the fire on the altar but the entrails and the legs he shall wash with water and
[00:23:52] the priest shall offer all of it and burn it on the altar it is a burnt offering a food offering with
[00:23:58] a pleasing aroma to the Lord all right so what this means is because this there's a second description
[00:24:06] of the burnt offering that we just read but in the first description you have a bull that would be
[00:24:11] the most expensive animal that could be offered now you have a sheep or goat that is being offered
[00:24:21] to God and that would sort of represent those of the middle class who perhaps could not afford
[00:24:27] to offer a bull but then thirdly we're going to see that there was a third type of burnt offering
[00:24:34] and that would be an offering of birds it says in verse 14 it says if his offering to the Lord is
[00:24:40] a burnt offering of birds then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or pigeons and the priest
[00:24:47] shall bring it to the altar and ring off its head and burn it on the altar so this is different
[00:24:52] from the first two sacrifices the priest now is involved a little bit more he does the killing of
[00:24:58] this bird its blood shall be drained out on the side of the altar he shall remove its crop with
[00:25:03] its contents and cast it beside the altar on the east side in the place for ashes he shall
[00:25:09] tear it open by its wings but she'll not sever it completely and the priest shall burn it on the
[00:25:14] altar on the wood that is on the fire it is a burnt offering a food offering with a pleasing
[00:25:20] aroma to the Lord of course for us as we think about this it's natural for us to celebrate what
[00:25:29] God has done here he's not isolating or excluding any economic bracket you know the wealthy can
[00:25:37] offer a bull the middle class can offer a sheep or a goat and those who are in poverty they can
[00:25:42] offer a turtle dove or a pigeon this is the kindness and the graciousness of God and it should be
[00:25:50] obvious to us but perhaps it must be said that the people who offered the bulls or the goats were
[00:25:58] not inherently more holy or righteous or godly than those who offered the turtle doves or the pigeons
[00:26:08] and vice versa Mary the mother of Jesus is certainly in the godly class yet when she offered a
[00:26:20] sacrifice to dedicate baby Jesus to the Lord she had a similar option and her and Joseph were
[00:26:26] forced to offer of the turtle dove and pigeon category indicating that they were not wealthy people
[00:26:33] but that they were in the poorer class in Israelite society but she was a spiritual elite she was a
[00:26:42] spiritually wealthy woman and of course in Jesus' ministry there were times where he would see poor
[00:26:48] widows or those who gave little yet were even though they were materially poor they were spiritually
[00:26:56] wealthy and elite in so many different ways so this is the record here in Leviticus 1 of the
[00:27:02] burnt offering itself and it really was useful to those who wanted to pursue the Lord and basically
[00:27:11] signal that they wanted to be wholly totally completely dedicated to God why is that well because
[00:27:20] the other sacrifices many of them it would be a partial sacrifice so God would take a portion
[00:27:26] of the animal for himself and then the priests or the priests and the worshipper would eat the rest
[00:27:33] of the sacrifice that had been offered but it with the burnt offering the whole animal was consumed
[00:27:41] on the altar which meant that God was the sole consumer of the sacrifice and this is meant to be
[00:27:49] emblematic of the worshipper saying this is what I want for my life I want God to have everything
[00:27:55] I don't want to be I don't want anything to be left out I want God to have every single part
[00:28:02] of my life so perhaps for us as we think about this today we might think about those moments where
[00:28:08] God is prompting our hearts to afresh commit ourselves to Him and to say God I want you to have
[00:28:15] every part of me and I found in my own Christian life and walked that there have just been so many
[00:28:22] moments over the years where that question has been posited to me again do you want me to have
[00:28:31] all of your life Nate the Spirit will ask and you know when you're 18 years old if that's when
[00:28:37] the Lord gets a hold of your heart it's one thing to answer yes Lord I want you to have all of me
[00:28:43] then a few years later time ticks by life changes focuses and priorities are different and the
[00:28:51] question comes can I have all of you then you get married perhaps or a family grows or a career
[00:28:59] flourishes and then the question again can I have all of you and I find at each stage of life the
