it's hello am I on can you hear me okay well my name is Stef for those of you who don't know me I'm teaching for IVA today as you know she was supposed to be in Myanmar and they ended up having to cancel their trip because of the corona virus so she took advantage of having a substitute and I just found out this morning that she went to go see her grandbaby so I'm excited for her I don't know if y'all are is excited to see a new face but so I hope you've all had a good week did you notice I dressed for the theme you read about a lot of blood this last week and it's really not even warm enough for this shirt but I was thought in my closet and I was like okay I'm gonna wear that today so we have a lot of material to cover and I thought I was going to be here and I did want to publicly thank her for the opportunity because one of the things that really appreciate by appreciate about her and her ministry is that she is really about training up the next generation and she puts her money where her mouth is because as a Bible teacher when you know and love the Word of God and you're excited about it and you want to share it it really is a sacrifice to lay aside your opportunity to teach to let somebody else hone their skill of learning to do it so I am very appreciative of whatever points she hears this for her doing that so let's um open up in prayer and we'll get started father god I just thank you so much for your word I thank you for the Book of Leviticus and all that you have to show us today so Lord as we open up your word I pray that you would give us fresh eyes to see fresh ears to hear ask you O Lord that you would give me clarity by the power of your spirit to speak your truth in a way that brings you all honor and glory that the name of Jesus would be magnified in this place today that we would walk away from here seeing you more clearly than when we walked in Lord we don't want to leave the same as we came in we just love you asked you to come and bless this time and just do your work in each of us through your word in Jesus name so I'm guessing in the chronological Bible reading world there was a little bit of a sigh relief yesterday when you close the Book of Leviticus for some people maybe maybe that's the way a lot of us feel about it it's it's kind of hard read it doesn't I get it it doesn't have a lot of narrative we start our Bible reading with all these stories and it's all really clear and easy to read and then you get to Leviticus and there's only a couple of things and it's native and a by who getting killed and then we had the blasphemer getting killed this week so they're not even fun stories but yeah it's a lot so I have a goal and my goal is that you will actually leave here excited about Leviticus rolling around again next year hear me out hear me out so this is and I do want to just give a little caveat you can I don't normally talk like this and getting over a respiratory infection I was telling my friend here that I got a steroid and I'm on day three of one of those dose packs so I feel a little bit like a wired cat somebody's looking at me going ah so I will try not to speak as quickly as IVA but we studied a lot of material so I brought all my notes up here and if you if I have to catch my train of thought I am really excited about this lesson I don't know that I've been this excited about any less than I've ever taught and when I opened up and found out that I was reading Leviticus literally I went like Corey was talking about fun and out about job and I was like where do I get to teach open it up chapter 15 subtitle laws about bodily discharged yay um but as I have then I kept flipping through and I was like oh I get to study the day of atonement and death in depth is one of those things where you think I've always wanted to do that I'm gonna take the time to do that sometime I've heard people talk about it let me just tell you all there's something about digging into it for yourself so I hope that you're blessed by the teaching today but I do hope that it will inspire you to dig into it for yourself so like I said I dressed for the occasion we read about a lot of bloodshed this week and we're gonna talk a lot about sacrifice that's the theme of our talk for today and so let's go back to the beginning like we always do we're only in the third era so it's a short trip but let's just talk about what we know about sacrifice thus far in the Bible so in the creation era the creation story it's all good Adam and Eve are walking with God in the cool of the day with no hindrances they have for this free open relationship with the Lord and then you know after the fall immediately they go and hide themselves the Lord promises in his judgment we see the mercy where he says I'm gonna redeem this thing and he promises that first messianic promise that a seed is going to come from the woman to crush the head of the serpent so the Redeemer is promised and then the Lord God Himself sheds that first makes the first sacrifice sheds the blood of that innocent animal to make them sufficient coverings because they initiated the separation they they hid from God tried to cover themselves wasn't good enough so that's our first sacrifice and by now I'm I'm sure y'all probably know that next time we see sacrifice we see the story of Cain and Abel those brothers are both presenting an offering to the Lord and we know that the one that is accepted is the one that involves blood it also says that mmm that one came of the firstborn of Abel's flock and their fat portions so we see there's this understanding of sacrifice and atonement and then we get to Noah Noah gets off of the ark built an altar to the Lord and what is he sacrifice those clean animals that the Lord had made provision for in advance then we get to the patriarch era Abraham Isaac and Jacob all build altars to the Lord