1456 - Introduction to the Sacrificial System of Ancient Israel" The Book of Leviticus

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1456. Today we're going to continue our study of the story of the Crimson River, the great river of redemption, of the shed blood of redeeming grace, from the book of Genesis all the way through to the book of Revelation. Starting in Genesis three hundred fifteen, there is a promise from God Himself that one day He would provide a Savior, a deliverer, who would crush the head of Satan the tempter, the devil himself, and in doing so he would be wounded. That's right. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement, the discipline of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes, his wounds we are healed. Today we're going to begin the study of the book of Leviticus and the sacrificial system of ancient Israel. Now I want you to understand from the very beginning that the Bible makes it very clear in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, specifically in the book of Hebrews. Remember, the most Jewish of all the New Testament books. It is specifically written in Hebrews chapter ten and verse four, for it is impossible it's not possible in any way for the blood of bulls and goats, nor of rams or lambs to take away men's sins. An animal cannot die as a substitute for a man, but it can give a living picture of the one who would come and one day be provided by God, the lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. Now this is a theme all the way through Scripture. You see the Messiah, the anointed one, was to come and to be the deliverer, the one that all the types and the shadows in the Old Testament only alluded to, and all of the sacrificial system and all of the priesthood was just a preview of what God was going to do through the Messiah that we know as Jesus of Nazareth. And so I want to go into some detail, not great detail, but some detail to help you to understand the sacrificial system. Because God was trying to teach the people the way to approach him. Remember in the tabernacle itself, God started with Moses with himself, and he said, Moses, here's the pattern of the worship center in heaven. And so he started with the great chest, the Ark of the Covenant, and then the mercy seat, the lid that would cover those things that were in the chest, and then the altar of incense, and then the table of showbread, and then the great menorah, the golden lampstand, then the labor, and then the brazen altar, and that's the way God presented the articles that would be in the great worship center in the wilderness, what we would call the tabernacle, what God calls specifically the tent of meeting. What is meant by the tent of meeting? The tent where God would meet with man and man would meet with God. And the mediator was the high priest Aaron himself, and then his descendants after him. And so all of this was laying the groundwork teaching in a glorified object lesson how God was going to bring about the redemption of man, how God was going to forgive sin. For you see there are no offerings that can take away sin, except the offering of a perfect servant, one who would be the second Adam, one who would come as Adam did as a man, and would live a perfect life, not in rebellion and wrong choices as Adam did, but would live in perfect obedience to the Father, thereby being a perfect sacrifice, because the apostle Peter said, We are not redeemed, we are not bought with silver, gold or other things that corrupt, but we are bought with the blood of a precious lamb, the Lord Jesus, who was a lamb without spot or without blemish. You see, Adam was created perfect, and he had God as his father and creator, and he was placed into a pristine, perfect environment where there had never been any sin, but through his rebellion and his choice to disobey God, the apostle Paul said in Romans five and verse twelve that by the sin of one man death entered into the world, that is, through the sin of Adam, death came upon all of creation, upon man that God had created. But Jesus came, God as his father, but an earthly mother. And so he came as not just a man, but as the God man, because God was his father. Now remember the sin nature is passed on through the male, not the female. Now before any woman needs to get proud about that, that the sin nature is not passed on through her, I must remind you that every woman has a father. And so men and women alike, every person is a sinner. And that means we inherit in our DNA and spiritually the inclination, the propensity, the desire to sin. That's why we don't need to teach our children to be bad. They are bad naturally. They are corrupt naturally, and every person as soon as we reach the age when we can make a volitional choice willingly with a mind knowing what we're doing, we sin before God. And there is, as we'll see, no sacrifice for willing sin. A man had to cast himself upon the mercy and grace of God. And so as we go through these offerings, just remember that Jesus came into a world, unlike Adam, that came into a pristine world where there was no sin and no one around him knew sin, he brought it into the world by his choices. Jesus, on the other hand, came into a world that was corrupt, where everyone, including his mother and his stepfather and all of his brothers and everyone around him were sinners, but he lived in perfect obedience to his Father in heaven. And that's why the book of Hebrews, quoting the book of Psalms, says that God was not pleased with animal sacrifices, burnt offerings, and so forth, but he prepared a body, and the psalmist said that Jesus would fulfill, Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written about me. And this is why the Lord Jesus after his resurrection to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and then his own disciples that were back in Jerusalem, the Bible says he began in the law, the prophets and the Psalms, which is the first book of the book of Writings, the Ketuvim, that in the law and the prophets and the writings, the Torah, the Neviam and the Ketuvim, the entire Old Testament, Jesus in the volume of the entire book explained to them the great story of the crimson river, of the blood that flowed from the Garden of Eden all the way until the Lamb of God came and provided a sacrifice that was well pleasing, that would redeem those who came to him. All in Adam die, all in Jesus live. In order to become part of Adam's race, you must be born physically, and in order to become a part of the family of God, to become in Christ, you must be born again. You must be born spiritually, physically, the first birth, we are born into a world that is corrupt, and we are born with a nature that is corrupt, with a desire, a propensity, an inclination towards sin, and all will sin and come short of the glory of God. But in Christ Jesus, we are made new. We are born from above. We have a spiritual birth, and that's why we are his spiritual children. Now I'm giving all of this preliminary information to remind you, simply to remind you that God had a plan from the beginning. It was no accident that Jesus died on the cross. That was not plan B. That was plan A. And God had this in mind and had planned it out before the foundation of the world. As a matter of fact, it says the lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world. And so God is God and He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever imagine. And so as we go through this sacrificial system, I want you to think of it as the preview of redemption. Because the blood of bulls and goats, when the people brought their sacrifices, those who truly understood and they were taught this, that this was given in trust, in faith. They sacrificed those animals. They brought all of these offerings in trust, in faith, knowing that one day God would fulfill his promise and would provide redemption. These lambs and rams and bulls and goats could never take away sin. But on the other hand, when they came in faith and trust, believing that they were doing this as an act of faith, as an act of obedience, God blessed that, and their hearts and minds were cleansed. And they did it over and over again. Why? To repeat the lesson. Repetition is the mother of learning, and God gave these repetitions over and over again, yearly sacrifices, so that the people would have a reminder every time they saw the blood shed, every time they would remember God will redeem us one day. God will send a Savior. God will send a redeemer. And all of those pictures throughout the crimson river that we'll study. Even in the book of Ruth with the Goel, that's the Hebrew word for the phrase that we call the kinsman redeemer. And I can't wait until we get there, but we're going to go through all of the stories of redemption. So tomorrow we're going to start through the sacrifices. There are five offerings that are listed in the book of Leviticus, chapters one, two, three, four, and five. The first offering is the burnt offering, sometimes referred to as the whole burn offering. The second in chapter two is the grain offering, and we'll talk about that. Chapter three, the third offering is the peace offering. Chapter four is the sin offering. Chapter five is the guilt or the trespass offering. And we will talk about all of these and I'll explain them to you the very best I can. And so I'll pray that you'll come back day after day as we walk beside the river that is the color of crimson. I'm reminded of what the prophet Isaiah says. Come, come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they will be as white as wool. Hallelujah. Praise the Lamb. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.