How Leviticus Reveals God's Heart and Points to Jesus | Leviticus 1-27

Good morning, Watermark. How are we doing today? Good to see you. I hope all is well. If this is your first time ever with us on a Sunday, thanks for trusting us with your morning. I hope this place feels like home very quickly. It was so good to be here in this room with many of you last night, kicking off our 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting with a Night of Prayer and Worship.

We'll be ending 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting on the 21st with another Night of Prayer and Worship, so make plans from now to join us then. If you're like, "What are you talking about, '21 Days of Prayer and Fasting'? Are you fasting, no eating, for 21 days straight?" That's not what we're talking about. If that's what some of you are doing, that's amazing. That's awesome.

But what we're talking about is 21 days where we're saying, "Hey, this is a moment for our church family to dedicate ourselves in a very, very clear and intentional way," to say, "Hey, over the next 21 days, we want our rhythms of prayer to be more intentional." Fasting, whether it's just fasting from one particular thing over a period of time or maybe going without lunch one day this week…

Whatever it might look like for you, fasting is a way for us to loosen our grip on certain things in our lives so we can more fully embrace Christ. So that's the goal. If you need resources, you can get them on our website, but jump in with us. Okay. Let's get into the Word. I want to invite you to do what we do every Sunday. Take a second and pray, "God, would you speak to me this morning?"

We believe God is here. He wants to meet with us. He wants to speak to our hearts. So, would you just become aware of the fact that God is here and has a message for you today? Ask him. Say, "God, speak to me this morning." Then, would you pray for the people around you and say, "God, would you speak clearly to them as well?" Then, would you pray for me and ask God to speak clearly through me to you?

Lord, we thank you that you have gone to great lengths to speak to us through your Word. We thank you that you've given us your Spirit who leads and guides us into all truth. I pray right now that your Spirit would give us clarity, that we might see you more clearly and hear from you, God, that we would have hearts to receive all you have for us this morning. We give this time to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

I've mentioned it before, but a couple of years ago, my interest in a childhood hobby got reawakened, and that's for sports cards. For some reason, I have gotten hyper-focused on sports cards. I don't know if that's anyone in the room. I might be the only one. I'm okay with that. It's all right. Here's the deal. I've gone so far into the rabbit hole of sports cards, I'm in these Facebook groups where I spend time scrolling to see other cards other people are buying or to the point where I will watch a video of someone else opening a pack of cards. How weird is that? (I can sense your judgment. It's fine.)

There's something interesting you see happen from time to time on Facebook where someone will share this story. This might end up being your story. Someone finally goes and grabs the sports cards that have been up in their parents' closet for decades. They pull them out and look through them, and they realize that, for decades now, they've had something in their possession that's literally worth thousands of dollars. Some people even discover a card that's well over $100,000, and they didn't realize it.

Then there's a different story you see happening where someone has gone to an estate sale or a garage sale and bought someone else's box of cards that has been thrown together, and going through someone's box they got at an estate sale, someone will stumble upon a card worth thousands or tens of thousands or even over $100,000.

There's a difference between the two stories. In one story, you're the one who realizes you've had something in your possession for decades that you didn't know was extremely valuable. Other people, apparently, go their entire lives and never realize what they had in their possession. I tell you that because one of those two scenarios will be your scenario with the book of Leviticus.

Either today is going to be the day where you realize, "I have gone decades, and I never knew this book was that valuable," or some of you guys are going to die and be like, "I never got it. I never realized that book was that valuable." See, the hard thing with Leviticus is it feels like a very inaccessible book. There's no warm-up to it. You just go right in.

It's so painfully detailed that it simply becomes the book you either never want to touch or, when you finally finish it, you're like… You need a sports drink. You're like, "Okay. Phew! That was tough. Let's not do that again for several years." Like, you just accomplished something really significant. You didn't enjoy it, you didn't get anything out of it, but at least you finished it.

If you finished it this past week, way to go. Some of y'all were like, "I am so proud of myself. I have read through Leviticus." But this morning, what I want to show you is that you cannot… This is not an exaggeration. You cannot fully appreciate Jesus Christ if you do not fully appreciate the book of Leviticus. That is no joke. Truly. If you don't understand Leviticus, you don't fully understand Jesus. That's it.

