Leviticus - An Attitude of Gratitude
This week Pastor Gene takes us to the book of Leviticus as we see how the Israelites lacked gratitude.
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good morning
guys are enthusiastic and awake there is coffee available in the lobby i can tell imagine if i drank coffee the cameraman would be like the whole time poor david this morning i think they cast lots to see who doesn't get to do the camera ah if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and it has been said of me that i had a very strict upbringing when younger people hear my story they often say wow your parents were really strict but when older people than me hear my story they say that's nothing and it does seem that successive generations for them it gets easier and easier for each generation now by default maybe it's not their fault technology makes life easier so it's kind of a theme but it does seem as if parents do play a part sometimes even the age gap between me and my sister is just a few years younger than me it seemed to me in my opinion that she was spoiled my parents went easy on her maybe if i'm being honest this morning i was a little jealous it seemed like she got more stuff than me and she didn't have to earn it but what really bothered me is what seemed like a lack of gratitude for what she had it seems like that so certain stories movies books if you will would resonate with me one of them was charlie in the chocolate factory the willy wonka movie now i'm going to say this it's going to make some people my age and older a little mad but this is one what sequel or what is it called their remake that i think is better i think the new one is better than the old one i know sacrilege right now some have said it's closer to the book it's tim burton wacky movies i think it's pretty cool it's a good remake but the basic premise is that charlo willy wonka is this really eccentric guy he has a chocolate factor everybody wants to get into they can't he won't let him in he's mad about something that happened to him he's built up all these resentments he's not seeing anybody about it anyway well actually he is in the new movie and oompa loomba it's kind of funny anyway he decides i'm gonna get five golden tickets five lucky people can come in and take a tour of the factory and he puts them in the wonka bars and distributes them now most of the kids aren't playing fair they're cheating to get the golden tickets their parents are spoiling them so one parent buys like tons and tons and tons of cases and it employs people to open them all up that kid gets the golden ticket and so on so forth except one except charlie he does it the right way after a couple of tries he goes to the store he buys one he gets the golden ticket very appreciative they take the tour and well you guessed it the spoiled kids stay spoiled they want more it's not enough for them they've got the golden ticket it's not enough but it is for charlie and so he passes the test now funny things happen to the spoiled kids right like veruca salt i think in the old one it's the golden egg she goes after but in the new one she goes after a squirrel it's not enough for that she has a horse and all these other animals it reminds me of my sister she wants more she goes after the squirrel and then she gets tossed down the garbage chute her dad goes after her now for being honest i didn't feel bad for them i kind of thought it was funny they got what they deserved interesting lack of gratitude it seems that when kids don't have to earn something they don't always appreciate it it seems that so we're seeing that in the rest of the story the israelites they have a lack of gratitude they're always complaining and they want more all the time and bad stuff happens to them if we're being honest i think we can say it's hard to feel sorry for them sometimes pattern will continue today we'll be focusing on the parts of the law that deal mainly with the priests the priestly duties we're going to land today in leviticus we left off of the ten commandments so we saw that moses got the stone tablets broke them and then in exodus 34 he gets the new tablets so we're going to pick up at exodus 35 this morning he's a key figure here it shifts a little bit from moses to a guy named bezalel really interesting he has a an associate a servant an assistant named holieb but it says of bezalel that he's filled with the spirit and i described this to you guys acts when we saw in the book of acts that is an outpouring of the holy spirit but in the old testament we see it right from the second verse right in the beginning the holy spirit is present for selected purposes certain people and bezalel's one of these guys exodus 35 30 says then moses told the people of israel the lord has specifically chosen bezalel son of yuri grandson of her of the tribe of judah interesting jesus's tribe by the way so we see something else too he's charged with making all this stuff the tabernacle the priestly garments we see something happens they need materials for this the people begin giving really generously this is a foreshadowing of what we see in the book of acts the holy spirit gives lots of different gifts and probably the most overlooked gift is the gift of generosity in the book of acts extreme generosity and so this is a foreshadowing of that remember god's glory on mount sinai appeared on mount sinai now the tabernacle will be built and god will rest there in the form of like a cloud or smoke still we get to the end of exodus so it's five chapters there and at last moses or bezel l2 they finished the work exodus 40 33 then he hung the curtains forming the courtyard around the tabernacle so this is like the portable church it's like set up church we don't do that and he set up the curtain at the entrance of the courtyard so at last moses finished the work then the cloud covered the tabernacle and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle moses could no longer enter the tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle now whenever the cloud lifted from the tabernacle the people of israel would set out on their journey following it but if the cloud did not rise they remained where they were until it lifted the cloud of the lord hovered over the tabernacle during the day and at night fire glowed inside the clouds so the whole family of israel could see it this continued throughout all their journeys now we end up at leviticus and some of you who've been in church for a long time are thinking get me a pillow it gets long it seems very very daunting but we're going to look at the rest of the story this morning and see how it connects all the way almost ish to the end of the bible now interesting fun fact we're going to learn a lot of those this morning the name comes from the greek version of the tribe of levi so we're seeing a little theme here if you're new go back to the beginning of the series you can watch the intro they're in a greek speaking world in the time of the new testament and there's a greek version of the old testament then but here the book of leviticus concerns itself primarily with priestly laws not all of it but primarily with priestly laws and it's very interesting we're getting to a point where we're learning that these biblical books are not proportionate to the time that's gone by right so it's not like each chapter's a month or something like that so from the passover-ish roughly through the rest of exodus then through the entire book of leviticus then into numbers chapter 13 14 it's about one year then from numbers 14 all the way through the rest of numbers through deuteronomy 40 years so it's