Old Testament in a Year: Leviticus 1-13

If you are joining us for the first time or maybe you've only been around for a few weeks. In 2026, we're preaching through the entire Old Testament. We have a reading plan that goes along with that so that you can be reading scripture and be following along with the verses and the chapters that we're covering on Sundays. It's also a way for many of you that have never read the Bible cover to cover for you to read through the entire Bible in a two year period. The first quarter reading plan looks like this.

They're available at the information desk. And many of you know that we are in the book of Leviticus for the past week or so. And how many of you would agree with your pastor that Leviticus is a tough book to get through? Would anybody agree? There's just some weird stuff in the book of Leviticus.

You kind of have to plow through it. I joked with the Wednesday night crowd this past Wednesday night when somebody was asking me, pastor, what in the world are you going to do with all the stuff in Leviticus? I said, I'll tell you exactly what I'm going to do. I'm going to skip it.

But then I decided I can't do that. There are so many great things in the book of Leviticus. Maybe you've gone to a movie before and, and as the movie is about to begin, they throw up a warning. The warning looks something like this graphic content. And you know, maybe I shouldn't watch this.

There's going to be violence or gore, somebody's going to get their head cut off, something like that. And maybe I shouldn't watch this. I kind of think that label should have been at the beginning of Leviticus. For those of you that are kind of like, you get light headed when somebody talks about blood or you know, stuff like that because you know, the book of Leviticus is full of stuff like mildew and skin infections, bodily discharges and food that you can and can't eat. I mean, there's just all kind of stuff in there.

But here's the beauty and you're going to see that today. There's also just some great, great stuff in the book of Leviticus that points us towards Jesus. So the notes are there on the app. I encourage you to pull those up so that you can follow along, take notes, go to Leviticus. We're preaching through chapters one and through 13 today, covering those chapters.

And we're going to see some great stuff this morning that maybe you've never seen before in the book of Leviticus. And our theme in these chapters is giving to God. Giving to God. Take your Bible, your device, whatever you have, go to Leviticus chapter 9 and stand to honor the word of God if you will. This morning, as we read a few verses out of Leviticus chapter 9, beginning in verse 22, here's what we find.

And then Aaron lifted his hands towards the people and blessed them. And having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the fellowship offering, he stepped down. Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. And when they came out, they blessed the people, and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar.

And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and they fell face down. When all the people saw it, what did they see? They saw the glory of God. When they saw the glory of God, they shouted with joy and then they fell face down. I think that maybe is a picture of what's going to happen when we enter into heaven.

Maybe we're going to shout for joy and fall on our faces before the throne in worshiping him. Let's make some declarations today before you're seated. Everybody together. Ready, go. I will hide this word in my heart that I might not sin against God, and health to my bones, I will be a doer of the word, not a hearer only.

And I'm confident of this that he who has begun a good work in me in Jesus name, Amen. You can be seated. It might be helpful for you to know, as you're reading through the Book of Leviticus, might be helpful for you to know that the Mosaic Law is classified in three different categories. The Mosaic Law is classified according to civil law, moral law and ceremonial law. Civil law, moral law and ceremonial law.

So everything you read in the Book of Leviticus, it all falls under one of those categories. Civil law obviously applies to the nation of Israel. And it was laws that govern national policy, business issues, property disputes. Now, the Church is not a nation, so we don't have civil law for the Church. Second classification is moral law.

And we are still bound by the moral laws that we find in the book of Leviticus. God's principles for right and wrong. Every one of God's moral laws in the Old Testament is repeated in the New Testament. And it's binding for us. We don't push it aside because it's in the Old Covenant, still binding.

It's still pertinent to our lives. The last Category is what we call ceremonial law. And that's where we find a lot of the things that deal with feasts or ceremonies or animal sacrifices or washing and purifying yourself or festivals or kosher food laws or priests in the temples and the Sabbath and all of those things. A lot of the weird things that we read in Leviticus fall under the category of ceremonial law. Now, here's the thing that's so important for us to understand that the ceremonial law was just meant to be a teaching tool and to point us towards the person and the nature of the coming Messiah.

And everything in the ceremonial law has been fulfilled. Christ, the Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians chapter 2, verse 16. Therefore, do not let anybody judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration, or a Sabbath day. Jesus fulfilled everything that we find in the ceremonial law of the Old Testament. Jesus himself said, I didn't come to abolish that.