[00:29:05] Lord by his Spirit he whispers into our ears can I have all of you will you be completely devoted to
[00:29:13] me or will they be segments of your life that you're holding back for yourself and so the burn
[00:29:19] offering I think is representative of those moments that we would come to the Lord and say God
[00:29:24] afresh I want you to have all of me me and my entirety so that's the burn offering the next
[00:29:34] offering will be the grain offering followed by the sin offering and then or excuse me the
[00:29:44] fellowship offering and then the sin offering and then the guilt offering let's read about the
[00:29:49] grain offering in Leviticus chapter 2 he says number one when anyone brings a grain offering is
[00:29:55] an offering to the Lord his offering shall be a fine flower he shall pour oil on it and put franken
[00:30:01] sins on it and bring it to Aaron's sons the priest initial take from it a handful of the fine
[00:30:07] flower and oil with all of its frankincense and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion
[00:30:12] on the altar a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord but the rest of the grain offering
[00:30:18] shall be for Aaron and his sons it is a most holy part of the Lord's food offerings
[00:30:26] now generally the daily burn offering that we already talked about was followed by this grain
[00:30:34] offering the numbers chapter 28 tells us and they were often mentioned together in the historical
[00:30:41] books burn offering grain offering so it's natural that the grain offering would be mentioned second
[00:30:48] here in the book of Leviticus sometimes this grain offering is called a serial offering in some
[00:30:54] translations or a meal offering because it consisted of flower and baked goods and different types
[00:31:01] of baked goods are going to be mentioned throughout the passage uncooked flower would be offered
[00:31:06] bread baked in an oven would be offered bread prepared on a griddle would be offered and also
[00:31:13] bread cooked in a pan would be offered now there was something practical about this particular
[00:31:19] sacrifice because it was a major part of the priest's payment and diet they would actually eat a
[00:31:26] big portion of this sacrifice and so it would go along with the meat that they'd receive from other
[00:31:35] sacrifices but the idea of bringing grain actually has within it and even the Hebrew words that are
[00:31:43] used speak to the offering of tribute to a foreign king so the grain offering kind of has the idea
[00:31:53] of it in it of allegiance to a king that you want to submit yourself to so the idea being that
[00:32:08] he's my lord he's able to direct my life and I owe everything that I am to him I'm seeking his
[00:32:16] protection his provision his guidance his leadership in my life so people in a sense were offering
[00:32:24] this sacrifice as a way to communicate their everyday need for God not just a wholeness of God
[00:32:33] I want you to have everything in my life but this would be more of a daily kind of relationship with
[00:32:40] the Lord dedicating yourself a fresh each day to the work and the word of God this would be similar
[00:32:47] to Paul Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and 2 saying present your bodies as a living sacrifice wholly and
[00:32:54] acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship so that's partly what the grain sacrifice would
[00:33:00] emphasize then he says in verse 4 to continue detailing this grain offering he says when you bring a
[00:33:07] grain offering baked in the oven as an offering it shall be unleavened loaves of fine flour mixed with
[00:33:13] oil or unleavened wafers smeared with oil and if your offering is a grain offering baked on a griddle
[00:33:19] it shall be a fine flour unleavened mixed with oil you shall break it in pieces and pour oil on it it
[00:33:24] is a grain offering and if your offering is a grain offering cooked in a pan it shall be made of fine
[00:33:31] flour with oil and you shall bring the grain offering that is made of these things to the Lord
[00:33:37] and when it is presented to the priest he shall bring it to the altar and the priest shall take from
[00:33:42] the grain offering its memorial portion and burn this on the altar a food offering with a pleasing
[00:33:48] aroma to the Lord but the rest of the grain offering shall be for Aaron and his sons it is a
[00:33:53] most holy part of the Lord's food offering so again you have the different types of grain offering
[00:34:01] that are mentioned there and the mention that this was a major part of the payment for Aaron
[00:34:07] and his sons or the Levitical priest to Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9 13 he said do you not know