The reason Leviticus is so important is because Leviticus takes a major step in answering the question the entire Bible is seeking to answer. Do you remember? We started from day one, and we said, "If you want to understand the Bible, you need to remember one name, four movements, and one question."

What's the one name? What are the four movements? Creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. Then there's one question the Bible is seeking to answer. Here it is: How can sinful human beings be acceptable to and together with a holy God forever? Leviticus is the clearest answer in the Bible this far to that question.

Leviticus is going to lay major groundwork in answering this question. That's how important this book is. So, this morning, I'm going to show you five beautiful realities of the book of Leviticus. I'm going to show you why this book is so beautiful, why it's so valuable, and why the next time you read it you won't be able to read it the same way ever again. Here we go.

1. The grace of God. Leviticus reveals the grace of God. Here's the thing: it feels really hidden, because the book is just a bunch of laws. When you see a bunch of laws in 27 chapters, it's hard to see how Leviticus has anything to do with the grace of God. When we're talking about the grace of God, we're talking about the unearned, undeserved blessing and favor of God.

What you have to understand is when God gives these rules, it's shortly after the Israelites have created a golden cow and worshiped it as god. It's right after they've erected the tabernacle. Yet, God gives them laws as a way to say, "Guys, I still want us to be together. You guys have done nothing but complain since I rescued you from slavery. You've built a calf out of gold, and that gold came from me giving it to you, in a sense, yet I still want to be with you." That's called grace.

This book is a holy God moving toward a sinful people. The book assumes that the Israelites are sinful. That's why it was written. Yet God is moving near to a sinful people. He gives these laws to spell out for the people how they can make sure nothing hinders their intimacy with God. That's how gracious God is.

The Israelites don't deserve these laws, but this is a holy God moving toward a sinful people, saying, "I still want to be with you, so let me give you clear rules to live by so that nothing gets in between us." That's grace. Listen to what Leviticus 20:22 says. This is so important in understanding the flow of Scripture. It says, "You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out."

How does that have anything to do with the story of Scripture? Well, think about it. You start in Genesis, and you have God, with a people, in a specific place, accomplishing a specific purpose. What's the consequence for their sin? They are vomited out of the land. But now you get these traces of Eden again where God is bringing a people back to a place, enjoying his presence in the tabernacle, and they're responsible for accomplishing a certain purpose.

So, God is basically saying, in some ways, "Let's try this again. I still want to be with you." A holy God still is moving toward sinful people and saying, "Look. Here are rules so that what happened to Adam and Eve doesn't happen to you. If you don't follow my rules, just like Adam and Eve didn't follow my rules… They got vomited out of the land. You, too, will get vomited out of the land." This is God's grace.

So, if this book is actually God's grace toward humanity, just think about how the book flows. You get chapters 1-7 where God gives sacrifices that atone for Israel's sin. This is a holy God saying, "Look. I know you're still not going to get it right. I know you are still going to sin, yet in my grace, I'm going to give you sacrifices that are going to cover over your sin so we can keep moving forward together."

In chapters 8-10, God gives them leaders to help direct them in worshiping rightly. In chapters 11-15, God is saying, "Let's just be clear. There's a right way and a wrong way to worship me, so I just want to tell you clearly how to worship me rightly so that nothing comes between us." Then in chapter 16, you get this catchall sacrifice, the Day of Atonement, which is like, "Hey, if there's anything that has gotten missed, anything that has gotten skipped, if there's any sin among any one of the people, we're going to take care of it…Day of Atonement."

Then chapters 17-27. This is kindly saying, "Hey, let me just spell it out so specifically so it doesn't feel like you're wandering in the dark trying to figure out what's going to be pleasing to God and what's going to be displeasing. Let me be really clear with you so you know." It's all God's grace.

See, Leviticus is just one more reminder that a holy God moves toward a sinful people. You see that in the Old Testament with Israel, and you see it in the New Testament when God, in the person of Jesus Christ, moves toward not just one nation but to all humanity. God is in the business of moving near.