interesting so it's a very short span of time and that's what makes leviticus daunting is because there are lots of details about exodus 35 people quit they're like oh gosh blue purple and scarlet red blue purple and scarlet thread breathing all these little details they're kind of important i encourage you to read through it if you don't like reading you can listen you can use certain apps and just listen to it that's how they learn through hearing so the book does contain mostly laws but there are two memorable stories in the book of leviticus and that's what makes it kind of tough because as i said before normally when you're reading a book of the bible especially in the torah that is the first five books of the bible you'll get like a story here and there and then some laws and a story and some laws and a story and some law genesis is just packed with stories so it's kind of easy to remember it's easy to read leviticus is hard but the two stories are kind of important the first one we ran into these guys if you were paying attention last week remember that certain people could go up a certain distance on the mountain only moses went all the way up and there's one point at which they have the 70 elders and they have this covenant meal and the presence of god it's really beautiful there along with them are moses aaron nadab and bahu these are aaron's first two kids moses's nephews well if we get to leviticus 9 there's like this initiation of the priesthood so they're purified they're ready for the ministry at the end of that chapter it says that fire from the lord bursts out from the tabernacle this is the fire that they're supposed to use to burn certain offerings very important that fire from god well we get to chapter 10 and nadab and by who they're working in the priestly ministry right they're aaron's sons they decide for whatever reason to use a different kind of fire to burn the offerings now a lot of commentaries on this i don't like to speculate too much maybe they'd have fire and incense to cover the presence of the lord maybe the intentions were good maybe they were bad maybe they were taking the fire of the lord for granted so they get burned up oh if we keep reading numbers 2 or number 3 says what happens 3 2 the names of aaron's sons were nadab the oldest abi who eliezer and ithamar so those are their replacements these sons of aaron were anointed and ordained to minister as priests but nadab and abbay who died in the lord's presence in the wilderness of sinai when they burned before the lord the wrong kind of fire strange fire because it's not supposed to be there different than he commanded since they had no sons this left only eleazar and ithamar to serve as priests with their father aaron this story is mostly told to highlight obedience doing what the lord says no matter what you think about it so they're kind of like those bad employees that we talked about last week but what if or i want to do it this way or i want to do it that way it's sold a lot so we're going to kind of breeze over the next one shows how important another one of the ten commandments is talked about the sabbath last week really important that's highlighted a lot in the old testament and the penalty for breaking it is death well there's another one here more than that but we see this story we get the chapter of leviticus 24 i believe and we see the story of a man who gets into a fight with someone gets angry and he takes the name of the lord in vain shalomus is her his mother's name doesn't give us the father's name or his name just says the mother's an israelite dad's an egyptian so they detain him people hear it and detain him moses consults the lord what do i do stone him to death kill him glad we're not following the old testament laws anymore right be nobody here so it's interesting before they do this they do something very interesting they need to pay attention to they lay hands on him what's that about in the church today we usually associate that with introducing someone into ministry you lay hands on someone you pray something like that you pray for them here it has a different purpose he's probably defiled the community with the sin so they're transferring the sin back into him and then killing him kind of interesting we see this when priests make sacrifices to atone for people they'll lay hands on p on the animal and transfer the sin into that animal and then they do different things with the animals so very briefly a lot of people don't understand this idea of atonement for sin so they have animal sacrifices and the general broad picture if you're not understanding it that's weird yes it seems weird to us the general idea is that the animal will take your place you've sinned you deserve to die the animal takes your place and sometimes the sins get transferred in the animal and shed the blood that you should be shedding the priests do different things with the blood that's the basic idea now here we get to something very important if we hop into the middle-ish of the book of leviticus we see a very important day initiated leviticus 16 1. the lord spoke to moses after the death of aaron's two sons who died after they entered the lord's presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him the lord said to moses warn your brother aaron not to enter the most holy place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses it's going to be just once a year if he does he will die for the ark's cover the place of atonement is there and i myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover so we're seeing here is the initiation of the day of atonement now i don't know about down here but up north maybe you got the day off of school on yom kippur did that happen yum kapoor i think i got the day off of school so day of atonement that's what it means it's kind of this corporate forgiveness ceremony that the jewish people would do very very very important so the high priest he would purify himself he'd sacrifice a bull for himself cleanse himself he actually washes himself a prefiguring of baptism he clothes himself with linen garments so he doesn't sweat and defile anything then he will sacrifice a goat for the people but something kind of interesting happens it's a little different so let's take a look at it leviticus 16 6 aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family making them right with the lord then he must take the two male goats that he chooses and present them to the lord at the entrance of the tabernacle he is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the lord like the camera people to decide who well here we go we're gonna have not gonna we're gonna carry the sins to the people uh to the wilderness of azzazel that's weird some bibles don't say that i'll explain it to you aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the lord that's the one that gets sacrificed the cameraman the other goat the scapegoat chosen by a lot to be sent away will be kept alive standing before the lord when it is sent away to azazel in the wilderness the people will be purified and made right with the lord now if you notice something you're paying attention you know the english language well i kind of did it backwards didn't i it's interesting scapegoat is that the person who takes the blame for something hmm but this is really weird isn't it it's probably because scapegoat is not really a good word for that when we're thinking about it rightly one is sacrifice the other one gets sent away to azazell or azazel what's that well this is interesting i'm using an nlt because it's easy to understand it's not exactly known as the most precise version