[00:34:13] that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple and those who serve
[00:34:19] at the altar share in the saccharit official offerings and actually the context of 1 Corinthians 9
[00:34:26] was that Paul was justifying the payment of gospel workers in the church and he went all the
[00:34:34] way back to the Old Testament for just one of I think eight or nine different points that he made
[00:34:39] justifying payment for gospel workers and one of his points was based on the Old Testament
[00:34:45] temple sacrificial system he said the priest they get their food from the temple the very thing
[00:34:52] they're doing to help serve the people spiritually is where they get their bread to eat their food
[00:34:58] from time to time as a pastor who is employed by a local church so to speak I will at the breakfast
[00:35:06] table or the dinner table as we're eating our meal together I'll point out to my family hey
[00:35:12] let's pray for the church because in a sense our food that we're eating today has come from
[00:35:21] the work of the gospel and they have decided that they want to support this gospel work
[00:35:28] and the preaching of his word through helping us by our bacon this morning so we're living on the
[00:35:35] other side of the cross so now bacon has been cleansed for us all right he goes on about the grain
[00:35:41] offering though in verse 11 and says no grain offering that you bring to the Lord she'll be made
[00:35:45] with leaven for you shall burn no leaven or any honey as food offering to the Lord as an offering
[00:35:51] of first fruits you may bring them to the Lord but they shall not be offered on the altar for a
[00:35:55] pleasing aroma you shall season all your grain offerings with salt you shall not let the salt
[00:36:02] of the covenant with your God be missing from your grain offering with all your offerings you shall
[00:36:08] offer salt so a couple of themes there that are important one is the idea of leaven having a
[00:36:14] negative connotation being connected to the idea of the way that sin permeates and expands
[00:36:21] and therefore ruins everything and the idea that the people of Israel left the nation of Egypt
[00:36:29] eating bread that they did not have time to leaven and here the idea is when you offered your
[00:36:35] grain to the Lord don't let it be leavened nor any honey which was the sweetest thing that nature had
[00:36:43] to offer at that time or that you know that they could find or produce or cultivate or grow
[00:36:53] so he says you know these things it's not that they weren't to eat them it's just they
[00:36:58] weren't to be part of the offerings to the Lord and then the idea of salt also being offered salted
[00:37:04] somehow come to represent the covenant that God had made with His people so they are to offer
[00:37:09] salt as a memorial that they were a covenant people with God again this is not God's way of saying
[00:37:16] do you want my covenant do you want to be saved so do these things this is his way of saying
[00:37:23] you are in my covenant you are chosen you are saved from Egypt so now do these things in response
[00:37:32] then in verse 14 it closed out the grain offering he says if you offer a grain offering of
[00:37:37] first fruits to the Lord you shall offer for the grain offering of your first fruits fresh
[00:37:42] ears roasted with fire crushed new grain and you shall put oil on it and lay frankincense on it
[00:37:49] it is a grain offering and the priest shall burn as its memorial portion some of the crushed grain
[00:37:55] and some of the oil with all its frankincense it is a food offering to the Lord so sometimes part
[00:38:03] of the grain offering here would be actual first fruits themselves of the crop and in a sense
[00:38:11] offering the first fruits was a way to say thank you to God and in faith to say we believe more
[00:38:17] is coming you know because when you're offering the first you're assuming there's going to be a
[00:38:22] second third fourth sixth seventh and on and on so this was their way of by faith saying God we think
[00:38:29] that you're providing for us we want to demonstrate that by giving to you the first fruits now in
[00:38:36] chapter three which will be our last chapter for this study we have the peace offering and it's
[00:38:43] a again a shorter chapter so let's read about this third offering mentioned here in Leviticus
[00:38:49] if his offering is a sacrifice of peace offering if he offers an animal from the herd male or female
[00:38:57] he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord and he shall lay his hand on the head of his
[00:39:01] offering and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting and Aaron's sons the priest shall throw
