(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) If you would please tell me the song 349. Song number 349. The comforter has come. Sing it out a little faster. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave And the home of the brave Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave And the home of the brave Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave And the home of the brave Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave And the home of the brave Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave And the home of the brave Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave And the home of the brave Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave The comforter has come, the comforter has come The home he goes to tell, the father's mom is here Oh, spread the tidings down, wherever it is found The comforter has come O'er the mountains that we find, how shall the sun go by To honor for himself the fastest ways to fly That is how the bell sure is in its shine The comforter has come The comforter has come, the comforter has come The home he goes to tell, the father's mom is here Oh, spread the tidings down, wherever it is found The comforter has come Lord, I am the father who comes in the name of Jesus, I pray the blessed night. And build not the innocent, which are words of wisdom. And I pray that everyone in the congregation will take you to what is preached and apply it in your life. And make a meal and go to what is good for you. Amen. Amen. If you will please tell me the song 255. Song number 255. Coming down. Sing it out on the verse. Jesus has a hateful spread, where the saints of God are fed. He invites his chosen people, come and dine. If this man, a heat of heat, can't supply for every need, O say does he to separate Jesus all the time. Come and dine, the master, come and come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the lonesome tree, turned the water into wine. To the hungry, all who found, come and dine. But this time he came to plan, thus obeying Christ the man. For the master called out to them, come and dine. There they found their hearts behind, bread and fish upon the fire. Thus he satisfied the hungry every time. Come and dine, the master, come and come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the lonesome tree, turned the water into wine. To the hungry, all who found, come and dine. Sir, the man will take his bride, to be ever at his side. All the hosts of heaven will assemble him. Oh, it will be a glorious sight, all the saints, his prophets bright. And with Jesus they will feast eternally. Come and dine, the master, come and dine. You may feast at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the lonesome tree, turned the water into wine. To the hungry, all who found, come and dine. All right, this time we'll go through our announcements. If the bulletins are being passed around, go ahead and put up your hand nice and high if you need one. As the bulletins are going around, on the inside we have our service times. Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service. Sunday nights at 6.30. Wednesday nights at 7 is our Bible study. This week will be in Luke chapter number 5. We have the soul-winning times listed there below, as well as salvations, baptisms. And then across the page, congratulations to the Rich family on the birth of Andrew Lee. Andrew was born on Monday, August 14th at 9.42 p.m., weighing 3 pounds, 1 ounce, measuring 15 inches. He's doing well and growing. I think there was just a little more good news on him today that now he's breathing the room air instead of the breathing machine. So praise the Lord for that. So be sure to pray for them. And then also a few other births that have happened. Yesterday the Baldazzaris had their baby, Joseph John David Baldazzari. I don't have any stats on him, but congratulations to them. And then also it looks like today the Freedoms had their baby, Uriah Levy Freedom, born today at 8.35 a.m., 7 pounds, 15 ounces. So lots of babies being born around here. It's great. Being fruitful and multiplying. So be sure to congratulate those families. And there are a lot of meals needed because we like to help out families that have just had a baby by bringing them a meal. So you can see Amanda Wright in the back right there with her hand waving. And she's the one to see if you want to help out with meals, to get meals to the families that need them. And then below that we've got the Bible memory passage, 1 John chapter 5. Below that we've got the maternity shower coming up there that's listed. Two maternity showers. One on the 27th of August for Jenny Akinosho and one for Shanae Adams on September 10th. And then on the back just another list of some dates that are coming up. Also don't forget this Friday we're going to the Navajo Reservation Soul Winning. We leave first thing Friday morning, get back Saturday night. So if you're off on those days or can take off, then we'd love to have you come along with us. For that we cover the food, the hotel, everything for that. And so you're invited to that. And then below that are just some notes about the home school field trips that are listed in the upcoming events. I believe that that's it for announcements. Let's go ahead and count up the soul winning from the past few days. Going back to Thursday, which would have been what date? Somebody help me out. 17, alright. Alright, anything from Thursday the 17th? One. Isn't that when we went to the Indians? What did we, Garrett, how many did we have? Is it 16? That was Thursday, right? Alright, so 16 for the trip to the White Mountains. Alright, three more over here. Alright, anything else for Thursday? How about Friday the 18th? Friday. Group had 14, that was the ASU group, right? Alright, anything outside of that ASU group? Group with 10. Alright, anything else for Friday? Okay, how about Saturday? Alright, brother Dominique Davis' group had two. Any other groups? The McPhail's group had 13. Anything else for Saturday? Alright, and then how about today? Brother Scott. 