but here is an example of them getting something right when a lot of really like literal versions get it wrong in fact they have to jumble up the words sometimes to make it make sense i'll explain it to you so here's an example where we have to jump outside of the biblical text to understand something we have to jump to the book of enoch now sometimes in the protestant church that's a bad word we can't look at that well they're talking about that here so we might want to look at it now if you're new enoch came up before a long while ago maybe you weren't paying attention genesis 5 21 when enoch was 65 years old he became the father of methuselah after the birth of methuselah enoch lived in close fellowship with god for another 300 years and he had other sons and daughters enoch lived 365 years walking in close fellowship with god then one day he disappeared because god took him now he walked in close fellowship god thought him of him as righteous sounds a lot like noah who who god carried away to safety too just in a different way there's only a couple people to my recollection that are taken up like this him and elijah they're taken up like that very interesting now he is noah's great-grandfather that's the connection here now if we keep reading to genesis chapter 6 we see the beginning of the flood account it's where noah comes in and there's a reason for it it's because the sons of god or angels of god our they're having intercourse with the daughters of men kids around i don't know so anyway you get the point and it just says if you read genesis 6 god does not like this and this is why the flood happens that's basically all the information we really get maybe they create giants depending on how it's translated that's it but if we go to enoch we get a further explanation you see the angels are named they have all these different names they're causing trouble they're showing mankind how to do all these really bad things like sorcery sexual practices all kinds of crazy stuff one of them in particular is teaching them how to make weapons for war they're making the people bad they're these fallen evil kind of angels the name of one of them is azazel interesting so we put this together he gets banished and he gets sent out into the wilderness so he's bound the lord has him bound i think raphael is the angel in charge of having him bound and sent off into the wilderness there's other good angels too like michael gabriel raphael donatello ninja turtles are not in the old testament they're in the new testament so anyway so there's this other goat and what happens is aaron transfers the sin of the people corporately into this and goat is sent out to the wilderness to azazel to the wilderness so it's seen as not a sacrifice to him or to appease him no it's like a garbage can of sin sent back out to where it belongs then the other goat is killed and that is the rest of the story a lot of people don't get now i've seen a lot of people brush this aside despite the fact it's all over early jewish writings this is the belief then but it's an example of the rest of the story and it is in our bibles in part it's hard to catch you see the apostles believed this to be a true account what i just told you about enoch and i'll show you the proof of it it is a part of scripture very interestingly if you go to the second last to last book of the bible jude jude is really about false teachers he wants to write about other things but there's all these false teachers around so he's got to concentrate on that and so he uses examples from apocryphal books two of them the assumption of moses and the book of enoch quoting them directly jude 1 14 enoch who lived in the seventh generation after adam prophesied about these people false teachers he said listen the lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world he will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him that's a quote but that quote is found nowhere in the old testament most of the time they're quoting old testament verses it's not there weird it is a direct quote of the book of enoch chapter 1 verse 9. this is remarkable you don't hear about this an awful lot think about it jude by the power of the holy spirit is writing god's word this is the word of god if you asked any very conservative protestant are these lines these verses in the book of jude scripture it's a yes well that's interesting because it's a quote from the book of enoch which might we have a baptist former baptist pastor back then which makes these verses scripture that's something to consider now it's interesting but you should know that enoch is not usually in any christian canon there are very few denominations that put that book in there but the holy spirit decided to put those verses from it in there and jude is quoting it as if it happened he's not saying well it is said that or like this example from enoch no he's saying that those things really happened remarkable so it teaches us to open our minds just a little bit or not whatever now there's another part in leviticus if we hop back there we keep reading to 17 that is quite interesting most people never catch this the rest of the story it's concerned with not sacrificing things outside the camp don't do it outside the camp don't do it outside the tabernacle no bueno why leviticus 17 7 the people must no longer be unfaithful to the lord by offering sacrifices to the goat idols demons some versions say this is a permanent law for them to be observed from generation to generation so we see a confirmed belief there the goat demons are goat idols they're always in the wilderness think about it jesus was tempted by satan where in the wilderness that's where all the bad spirits live and again azazel is probably more like a garbage can of sin we're gonna send send the sin back to where it started from not a sacrifice to him that's not what i'm saying now these are very interesting things but they're no longer necessary because they're all fulfilled in christ now i've told you there are a lot of commentaries and when i look at certain commentaries depending on what denomination sponsored them they say different things and so if you know me you know i like to read a lot of them i like to get the full picture and then look for common denominators and look for more facts and study history but the best commentary we have on the old testament is the new testament and so let's go there to hebrews and take a look at what it says about this atonement in the old testament i'll let god do some of the talking now hebrews 9 starting at verse 1. that first covenant between god and israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth there were two rooms in that tabernacle and the first room were a lamp stand a table and sacred loaves of bread on the table this room was called the holy place then there was a curtain and behind the curtain was the second room called the most holy place in that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the ark of the covenant which was covered with gold on all sides in the ark were a gold jar containing manna we're going to look at that next week aaron's staff that sprouted leaves and the stone tablets of the covenant these are the ones that were replaced the ten commandments on them above the ark were the cherubim of divine glory whose wings stretched out over the ark's cover the place of atonement but we cannot explain these things in detail now when these things were all in place the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious duties but only the high priest ever entered the most holy place that's aaron back then and only once a year as i told you guys