[00:39:07] the blood against the sides of the altar and from the sacrifice of the peace offering as a food
[00:39:12] offering to the Lord he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is
[00:39:17] on the entrails and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long
[00:39:22] lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys then Aaron's sons shall burn it on the
[00:39:28] altar on top of the burn offering which is on the wood on the fire it is a food offering with a
[00:39:35] pleasing aroma to the Lord so we've seen the burn offering we've seen the grain offering and now
[00:39:41] we have the peace offering now the peace offering is likely coupled together or joined together I should
[00:39:53] say with a burnt and grain offering because it was one of those offerings that specifically said
[00:40:03] offered a soothing aroma or a pleasing aroma to the Lord so it's another one of those sacrifices
[00:40:14] this peace offering was an optional sacrifice something that believers would choose to give to the Lord
[00:40:22] Leviticus chapter seven will show us that sometimes they would offer it as a way of confessing sin
[00:40:30] sometimes it was just a way to freely free will worship God you know I'm just feeling it right now
[00:40:38] I just want to worship the Lord and sometimes a peace offering would be given as a way to fulfill
[00:40:44] a vow a commitment that a believer had made to God I love all three of those by the way they're
[00:40:50] just all beautiful for us as modern day believers and Christians there are times we must confess
[00:40:56] our sin there are times that we just have to say man I got a spontaneously praise God I need to
[00:41:03] get to some place where I can offer God a sacrifice of praise and there are times that we make
[00:41:10] a commitment to God that we need to fulfill a vow so to speak now this offering apparently
[00:41:18] symbolized peace with God because at the end of it a portion of it would be set aside for Aaron and his
[00:41:29] sons the priests but also would be set aside for the worshipper so the idea is that the worshipper
[00:41:36] is eating a sacred meal not necessarily with God that's kind of the concept but more before the
[00:41:43] Lord so the idea is the burn offering has occurred whole dedication the grain offering has occurred
[00:41:53] daily dedication and now this peace offering has occurred signifying they've entered into fellowship
[00:42:00] with God they're experiencing the Lord so they'd offer this sacrifice to God but God will only take
[00:42:08] a portion of it as I've been saying and the priests in the worshipper would receive their own portion
[00:42:15] so the idea again fellowship with God publicly rejoicing before the Lord now like I said this is
[00:42:22] an optional sacrifice but sometimes there were special ceremonies that this would be partaken in
[00:42:32] so again very similar to the burnt offering this peace offering the animal would be presented by
[00:42:37] the worshipper he'd lay hands on the worship on the sacrifices head he would slay the animal and
[00:42:44] the priests would splash the blood upon the altar the interesting thing to me is that as the animal
[00:42:54] was divvied up the part that God took was the entrails the vital sometimes thought of as inedible parts
[00:43:06] of the animal this might have actually been something that God was doing partly to save his people
[00:43:13] from an error of their time many pagan religions would take the innards of an animal like the liver
[00:43:21] and seek to discern the divine will or spiritual dimension through those innards in some way so
[00:43:29] perhaps God was saying no just burn those on the altar you don't want to mess around with them
[00:43:34] he took the fat things like that and that was burnt and the believers they received you know
[00:43:42] really in a sense the best parts the the most nutritive parts were given to them but the idea for
[00:43:49] them was in their culture giving the fat that was the best parts they're giving the best to God
[00:43:54] and they receive everything that is left so they come into peace with God now he says in verse six if
[00:44:02] his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock
[00:44:08] male or female he shall offer it without blemish if he offers a lamb for his offering then he
[00:44:13] shall offer it before the Lord lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it in front of
[00:44:18] the tent of meeting and Aaron's son shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar then from
[00:44:23] the sacrifice of the peace offering he shall offer as a food offering to the Lord it's fat he
[00:44:27] shall remove the whole fat tail which I'm told can get very large at times on sheep cut off close