and that's pretty much all we have is that they built altars to the Lord and it's kind of vague up until the Exodus point and then we get to the Exodus era and we we have here at the final plague everybody's involved in sacrifice because if you don't sacrifice that innocent animal and put it on your doorpost the firstborn in your house is gonna die and so so now we're seeing a little bit more about sacrifice and then when we get to Exodus chapter 19 they come they come out of Egypt and by Exodus 19 they park out Mount AB Mount Sinai this whole group of people and I don't know if you realize this or not but they're still there so from Exodus 19 all the way through the Book of Leviticus until next week I believe in chapter 10 when they take off all of that takes place in one location it's kind of helpful because sometimes when we get bogged down with some of this difficult and sometimes repetitive reading we lose track of where we are in the story but so then it's after that that we find out that the Lord gives some instructions about altars but they're to be made of Earth and if they make them of stone they're not to cut the stones there's nothing man-made about this altar situation but now that we have concluded Leviticus there's not a lot of questions left about what was going on and sacrifice and offering right it's pretty clear exactly what's taking place and I think it's interesting I just wanted to comment that it just even though it just says they built an altar to the Lord and maybe it's just me but it took me a long time just kind of with the struggle of why all the blood and just because it doesn't say the details of what their understanding was about sacrifice and atonement it's clear from the fact that they did build those altars that there was understanding about sacrifice and atonement that was standing the test of time God was keeping his word and getting it to them somehow so they did know and have that understanding so let's see oh yeah I'm moving along my notes really really quickly maybe I should slow down but so at the end of Leviticus three things are really clear God is holy man is sinful and to rectify that situation sacrifice is required and atonement is required and atonement requires blood and the reason for that was found in our reading in fact we probably have some precepts people in here you may have noticed that the word atonement was said a lot of times almost 50 times in the Book of Leviticus the word atonement is used so it's important we're going to talk about it today Leviticus 17:11 says for the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life so you think about it it does make sense because remember what God told them if you eat up this tree you will surely die we read later on in the New Testament that the wages of sin is what wages of sin is death what's gonna overcome death besides life there's no there's no sacrifice that we can make that contains life that can atone for the death that our sin brings does that make sense it kind of helps me to to think about it that day and so let's just kind of go back at the beginning of the week last week we ended in chapter 14 with the law of the cleansing of the leper and so this week when we started or this past week in the reading recovering today is the second part of chapter 14 which was the of cleaning Electress situation in a house and I'd like to talk about how God wants to get all up in your business he wants to get up all up in your house and it's true he just does one of the things it's just kind of interesting and I'll just make a little comment on that when we think about that Lipper's house if there's a spreading disease in the stones like the owner of the house has to go to the priest and say he sees this situation and then the priest comes and looks at it and then there's a quarantine which I thought it was kind of funny that I was preparing my notes last week for this quarantined in my bonus room from being sick I felt like I understood it a little bit better but so the stones the timber plaster had to be scraped all that spreading disease had to be taken outside of the camp and put into an unclean place and then there was it's interesting detail of this ritual and has some very noteworthy components so just think about him with me for a second to live clean birds cedar wood scarlet yarn and hyssop one bird is killed in an earthen vessel over fresh or living water the live bird with the wood the yarn and the hyssop are dipped in the blood of the bird that was killed over the living water and it sprinkled on the house seven times and then the live bird is set free and that's how a toment was made for the house which is basically identical to the first part of the cleansing of the leper that we had just read about and I'm gonna circle back around and talk about that but let's just keep moving through what we read about the Lord had addressed these external issues of skin infections and then he moves on to chapter 15 and he talks about what could kind of be considered a little bit more internal or Secret issues things that could be a little more hidden and the Lord has something to say about all that - it's messy but it's a good picture but the Lord he there's no place that's off-limits for him I mean we read some uncomfortable things than this week's reading didn't we but then we get to chapter 16 which is the Day of Atonement and for me it was definitely the pinnacle of the reading the beginning of Leviticus talked about in detail in the prior weeks reading about the five main sacrifices that were offered so there was the burnt offering the meal offering and the peace offering were the first three that were described and those were freewill offerings like you could do it as often as you wanted yeah as often as you wanted literally you could take a fellowship or a free will offering