and he always offered blood for his own sins and the sins the people had committed in ignorance but these regulations by these regulations the holy spirit revealed that the entrance to the most holy place was not freely open as long as the tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use this is an illustration pointing to the present time for the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them for that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established so christ has now become the high priest over all the good things that have come he has entered the greater more perfect tabernacle in heaven which was not made by human hands and is not a part of this created world with his own blood not the blood of bulls calves goats he entered the most holy place once and for all time he s and secured our redemption forever under the old system the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurity just think of how much more the blood of christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living god for by the power of his eternal spirit christ offered himself to god as a perfect sacrifice for our sins jesus fulfills it all he is both high priest and perfect sacrifice he is the once and for all sacrifice not the yearly one any longer hallelujah dan the israelites were ungrateful they needed sacrifices over and over but now jesus is the once and for all perfect sacrifice if we keep reading hebrews 10 says this and so dear brothers and sisters we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place because of the blood of jesus by his death jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the most holy place you now have access to god we are now a family of priests under the great high priest jesus but it isn't so that we can keep sinning peter talks about those who have rejected jesus for this world first peter verse 2 they stumble because they do not obey god's word and so they meet the fate that was planned for them but you are not like that for you are a chosen people you are royal priests a holy nation god's very own possession as a result you can show others the goodness of god for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light did you know that in the original version of charlie and the chocolate factory veruca salt was a bad nut she was set for the incinerator she's going down that tube to be burned i think the new version says that too interesting you see charlie and the chocolate factory can be seen as a picture of heaven and hell where does charlie go he ascends in the elevator veruca is sent to be burned in the fire like nadab and abyhu like that story the new testament teaches us over and over and over again that our behavior matters it's not taught a whole lot our attitude matters it counts for something you see the author of hebrews by the power of the holy spirit continues yes we are covered by jesus's blood but check this out if we keep reading it says this not popular verses hebrews 10 26 dear friends if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins think about it let me read it to you again now remember this i've dropped it right into its context dear friends if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins there is only the terrible expectation of god's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies for anyone who refused to obey the law of moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the son of god and have treated the blood of the covenant which made us holy as if it were common and unholy and of insulted and disdain the holy spirit who brings god's mercy to us like the scapegoat thing right you've heard that story ah gets away it does the opposite that most christians believe right jesus died for me covered me in his blood i can do whatever i want that's the basic sentiment right the word of god says it's the opposite jesus is the great sacrifice the great high priest how much more appreciative should we be for that then something common it happens every year it happened once that's it we should be that much more appreciative of jesus's holy and perfect sacrifice that should fill us with an attitude of gratitude you see jesus is the golden ticket so to speak we christians if we are in christ we have the golden ticket think about it but how are we acting how are we responding to that prize are we asking for more or are we like charlie are we grateful for it has it produced in us an attitude of gratitude now we've received the prize but not by anything we've done let me be clear about that i'm not talking about doing good works i'm talking about a response to the work that was done for us that gift of grace should lead to gratitude and our gratitude should lead to right living we looked at pentecost the outpouring of the holy spirit and i told you peter gave a short speech a short sermon in response to what the people were saying about them talked about joel he quoted that in the outpouring of the holy spirit right after that he tells us how the spirit is received acts 2 38. each of you must repent if you don't know what that means it sounds scary church word that means change turn from what you've been doing each of you must not like if you kind of want you might want to think about repenting and this is like a seven year process no repent of your sins and turn to god and be baptized in the name of jesus for the forgiveness of your sins then then you will receive the gift of the holy spirit repentance change precedes baptism it comes before it change is required in coming to jesus himself demands it over and over again in other words your attitude matters we must have knowledge of the truth and adopt the right attitude the attitude of obedient children who are grateful for what christ has done for us if we hop back to peter first peter 1 14 so you must again look at the word must live as god's obedient children don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires you didn't know any better than but you do now and so we must adopt an attitude that is reflective of what has been done for us we shouldn't complain or demand more in light of what jesus has done for us can't be chasing after these things of the world that are fading away anyway we have to concentrate on the heavenly prize in christ if christ is our prize what more could we want we must keep our eyes fixed on the heavenly prize colossians 3 1 since you have been raised to new life with christ set your sights on the realities of heaven where christ sits in the place of honor at god's right hand think about the things of heaven not the things of earth for you died to this life and your real life is hidden in christ with christ and god and when christ who is your life is revealed to the whole world you will share in all his glory we must adopt the attitude of gratitude that fuels obedience gratitude the fuel is joy a joy that surpasses all that this world has to offer in obedience which shows proves that we love and belong to our lord jesus christ let me pray for you lord i thank you for everyone who took the time out to come here today your church the body of christ not the building i pray that you give them an attitude of gratitude constantly remembering what jesus has done for us in everything we do even in our enemies the least of these we see jesus and we act accordingly that our attitudes are reflective of what you've done for us that we are just vehicles of your love of the gospel to spread the good news lord we thank you fill us with your spirit empower us to do these things we ask it in jesus name amen
