Leviticus: Our Nearness with God through God’s Grace to Us

Well, some good news before we get into the sermon as that is that this week we started the cosmetic renovation of Suite 830, which is the space to your right with our small group rooms.

And so this week it got painted.

We'll be doing the carpet and the front doors, some new front doors into that space.

And then as well, this coming week we're going to finalize some decisions about renovation of the rest of the building over in the children's wing, the old sanctuary, and the back lobby.

So more information to come with that.

As well, on Wednesday morning of this week, I was at a citywide ministry prayer breakfast, and I got to spend time with two new pastors in our city.

This is Zach Cardin on the left, who I actually worked with at Church of the Apostles years ago.

He's the new pastor at Marietta Community Church.

And then Brandon Owen on the right is the new pastor at First Baptist Marietta.

And I just want us as a church, before we jump into the sermon, to pause and pray for these two men and their families and these churches.

We want them to flourish.

We want them to flourish.

We want these churches during these transitions.

We want these churches to flourish.

We are all better when any of us and any of our churches are flourishing.

So let's pray together.

God, we come to put before you for these two men and their callings, their churches, their families.

God, we pray for their families.

For Zach, not a move, but a move of calling and a move of relationships.

And God, we pray for Zach and his wife.

God, pray that this transition would feel peaceful.

God, that it would be a great reward for him.

God, we pray for a real sense of passion, excitement in what he's doing.

Give him wisdom beyond his years.

Give him insight.

God, we pray for Brandon as his wife and children move from Nashville.

11 months in, please be with them in this transition.

Help them build friendships, feel a sense of community in their church, but beyond their church.

Help them feel a sense of home in our town.

And God, I pray for a great sense of calling on Brandon and give him wisdom.

God, I pray for these two men.

I pray their preaching would be full of Jesus.

And we pray that their churches would flourish.

We pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

This morning we're continuing our study of the ancient strange book of Leviticus.

Leviticus is the third book of the Old Testament.

And what we have been seeing in the past two sermons, what we always see in the Old Testament is that the Old Testament is picture after picture of God's grace to come.

And then the New Testament is teaching after teaching about that grace.

About 15 years ago, I was a seminary-educated young pastor.

I was a devoted, I was a committed Christian.

I was so committed.

Here's a lovely picture of my wife and I.

Then at the time.

I mean, that was a lot of laughter.

I mean, a little bit would have been, you know, understandable.

It felt a little uncalled for.

A little bit.

I guys, I was committed.

I mean, I was even trying to look like Jesus.

This is how, this is how committed I was.

I mean, it testifies to Christy's character, right?

That she could she could love me looking like that.

During this season of my life, every morning, I was pulling up the bootstraps to prove to God how worthy I was or how strong I was.

Right?

I was using what I did to feel loved by God.

So, of course, day by day and week by week, I was becoming more exhausted as a Christian.

I was too insecure with God to feel any sense of peace.

Even when my life was slow, my heart was incredibly, incredibly busy.

And I limited compassion.

I had limited compassion toward others.

Because why aren't you getting your act together like me?

I mean, look at look at look at what I'm doing.

Get your act together.

So limited compassion.

I felt like an amazing Christian one day and really loved and amazing, and then the next day, just a lot of despair.

See, I was looking for something, something else, more than Jesus, something that I could do, contribute, something else, to finally really be accepted by God.

I had received Jesus but returned to the law, to a performance-oriented life, my record for him, not his record for me.

So of course I was exhausted and lacked peace.

As I reflect back on the first two sermons of Leviticus, I can kind of see it.

I was living, and I can still do this, still do this easily, I was living in Leviticus 2, the grain offering, my devotion to God.

We talked about it last week.

Outside of Leviticus 1, the burnt offering, God's provision of grace to us.

Now, religion says, I obey, therefore I am loved.

I obey, therefore I am loved.

I'm only loved if I obey.

I'm devoted, so then I can be loved.

So this is like saying Leviticus 2, our devotion and worship, without Leviticus 1, God's grace to us.

But the gospel's different.

The gospel says, I am loved, therefore I obey.

I'm loved, therefore I worship, I'm loved, therefore I'm devoted.

I'm loved, therefore I give.

Right?

This is the way that Leviticus is laying the grace of God out for us.

Leviticus 2, my devotion and worship through Leviticus 1, God's grace to us, the burnt offering.

And maybe we would say, great, fantastic.

Thanks for us.