every day if you wanted to and in the second two were the sin offering or and the guilt or the trespass offering those two terms are both used and so the sin offering was for the sin that was committed the trespass offering was for the effects that the sin had caused so those were where you saw things like you know if you're repaying like somebody loses in somebody sin causes a death of an animal and then they have the cost of the animal plus you know see some retribution 'he's made there and those offerings but the day of atonement is the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur it is the most solemn and holy day of the year still on the Jews calendar and so I'm just gonna separate summarize what happened because I know you guys just read it and normally I would prefer to just read all of the scripture to you and just let it speak that way but we're trying to cover a lot today so I apologize for summarizing but this is what would happen on this day the high priest it was a big day for him it was a heavy load for him he would have to lay aside his priestly garments that were described in Exodus you remember the ones with the colorful ephod with the with the stones where he literally bore the names of the tribes on his shoulders and on his heart before the Lord it's a beautiful picture but he had this colored colorful ephod that went with that and so he would just wear a linen coat the linen undergarments a linen sash and the turban and so more of like outfit of a servant than this high priestly garments he would lay those things aside and he would have to go and he would have to make a sin-offering first for himself and his house we read about how two male goats were chosen lots were cast and one was sacrificed as a sin offering for the people atonement was made for the holy place the tent of meeting the altar and listen to what it says the because of the uncleanness of the people it literally says that atonement was made for the altar because of the uncleanness transgressions and sins of the people because uncleanness and sin they don't just affect the unclean person or the sinner did y'all notice that in your reading it's like transferable it defiles the people around it the whole community and so before the sacrifices I mean it had to be atone for the literal altar that the sacrifice is going to be made on wasn't even holy until it was atone for just because sinners had been around it it's a it's a very detailed picture of what sin does but so you know that on the on the the second goat was a scapegoat and so then after all that the priest would he would go and literally light his hands on the head of that goat and he would confess the iniquities of the people I don't know exactly how this worked out how long it took of everybody like what had happened in our community this year and that goat would literally bear the sins as like the sins were transferred onto this goat and he would be another person would take him away and he would literally take their sins away some of you translations talked about it being a goat for Azazel that is um it's an interesting thing if you look at it some Jewish scholars say that's a place in the wilderness like 12 miles away from where they were and I'm not positive on that because like I said once you start digging into it it's a lot but it's kind of weird if you're reading so I did want to address that some people talked about it being like a a goat demon that was that they sacrificed to and you all may have noticed that was mentioned in the reading where it says no longer sacrifice to these goat demons what you think is interesting because sometimes people tend to act like you know oh your Bible stuff is whatever but have y'all noticed whenever people talk about like the occult or loominatee what shows up that pentagon is that little goat like why a goat this goes way back like the spiritual things that are happening now they're not new and we're not crazy people it's all there anyway so on this day Aaron was working alone it says in chapter 16 verse 17 no wood may be in the tent a meeting from the tiny inners to make atonement in the holy place until he comes out and has a made atonement for himself in his house for all the Assembly of Israel then he shall go out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it and shall take some of the blood of the bull and some of the blood of the goat and put it on the horns of the altar and he shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times and cleanse it and consecrate it from its uncleanness of the people of Israel so he's doing all this it's a lot of work for he's used to having his sons help him with these things and then as we progressed through the reading we start to read a lot about holiness it's made clear that there's a certain place that sacrifices have to be made that verse I read earlier in chapter SEP 17 is where we talk about these laws against eating blood I mean when we talk about holiness we talk about some difficult things don't eat blood you have all these details about these unlawful sex sexual relations and sexual immorality and we're talking about this in one of our groups lately and one of my friends actually said it's disturbing some of the things that had to be saying isn't it it's uncomfortable y'all know that chapter chapter 18 and 20 you're gonna want to have these in your pocket when we get to the conquest era because just briefly it explains why the Lord is taking there is has given their land away to the Israelites beginning in chapter 18 it says the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to the people of Israel and say to them I am the Lord your God you shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you lived and you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan which I am bringing you you shall not walk in