← ArchiveLeviticusSunday, April 15, 2018DateApril 15, 2018Speaker—TextLeviticus 1Passages in this sermonLeviticus 11:15Leviticus 251:45Genesis 1:13:55Exodus 1:14:41Leviticus 1:15:06Numbers 1:15:32Deuteronomy 1:16:07Exodus 209:29Exodus 39:38Matthew 610:26Exodus 1915:14Psalms 9616:24James 416:47Psalms 521:08Exodus 4022:32Hebrews 425:03TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00The book of Leviticus. Now remember the story of the Bible began with humans in God's presence, but they were banished because of their rebellion. However, God wants to be in relationship with us, so he chooses one family that he will use to restore the world back into his presence. And so God's presence comes to dwell in a tent right in the middle of Israel. That's great. But it creates a problem because it's so intense that Moses can't go in and other priests who enter inappropriately, they die. Well, wait, if God's presence is good, how is it all of a sudden0:26dangerous for people? So think of it this way. God's presence is like the sun. It's pure power and goodness. And when something mortal and corruptible gets close to such pure power, it's destroyed. And so the word holiness is used in Leviticus to describe God's pure and powerful presence, which like the sun is both good and dangerous. So the point of Leviticus is to show how corrupt Israelites can live near God's goodness without being destroyed.0:56So today we begin an exciting new series. You ready? Leviticus. Thank you. Thank you. So if you have your Bibles with you, please go ahead and turn to Leviticus one this morning. I am convinced that we need to rethink Leviticus. I'm also convinced that some of you1:18actually need to think about Leviticus for the first time. And here's why. The fact that we call this book of the Bible Leviticus will make us struggle. It is curious that Leviticus, the word is only mentioned once. The word Levites. And that's in Leviticus 25, 32. The Levites are only mentioned once in the entire Bible.1:45You know, it's mentioned 56 times over and over again. We hear this phrase. The Lord spoke to Moses. Leviticus is a book about God speaking to his people. And for that, I want to jump on the bandwagon. I want to be a person that God will say and God will speak to me and others will say that I have heard from the Lord.2:06Not because I'm a pastor, but because I'm his. That I am Jesus and he. I am his and Jesus is mine. And because of that, the sheep know his voice. And so we're going to spend the next weeks together with this theme. God, draw us. Draw us close over and over.2:32Here is where Leviticus meets our contemporary culture and society. We as a people long for God. Whether you admit that or not, you might say, well, I don't believe in God. Well, there's still a longing that you cannot deny. What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and still forfeits or loses his soul?3:00There are things in our life. There are desires and delights and longings that only Christ can fulfill. That's why we prayed for Kai this morning. Lord, let him seek you with all of his heart. Lord, let him know that you have plans for him. But also one day when he calls out to you, Lord, draw him near. That is our heart. That is our desire. So here is good news. God wants to speak to you in a way that you will recognize his voice and draw near to him.3:29That's what Leviticus is about. Very simply, God wants to speak to you in a way that you will hear and that you will draw near to his presence. And you say, well, how do we get to this point in scripture? I'm glad you asked. I think it's helpful that we would look at the entire Bible really quick. So if you have your Bibles open, turn to Genesis 1.1.3:55I want to quickly just go through the entire metanarrative of the Pentateuch. So metanarrative is the string or the strand that God uses to tell his story. Genesis 1.1. I believe that not only every word in scripture is God breathed, but they are intentional and it is purposeful. So God didn't just inspire the words and breathe them out and they became a jumble mess.4:24No, God put them in order as he puts our life in order. Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Some of you didn't have to even turn to it. Okay. Exodus 1.1. Let's read that together. I'll give you a moment to get there. Exodus 1.1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt from Jacob.4:52Each came with his family. So God's people now that he has created are in Egypt. Leviticus 1.1. By the way, this is the title of the Hebrew book. The Lord speaks. The Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting.5:17So we have God created. God's people are in Egypt. Now God has delivered them. And now God is doing what? He's speaking. He is speaking. Look at Numbers 1.1. And I have not marked my Bible. I'm not cheating. It's the next book. Numbers 1.1. The Lord spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the wilderness of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the first year,5:43second year after Israel's departure from the land of Egypt. So now we find the people wandering in the wilderness because they've disobeyed Leviticus 1.1. They disobeyed God speaking into their life. So what happens when we disobey? We wonder. Look at Deuteronomy 1.1.6:16And this is the glorious truth and redemption of the Bible. Deuteronomy 1.1. These are the words Moses spoke to all of Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness in the Arabah opposite Suf between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazaroth and Dezahab. So how is that redemptive? They are across the Jordan looking where? Looking towards the promised lands. So God has now brought his people full circle.6:44So how do we get to Leviticus? God has created. God has delivered. God speaks. God sends us into the wilderness. And now God is fulfilling his promises if we return and obey. So very simply this morning, I want you to say and pray this prayer. Lord, draw me close to you. God, I want to be a Leviticus 1 person where I can hear your voice, where you speak to me. And when you speak to me, I will listen.7:13And that is his promise. So with that, let's read scripture together and we will pray. Leviticus 1.1. The Lord summoned Moses and spoke to him from the tent of meeting. Father, we so desire that you would speak to us. That we would not desire salvation and then be left alone, but that you would continually draw us, your people, unto yourself through the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ.7:36Lord, burden our hearts to know you more, to seek you, to hear you, to follow you, to throw ourselves before the throne, knowing that we have a grace, a great high priest who in our time of need lets us enter into his presence.7:51Lord, draw your people this morning. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. So take away this morning, God desires you to know him and draw you into his presence.8:16That's it. God desires for you to know him and draw you into his presence. Look at verse 1. The Lord summoned. So hearing God is predicated or necessitated by verse 1. The Lord summoned Moses. What name is used there very clearly for God? The Lord, right? Anyone awake? So 1-1, the Lord summoned Moses.8:46That's not an arbitrary name for God. Moses didn't just choose, well, he could be God, he could be creator, he could be almighty, he could be El Shaddai, El Nisi. Let me just find one. No, the Lord here is the covenant name of God. So don't miss this. For me, for you to hear God, there has to be a covenant relationship. Don't buy the lie that God hears anyone.9:13God desires for you and for me to be in a covenant relationship with him so that we might hear him. Is that not what is said in verse 1? The Lord summoned God. This is not a God. This is the God who in Exodus 20, before he gives the Ten Commandments, reminded the people that they were already in covenant relationship. This is the same name for God in Exodus 3. When Moses comes and says, Lord, you're going to send me to your people in Egypt to free them from bondage, to free them from slavery, to free them from sin and death and destruction.9:40But Lord, what is your name? And God very eloquently gives him this name. In southern, we would say, I is. It's untranslatable. It is, I am who I am. But it really is, I is. And Moses said, well, who is I is?10:10And God says, that's the point. I am the covenant God. Before you were, I was. And after you, I will be. This is the God who loves us. Our hearing of God is predicated on our knowing him in covenant relationship. This is why Jesus teaches us to pray in Matthew 6. How does Jesus teach us? Our Father who is in heaven, I am reminded, Dutton, I'm reminded often that right now, there are only two people in the world that can call me father, Eli and Aaron.10:39And right now, there's only one that can call you father. It is Kai. Who can call God father? Those who are in covenant relationship, who have been adopted through Jesus Christ. And you might be thinking, well, how dare you say that? How dare? We're not all his children? No, but you can be. That's the beauty and the power of Christ. That it is so exclusive that only through one man do we all become children. But through one man, everyone has the privilege and the joy of becoming God's children.11:09Do you know him? He said, well, I haven't heard from God. Are you in covenant relationship? That's his offer. He is offering you new life this morning. I'm amazed at what Tim Keller says about the testimony of Israel here. So if you sat down Moses and said, Moses, give me your testimony, it might sound like this. See if you can relate. Moses would say, we were in a foreign land in bondage under the sentence of death.11:39But our mediator, the one who stands