guys are enthusiastic and awake there is coffee available in the lobby i can tell imagine if i drank coffee the cameraman would be like the whole time poor david this morning i think they cast lots to see who doesn't get to do the camera ah if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and it has been said of me that i had a very strict upbringing when younger people hear my story they often say wow your parents were really strict but when older people than me hear my story they say that's nothing and it does seem that successive generations for them it gets easier and easier for each generation now by default maybe it's not their fault technology makes life easier so it's kind of a theme but it does seem as if parents do play a part sometimes even the age gap between me and my sister is just a few years younger than me it seemed to me in my opinion that she was spoiled my parents went easy on her maybe if i'm being honest this morning i was a little jealous it seemed like she got more stuff than me and she didn't have to earn it but what really bothered me is what seemed like a lack of gratitude for what she had it seems like that so certain stories movies books if you will would resonate with me one of them was charlie in the chocolate factory the willy wonka movie now i'm going to say this it's going to make some people my age and older a little mad but this is one what sequel or what is it called their remake that i think is better i think the new one is better than the old one i know sacrilege right now some have said it's closer to the book it's tim burton wacky movies i think it's pretty cool it's a good remake but the basic premise is that charlo willy wonka is this really eccentric guy he has a chocolate factor everybody wants to get into they can't he won't let him in he's mad about something that happened to him he's built up all these resentments he's not seeing anybody about it anyway well actually he is in the new movie and oompa loomba it's kind of funny anyway he decides i'm gonna get five golden tickets five lucky people can come in and take a tour of the factory and he puts them in the wonka bars and distributes them now most of the kids aren't playing fair they're cheating to get the golden tickets their parents are spoiling them so one parent buys like tons and tons and tons of cases and it employs people to open them all up that kid gets the golden ticket and so on so forth except one except charlie he does it the right way after a couple of tries he goes to the store he buys one he gets the golden ticket very appreciative they take the tour and well you guessed it the spoiled kids stay spoiled they want more it's not enough for them they've got the golden ticket it's not enough but it is for charlie and so he passes the test now funny things happen to the spoiled kids right like veruca salt i think in the old one it's the golden egg she goes after but in the new one she goes after a squirrel it's not enough for that she has a horse and all these other animals it reminds me of my sister she wants more she goes after the squirrel and then she gets tossed down the garbage chute her dad goes after her now for being honest i didn't feel bad for them i kind of thought it was funny they got what they deserved interesting lack of gratitude it seems that when kids don't have to earn something they don't always appreciate it it seems that so we're seeing that in the rest of the story the israelites they have a lack of gratitude they're always complaining and they want more all the time and bad stuff happens to them if we're being honest i think we can say it's hard to feel sorry for them sometimes pattern will continue today we'll be focusing on the parts of the law that deal mainly with the priests the priestly duties we're going to land today in leviticus we left off of the ten commandments so we saw that moses got the stone tablets broke them and then in exodus 34 he gets the new tablets so we're going to pick up at exodus 35 this morning he's a key figure here it shifts a little bit from moses to a guy named bezalel really interesting he has a an associate a servant an assistant named holieb but it says of bezalel that he's filled with the spirit and i described this to you guys acts when we saw in the book of acts that is an outpouring of the holy spirit but in the old testament we see it right from the second verse right in the beginning the holy spirit is present for selected purposes certain people and bezalel's one of these guys exodus 35 30 says then moses told the people of israel the lord has specifically chosen bezalel son of yuri grandson of her of the tribe of judah interesting jesus's tribe by the way so we see something else too he's charged with making all this stuff the tabernacle the priestly garments we see something happens they need materials for this the people begin giving really generously this is a foreshadowing of what we see in the book of acts the holy spirit gives lots of different gifts and probably the most overlooked gift is the gift of generosity in the book of acts extreme generosity and so this is a foreshadowing of that remember god's glory on mount sinai appeared on mount sinai now the tabernacle will be built and god will rest there in the form of like a cloud or smoke still we get to the end of exodus so it's five chapters there and at last moses or bezel l2 they finished the work exodus 40 33 then he hung the curtains forming the courtyard around the tabernacle so this is like the portable church it's like set up church we don't do that and he set up the curtain at the entrance of the courtyard so at last moses finished the work then the cloud covered the tabernacle and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle moses could no longer enter the tabernacle because the cloud had settled down over it and the glory of the lord filled the tabernacle now whenever the cloud lifted from the tabernacle the people of israel would set out on their journey following it but if the cloud did not rise they remained where they were until it lifted the cloud of the lord hovered over the tabernacle during the day and at night fire glowed inside the clouds so the whole family of israel could see it this continued throughout all their journeys now we end up at leviticus and some of you who've been in church for a long time are thinking get me a pillow it gets long it seems very very daunting but we're going to look at the rest of the story this morning and see how it connects all the way almost ish to the end of the bible now interesting fun fact we're going to learn a lot of those this morning the name comes from the greek version of the tribe of levi so we're seeing a little theme here if you're new go back to the beginning of the series you can watch the intro they're in a greek speaking world in the time of the new testament and there's a greek version of the old testament then but here the book of leviticus concerns itself primarily with priestly laws not all of it but primarily with priestly laws and it's very interesting we're getting to a point where we're learning that these biblical books are not proportionate to the time that's gone by right so it's not like each chapter's a month or something like that so from the passover-ish roughly through the rest of exodus then through the entire book of leviticus then into numbers chapter 13 14 it's about one year then from numbers 14 all the way through the rest of numbers through deuteronomy 40 years so it's interesting so it's a very short span of time and that's what makes leviticus daunting is because there are lots of details about exodus 35 people quit they're like oh gosh blue purple and scarlet red blue purple and scarlet thread breathing all