their statutes you shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them I am the Lord your God so don't be like where you came from go with me down to verse 24 do not make yourselves unclean by any of these things this is after some of the yucky reading for the nation's I'm driving out before you have become unclean and the land became unclean so that I punished its iniquity and the land vomited out its inhabitants verse 27 for the people of the land to her before you did all these abominations so the land became unclean you see again uncleanness is transferable not only to people to inanimate objects like an altar and not to the land the land is polluted um verse 30 so keep my charge never to practice any of these abominable customs that were practiced before you never make yourselves unclean by them and so cleanness holiness the Lord is holy chapter 19 you shall be holy you the Lord said to Moses on the Lord spoke to Moses saying speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel saying to them you shall be holy for I the Lord your God am holy and it goes on to talk more about that we talk about loving your neighbor as yourself keeping my rules again punishment for child sacrifice some of it seems really random where we were getting to some more enjoyable reading okay be nice to each other don't sacrifice it's it's it's sad but as I mentioned that's in chapter 20 and they have another section at the end of chapter 20 about holiness you shall therefore this is starting in verse 22 you shall therefore keep all my statutes and my rules and do them in the land that the land where I'm bringing you to live may not vomit you out and you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you for they did all these things and therefore I detested them but I've said to you you shall inherit their land and I will give it to you to possess a land flowing with milk and honey I am the Lord your God who has separated you from the peoples you shall therefore separate clean beasts from unclean unclean bird from the clean you shall not make yourselves detestable by beasts or by bird or by anything which the ground crawls which I've set apart for you to hold unclean verse 26 you shall be holy to me for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples that you should be mine and then it goes on to talk about the holiness of the priests and sometimes we think about who those priests really have to be holy don't think we'll come back to that but just in thinking about this idea be separate you notice that word a lot for my precepts people the word holy used almost twice as many times as a word atonement in this book so big big theme what are the people of God supposed to look like they're supposed to over I mean the first man and woman were made in His image and then that image became marred but his still desire is to create a people that bear His image so holiness is a big deal and we shouldn't be surprised that God caused us to be separate we think all the way back to the beginning of the story what is the first thing he does in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and God said so we start speaking things into an existence God said let there be light and there was light and God saw that the light was and God did what he separated the light from the darkness he separated light from darkness in the beginning and he's been doing it ever since and what's he gonna do at the end of all things he's gonna separate the sheep from the goats our God is a separator and sometimes it's not really fun to talk about like when I first started understanding the story in this way and seeing how God operated in the creation story and seeing just how he was organized and had systems like when I thought about God's separating what I was thinking was all I'm bearing God's image when I'm at home separating my laundry because God is a separator and I'm separating and you know that's not a wrong conclusion to make just just realizing that we're created in God's image and sometimes things we do without even thinking about it are bearing His image but just this idea of separating light from darkness we need to carry that with us as we go holiness be separate another thing you may have noticed that he talks about I am the Lord who sanctified sanctifies excuse me so what did all this have to do with us I've rehashed all the gory details kind of that we read about we trudged through one commentator I was talking was actually wasn't a commentator was a pastor when I was doing my studies he was like for some of you these are the cleanest pages in your Bible doesn't even mark up your Bibles these pages are not generally marked up because they're they're hard it could be hard to read they can be I mean if you just think about your own face reading some of the stuff that we read this week I mean I know for me I'd sometimes read things and like head goes to the side and but Leviticus makes a clear and detailed picture if we're paying attention y'all the Israelites were absolutely aware of what their sin cost they had this tangible thing that they had to go through literally like they understood what it costs for them to sin they understood the death of the innocent on behalf of the guilty because those innocent animals they had to slit their throats themselves they died at their hands if you're paying attention the priest doesn't kill everything they would have to go and lay there they confess their own iniquities they understood I think sometimes we undervalue our sin-debt there's so easy in the world to look around and say oh I'm not as bad as that person I mean just watch the news and then our sin-debt looks a lot smaller than some other peoples but imagine that just imagine your own lifetime how many innocent animals would you have to take up there or your father the father of your house or you