Our family had a Labrador for 13-1/2 years. Her name was Maddy. She was an amazing dog. She was so sweet. We loved her, but when we got Maddy, I had all of these visions of this really affectionate, "man's best friend"-type dog. Like, the minute I walk in and sit down, this dog would be at my feet, curled up next to me. That was my vision. Maddy was not that type of dog.

I would move close to Maddy. I'd start petting her, and then she would get up, move over, and sit back down. She would move 10 feet over. I was like, "Okay. That's fine." Something in me was like, "Fine. You don't want to be close? I don't want to be close to you." This was a dog, but something in me was that offended. That's us with God. To be clear, you and I are the dog in this story. If you're offended, welcome to reality. This is who we are.

God moves close. Do you know what we do? We get up. We say, "I don't want to be close to you," and we move over. God moves over closer to us again. We get up and move. For some of us, this is our ongoing reality, where we are consistently resisting God's love. He's moving toward us, yet we insist on doing life on our own. You need to know the fact that you're even here this morning is God getting up and moving toward you, saying, "I want you. I love you. I want to be with you. Stop resisting my love."

This is anyone's story. If you know Jesus Christ, here's your story. Your story isn't that you got up and moved toward God; your story is that in his infinite kindness, a holy God moved toward you. When something in you was resistant toward him, rebelling against him, he moved in, and he has made himself at home in your life. It's the grace of God. That's the book of Leviticus: God moving near.

2. A need for reverence in worship. Here's the thing. When you read Leviticus, if you just live in the weeds, you're not going to get it. You're going to be miserable. But if you can stay zoomed out, it becomes such a beautiful and helpful book. Leviticus reveals a need for reverence in worship. In chapters 1-7, God gives sacrifices, because sin will hinder intimacy. God is like, "That's why we have these things. These sacrifices exist for you to either say to God, 'I'm sorry' or 'Thank you.'" That's why those sacrifices exist.

Those two things are very important in worship. If you want a right relationship with God, there has to be this component of your relationship with him where you're saying, "Thank you" and "I'm sorry." That's right worship. God gives chapters 8-10 because he wants leaders to direct and say, "Look. There is a right and a wrong way to worship." Chapters 11-15: "Look. You don't just show up unclean." It reveals a need for reverence in worship.

Now, this is the point in the message where I say some things that deal with any space issues we have. I'm going to say some things right now that some of you just don't want to hear, but I'm saying these things as an invitation to more reverently meet with God here when we come together or when you sit with God in your quiet time at home.

So you just have to think. If we really believe God is here right now, that he wants to speak to us, that God, right now, is moving toward us and wants to be with us, then it's at least worth asking if there are any ways we come into this place to worship and are far too casual. This is the tension I feel as one of the people who's seeking to lead you.

I want this place to be a place of freedom where, when you come in, you feel the freedom to truly engage and worship. If you want to lift your hands, you can lift your hands, and you don't need to worry, "Do people think I'm crazy because I'm lifting my hands?" No, we don't think you're crazy. But if you just sit and meditate on the words and process them, that people also won't think, "Oh, they're not into worship. They must not be into Jesus." No. Both can exist.

You can be free to worship him, but the key is that you're free to worship him. See, my fear is that some of us are far too casual when we come into this place. For example, we can go on autopilot worship, which I've talked about before. Autopilot worship is where we sing and mouth the words to every song while solving all of life's problems in our mind at the same time.

We're like, "Oh, praise the…" What did I need to get from Costco? What's the thing that when I left the house this morning I was like, "You've got to get that"? "…of the Lord…" I cannot believe she is wearing that to church. That is crazy. "Oh, praise his name for…" Oh gosh! I've got to email that person. Do you know what I'm talking about? Some of y'all just did it for 15 minutes. You know exactly what I'm talking about. The author of Ecclesiastes would look at those of us who just had autopilot worship and be like, "Hey, let your words be few."