these little details they're kind of important i encourage you to read through it if you don't like reading you can listen you can use certain apps and just listen to it that's how they learn through hearing so the book does contain mostly laws but there are two memorable stories in the book of leviticus and that's what makes it kind of tough because as i said before normally when you're reading a book of the bible especially in the torah that is the first five books of the bible you'll get like a story here and there and then some laws and a story and some laws and a story and some law genesis is just packed with stories so it's kind of easy to remember it's easy to read leviticus is hard but the two stories are kind of important the first one we ran into these guys if you were paying attention last week remember that certain people could go up a certain distance on the mountain only moses went all the way up and there's one point at which they have the 70 elders and they have this covenant meal and the presence of god it's really beautiful there along with them are moses aaron nadab and bahu these are aaron's first two kids moses's nephews well if we get to leviticus 9 there's like this initiation of the priesthood so they're purified they're ready for the ministry at the end of that chapter it says that fire from the lord bursts out from the tabernacle this is the fire that they're supposed to use to burn certain offerings very important that fire from god well we get to chapter 10 and nadab and by who they're working in the priestly ministry right they're aaron's sons they decide for whatever reason to use a different kind of fire to burn the offerings now a lot of commentaries on this i don't like to speculate too much maybe they'd have fire and incense to cover the presence of the lord maybe the intentions were good maybe they were bad maybe they were taking the fire of the lord for granted so they get burned up oh if we keep reading numbers 2 or number 3 says what happens 3 2 the names of aaron's sons were nadab the oldest abi who eliezer and ithamar so those are their replacements these sons of aaron were anointed and ordained to minister as priests but nadab and abbay who died in the lord's presence in the wilderness of sinai when they burned before the lord the wrong kind of fire strange fire because it's not supposed to be there different than he commanded since they had no sons this left only eleazar and ithamar to serve as priests with their father aaron this story is mostly told to highlight obedience doing what the lord says no matter what you think about it so they're kind of like those bad employees that we talked about last week but what if or i want to do it this way or i want to do it that way it's sold a lot so we're going to kind of breeze over the next one shows how important another one of the ten commandments is talked about the sabbath last week really important that's highlighted a lot in the old testament and the penalty for breaking it is death well there's another one here more than that but we see this story we get the chapter of leviticus 24 i believe and we see the story of a man who gets into a fight with someone gets angry and he takes the name of the lord in vain shalomus is her his mother's name doesn't give us the father's name or his name just says the mother's an israelite dad's an egyptian so they detain him people hear it and detain him moses consults the lord what do i do stone him to death kill him glad we're not following the old testament laws anymore right be nobody here so it's interesting before they do this they do something very interesting they need to pay attention to they lay hands on him what's that about in the church today we usually associate that with introducing someone into ministry you lay hands on someone you pray something like that you pray for them here it has a different purpose he's probably defiled the community with the sin so they're transferring the sin back into him and then killing him kind of interesting we see this when priests make sacrifices to atone for people they'll lay hands on p on the animal and transfer the sin into that animal and then they do different things with the animals so very briefly a lot of people don't understand this idea of atonement for sin so they have animal sacrifices and the general broad picture if you're not understanding it that's weird yes it seems weird to us the general idea is that the animal will take your place you've sinned you deserve to die the animal takes your place and sometimes the sins get transferred in the animal and shed the blood that you should be shedding the priests do different things with the blood that's the basic idea now here we get to something very important if we hop into the middle-ish of the book of leviticus we see a very important day initiated leviticus 16 1. the lord spoke to moses after the death of aaron's two sons who died after they entered the lord's presence and burned the wrong kind of fire before him the lord said to moses warn your brother aaron not to enter the most holy place behind the inner curtain whenever he chooses it's going to be just once a year if he does he will die for the ark's cover the place of atonement is there and i myself am present in the cloud above the atonement cover so we're seeing here is the initiation of the day of atonement now i don't know about down here but up north maybe you got the day off of school on yom kippur did that happen yum kapoor i think i got the day off of school so day of atonement that's what it means it's kind of this corporate forgiveness ceremony that the jewish people would do very very very important so the high priest he would purify himself he'd sacrifice a bull for himself cleanse himself he actually washes himself a prefiguring of baptism he clothes himself with linen garments so he doesn't sweat and defile anything then he will sacrifice a goat for the people but something kind of interesting happens it's a little different so let's take a look at it leviticus 16 6 aaron will present his own bull as a sin offering to purify himself and his family making them right with the lord then he must take the two male goats that he chooses and present them to the lord at the entrance of the tabernacle he is to cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the lord like the camera people to decide who well here we go we're gonna have not gonna we're gonna carry the sins to the people uh to the wilderness of azzazel that's weird some bibles don't say that i'll explain it to you aaron will then present as a sin offering the goat chosen by lot for the lord that's the one that gets sacrificed the cameraman the other goat the scapegoat chosen by a lot to be sent away will be kept alive standing before the lord when it is sent away to azazel in the wilderness the people will be purified and made right with the lord now if you notice something you're paying attention you know the english language well i kind of did it backwards didn't i it's interesting scapegoat is that the person who takes the blame for something hmm but this is really weird isn't it it's probably because scapegoat is not really a good word for that when we're thinking about it rightly one is sacrifice the other one gets sent away to azazell or azazel what's that well this is interesting i'm using an nlt because it's easy to understand it's not exactly known as the most precise version but here is an example of them getting something right when a lot of really like literal versions get it wrong in fact they have to jumble up the words sometimes to make it make sense i'll explain it to you so here's an