know how much blood would have to be shed for a lifetime of my sins something to think about think about the extreme measures that God was willing to take to have a relationship with us have you think about that I mean was blood really theirs to give do we do have anything to do with making blood that has life in it oh we don't it cost God think back to that verse in chapter 17 I mentioned the Lord says I have given it for you on the altar for to make atonement for your souls he's the one that provided it he gave it to us just like he provided it in creation just like he tried it provided it in advance for Noah just like he provided it in advance for us so spoiler alert because I can't bear for y'all to wait until mid-december to get all the way to Hebrews to realize that the day of atonement is all about Jesus the book of Hebrews makes it very clear another hard book to read especially if you don't have a good foundation in Leviticus you want your soul to be blessed sometime this week make time to read Hebrews at least start about chapter seven and then that'll explain a lot about Melchizedek you don't remember him he shows up on the scene you're like oh wait there's a priest before there's a priesthood yeah Hebrews clear some of that up for you but in light of what we just read if you want a blessing go and take time to start and um read the whole thing if you have time but at least start in Chapter seven and read a little bit Hebert says it is that these things this Tabernacle this tent of meeting these sacrifices it's all a shadow in a copy of heavenly things that's in Hebrews chapter eight Moses made it all according to the pattern that the Lord showed him on the mountain Jesus is our one-time sacrifice once for all he is that goat that was that was killed and his blood was taken in he's our high priest he's the one who laid aside royal robes of heaven came down as a servant in the likeness of man and unlike Aaron he didn't have to make a sacrifice for his own sins before he could make a sacrifice for the sins of the people think about Philippians chapter 2 but it talks about what our attitude should be like and just think about what Jesus did okay so Jesus our attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God is something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking on the form of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in the appearance of a man he humbled himself to death even death on a cross that's him being our high priest and for that reason the Lord has given him the name above every name at the name of Jesus every knee may not be today but every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father I just love the picture that is connected there jesus is our scapegoat he's the only one that can bear our iniquities and actually take them away because all this stuff we read about for atonement the day of atonement it was a temporary covering it didn't take them away it was just a temporary covering covering until the next year and by the way on those you know I mentioned the first five I didn't finish talking about that the first five the main five sacrifices the first three that were free will the sin and the guilt offering a sacrifices those were mandatory those were the things that opened the door for the fellowship if the sin offering and the guilt offerings were not made you didn't have freedom for these fellowship offerings and so that's what's taking place there on the day of atonement um Hebrews 10:14 tells us it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins he's also our Sabbath rest and that's been a hard one for me to understand Jesus being our Sabbath rest I don't know if y'all notice that um on the day of atonement what the people did now flip back here to chapter 17 as for the people starting in verse 29 Leviticus 16 it shall be a statute to you forever in the seventh month on the tenth day of the month you shall afflict yourselves and do no work either the native or the stranger who sojourned among you for on this day shall atonement be made for you to cleanse for your souls you shall be clean before the Lord for aught from all your sins it is a sabbath of solemn rest to you and you shall afflict yourselves some versions will clarify that as fasting it's a statute forever and the priest who is anointed and consecrated as priests in his father's place shall make atonement wherein the holy linen garments he shall make atonement for the holy sanctuary and so wine what do they do they rest their hardest thing is not having a meal Jesus was the one that does all did all the work and so what about us how does this work for us holiness sanctification I said I was gonna circle back around to the leper this wasn't really in my weeks weeks reading it was at the end of what was for the lecture next week but I loved it so much and we're going to go back to it because we are a lot like that cleanse leper in chapter 14 and you realize leprosy that term was used for look you can tell by the reading several things molds mildews things and garments things and houses skin diseases but it was incurable I did a little bit of research on that Corey called me not too long ago she's like how kind of excited about skin diseases today and I was like really but there wasn't a cure for leprosy until I think it's the nineteen hundred's I think they finally discovered what was causing it in the 1800s and it wasn't until the 1900s it hasn't really been had a cure for all that long and there weren't a lot of lepers cured think about the Old Testament you had the Lord hear me Miriam named and the leper one guy um I was reading said there's a good chance that when Jesus sent those lepers to go and present themselves to the priest that the priests were gonna be like oh hold on we've never done this one before we don't know what to do with