How do I do that?

What does that mean?

Well, Titus 2, 11 and 12 actually says that this grace of God actually empowers us, it does something in us.

Paul says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.

And we could kind of say, well, that's kind of like Leviticus 1.

Verse 12, it's kind of like Leviticus 2, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

So how we say it is a core value of spiritual growth.

It's one of our core values as a church.

We want you to grow spiritually.

I want to grow spiritually.

This is our hope for us.

We say it this way: we grow in the grace of God by living more deeply in the great wealth of our beloved identity in Jesus Christ, as we know it through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

The Holy Spirit uses this deepening to heal and transform us.

And that's going to be a lifelong pursuit of a lot of confession and weakness, but a receiving of God's grace to us.

It might look like certain spiritual practices to live more deeply in the wealth you have.

Now, Leviticus chapter 3, 1 and 2.

Leviticus 3 · chapter mention

If his offering is a sacrifice, a peace offering, if he offers an animal from the herd, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the Lord, and he shall lay his hand on the head of his offering and kill it at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

And Aaron's sons, the priest, shall throw the blood against the sides of the altar.

So the worshipper personally slaughtered the animal and then handed the animal over to the priest.

The priest then takes the blood out of the animal, puts it in like a bowl, kind of sloshes it about, let it sprinkle up on the altar.

And out of that, strange ancient practice, we get this.

Point number one our fellowship, our oneness, our nearness with God is through God's grace alone.

And that's by substitutionary atonement, big theological term.

All it means is this the worshiper, feeling guilty, antsy, doesn't have his act together.

The worshiper took that animal, laid his hands on the animal.

And there's a transfer there.

This is what happens at the cross.

So all this is pointing to the cross.

That there's a transfer of our sin and our fault put upon God Himself and His righteousness given to us.

Substitutionary atonement.

It's the goodness that we have in this that another paid for our right to have nearness and relationship with God.

We don't have to earn it and we don't have to maintain it.

We get to receive it.

Fellowship is nearness, a oneness.

This is the kind of relationship God wants with us.

A non-anxious, unhurried relationship with the Father.

So quick review.

Leviticus 1, the burnt offering.

So each chapter is giving us an offering.

Chapter 1, burnt offering, God's grace to us through substitutionary atonement.

Chapter 2, grain offering, our devotion and worship given to God.

Chapter 3, peace offering, our thanksgiving for our peace that we have with God.

So if we think about this, it's amazing how this lays.

I mean, who knew Leviticus is great?

It's so good.

So good.

By chapter one, we can live chapter two.

And then we respond with chapter three, this thanksgiving of the peace that we can have.

But it's not built upon our chapter two devotion, it's built upon our chapter one.

Which means we don't have to live exhausted in chapter two in our devotion because of chapter one.

And because of chapter one, it sends us into chapter three where we're saying, thank you, God, for your grace alone.

Now, if you really want to nerd out, here's R.K.

Campbell's Leviticus chart.

I know you're waiting for this.

You came, you're like, if only he would show us.

This is a British Anglican minister, and he dug into Leviticus and he drew out this chart, and he has, you know, little comments under burnt offering.

We see all the different offerings.

He has little notes here and there.

But for us just to look at it today, I know you're gonna go home, you're gonna study all week.

I know you will.

But for today, it's just pretty simple.

One, two, three.

Right?

That's where we're at.

Chapter one, chapter two, chapter three.

We're in number three today.

One, two, three.

They go in order.

The peace offering followed the sin offering.

The only way we have peace is through the sin offering, through the burnt offering.

So it means that we aren't condemned, we aren't dismissed, and we aren't just put to work.

It's all gratitude.

Our response is all gratitude, because only by the blood of another.

This is how it is pointing to Jesus over and over again.

And we are relieved of a guilt trip.

And we're also relieved of a performance story in life, and we're relieved of trying to prove our worth.

Leviticus 3, 3 and 4.

And from the sacrifice of the peace offering as a food offering to the Lord, he shall offer the fat covering the entrails and all the fat that is on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them at the loins, and the long lobe of the liver that he shall remove with the kidneys.

What in the world's going on here?

Point number two.

Fellowship with God involves surrender to God.

All these really detailed parts of this animal represented the richest parts of the animal.

And at the time, they thought that these parts made up the core of a person.

So the worshiper here is taking the core of the animal, the richest parts, and giving them to God.

As a way to say, God, you can have the core of me.