I didn't come so that that could be set aside. No, Jesus said, I came to fulfill all of the law and the prophets. And he did that. Can I get an amen? He fulfilled all of the law but the Old Testament.

In the Old Testament, we find types and shadows of the coming work of the Messiah. We find great value. And we find that in the midst of these things that we read, we are pointed towards our relationship with Jesus Christ. Now, the first five chapters of Leviticus, again, our theme is giving to God. In the first five chapters, we find these different offerings that are offered to God, five of them.

The first one is the burnt offering in chapter one. The burnt offering was a voluntary act of worship that expressed devotion unlike any of the other sacrifices. The burnt offering, the entire animal is consumed. We saw in what we read a moment ago, even the fat portions were consumed. And it symbolizes the worshiper handing everything over to God.

In other words, the burnt offering was this sacrificial act that said, I'm devoting my whole self to God. Everything that I have belongs to Him. Now the apostle Paul comes along in Romans chapter 12, verse 1. And the apostle Paul says, you're not supposed to just do that one time or one time a year. Now the apostle Paul says, basically every day of our lives we're to put ourself on the altar.

Notice what he says in verse one of Romans chapter 12. So, brothers and sisters, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him, which is the spiritual way for you to worship. Now, In Leviticus chapter 1, as people are bringing burnt offerings before the Lord, we find different types of animals that they're bringing for the burnt offering. Now, the type of animal was determined by your financial status.

Some people could bring a calf. Some people could only bring a dove or a lamb. But it didn't matter the size of the offering. Here's what mattered. The posture of your heart.

And three different times we find in Leviticus Chapter one this phrase. It is a special gift. Regardless of which animal it is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord. Listen to me, church. That should be our goal.

Every day of our lives, like every day, we present ourselves to the Lord, we climb up onto the altar and we say, God, today my life belongs to you. And the way I live my life, the. The way I worship you, the way I've served other people, the way I spend time in your presence, I want that to translate into this aroma that rises to your nostrils and rises to your throne. Not every now and then, but every single day. The Apostle Paul says, present yourself as a living sacrifice before the Lord.

And the idea is that every part of the sacrifice, you and I being the sacrifice, every day, is consumed and burned up in his presence. That there's nothing else that remains. Here's the second offering that we see in chapter two. Second offering is a grain offering. It's a gift of flour and oil and frankincense.

This was a way of saying, everything that I have has come from you. And there were certain key aspects. I'll put them in your notes. Number one, there was a consecration aspect of the grain offering. That's where we get the concept of first fruits.

When people would harvest their grain, they would take the first of the harvest and they would present it to the Lord. And it was their way of consecrating the rest that remained. It's the same concept of the tithe. We present the first of our earnings to the Lord and we say, God, everything I have belongs to you. It all has come from you.

And by presenting this to you as an offering to you, I believe it redeems the rest. It consecrates the rest. And that's what that act of the grain offering symbolized. Secondly, there was gratitude. It was a voluntary act, and it was to be done with joy.

It wasn't to be done with a begrudging attitude, with a bad attitude of sin. Oh, here you go, God, I gotta do this because the law calls for me to bring this into your presence. No. The apostle Paul reminds the Corinthian church, God loves a cheerful giver. That word in the Greek translates hilarious.

Giver. That we bring our offering, our grain offering to the Lord. Most of us aren't farmers. You're not growing wheat. But what you do is you bring the first of your earnings to the Lord.

And you say, God, I recognize everything I have. You're the source. It's all come from you. And I don't do it with a bad attitude. God, I consecrate this before you, and I do it with great joy because I know the kind of Father that you are.

And I know by me bringing this to you and honoring you, it's going to redeem the rest. The third aspect of the offerings that we bring to the Lord is that it should always point to Christ. There was no leaven in the grain offering. Why? Because Jesus was sinless.

And that's a reminder to us as we bring the grain offering before the Lord, there's no leaven. It's without sin. Number four, the aspect of holiness. The fine and unblemished flower reflects the call for holiness in the life of a believer. Number five.

The fragrance, the frankincense that was offered reminds us that that's to be our lives every day. We're to live our life in a way that's a sweet aroma to him. Not only that, there were key components to the grain offering. Number one, there was fine flour. It represents the humanity and the perfection of Christ.