It would be better to not sing and to acknowledge, "God, I'm distracted right now, so I'm going to sit down and deal with my distractions, as opposed to mouthing along so that everyone else thinks I'm worshiping when you see right into my heart and see I'm so disconnected from you right now." Some of us have no issue toggling between our Bible app and our email app or text or Instagram in the middle of the service. It's like, "I mean, this is fun. God wants to speak, but let's see if anyone else wants to speak to me right now."

Many of us can fight with loved ones on the way to church. You have your best fights on the way to church. Hey, conflict is a part of every marriage, so if you have a conflict on the way to church… I'm not shaming you for having a conflict on the way to church. That's not the point right now. I want you to hear this. I'm not shaming you for anything, but I do want to call out something we must repent of, that we can be harsh, condescending, selfish, and hurtful, and then we can step into this room and sing to God with no issue whatsoever. It shouldn't be that way. There's a right and a wrong way to worship.

There have been times where Kat and I have come into worship right after being in conflict, and during the song, it is, "Hey, Kat, will you forgive me for this?" There are times before I'm about to speak where I have to get on the phone with Kat and be like, "Hey, Kat," or put one of the kids on the phone. "Hey, would you forgive me?" I don't say this to be like, "Look at me." I say this to say, "Look, I get it." But there's a right and a wrong way to worship.

Probably the one some of y'all are going to want to hear the least, and it's totally going to mess up your plans today… Sometimes we value leaving early to beat traffic more than taking one more opportunity to praise God through song or to ask him if there is anything else he wants to say to us, and we completely forget the fact that God might be meeting with someone right next to us when we're packing up our stuff and moving past them just to get out a little faster.

See, here's what I'm trying to show you. Leviticus reveals the necessity for reverence in worship. When we come into this place and even acknowledge, "God, I'm distracted. God, I need to repent of sin in my life. God, what do you want to say to me now…" When we come in and are that honest, that authentic, it shows that we really get what Jesus did for us, that Jesus Christ has come to make a way for us into the Holy Place.

He has come, he has died, he has conquered the grave, and in doing all of that, the veil, the curtain, separating the Holy of Holies from humanity was torn from top to bottom. So, when we come into this place and respond rightly, that's our way of saying, "I get it. Jesus, I get it. That's what it took for me to even be able to come and meet with God. It took God himself taking on flesh, being crucified like a criminal, and conquering death. I get it, and I'm grateful, and I'm going to lean in."

3. What God values. Leviticus is a book of laws, and if we're not careful, our tendency will be to jump straight to Jesus and be like, "Okay. You know what? The good thing is that because of Jesus, Leviticus doesn't apply anymore." It does apply. Not in the specific ways of "Hey, you have more than one fabric in that shirt? Get it out of here." It's not that. The way it applies is it shows us God's heart.

These laws tell us what God values. God doesn't change. He's the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. So, what does God value? It's Leviticus 19:1-2. "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.'"

If you want a verse that summarizes the entire book, that's it. The summary statement for the book of Leviticus is "Be holy because God is holy." That's the point. We serve a holy God, and God's desire is that we would be holy people. Because he is holy, he wants us to be holy. Because he is set apart and distinct, he wants his people to be set apart and distinct.

It's kind of like this. If you think about the darkness in this room, this is reflective of the entire world. Everyone, all of humanity, has been thoroughly infected by the disease of sin, and because of that disease, we walk in darkness, but when you know Christ, who is the Light of the World, you yourself become light. When you become light, you become different.

Now, there's still a lot of darkness in this room, but it is inescapable and undeniable that light breaks through darkness. God's desire is that just as he is distinct from or separate from humanity… His desire, as a holy God, is that his people would be holy, that when we know him, we, too, would be set apart or distinct from humanity, that we would look different.

So, if you look throughout the laws, what do you see? God wants undivided devotion. That's why in Leviticus 19:4 he says, "Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves any gods of cast metal: I am the Lord your God." It's just good for us, as believers, to ask the question…Do our affections look just like the affections of the world? Do we make idols out of the things the rest of the world makes idols of? We have only one God.