So when we read this, and we're going to read a longer section here, we're going to read through the end of the chapter, and we're going to read it over and over again, these parts of the body, and you can get lost in it and get like, what is this is ridiculous?

I might as well just leave.

This is talking about the core of who you are.

God, you can have the core of me.

And that was Thanksgiving, and that was surrender.

We see this with Hannah in the Old Testament.

Hannah couldn't have a baby.

She was barren.

And then finally the Lord gives her child, Samuel.

And in 1 Samuel, we see that Hannah devotees, surrenders Samuel to the Lord.

Her most precious thing in the world.

And it says she went to the temple with a fellowship offering.

That she took three animals from the herd, which would have been a just, I mean, this is big money offering.

She's showing up.

Extravagant.

She brought flowers, she brought a grain offering.

She testified what the Lord had done, his goodness to her, she gave thanks.

So we see this with Hannah.

It was atonement, it was devotion, it was thanksgiving, and it was surrender.

And the growth in grace question that stirred in me this week was this given the astonishing grace to you, to us.

Chapter 1.

Given that, it's already there.

Given that.

What do you need to surrender?

As to grow in godliness and no greater freedom.

And that's not more condemnation on you, that's more grace on you.

Given the astonishing grace.

Given that's already there.

Given that's already there.

What might God be calling you to surrender?

Alright, we're gonna read verses 5 through 17.

I'll warn you, it's gonna, it's a bit of a read.

Hang in there.

Alright, here we go.

Then Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar on top of the burnt offering.

Hang on to that.

We'll come back to that.

Which is on the wood on the fire.

As a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

If his offering for a sacrifice of peace offering to the Lord is an animal from the flock, male or female, he shall offer it without blemish.

If he offers a lamb for his offering, then he shall offer it before the Lord.

Lay his hand on the head of his offering, and kill it in front of the tent of meeting.

And Aaron's sons shall throw its blood against the sides of the altar.

Then from the sacrifice of peace offering, he shall offer as a food offering to the Lord its fat.

He shall remove the whole fat tail, cut off close to the backbone, and the fat that covers the entrails, and all the fat that's on the entrails and the two kidneys, with the fat that is on them, at the loins and the long lobe of the liver, and he shall remove the kidneys.

Y'all still you still hear?

Good.

Nobody left.

I didn't hear the doors.

Verse 11.

And the priest shall burn it on the altar as a food offering to the Lord.

If his offering is a goat, then he shall offer it before the Lord and lay his hand on its head.

See, he said over and over again, this transference.

My sin goes upon.

This gift, this gift of atonement that is coming to us.

Verse 13, and then lay his hand on its head, kill it in front of the tent of meeting, the sons of Aaron, throw its blood against the sides of the altar.

Then he shall offer from it as his offering for food offering to the Lord, the fat covering the entrails, and all the fat that's on the entrails, and the two kidneys with the fat that's on them, and the loins, and the long lobe of the liver, he shall remove with the kidneys, and the priest shall burn them on the altar as a food offering pleasing, sharoma.

All fat is the Lord's.

Amen.

Could be a new memory verse.

I don't know.

Retreat theme.

I mean, there's so many places we go with it.

Verse 17.

It shall be a statute forever throughout your generations and all your dwelling places that you eat neither fat nor blood.

Point number three is this.

Out of all that, God loves you.

And God delights in you.

Last week we said this.

Our devotion for Jesus, chapter 2, is empowered by our already acceptance in Jesus, chapter 1.

Then in chapter 3, we just read back in verse 5.

The fellowship, this is so good, so good.

The fellowship offering was burnt on top of the burnt offering.

Anybody else?

I mean, anybody, that just gets me excited.

That gets me excited.

Let me translate it, okay?

Maybe you'll get more sound.

Our fellowship with Jesus, which is chapter three, is empowered.

It's built upon our already acceptance in Jesus, which is chapter one.

That's so good.

That's a picture of grace to us of how good Jesus is for us.

And then we learn in verses 5 and 11 and 16 that God delights in the fellowship offering.

When we read this over and over again, a pleasing aroma to the Lord, pleasing aroma to the Lord.

We're reading God doesn't love you and just kind of put up with you.

You're a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

God loves you and delights in you.

He adores you.

A few years ago on Christmas, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on Delta, there was a dad Hal.

Here's a picture of Hal.

Hal's on the left.

We don't know the guy in the middle.

And then Pierce is on the right.