between us and God, came to us with a promise of deliverance. We trusted in the promises of God. We took shelter under the blood of the lamb and he led us out. Now we are on our way to the promised land. We are not yet there, of course, but we have the law to guide us.12:05And through blood sacrifice, we also have his presence in our midst. So he will stay with us until we get to our true country, our everlasting home. And this is what Dr. Mautier, an Old Testament scholar, concluded. He said, now think about it. A Christian today could say the same thing, almost word for word. We were in bondage and God sent a mediator.12:34And through the sacrifice of the lamb, death passed over us. And we have trusted in the promises of God, that if we believe in everything that he says, he will speak to us and we can listen to him. And we're not there yet, but we see the promised land. And one day we are holding on to the promise that God will deliver us fully and we will be in the land that he has promised. Because in the lamb, we can be in covenant relationship.13:02Church, is that not our testimony? Oh, the beauty of saying he is our Lord. You see, through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, you can call him Lord. Through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, you can call upon the Lord. And through the precious blood of Jesus Christ, we can now call him Lord. Because we are called upon the Lord. Hearing God is necessitated by knowing God.13:32Are you in covenant relationship? The Lord summoned Moses. Very simply, point number two. God drawing us. God draws you out to draw you in. God draws us out to draw us in. So why are we in Leviticus? Because we are not in Exodus. Why are we not in Exodus? Because God has rescued his people.14:01So why has God rescued his people? He doesn't rescue them to leave us in the wilderness, to leave us in sin and leave us in bondage. What do we find here in verse one? God is doing what to his people? I have drawn you out of your sin, out of your slavery, out of your bondage to now bring you close. It breaks my heart when I see people who say they have professed Jesus Christ and they want to leave it there. You know what? God saved me when I was one and I was baptized.14:29I walked the aisle. I crawled the aisle. And that's it. That's heartbreaking. God did not save me from my sin to leave me in infancy. God has saved you to continually draw you into his presence. Look at verse one. The Lord, covenant relationship. Now what? He summons. He calls. This is not the first time that God has called Moses.14:58Exodus 3. The Lord, when he saw that he had gone over to look, God called to Moses from the bush and said what? Moses, Moses, come to me. Again in Exodus 19. God calls Moses before giving the Ten Commandments. And I'm reminded of this in Scripture, that Moses was known by the community as a person who had seen God face to face.15:19So much that it kind of freaked him out. Moses comes down from the mountain meeting with God because God has drawn him in. And the people say, Moses, your face is a little orange. You're shining abnormally. And Moses is saying, what are you talking about? Because Moses didn't realize at that moment when he had spent time with God, God's shining upon him was now shining to others.15:48Are you known as a person by others that you meet with God often? That's God's desire for your life. God wants you to spend time with him. And even if you don't recognize it, when we spend time with God, other people notice. Josh, you're acting different today. When people curse you, you bless them. Josh, you've had a horrible day.16:18Why is there joy springing up from your heart? Why are you singing a new song to the Lord? As Psalm 96 says, why are you declaring his glory to the nations and his work day after day? Because God has spoken to us. He draws you out to draw you in. Have you spent time with God today? I love this scripture. See, the truth remains for you and for me. James, in James 4, verse 7, says this.16:47New Testament, right? So you're thinking, well, this is Leviticus. We're not people of the law anymore. We're now by grace. Okay, James, I'm going to throw some New Testament at you. Submit to God. Resist the devil. And he will flee. Now, this is not part of the sermon, but it's a really good point. The devil does not have a choice when you resist him and turn to God. It doesn't say the devil might think about turning around and giving up.17:14Resist. Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee. If you do this, then this will happen and he will flee. Verse 8, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. God is a personal God. If you draw to him this morning, he will draw near. If you are in the wilderness and you are dry, draw near to God.17:41And church, we are at a miraculous, wonderful point in history. How does God still speak to you and to me? We have his words. Living words. Active words. That penetrate the places in our life that you didn't even know existed. You know the places where you hide your sin? That no one can find them? God can.18:10God can. And he loves us so much that he will find them and he will reveal them and he will forgive them if you confess them. But it's through his word that is living and active. God is speaking to us in his word. Never before have we had such unmediated access to the word of God. Do you want God to speak to you? Anyone? Anyone awake? You know how God speaks? This is going to blow your mind. You ready? Open the Bible.18:42That's it. Open the Bible to Leviticus 1 and we see the Lord, the covenant name, summon Moses. And we say, well, wait. I'm in covenant through Jesus Christ. And if God can speak to Moses, then God still speaks to me. We must love God's word because it is not only God's word. It is God's word to us. You want a word from God? Open his word to you.19:16Is that it? Yes. Because the Holy Spirit who has inspired his word, when I open God's word, the Holy Spirit that's living in me that has inspired his word stirs my heart up. Are you a person who loves the word of God? And you say, well, I want to be that person who loves his word to you. God draws us out to draw us in. Church, it should break our heart, though. According to the Wycliffe Bible translation, there's an estimated 114 million people without19:43access to any scripture in their language. At least 1.5 billion people are without the full Bible in their first language. This is how that convicts me. You know how many Bibles I have in my house? I don't. I can't count them. They're everywhere. And how sad is it? I'm going to convict my life, and I hope you're convicted in process.20:11How sad is it that when I walk past that Bible and God's word is screaming at me, Josh, stop. I'm speaking to you. I am loving you. I am drawing you through my word. And the Bible sets closed on my desk or on my counter or by my TV or by my nightstand or by my kid's bed. They're everywhere, and there are 1.5 billion people that do not have the joy of God's word.20:39God draws you out to draw you in. Open up his word to you. Hide it in your heart. Live it out. And when we do, our faces will shine, and the world will see that we are changed by the glory of God. Listen to what David says about knowing God. Psalm 5.21:08Psalm 5. Listen to my words. Lord, consider my sign. God, pay attention to the sound of my cry, my king and my God, for I pray to you in the morning. Lord, you hear my voice in the morning. I plead my case and watch expectantly. David is a man who is longing for the voice of God in his life. David is a man that seems like he could not live a day without meeting God face to face.21:33Oh, God, that I would be that man. Oh, that you would be that woman. That we would say, God, I know you have drawn me out to draw me in. Lord, plead. Lord, listen. Father, meet me. God is still in the speaking business. Church, he draws you out to draw you in. Third, verse 1 again. You draw near to God on his invitation, not your inclination.22:00So I don't want to leave you with the thought, well, hey, this is awesome. I'm going to run to God, and he's, boom, he's there. Let me remind you that you do not come to God on your terms. I do not come to God on my terms. It is by God's invitation, not your inclination. So I'm going to pump the brakes and say, before you run to God with eagerness, watch out. So two scriptures that remind us of that.22:30Back up about five verses in Exodus 40. If your Bible is like mine, you just stay on the same page. Exodus 40, verse 34. Same God, right? Same Moses, same location. The cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of God filled the tabernacle. Okay, so you're tracking God's glory is over the tabernacle.22:57The same tabernacle that now God is speaking out of to Moses. Look at verse 36. Sorry, verse 35. Moses was unable to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud rested on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So before you say, well, I'm going to run to God. Pastor said, I can just run to him right now. God is drawing me out to draw me in. This is awesome. God loves me.23:27Here I go. You come to God by his invitation. When the glory of God settled on the tabernacle, they could not go in. And before you say, well, okay, now how do we do this? Look at Exodus 3, 5. You remember the story of Moses listening to God from the burning bush, right? Our youth know this well. We teach it to them when they're in diapers, right? There's a bush that's burning. It's not burning. It continues to burn, but it's not yet burning. And a voice is speaking from the bush.23:56That's really odd for a kid, by the way. There's a bush and bushes don't speak, but this bush was burning. And a voice is speaking. And Moses