There's a whole chapter just on sexual purity, because God cares about our sexuality. God is still operating under what he established in the garden. That's the right side of history. The right side of history is the pre-fall side of history where God created a man and a woman to come together and experience sexual intimacy in the context of marriage. Yet, you see humanity is thoroughly bent on doing their own thing.

So, it's worth asking the question…Here in the church, does our relationship with sex look different than the rest of the world or do we continue to run to and make a god out of the same thing the rest of the world makes a god out of? You look in the Scriptures, and God is very clear about how he feels about incest, bestiality, homosexuality, and adultery. He's very clear on those things. Do we look any different?

He talks about caring for the poor. Leviticus 19:10: "And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God." He cares about how we treat the poor. He cares about how we love one another. Leviticus 19:18: "You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord."

We live in a world where people just cancel one another. It's like, "You've offended me? I'm done with you." Yet in the church, the people of God… God says, "No, you should be known for your love." You don't bear a grudge. You move toward one another. You fight for reconciliation. You get in the ring together. You duke it out to be one.

So, it's good for us to see that Leviticus can be extremely convicting, because Leviticus shines a light into the dark places of our own lives. It exposes the darkness in us still about sexuality or the idols in our lives. That's why 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting has been helpful for me. It allows me to see the things in my life that I have too tight of a grip on.

I want to ask this section right here in front of me to get out your phones and turn the flashlight on. This is the only time in church that we're like, "Yeah, get out your phone." Now, here's what I want you to see. It kind of looks like Christmas Eve in here a little bit. Do you know what happens when there is a group of people who know the light of Christ and are committed to reflecting the light of Christ through their lives? We become a compelling community.

A dark world might look at just one person and say, "Yeah, he's just a weirdo. He's the only one I know like that." But when there are hundreds of people in the same neighborhood, in the same city, in the same workplaces, who are all saying, "No, we've seen the light, and the light has shone into my darkness. And you know what? It has brought wholeness. It has brought healing. It has brought life and joy, because I have found the only one my soul has been made for, Jesus Christ," that becomes a compelling community.

It also becomes convicting. The interesting thing is, especially for the people sitting up front, if this light hits you in the eyes, even just this small light… If it hits you in the eyes in just the right way, it hurts. Just this one small light can still be unpleasant to see. For many unbelievers in this world, when they see the light of a Christian, it can be so foolish to them it's offensive, yet that might be what God uses to shine into their darkness and call them to light. God calls us to be different, to be holy. That's what Leviticus reveals.

4. Our need for atonement. This is huge. If you're tuned out because I had the lights off for too long, wake up. If you want to understand the Bible and the beauty of Leviticus, this is it right here. Leviticus reveals our need for atonement. The word atonement is mentioned 47 times in the book of Leviticus. The Hebrew word means to cover over.

If we're going to have a right relationship with a holy God, something is going to have to cover over us. You see this foreshadowed in Genesis, chapter 3. What does God do when Adam and Eve have sinned? He clothes them. He covers them up with animal skins. By the death of an animal, he covers over them. That foreshadows how God would make a way back for unholy people to a holy God.

The question the Scripture is answering is…How can sinful human beings be acceptable to and together with a holy God forever? Do you know what the answer is? One word: atonement. That's it. That's the answer to the question. How is it possible? Atonement. But you have to understand your need for atonement. You have to understand your need for God to provide something that will cover over your sin.

The book of Leviticus is exposing a need. Why are there 613 laws? Because that's how depraved humanity is. God says, "You will have no other gods besides me," and we're like, "Okay. Well, we'll find a ton of ways to have other gods besides you." God says, "I want you to be set apart in your sexuality." Humanity says, "Look. We'll come up with a host of ways to rebel against you in terms of our sexuality." God says, "Love one another," so we say, "You know what? I'm going to find all sorts of ways to hate other people, to defraud other people, to cheat people."

God has created all of these laws because we need them. It shows just how elaborate sin is, but Leviticus also shows how constant sin is. You know that section, chapters 11-15, where it's painfully unpacking how you become unclean? You become unclean by anything. It's like, you touch a dead body… Now we don't do that often, but back then, it was more of a real thing.