10 for the main group with brother Scott. Any other teams? How about Gila River? Nine for Gila River. How many? Three for Gilbert. Is that a gang sign? Alright, and then three for North Phoenix. Or FWBC North, I should say. Is that just outside of just a commando mission? Alright, one. Alright, three over here. And then anything else that I missed for today? Is that a five? Okay, anything else for today? One right here, okay. Alright, very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning. And then is there anyone who needs to be baptized tonight so that we could get the water filling up for that? Anybody need to be baptized? Alright, very good. Let's go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week off the green sheets. If you don't have a green sheet, put up your hand nice and high until we get to you with one. Psalm 117. The alternative is just to sing it directly out of the Bible, but put up your hand if you need a green sheet. Amen. For His merciful kindness is great toward us And the truth of the Lord enduring forever Praise He the Lord Praise He the Lord Praise the Lord all ye nations Praise Him all ye people For His merciful kindness is great toward us And the truth of the Lord enduring forever Praise He the Lord Praise He the Lord Alright, at this time we'll pass our offering plate and as the plate goes around, let's turn our Bibles to Leviticus chapter number one. Leviticus, third book in the Bible. Leviticus chapter number one, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter. Beginning in verse number one, Leviticus chapter number one. Follow along silently with brother Dominique Davis as he reads Leviticus chapter number one. Leviticus chapter one the Bible reads And the Lord called unto Moses and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord He shall bring your offering of the cattle even of the herd and of the flock If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd Let him offer a male without blemish He shall offer it of his own voluntary will At the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering And it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him And he shall kill the bullock before the Lord And the priests Aaron's sons shall bring the blood And sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar That is by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation And he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into his pieces And the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire upon the altar And lay the wood in order upon the fire And the priests Aaron's sons shall lay the parts The head and the fat in order upon the wood That is on the fire which is upon the altar But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water And the priest shall burn all on the altar To be a burnt sacrifice An offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord And if his offering be of the flocks, namely of the sheep Or of the goats for a burnt sacrifice He shall bring it of male without blemish And he shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord And the priests Aaron's sons shall sprinkle his blood round about upon the altar And he shall cut it into his pieces with his head and his fat And the priest shall lay them in order on the wood that is on the fire Which is upon the altar But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water And the priest shall bring it all and burn it upon the altar It is a burnt sacrifice An offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls Then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or of young pigeons And the priest shall bring it unto the altar And wring off his head and burn it on the altar And the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers And cast it beside the altar on the east part by the place of the ashes And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof but shall not divide it asunder And the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire It is a burnt sacrifice An offering made by fire of a sweet savor unto the Lord Brother Dave Kiefer, could you pray for him? Man, the title of my sermon tonight is An overview of the book of Leviticus A couple months ago I did some sermons Doing an overview of the book of Genesis An overview of the book of Exodus And the purpose of these type of sermons Is to help us to take a step back and see what these books are about Sometimes when we just go to church week after week and hear preaching You know, you might not be able to put things in context And understand what the big picture is And one of the biggest problems with people Who don't read the whole Bible cover to cover Is that they often don't see the big picture That's why I strongly encourage you If you've never read the Bible cover to cover Don't wait till January 1st to start doing that You know, start right now, get on some kind of a program Where you start checking it off And making progress toward reading the Bible cover to cover I remember the first time that I read the Bible cover to cover I started when I was 16 years old And when I was 16, I decided I'm going to read the Bible cover to cover The first thing I did was I marked off all the books that I knew that I'd already read If I wasn't sure, I didn't mark it off But books that I knew for sure that I'd