Number two, oil symbolized the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Number three, frankincense, the fragrance of worship, like we've offered to the Lord this morning in worship. The fragrance of intercession that's offered to the Lord. Number four. There was salt.

Salt symbolized the endurance of the covenant, the permanence of the covenant. Jesus said about you and I in the New Testament in Matthew, chapter 5, verse 13. Guess what? You're the salt of the earth. What did he mean by that?

Well, we're supposed to bring flavor to those around us, but also the way we live our life in pure devotion to the Lord should remind everybody around us of the covenant that God has made with us and that we can be in covenant relationship with him. And then number five, no leaven, no honey. It was excluded. Leaven was excluded to represent the removal of sin. Honey was added to represent the sweetness of relationship with Jesus.

The third offering we see in chapter three was the fellowship or the peace offering. Think of this as a communion meal. It was Voluntary, and it expressed gratitude for the fulfillment of a vow. The unique part of this offering that was brought to the Lord, and this is the beauty of it, is that the person bringing the offering was allowed to consume a portion of that offering with the priest. In other words, the entire sacrifice was not burned up like the burnt offering, but you actually could sit down with the priest and you could consume a part of the offering.

And it was a peace offering. It was about relationship. It was about us reconciling differences with somebody else. And it symbolized a shared meal and peace with God. Isaiah, chapter 1, verse 18.

We find these words, come now, let's settle this, says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool. Your version might say, come, let's reason together. In other words, God's saying, come on, sit down. Let's have a meal together.

Let's work this thing out. Because I want you to understand that I can forgive you of your sins. I can reconcile you to God. You can have peace with God through relationship with Jesus. And then In John, chapter 21, beginning in verse 12 and 13, we find these words.

Jesus said to them, come and have breakfast. None of the disciples dared ask him, who are you? They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread, gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. Now, this is after the crucifixion.

This is after the resurrection. And listen, the disciples were in great turmoil. The disciples needed peace. Their whole paradigm had shifted. Their whole world as they knew it had been turned upside down.

And what does Jesus do? Jesus says, guys, come here. Sit down. Let's share a meal together. And by doing that, all of a sudden, Jesus brings to them peace.

And guess what? He does the same with us. Like when the things are out of order in our lives, we can go into the presence of God. And that's where he invites us. He says in revelation, come and die.

Come sit down with me and hang out. If you're in turmoil, if you don't know what to do, if you're disconnected from God because of sin in your life, don't run away from my presence. Run into my presence. And let's sit down and let's reason together. Let's work this out so that you understand My blood is powerful enough to cover whatever you've done.

The next offering we find in chapter four and the beginning of chapter five. Is the sin offering mandatory for unintentional sins or Ceremonial uncleanness. It focused on us being pure. It was done year after year, year after year. But I want you to see in Hebrews chapter 10 what Jesus did for us.

Remember, everything that we find in the Old Testament is a type and a shadow of the coming Messiah. And the priests in the Old Testament under the Mosaic law, would offer on behalf of the people this sin offering so they could be cleansed. They could be pure for another year. But look what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 1. The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves.

The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared. But instead, those sacrifices actually reminded them of their sins year after year. Skip over to verse 12. Watch this.

But our high priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins good for all to time. And then notice this. And then he sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. Can I tell you something? Priests never sat down.

Why? Because to sit down meant the work was finished. And for a priest, under the Mosaic law, the work was never done. They had to offer sacrifices over and over and over. So a priest would never sit down while he was on duty.

But here we find Jesus, our high priest, offers himself as a sin sacrifice for you and I. Takes our filth and our shame and our guilt upon himself, and he washes us once and for all, the Scripture says, sheds his blood one time, and his one shedding of blood covers our sins and covers all the sins of humanity. And then Jesus sits down at the right hand of the Father. Why? Because he says, it's done, it's over, it's finished.

No more sacrifices that need to be made. Come on. Are you thankful for that today?

And then the last offering that we find in chapter five and the beginning of chapter six is the guilt offering. The guilt offering dealt with the sins that caused a loss, either a loss in our relationship with God or a loss in our relationship with others. But either way, the guilt offering was representative of our responsibility to be agents of restoration. Because our trespasses, our sins, oftentimes affect the relationships that we have with others. Offenses against others are also offenses against God.