it it wasn't like something that was very very common to them but I have mentioned those elements those interesting elements that were in the first part of the cleansing ritual but let's look and real quick like I'm probably running out of time oh no we're good think about that leper for just a minute and think about us the leper is the one it cured from an incurable disease okay something that is not an easy cure for our we kind of like that we have the sin problem that we cannot heal ourselves and remember those components the blood of a clean bird the wood may be like a cross fresh water maybe more accurately translated living water John 7:38 he that believeth on me a scripture has said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water scarlet yarn not real sure about that there was scarlet thread in the priestly garments thought may be blood but there's actual blood shed so I don't really know why you would need scarlet yarn or wool to represent that but I don't know hyssop is very interesting when you think about it in the Bible you know where hyssop shows up in the Bible the first saw it at the Passover those hits up was used to dip the blood and put it on the doorpost it's used here it's mentioned in that clinic at the cleansing agent in Psalm 51 when David prays about being cleansed after a sin with Bathsheba and killing Uriah he says cleanse me or purge me with hyssop and I will be cleaned it's gonna come up in numbers so maybe y'all will remember it when you get to it and then it shows up with the crucifixion because it was a hyssop branch that was used for that sponge to be raised up to Jesus's mouth with the sour vinegar on it interesting and then let's just look at what happens on the eighth day because after that this is Leviticus 14 starting in verse eight because I just described everything up until this point actually verse seven he shall the pre shall sprinkle sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleanse of the leprous disease and he shall pronounce him clean and let the living bird go into the open field and he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bade them self in water and after that he may come into the camp but live outside his tent seven days and on the seventh day he shall shave off his hair from his head his beard his eyebrows she shall shave off all his hair and he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body and water and he shall be clean so kind of a weird thing losing all your hair imagine those people look kind of strange if that were to happen doesn't really sound like it would be very fun but you think about it like had to get rid of everything that was from the old I mean we love our hair but it's been around for a little while it takes a while to grow they had to get rid of all the old everything fresh new start there was obvious who they were like they're literally living their life as a testimony of what God has done for them look at verse 10 on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish and when you Lamb a year-old without blemish a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil and one log of oil and the priest who cleanses himself so I set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before the Lord at the interest of the tent of meeting and the print shalt excuse me the priest shall take one of the male lamps and offer it for a guilt offering along with the log of oil waved them for a wave offering before the Lord and he shall kill the Lamb he shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering in the burnt offering in the place of the sanctuary for the guilt offering like the sound offering belongs to the priest it is the most holy the priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering and the priests shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of him whose to be cleansed on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot then the priest shall take some of the log of the oil and poured on the palm of his own left hand and dip his right finger in the oil in his left hand sprinkle some of the oil with his finger seven times before the Lord and some of the older that remains in his hand the priests shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of the right hand and on the big toe of his right foot on the top of the blood of the guilt offering and the rest of the oil that is in the priests hands he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed then the priests shall make atonement for him before the Lord the priests shall offer the sin offering to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness afterward he shall kill the burnt offering and the priests shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar thus the priests shaman for him and he shall be clean does this sound familiar to anything that you may have recently just read remember who else was anointed in this way what's the priest Hey look at the scripture and you see who's anointed with the oil like this we've got the priest now the leper and then we're gonna have the kings that's who's anointed in this way is it kind of funny that the leper is included in all of this it's interesting when I got to Mount Sinai Exodus 95 now therefore if you will indeed and obey my voice this is the Lord speaking to the people and keep my covenant you will be my treasured possession among all peoples for the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation we looked at all these require requirements excuse me for the priests wonder again what does that have to do with us and the answer is everything first Peter 1:14 as obedient children do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorant but as he who called you is holy you also be holy in conduct since it is written you shall be holy for I am holy it's a direct quote from Leviticus again