You could become unclean by eating certain foods, touching a dead body, or having a certain skin infection. So good luck with your eczema. A woman's menstrual cycle would make her unclean. Having a baby would make a woman unclean. Having sexual relations with your spouse could make you unclean. If your house had mold in it, it would make you and your house unclean.

Being unclean was different than being in sin. It wasn't sinful to have a baby, but it did make you ritually unclean. You weren't allowed to come to the tabernacle to worship if you were unclean. But here's the thing. It was hard to even go an entire day without becoming unclean. That is why God made it possible that you would only be unclean until evening, and then it would start over. You'd be clean again.

This was God's way of shaping the Israelites' understanding of sin. See, ritual purity was teaching Israelites something about moral purity. What's the point? It is impossible to even go a day without sinning against a holy God. It's impossible. Every aspect of life has been so fractured by sin that we are desperately in need of God making a way for us back to him.

So, God in his kindness, in the book of Leviticus, shows that he provides for us so our sins can be atoned for. You get Leviticus 16, which is the crux of the book. It's the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement happened one time a year, where the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies to meet with God on behalf of the nation of Israel. The high priest was only allowed in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement once a year.

When he would enter the Holy of Holies, he would have two goats. He would confess the sins of the entire nation of Israel on those goats. One of the goats would be killed, and he would take the blood of that goat and sprinkle it on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies. The other goat was taken outside of the camp and released into the wilderness for that goat to run away.

Those two goats represent two very important things. I love how the children's Bible The Biggest Story puts it. Those two goats provide for our sins to be forgiven and forgotten. See, that goat that was slaughtered and the blood that was sprinkled on the mercy seat demonstrated that a life was taking the place of another life. See, blood was associated with life. The life of a goat was taking the place of the life of a person. The animal lost its life so people could be forgiven of their sins and keep their lives.

The second goat was to demonstrate not that sins had been forgiven but that sins had been forgotten by God. That goat that was taken outside of the camp and released… As it ran off, it was running away with the people's sins. It was carrying the people's sins far off. That's why the psalmist is able to say, "As far as the east is from the west, so far has God taken our sins away from us."

God has provided a way for our sins to be forgiven and forgotten. It reveals our need for atonement. The question is…Do you even know your need? I think so many people in the world don't understand their need. That's why Christianity makes no sense to a lot of people. People don't see a need for atonement. I'll explain it this way.

When one of my boys was only 3 or 4 years old… Just think about a 3- or 4-year-old, just a little guy. We were living in College Station. This is one of my favorite stories. He was just a little guy, and it was dinnertime. I can't remember if he had just used the bathroom or if he was just living the life of a 3- or 4-year-old. I was like, "Hey, dude, if you're going to come and eat dinner, you have to wash your hands before you come to the table."

He was like, "I don't want to wash my hands." I said, "Hey, man, if you're going to eat dinner, you've got to wash your hands." He just lost his ever-loving mind. He started crying. He started losing it. He didn't want to wash his hands. You know what? This isn't about my parenting techniques. Sometimes I'd just let it slide. In this moment, I was like, "No. This is a moment where I'm going to teach him, 'Man, you need to come to the table with clean hands.'"

I was like, "Hey, man, if you're just going to cry, you have to go sit in your room until you're ready to wash your hands and come to the table." So he goes to his room, and he's just crying. I go to him. I'm like, "Hey, man, are you ready to come eat? All you have to do is wash your hands." He's like, "Okay." So he comes. We have a bathroom right by our kitchen. I go back, and I'm sitting at the table. (I love this so much.)

He goes into the bathroom, still crying, and he's washing his hands. We can hear him. The door is open. We're sitting at the table. This is my little 3- or 4-year-old son. As he's washing his hands, here's what he says. He goes, "I hate this place." I died. It was the best thing he could have said. We have to deal with that in his heart, but I was like, "That is such a strong statement." "I hate this place."