And Jesus says in Matthew, chapter 5, verse 23. So when you offer your gift to God at the altar and you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go and make peace with that person, and then come and offer your gift. In other words, the responsibility for reconciliation falls on us. And that's an offering that we bring to God. Remember, our theme is God giving to God.

We give our lives to God. We give our first fruits to God. We give our sin and our shame and our mistakes to God that are covered by his blood. We bring a peace offering to God so that we can reconcile things in his presence. And we bring a guilt offering to the Lord.

And we say, God, if I've offended you or if I've done anything that has harmed relationships with others, it's on me to make that right, God. And so I offer you an offering of reconciliation with others in the body of Christ. Now listen to me. Y' all still with me? Anybody learning anything yet?

The altar is a place of sacrifice, and it's a place to die. Let's not forget that the altar is a place of sacrifice and it's a place where things die. Die. And in the Old Testament, under the old covenant, it was the responsibility of the priest to maintain the altar. However, now we're under the new covenant, and that responsibility shifts to each one of us.

We're now priests. The Bible says we. If we're in relationship with Jesus, we. And guess what? The temple is not this building.

We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And the responsibility that used to fall on the priest to maintain the altar now falls on you and I. And our responsibility is the same. And we read about it in Leviticus, chapter 6. Watch this.

Beginning in verse 9, give Aaron and his sons the following instructions regarding the burnt offering. The burnt offering must be left on top of the altar until the next morning. And the fire on the altar must be kept burning all night. Verse 12. Meanwhile, the fire on the altar must be kept burning.

It must never go out. Watch. This is the responsibility of the priest under the Mosaic law. Now it's our responsibility. Each morning, the priest will add fresh wood to the fire and and arrange the burnt offering on it.

Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out. Here's my question for you. Are you daily cultivating a relationship with the person of the Holy Spirit? Cause I've got news for you.

It's not my primary responsibility or the primary responsibility of the pastors who are here at the refuge to keep your fire burning.

No, don't put that on me. You have a responsibility every day to put wood on the altar so that there's fuel for the person and the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn. Are you staying in the presence of God? Are you staying in the word of God? Are you cultivating a life of worship?

That's how you put wood on the altar day after day after day, and that's your responsibility. So if you do nothing throughout the week, and then you walk in here on a Sunday and you put all the pressure on the pastor, or you put all the pressure on your spiritual leaders and say it's your responsibility to ignite the fire on the inside of me, you're wrong. No, no. You're the priest. You now are given responsibility for making sure that the fire on the inside of you never goes out and that there's always fuel so that the Holy Spirit has something to consume in you.

Now, not only is it your responsibility to keep the fire going, but it's also your responsibility to make sure that you have the right kind of fire burning on the inside. Because look what Leviticus, chapter 10, verse 10 says. The responsibility falls on us to distinguish between what is sacred and what is common. What is sacred and what is common. And here's the reality.

We're living in a day where people in the church world are mixing humanity and divinity and they're allowing the holy things of God to be cheapened. Because we're mixing the two. We're bringing these weird things into the presence of God. We're creating these weird concepts of Christianity that don't line up with the word of God and it's cheapening the holy things of God. We see it happening every single week.

There's somebody being exposed because they are bringing strange fire into the presence of God. Stay with me. Look what we find. Leviticus, chapter 10, verse 1.

Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and they sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire. The wrong kind of fire. So it's not just your responsibility to make sure there's a fire burning on the inside. Your responsibility to make sure the right kind of fire is burning on the inside of you.

The wrong kind of fire different than he had commanded. Watch what happens. Verse 2. So the fire blazed forth from the Lord's presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord. It's a Controversial passage of scripture.

Strange fire, the wrong kind of fire that was burning. Now a lot of Christian commentaries generally view this story of strange fire not as a ritual mistake, but as a profound lesson on the holiness of God and the dangers of will worship. Let me define will worship for you. It's worshiping God according to human preference rather than divine revelation.

Will worship, that's what I'm talking about. When we have all these people creating these concepts of Christianity that cater to our preferences.

Oh please, please get this. Mixing humanity with divinity, cheapening the holy things of God, creating some concept that just aligns with the things that we want to continue doing. We have a form of spirituality, but we deny the power of why? Because we are mixing strange fire with the holy fire of God.