example where we have to jump outside of the biblical text to understand something we have to jump to the book of enoch now sometimes in the protestant church that's a bad word we can't look at that well they're talking about that here so we might want to look at it now if you're new enoch came up before a long while ago maybe you weren't paying attention genesis 5 21 when enoch was 65 years old he became the father of methuselah after the birth of methuselah enoch lived in close fellowship with god for another 300 years and he had other sons and daughters enoch lived 365 years walking in close fellowship with god then one day he disappeared because god took him now he walked in close fellowship god thought him of him as righteous sounds a lot like noah who who god carried away to safety too just in a different way there's only a couple people to my recollection that are taken up like this him and elijah they're taken up like that very interesting now he is noah's great-grandfather that's the connection here now if we keep reading to genesis chapter 6 we see the beginning of the flood account it's where noah comes in and there's a reason for it it's because the sons of god or angels of god our they're having intercourse with the daughters of men kids around i don't know so anyway you get the point and it just says if you read genesis 6 god does not like this and this is why the flood happens that's basically all the information we really get maybe they create giants depending on how it's translated that's it but if we go to enoch we get a further explanation you see the angels are named they have all these different names they're causing trouble they're showing mankind how to do all these really bad things like sorcery sexual practices all kinds of crazy stuff one of them in particular is teaching them how to make weapons for war they're making the people bad they're these fallen evil kind of angels the name of one of them is azazel interesting so we put this together he gets banished and he gets sent out into the wilderness so he's bound the lord has him bound i think raphael is the angel in charge of having him bound and sent off into the wilderness there's other good angels too like michael gabriel raphael donatello ninja turtles are not in the old testament they're in the new testament so anyway so there's this other goat and what happens is aaron transfers the sin of the people corporately into this and goat is sent out to the wilderness to azazel to the wilderness so it's seen as not a sacrifice to him or to appease him no it's like a garbage can of sin sent back out to where it belongs then the other goat is killed and that is the rest of the story a lot of people don't get now i've seen a lot of people brush this aside despite the fact it's all over early jewish writings this is the belief then but it's an example of the rest of the story and it is in our bibles in part it's hard to catch you see the apostles believed this to be a true account what i just told you about enoch and i'll show you the proof of it it is a part of scripture very interestingly if you go to the second last to last book of the bible jude jude is really about false teachers he wants to write about other things but there's all these false teachers around so he's got to concentrate on that and so he uses examples from apocryphal books two of them the assumption of moses and the book of enoch quoting them directly jude 1 14 enoch who lived in the seventh generation after adam prophesied about these people false teachers he said listen the lord is coming with countless thousands of his holy ones to execute judgment on the people of the world he will convict every person of all the ungodly things they have done and for all the insults that ungodly sinners have spoken against him that's a quote but that quote is found nowhere in the old testament most of the time they're quoting old testament verses it's not there weird it is a direct quote of the book of enoch chapter 1 verse 9. this is remarkable you don't hear about this an awful lot think about it jude by the power of the holy spirit is writing god's word this is the word of god if you asked any very conservative protestant are these lines these verses in the book of jude scripture it's a yes well that's interesting because it's a quote from the book of enoch which might we have a baptist former baptist pastor back then which makes these verses scripture that's something to consider now it's interesting but you should know that enoch is not usually in any christian canon there are very few denominations that put that book in there but the holy spirit decided to put those verses from it in there and jude is quoting it as if it happened he's not saying well it is said that or like this example from enoch no he's saying that those things really happened remarkable so it teaches us to open our minds just a little bit or not whatever now there's another part in leviticus if we hop back there we keep reading to 17 that is quite interesting most people never catch this the rest of the story it's concerned with not sacrificing things outside the camp don't do it outside the camp don't do it outside the tabernacle no bueno why leviticus 17 7 the people must no longer be unfaithful to the lord by offering sacrifices to the goat idols demons some versions say this is a permanent law for them to be observed from generation to generation so we see a confirmed belief there the goat demons are goat idols they're always in the wilderness think about it jesus was tempted by satan where in the wilderness that's where all the bad spirits live and again azazel is probably more like a garbage can of sin we're gonna send send the sin back to where it started from not a sacrifice to him that's not what i'm saying now these are very interesting things but they're no longer necessary because they're all fulfilled in christ now i've told you there are a lot of commentaries and when i look at certain commentaries depending on what denomination sponsored them they say different things and so if you know me you know i like to read a lot of them i like to get the full picture and then look for common denominators and look for more facts and study history but the best commentary we have on the old testament is the new testament and so let's go there to hebrews and take a look at what it says about this atonement in the old testament i'll let god do some of the talking now hebrews 9 starting at verse 1. that first covenant between god and israel had regulations for worship and a place of worship here on earth there were two rooms in that tabernacle and the first room were a lamp stand a table and sacred loaves of bread on the table this room was called the holy place then there was a curtain and behind the curtain was the second room called the most holy place in that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the ark of the covenant which was covered with gold on all sides in the ark were a gold jar containing manna we're going to look at that next week aaron's staff that sprouted leaves and the stone tablets of the covenant these are the ones that were replaced the ten commandments on them above the ark were the cherubim of divine glory whose wings stretched out over the ark's cover the place of atonement but we cannot explain these things in detail now when these things were all in place the priests regularly entered the first room as they performed their religious duties but only the high priest ever entered the most holy place that's aaron back then and only once a year as i told you guys and he always offered blood for his own sins and the sins the people had