[00:44:33] to the backbone and the fat that covers the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails and the
[00:44:38] two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe the liver he shall remove
[00:44:43] with the kidneys and the priest shall burn it on the altar as a food offering to the Lord so
[00:44:49] this offerings a little more flexible than the burnt offering but similar but more flexible in
[00:44:54] that male or female animals could be offered again you know God takes a certain portion the fat
[00:45:02] the tail the backbone the fat and the entrails so it's all kind of gross to me but that's what God
[00:45:08] chooses and takes and is burnt upon the altar and the meat again is divided between the priest
[00:45:17] who got the breast and the right thigh and the worshipper's family who got everything else
[00:45:22] if his offering is a goat verse 12 then he shall offer it before the Lord and lay his hand on
[00:45:28] its head and kill it in front of the tent of meeting and the sons of Aaron shall throw its blood
[00:45:33] against the sides of the altar then he shall offer from it as he is offering for a food offering
[00:45:38] to the Lord the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails
[00:45:42] and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins and the long lobe of the liver
[00:45:48] that he shall remove with the kidneys and the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food
[00:45:53] offering with a pleasing aroma all fat is the lords and again for them that was the best part
[00:45:59] it belongs to God it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling
[00:46:05] places that you eat neither fat nor blood so that's the peace offering and again verse 16 it's
[00:46:16] this peace offering is considered a food offering to the Lord now you probably notice of the
[00:46:22] burnt offering you had the bull could be offered a sheep or a goat could be offered and the bird could
[00:46:28] be offered no bird option is given for the peace offering and that likely is indicative of the idea
[00:46:38] that with a bird there'd be no meal that the that God and the priests and the family could partake
[00:46:45] of and what is probable what many people suppose is that those who were poor who wanted to engage
[00:46:54] in a peace offering they would actually be part of eating the meal of others who gave a peace offering
[00:47:02] of the bull or of the sheep or of the goat they would partake of the meal that others had offered
[00:47:11] to God and it would be more of a sacrifice of the heart they're wanting to engage in that sacrifice
[00:47:16] but the bird is not an option the turtle dove or the pigeon is not an option here at this point
[00:47:23] now usually when more than one kind of offering was offered the procedure went sin or guilt offering
[00:47:33] first which we'll actually look at in our next study followed by a burnt offering then the
[00:47:38] fellowship offering or the grain offering would be offered together and maybe even a drink offering
[00:47:44] would then be given to the Lord so sin would be dealt with and then at the end there's fellowship
[00:47:51] all together so all this sin is dealt with consecration dedication and then at the end there they are
[00:47:57] in fellowship with the Lord which is a very gospel centered way of thinking about things our sin
[00:48:02] must be dealt with and we come to the Lord we confess our sins he cleanses us washes us and we're
[00:48:08] entering into fellowship with God it closes there in verse 17 with a statute you know no fat for the
[00:48:16] people of Israel no drinking the blood for the people of Israel part of the reason for this
[00:48:21] Leviticus 1711 says for the life of the flesh is in the blood so he the blood was for a tonement it
[00:48:30] was not for consumption are these sacrifices I'll just close with a little word about them
[00:48:38] some will say in our modern era that the sacrifices offered no real forgiveness to the people of
[00:48:46] Israel that's kind of a hard one for me to stomach personally because over and over again especially
[00:48:53] on Leviticus 4 through 6 which we'll look at in our next study together there's a little phrase
[00:48:58] that's repeated over and over again it says they or he shall be forgiven you know this
[00:49:04] offering is given the sacrifice is given and the worshiper they shall be forgiven so I don't take
[00:49:11] it lightly it's a serious thing to then say oh it's not really real forgiveness that they received
[00:49:20] in the book of Leviticus but it is clear biblically that these sacrifices were limited in some way
[00:49:30] that Jesus' sacrifice was not limited Hebrews 10 verse 1 says that it can never those old sacrifices
[00:49:38] by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year it can never make perfect those who