recognized that it was the Lord, right, youth? And so Moses is speaking back to the bush. He's conversing. And the bush says this. The voice of the Lord in verse 5 of chapter 3 says what? Any youth awake? Moses is coming and says, do not come closer.24:22Why? Because the place you are standing is holy ground. Take off your sandals. What's the reminder there? That we did not come to God on our merits or our inclination or our ways. We come to God through his invitation. Here's the beauty. What do we find in Leviticus 1, 1? God is speaking. The same God that said, do not come here is now saying, come here.24:50How can that happen? As Dan read earlier. Because of Jesus Christ, our mediator. In Hebrews 4, we can approach the throne of grace with boldness so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. God says, do not come on your merit before you run. He is holy. You and I are not.25:19We are sinful. We are sinful. And Christ has died to take us sinners and make us righteous. We do not come to God on our own accord or our own merit or our own desire. We do not come through church or through religion. We do not come through baptism or reading God's word. We do not come through prayer or walking in the aisle. We come to the presence of God through Jesus Christ and him alone. It is in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, that we can now enter into this covenant.25:46And so some of you this morning are, you say, I want this. I want to come to God. Take off your sandals. Find mercy in your time of need through Jesus Christ. And lastly, you might say, well, if God is calling, why don't we listen? If God is calling, then why is it so hard for us to listen?26:17I have four thoughts on this from Leviticus 1. First, sometimes it's difficult for you. It's impossible for you to hear God when there's sin in your life. It's impossible for me to hear God because of sin. And because of our sin, we are dead, blind, and deaf to the things of God. So some here have never heard the voice of the Lord because you are living in sin.26:41Until you repent of that sin, you cannot hear God. Sin is deafness to God's voice in your life. And the beauty of that is if you will repent of your sin and turn and trust to Jesus Christ in Him and Him alone, He will take away your deafness. And He will give you new ears. And so I simply ask you, will you hear?27:09God is calling you, Moses, Moses, Josh, Josh, leave your sins behind. Run to me because Jesus has made a way for you. Is sin preventing you from hearing God? Secondly, pride prevents us from hearing God. And you might think, well, I don't have pride in my life. Who are you to say? Yeah, you just incriminated yourself.27:38But sometimes we don't call it pride. We call it, I'll give you a fancy word and a small word, moralistic therapeutic deism. What does that mean? I'll just boil it down. It's called religion. It's called, you know what, if you just stop drinking, then God will love you. If you're an adulterer, if you just stop adulterating, God will accept you. If you're a Baptist and you stop dancing, God will embrace you.28:06And the list can go on, right? We tell our kids, have you ever sinned? Well, I don't know what that is. Have you ever hit your brother? Yes, well, if you quit hitting, God will, no, that's not the gospel. The gospel is, if you stop hitting, you are still a sinner. If you stop dancing, you are still a sinner. If you stop drinking, you are still a sinner. Whatever your pet sin is today, if you stop and never do that again,28:32you are still a sinner. We must go and run to Christ. Religion is not the answer. Religion is fool's gold. Religion is saying, you are good. Here's some gold. Go to the jeweler. And you get to the jeweler and you realize it's worthless. You can't clean yourself up. And you say, well, that's a horrible news. No, it's great news. Jesus has cleaned you up. Do not let pride or religion prevent you from hearing Jesus Christ.29:03Thirdly, I believe shame prevents us from hearing Jesus. Shame. I remember going to a hearing test right after I was married. And I had this sensation in my ears that I just could not hear. And it was driving me crazy. I still have this sensation. It's like my right ear is blocked up. And if I sleep, it might be TMI, but if I sleep with my right ear up, the sensation is not near as bad.29:32So when I sleep with my right ear down, I just feel like I can't hear. I kept telling my wife, I was like, I just can't hear you, dear. I want to, but I just can't. I want to hear every word you say, dear. So I went to this doctor and I had a hearing test. It was like a video game that I would hear different noises. And they said, when you hear different noises, you hit the little joystick. That's like a fighter pilot. And so I leave the office. You know what they told me? They said, good news and bad news. Bad news is your sensation will