committed in ignorance but these regulations by these regulations the holy spirit revealed that the entrance to the most holy place was not freely open as long as the tabernacle and the system it represented were still in use this is an illustration pointing to the present time for the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them for that old system deals only with food and drink and various cleansing ceremonies physical regulations that were in effect only until a better system could be established so christ has now become the high priest over all the good things that have come he has entered the greater more perfect tabernacle in heaven which was not made by human hands and is not a part of this created world with his own blood not the blood of bulls calves goats he entered the most holy place once and for all time he s and secured our redemption forever under the old system the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer could cleanse people's bodies from ceremonial impurity just think of how much more the blood of christ will purify our consciences from sinful deeds so that we can worship the living god for by the power of his eternal spirit christ offered himself to god as a perfect sacrifice for our sins jesus fulfills it all he is both high priest and perfect sacrifice he is the once and for all sacrifice not the yearly one any longer hallelujah dan the israelites were ungrateful they needed sacrifices over and over but now jesus is the once and for all perfect sacrifice if we keep reading hebrews 10 says this and so dear brothers and sisters we can boldly enter heaven's most holy place because of the blood of jesus by his death jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the most holy place you now have access to god we are now a family of priests under the great high priest jesus but it isn't so that we can keep sinning peter talks about those who have rejected jesus for this world first peter verse 2 they stumble because they do not obey god's word and so they meet the fate that was planned for them but you are not like that for you are a chosen people you are royal priests a holy nation god's very own possession as a result you can show others the goodness of god for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light did you know that in the original version of charlie and the chocolate factory veruca salt was a bad nut she was set for the incinerator she's going down that tube to be burned i think the new version says that too interesting you see charlie and the chocolate factory can be seen as a picture of heaven and hell where does charlie go he ascends in the elevator veruca is sent to be burned in the fire like nadab and abyhu like that story the new testament teaches us over and over and over again that our behavior matters it's not taught a whole lot our attitude matters it counts for something you see the author of hebrews by the power of the holy spirit continues yes we are covered by jesus's blood but check this out if we keep reading it says this not popular verses hebrews 10 26 dear friends if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins think about it let me read it to you again now remember this i've dropped it right into its context dear friends if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins there is only the terrible expectation of god's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies for anyone who refused to obey the law of moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the son of god and have treated the blood of the covenant which made us holy as if it were common and unholy and of insulted and disdain the holy spirit who brings god's mercy to us like the scapegoat thing right you've heard that story ah gets away it does the opposite that most christians believe right jesus died for me covered me in his blood i can do whatever i want that's the basic sentiment right the word of god says it's the opposite jesus is the great sacrifice the great high priest how much more appreciative should we be for that then something common it happens every year it happened once that's it we should be that much more appreciative of jesus's holy and perfect sacrifice that should fill us with an attitude of gratitude you see jesus is the golden ticket so to speak we christians if we are in christ we have the golden ticket think about it but how are we acting how are we responding to that prize are we asking for more or are we like charlie are we grateful for it has it produced in us an attitude of gratitude now we've received the prize but not by anything we've done let me be clear about that i'm not talking about doing good works i'm talking about a response to the work that was done for us that gift of grace should lead to gratitude and our gratitude should lead to right living we looked at pentecost the outpouring of the holy spirit and i told you peter gave a short speech a short sermon in response to what the people were saying about them talked about joel he quoted that in the outpouring of the holy spirit right after that he tells us how the spirit is received acts 2 38. each of you must repent if you don't know what that means it sounds scary church word that means change turn from what you've been doing each of you must not like if you kind of want you might want to think about repenting and this is like a seven year process no repent of your sins and turn to god and be baptized in the name of jesus for the forgiveness of your sins then then you will receive the gift of the holy spirit repentance change precedes baptism it comes before it change is required in coming to jesus himself demands it over and over again in other words your attitude matters we must have knowledge of the truth and adopt the right attitude the attitude of obedient children who are grateful for what christ has done for us if we hop back to peter first peter 1 14 so you must again look at the word must live as god's obedient children don't slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires you didn't know any better than but you do now and so we must adopt an attitude that is reflective of what has been done for us we shouldn't complain or demand more in light of what jesus has done for us can't be chasing after these things of the world that are fading away anyway we have to concentrate on the heavenly prize in christ if christ is our prize what more could we want we must keep our eyes fixed on the heavenly prize colossians 3 1 since you have been raised to new life with christ set your sights on the realities of heaven where christ sits in the place of honor at god's right hand think about the things of heaven not the things of earth for you died to this life and your real life is hidden in christ with christ and god and when christ who is your life is revealed to the whole world you will share in all his glory we must adopt the attitude of gratitude that fuels obedience gratitude the fuel is joy a joy that surpasses all that this world has to offer in obedience which shows proves that we love and belong to our lord jesus christ let me pray for you lord i thank you for everyone who took the time out to come here today your church the body of christ not the building i pray that you give them an attitude of gratitude constantly remembering what jesus has done for us in everything we do even in our enemies the least of these we see jesus and we act accordingly that our attitudes are reflective of what you've done for us that we are just vehicles of your love of the gospel to spread the good news lord we thank you fill us with your spirit empower us to do these things we ask it in jesus name amen