[00:49:44] draw near so there's a limitation Jesus' sacrifice could make perfect those who draw near but these
[00:49:50] sacrifices could not Hebrews 10 verse 4 it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
[00:49:58] sins he brews 10 11 and 14 these same sacrifices which can never take away sins and then he says
[00:50:06] for by a single offering Jesus he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified so
[00:50:15] there's a contrast in the New Testament between these sacrifices and the sacrifice of Jesus so even
[00:50:22] though throughout Leviticus it will say he or they shall be forgiven as a result of these sacrifices
[00:50:28] in the New Testament we discover that the forgiveness was not full or complete they could never
[00:50:34] perfect the worshipper they could never take away the sins of the worshipper completely and
[00:50:42] they had to repeatedly be offered Jesus' sacrifice though could make perfect could take away
[00:50:49] sins and only had to be offered once it wasn't a repeated kind of thing so if that's the case if
[00:50:56] there's some kind of forgiveness offered but not up to what Jesus' sacrifice offered what were
[00:51:05] the limitations of these sacrifices well one limitation that has been observed is that
[00:51:12] these sacrifices they did need to be offered by faith for them to have their full
[00:51:18] value and impact before God but because of their very nature they led a lot of people in Israel to
[00:51:25] just slip into a ceremonialism so you know I touch a carcass I've declared ceremonially unclean and
[00:51:32] there's a certain thing that I've got to go through in the tabernacle but there's no faith there's
[00:51:37] no heart there's no drive there's no real desire for God that is present that was a limitation
[00:51:45] they also were limited it seems to certain kinds of personal sins so
[00:51:52] you did certain things some sins would have a sacrifice that you could then live out and others there
[00:52:02] was just judgment that had to come whereas Jesus' sacrifice dealt with not just individual sins but
[00:52:10] the sin problem that we've received from Adam within the human heart these sacrifices kept a
[00:52:18] covenant going you know they were God's covenant people but they really couldn't be the
[00:52:24] initiation of a person's relationship with God so in a sense these sacrifices are more like
[00:52:32] first John 1.9 confess your sins and he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and
[00:52:38] to cleanse you from all unrighteousness than John 3.16 you know God so loved the world that he
[00:52:44] gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting
[00:52:49] life these sacrifices were not really entrants into the covenant but a way to maintain the covenant
[00:52:58] that God had given just as for us when we confess our sins to the Lord as believers it's maintaining
[00:53:03] our relationship with God we want to keep a short account with him and these sacrifices were
[00:53:09] limited it seems to one sin per sacrifice except for the day of atonement which has covered everything
[00:53:17] but you know you had a sin you had to offer sacrifice for that specific sin rather than general
[00:53:23] sin and of course the animals as we've already said there in Hebrews could not be all sufficient
[00:53:30] but only point to the all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus so really it's a sacrifice of Christ that
[00:53:37] matters but so these sacrifices did have a limitation but they were helpful to the people of God
[00:53:43] to drawing them into their daily relationship with him so with that I would encourage you you know
[00:53:49] obviously we are not under this covenant or that we do not live in this era as believers where
[00:53:54] we're going to engage in this sacrificial system but you can see here that God is designing something
[00:54:00] for his people in that era by which they can approach him engage with him partake of him sin has
[00:54:08] to be dealt with he draws them in he wants to eat with them he wants to fellowship with them he wants
[00:54:15] them to consecrate themselves to him and so God wants the same thing for us today he doesn't want
[00:54:21] us to do these things but he does want our whole devotion he does want us to confess our sin he does
[00:54:28] want us to keep short accounts with him he does want to fellowship with us he does want us to look to
[00:54:34] him for provision he does want us to think of him like a king that is the Lord of our lives he wants all
[00:54:41] of those things today and praise God we can do those things without these sacrifices but that's
[00:54:46] what he still desires for us today so let's engage with our God God bless you