remain.30:03The good news is your hearing is perfect. And so I went home. I said, I have good news and bad news, dear. The good news is that my hearing is perfect. The bad news is when I have not heard you for all these years, it's because I didn't want to. I wasn't listening. But here's what I learned that day. I thought because of this sensation that I couldn't hear. The sensation was keeping me away from listening well. And it had nothing to do with it. Shame works in the same way.30:32Some of you are not drawing near God because shame is preventing you from coming to the throne. And it's not. It should not be there. God has forgiven you. Jesus Christ has redeemed you. And the sensation is there. But Jesus is saying, don't let the sensation keep you from listening. I've made you righteous. Your hearing is perfect. Come to me today. Run to the altar and I will forgive you. I will redeem you. I will lift you up. Don't let shame keep you away from hearing God.31:02Lastly and fourthly, it's a big one in our culture, distraction. Sometimes you and I do not hear the word of God. We cannot hear God in our life because of static, white noise. So I would, what are you talking about, Pastor? Let's get specific. Anyone have an electronic device on them right now? Where do we spend our time on these? And I remember last year I was convicted because my little daughter, this little blonde hair princess on most days,31:33came and she threw this little book in my lap. She was forceful with it. She said, here, read this book. And my gut reaction broke my heart. And you're going to live this one day. My gut reaction was, well, honey, just wait because I'm, I couldn't even finish on my phone. I clicked it off, pushed it away and said, let me read to you.32:00And how often in our life do we not hear God because of distractions? And we're going to get to heaven one day and we're going to say, God, I didn't have time to pray. And God's going to say, well, let's talk about that Facebook thing that you spent hours on. Let's talk about those sports programs that you watched incessantly. Let's talk about the time that you were on your phone. And so, Josh, you really want to tell me you don't have time for me, the God who loves you?32:28I'm not saying that those things are sinful, but I'm saying they can be distractions. And if they are distractions, they are sinful. Repent. Listen to God. Let him draw you in. We should live differently. He draws us out, church, to draw us in. So I just simply ask this. I'll close here. Where do we go from here? Where do we go from here? Will you draw near the Lord today? When we sing a song of celebration, will you, with humility, come to the altar maybe and say, God, I want to start today.32:59I want you to draw me like you've never drawn me before. And I will commit, God, to not deal with shame or live in shame. Oh, Lord, I'm not going to live in my distractions. But I want to hear fresh from you. Did you come in this morning hearing that word, wanting a word from God? My words carry no weight in eternity. But did you come here saying, God, I want to hear from you. You can. He will speak if we listen through his son, Jesus Christ.33:29Jesus says that his sheep will know his voice. Will you commit to draw near the throne? I was listening and thinking of this old hymn written in 1875 by Fanny Crosby. I am thine, O Lord. I have heard thy voice and it told thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms of faith and be closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to the cross where thou hast died.33:57Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord, to thy precious bleeding side. Oh, the pure delight of a single hour that before thy throne I spend. When I kneel in prayer and with thee, my God, I commune as friend with friend. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, precious Lord, to thy precious bleeding side.34:23Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, precious Lord, to the cross where thou hast died. Will that be your prayer today? God, draw me nearer because of Christ. Maybe you're here and you have not put your trust in God. In this covenant we are talking about, the covenant by grace, you are not his and he is not yours. I want you to know right now that if you turn from your sins and turn to Jesus Christ, he will save you.34:50He has already provided the way, but he will not force you to walk the way. He has opened the door, but he will not push you through the door. But right now, if you, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, will confess him as Lord and run to the cross, he will embrace you and he will forgive you. He will adopt you. He will make you right for the glory of Christ, our Savior. Father, we thank you that you draw us.35:21Father, we thank you that you draw us.Next in Leviticus →Sunday, April 22, 2018More sermons on Leviticus →