That's Hal's daughter, Pierce.

She was flight attendant.

She had to work Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Six flights she had to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

So Dad buys a ticket on every single flight and just rides with her on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Because he doesn't want her to be alone.

So he could be with her.

Right?

This is endearing.

This is so endearing.

Because this father delights in his child.

He just wants to be with her.

And it's a beautiful gospel image for us that the Heavenly Father, he delights in you.

Yes, this is through chapter one.

This is through the burnt offering, God's grace to you of Jesus.

Because he sees you as he sees his own son, Jesus.

He knows all of you, he loves all of you, he delights to pursue you and to be with you.

He longs for fellowship, that nearness, that oneness of a non-anxious, peace-filled relationship.

Paul puts it together for us in Romans 5, verses 1 and 2.

Romans 5:1

Listen how we can hear Leviticus 1 through 3 in here.

Romans 5, 1 and 2.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

So the peace offering of the Old Testament is pointing us to the real offering.

This Jesus for us.

Not our shed blood for him, his shed blood for us.

Point number four is this through redemption in Christ, we enjoy communion with Christ.

Years ago, my mentor told me I needed an unhurried, non-anxious presence, of which, thanks.

Thank you.

Just tell me what to do.

Like, hurry up, tell me what to do, so I go do it.

You know, I can get this non-anxious presence.

You're talking, like, like let me know what to do.

And here's what he said, how it works out for him in his life.

I need to start my day lingering in the welcoming presence of our Father.

I'm just as susceptible as anyone to living a driven life rather than a called life.

I begin my day with Sabbath rest, slowly reading the scriptures, remembering the gospel, and fellowshipping with our Father.

Not resting is a recipe for disaster.

It might build a huge stock portfolio, but it will bankrupt a heart.

So hold on to that and then think back on this Leviticus: burn offering, grain offering, peace offering.

Chapter one gives us chapter two, gives us chapter three.

Right?

Through Jesus.

Through Jesus, we get to linger in the presence of God, not being condemned, but being welcomed, being loved.

He delights in us.

Now, let's go back to that total Bible nerd chart.

I know you wanted to see it again.

You were thinking about it the whole time.

Under each offering, just kind of floating out.

It took me a while to see it, you know, like it took me a while, but like just kind of floating out there.

You can see that Campbell just digging into this Leviticus.

He's digging and digging.

He's drawing this chart, he's nerding out, and then just it's interesting on that chart every once in a while, just floating around.

It's not really attached to anything.

A lot of stuff's attached.

He kept writing, you see it three times?

Sweet savior.

Sweet savior, sweet savior.

My little one and I went to bubble tea on Monday night.

Y'all know bubble tea at the market?

Five dollars for a cup of tea.

They do have little bubbles at the bottom.

Do you know little bubbles, right?

I don't know what that is, but they're at the bottom.

And so she ordered her bubbles.

You got Barbie flavored, so we're riding home.

And like there's a big straw because you're drinking your tea, and then every once in a while you get a little bubble that pops up in your mouth, and you get to burst it, and there's a little sweetness comes.

Anybody else in the bubble tea?

Bubble tea.

A little sweetness pot, like a little bubble of joy.

And like she was sitting over in the shotgun seat and she was drinking this bubble tea, and every time one of those bubbles came up, she pop it, and you I just hear it, ooh.

So I was like, let me have, let me, I want one.

You know, so I had one.

Ooh.

So of course I thought about the Leviticus chart.

I mean, as a good preacher, I mean, this is what naturally that moment you think about is you go, like, this is just like the Leviticus 1 through 7 chart.

This is what it is like.

Because I can just see Campbell studying Leviticus 1 through 7.

He's just digging into this.

He's love, all the fellowship offerings on top of the burn offering, oh, our grain offerings through the burn offering.

He's just digging, digging in.

It's just like, he's just pondering how enough Jesus is for us.

And over and over again, I love it.

I love it that he writes it's not connected to anything.

It's just three times.

Sweet Savior, sweet Savior, sweet Savior.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you provide the sweet Savior for us.

We do not have to save ourselves.

It is by your blood for us.

God forgive us for all the ways we try to save ourselves and just wear ourselves out.

Help us to rest all the more.

And how sufficient Jesus is for us.

May we grow in our devotion.

May we grow in our thanksgiving.

May we grow in our surrender.

And may all this be built upon and through your grace to us, which is enough.

Thank you for the sweet Savior, Jesus.

Amen.