What would cause him to hate this place? A lack of understanding of his need for cleansing. This is people's problem with Christianity. People want a version of Christianity that's just, "Hey, do better. Try harder. Just live a good life. Find your way up the mountain. Find a spirituality that works for you." Here's the problem: God is holy. If he is a holy God and we are unholy people, you don't need a good life; you need a perfect life. You need a holy life. You need cleansing.

So, people view all of the rules of Christianity… "You need a Savior because you're a sinner." People hear that, and they're like, "I don't get it. That doesn't make sense. That's so exclusive. It's so hateful." No, it's so loving that a holy God wouldn't just end us all. Instead, he would move toward us and say, "I'm going to do for you what you can't do for yourself. I'm going to atone for you. I'm going to make a way." It reveals our need for atonement.

5. The joy-inducing sufficiency of Christ. A guy at the gym this week was like, "I'm so thankful for Jesus in light of Leviticus." That's how you know when you "get" Leviticus: when you find yourself saying, "I am so thankful for Jesus in light of Leviticus." Why? Because Jesus has fulfilled the law. You should read all 27 chapters and be like, "This is crazy. This is how sufficient Jesus is, that we aren't sitting here working through all of the different things that can make us ritually unclean."

We should be so thankful we're not going through all of these different sacrifices…the grain offering, the peace offering…all of these different offerings to either say, "Thank you" or "I'm sorry" to God. That's how sufficient Jesus is. When you find yourself more grateful for Jesus, that's when you know you get Leviticus, but here's what you need to make sure of. You have to make sure you understand why we aren't under the law.

We can say, "Jesus has fulfilled the law," but do you even know what you're saying when you say that? You have to think about it this way. God hasn't changed. He's just as holy. Humanity hasn't changed. Humanity is just as unholy. So, how has Christ done something so sufficient it makes Leviticus something that isn't as directly applicable to our lives today? Here it is. Hebrews 9:11-14. Read this with Leviticus in your mind.

"But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Hebrews 10:1, with Leviticus in mind: "For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near."

Verses 11-12: "And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…" Why? Because it was finished. "…waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

That's what makes Leviticus so beautiful. Christ is our High Priest. Christ is the one who entered the Holy of Holies, offering not the blood of an animal but his very own blood. He was perfect. He became the perfect, spotless Lamb who takes away the sins of the world. It was his life for our lives. He died so we could live. He's the one who was taken outside of the city, outside of the camp, and crucified so our sin could not just be forgiven but forgotten by a holy God.

Because of Christ, we are now permanently clean. Not just clean, but we are holy, positionally holy before God. Instead of needing to go to the tabernacle, God has chosen to tabernacle in us by putting his Holy Spirit, who is constantly working in us to make us more and more like Christ and less and less like the world. What does that mean? He is making us practically holy. That's what makes Leviticus so beautiful. You can't understand Jesus without understanding Leviticus.

So, if you go into your closet, find your old sports cards, start looking through them, and find something worth thousands of dollars, do you know what you do with it? You do something that demonstrates you understand how valuable it is. You put it in a case. You display it. You show it to other people. What does it look like when you understand just how valuable Leviticus is? You respond as if you get it.

There are two right ways to respond: repentance and worship. What do you need to do this morning? Repent and worship. Repent of the ways you've been too casual. Repent of the ways your life has looked no different than the rest of the world. Worship. A holy God has moved toward an unholy people. God himself has made atonement so we could not just be clean but holy. Repent. Worship.

If you're here this morning, and you don't know Jesus Christ, the only way for you and me to be together with and acceptable to a holy God forever is only through knowing Jesus who lived, died, and rose from the dead for you and me. Let's pray together. As we go to respond through song, I just want to invite you to consider how you need to respond right now, whether it's to repent or to worship.

Lord God, we pray that you would open our eyes to see you more clearly. Thank you, God. We thank you and praise you for the book of Leviticus. We thank you that you're a God who consistently moves toward us. We acknowledge that we are a people in need of cleansing, so we thank you for the atonement that is made possible through Christ. If there's anyone here this morning who doesn't know you, I pray that this morning would be the day they realize that you are moving toward them and inviting them to a life and an eternity with you. We love you, God. In Jesus' name, amen.