I didn't want y'all to have to wait till December for that this comes later in the year 2nd uh scuse me first Peter again 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ same chapter verse 9 you are a chosen race a royal priesthood a holy nation that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light Jesus is the light of the world does he call us to be the light of the world I don't know if y'all notice this but in Leviticus chapter 24 the Lord spoke to Moses saying command the people of Israel bring pure oil beaten from Olives for the lamp that the light may be kept burning regularly the people were to provide the oil it doesn't show the system I don't know how this worked what it looked like it just it's it's just like he told the people to bring forth anybody that's willing it was freewill to make these contributions that the tabernacle was going to be built just like when God brought Adam in on name and the animals just like he brought Abraham in on building a nation for himself just like he well before that brought know it in I'm building the boat he's bringing mankind in on what he's doing he's wants to rectify this situation and have a relationship with man and we get to bring articles to build his house for his dwelling to come and not only that he's telling the people to provide the oil for the lamps it's a beautiful picture and it's just kind of like that God is still in the business of bringing us in to what he's doing first Corinthians 1611 tells us you are washed you are sanctified so technically it's done but we get saved and we walk out of that church or wherever it happened and we still feel a lot like ourselves don't we but he's calling us to get involved on this sanctification process we can't do it ourselves but we get to participate in what God's doing that means learning to obey like we looked at the lives of those patriarchs and we got to see the good bad and the ugly them learning to walk with God you know this many steps forward sometimes more steps back than forward but then keep going again it's not going to be a perfect life but we're to get in on it learn to be holy we should our hearts desire should be to be holy to keep short accounts with him did you notice also on the sacrifices where it talked about especially unintentional sins I'm getting faster all right when you realize it if somebody sins unintentionally when you realize it do this take care of it when you realize it this is what you do take care of it where to keep short accounts with the Lord like I said last week we're not gonna lose our salvation but we can break fellowship with him and we don't want to do that the Lord uses the bloody details and what is accused of being a boring book to paint a beautiful earthly picture of a heavenly reality if we slow down and take it in so maybe never undervalue our sin-debt I pray that the Book of Leviticus brings us all to a place of gratitude for the reality of what Jesus has done for us and one more thing if you're reading about this well I was talking about short accounts because one of the things was the fire on the altar was to always be burning always why was that because the Lord was always available he didn't he's not like come back at 8 o'clock and take care of your sin you recognizes something at 2:00 a.m. if you want to go traipsing up there that poor priest I don't know what that was like he's always available always because we have the Holy Spirit living in us we don't even have to go anywhere to take care of it and the same is true for salvation what does the Bible says that today is the day of salvation so if you've been reading all this and thinking about this blood applied and and what does it take to atone for sin how much blood would have been accumulated if I lived in this part I mean like how precious is that blood even if I just think about my own life that Jesus just had to apply it the one time not only for my life but the whole world that's our God and he still desires to dwell among us he's willing to dwell within us it's really quite beautiful but if you're not sure about that today is the day of salvation the Lord is available right now so if you've wrestled with any of that if you're not sure about anything talk to your group leader I don't have a group you can talk to me after talk to somebody about it today get it nailed down because I had to wrestle through this as an adult and my friend did she gave me some wise words I was like I'm just kind of wrestling with them did I really get saved back then and all this that's creating confusion but she was like you know the devil's not telling you to go get baptized he's not you'd be perfectly happy for you to be confused about what your position is with the Lord and just leave you in that state nail it down though who you are in Christ so that you can move forward in your walk with God and be that light of the world because that's what we're called to be and the more we know him the more we understand who he is the more we're gonna actually have the desire to run to some dark places and get to be light instead of running from them amen all right let's pray lord I thank you so much for your word I thank you for the picture that you've given us in this book that has gotten a bad rap for a long time it's been the downfall of many of attempts to read your word I pray that it is we see you more clearly in it today as we leave this place as always happens with me I continue to process the things that you've taught continue to help us see you way far back in the story and what you did for us the reality of this beautiful thing that we undeserving like nasty lepers father you've been so kind to us lord I just pray that you would continue your work in each of us bless our small group Tom we love you we thank you for your word we praise you for who you are in Jesus name