I want you to get this. Christian writers, including Matthew Henry from his commentary argue that Nadab and Abihu were puffed up with pride, having recently been ordained as priests. And According to Exodus 24, they saw the glory of God. But now all of a sudden they may have somehow felt like their status exempted them from following the commands of God. In other words, we've arrived, we're entitled.

Now, we don't have to do everything by the letter of the law. Now we can shortcut access to the presence of God. Let me tell you what happens. Oh, we're seeing this so much. People are shortcutting access to the presence of God.

And by doing so, God, they are creating these man made methods of manufacturing encounters with God. Oh, I gotta say that again. You're not getting this. Now because of people creating these concepts of Christianity in their own minds, they're shortcutting access to the presence of God. A lot of people feel entitled.

They've been puffed up with pride. I don't have to do what I used to do. I've been serving God long enough. Now I don't have to follow the letter of the law, but I can shortcut access to the presence of God. And I can create these man made ways to encounter God.

Man made ways, depending on my personality, depending on my giftings, depending on my charisma, I can shortcut how we access the throne room of God. And I can create my own man made manufactured encounters with the Most High. Now here's what theologians believe happened.

They believe that with Nadab and Abihu, because of their spiritual pride, there became this shortcut mentality. And many commentators note that they likely took common fire from a nearby cooking pot because it was more convenient than going to the brazen altar. Oh, we don't have to, we don't have to go through the trouble of doing that anymore. We've been ordained as priests. We saw the glory of God.

There's fire right there in that cooking pot. And we can just take that and the spiritual pride said we can create our own man made manufactured access to the presence of God. Listen to me. Position does not equal holiness.

Listen to me church. I've always tried to be very protective of this pulpit.

I've always tried to be very selective by who I allowed to pour into you, who was invited here to feed the sheep that God had entrusted to us. I've never had anybody speak here knowing beforehand that they were living in sin or that they were mistreating others or that they were spiritually abusing other people or that they were preaching heresy. However, there are some guests that we've had in the past that have recently been exposed for some of these very things. They've brought strange fire into the house of God. They've created man made manufactured ways to access the presence of God.

And listen to me. They will never speak here again unless they demonstrate humility and true repentance.

Here's what we're seeing over and over. We're seeing people being platformed because of their position, because of their popularity, because of their ability to gain a following on social media, because of their so called prophetic anointing, because of their charisma. And many of them, many of them feel entitled now and they're shortcutting access to the presence of God. They're manufacturing ways to cause people to encounter God that represent strange fire. And let me tell you something, God is exposing it and God will not put up with it.

Now. God demands a holiness from his people. God demands a holiness from his house. He demands a holiness from you and I. And the Lord is not going to continue to allow people to mix humanity with divinity.

He's not going to allow us to cheapen the holy things of God anymore. Now he's exposing all this stuff. I say that with a fear of the Lord. I don't say that as if I've arrived. I don't say that as if I'm entitled.

I don't say that as, as if because of 42 years of preaching I've got it all figured out. No, no, no. It's quite the opposite. We find in scripture in the early life of the apostle Paul that he refers to himself as a super apostle. And by the end of his life in scripture he refers to himself as the chief of Sinners.

Let me tell you something. The older I get, the more I want to fear God. The older I get, the more I realize I don't know.

And I want all of us to have a holy fear of the Lord. I want all of us to realize if we're not careful, we will shortcut access to the presence of God. We're called to bring an offering to the Lord with pure hearts. We're called to present our lives to the Lord with purity, with devotion, every day, giving everything that we have to him with the goal of being an aroma to Him, a sweet smell to his throne. We're called to make sure there's wood on our altar.

We're called to make sure the fire never goes out. But we're also called to make sure that the right kind of fire is burning on the inside of us. Listen, there's people in the Christian community that'll tell you certain things, and they say it's okay to do, and it doesn't line up with Scripture. Your responsibility. Listen, I'm trying every single week to rightly divide the word of truth and to make sure you know scripture.

We're reading scripture together because I want a people who are married to scripture, not married to some cultural concept that says you can do certain things or get away with certain things because somebody said it was okay and it doesn't line up with the word of God. Come on. Do you hear the heart of your pastor today? I'm pleading with you and saying we have to fear the Lord.

We have to make sure the right kind of fire is burning on the inside of us.