already read I checked those off right away And the reason I say that is because a lot of people They're like, okay, I'm going to read the Bible And then they read Genesis and then they tuck her out And then they decide a few years later Alright, I'm going to read it again Start in Genesis again Peter out again Or they just keep reading Matthew over and over again They've read Matthew 20 times Never finished the rest of the New Testament So pick up where you left off So what I did, first of all, was I If I knew for sure, I know I've read this book I checked all those off And then I began to start the new material that I hadn't done And I just, I kept track of it The table of contents is a great place to do this When you finish a book, you can just underline it And then let's say you're in chapter 8 of Leviticus You've already read the first 7 chapters I just write an 8 next to Leviticus And then when I read further and I'm on chapter 13 Cross out the 8 and put a 13 And then once you finish that, underline it Figure out a system Whatever, you know, you might have an electronic way That you want to keep track of it Whatever you want to do But get a system Get a plan And don't just read the Bible at random But when you go to read the Bible, mark it off Check it off Give yourself credit for what you've read So that you can get toward that goal Of being one of the probably less than 1% of Christians Who's actually read the Bible cover to cover Sadly, I would venture to guess that far less than 1% Of Christians have even read the Bible cover to cover And then you wonder why so many Christians are into false doctrine You say, well, if we all believe in God If we all believe in Jesus Christ If we all believe in the Bible Why are there so many different beliefs? Why are there so many denominations? Why are there so many controversies? Because 99% of Christians don't read the Bible practically at all And then a small percentage actually have read the whole book They're going to have a dramatically different perspective Than the ones who haven't And so you need to read the whole Bible to get the overview To get the bird's eye view Instead of just looking at one verse with a microscope all the time Get the big picture So what I want to do tonight Is to give you the big picture of the book of Leviticus Now, Leviticus is a book that's probably the book that people would throw out there The first thing just to act like we're reading the Bible's hard Ah, Leviticus That's just kind of the example that they'd throw out of Just how hard it is to read the whole Bible Or if they wanted to make fun of a preacher Worldly people would say Oh, that guy, he's always preaching out of Leviticus I mean, can you imagine preaching a sermon out of Leviticus? It's sort of just become this byword that's thrown out there It's the most disparaged book probably in the whole Bible Which is silly because it's actually a really good book I don't even think it's the hardest book to read I think that there are other more difficult books If you think Leviticus is the hardest book You haven't been to Numbers yet So, Leviticus is not the hardest book, alright The point is that Once you actually understand that Leviticus has a lot of really interesting things in it I think you could actually get excited about reading Leviticus Excited about studying Leviticus It's not this daunting book that everybody makes it out to be So I'm hoping that by preaching these type of sermons I'm going to inspire you to want to read your Bible Because we need to read our Bibles We need to read the whole Bible All scripture is given by inspiration of God And is profitable for doctrine For reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness And that certainly includes the book of Leviticus Now, let me start to give you the overview Part of the reason why Leviticus gets a bad rap Is because the first seven chapters Are the roughest seven chapters in the whole book So a lot of people, they never make it past those first seven chapters To really get into the interesting stuff So they get bogged down, chapter two, three, four, five, and they give up And that's a great lesson for life, by the way That sometimes you need to stay with things and be diligent Before you get to the real rewards You know, I was just out soul winning on Tuesday And I spent the first few hours of soul winning Just having no success at all Very frustrating Either everybody was not home Or they just had zero interest And it was just hour after hour of that But then all of a sudden I get to that one door that makes it all worth it And I was literally at that door able to win five people to the Lord Because there were a couple people that were home I preached the gospel to them Just as we're leaving Four other people show up And then I said, hey, can I explain the same thing? Yeah, sure, explain it all again Go through it all again And so we ended up just having this great experience Getting a bunch of people saved And then the next door after that we were able to win one more person to Christ But there were hours and hours of frustration leading up to that So it's the same thing with everything in life With reading your Bible Sometimes you have to plow through difficult periods Sometimes you have to just through strength of character Go through those dry periods Those hard times And tribulations that we endure as Christians And then you come through those And then you get to the real rewards You know, like the children of Israel They're crossing the desert And then they get to that oasis Where there are the palm trees and the wells of water They needed to hang in there until they got to that refreshment So the first seven chapters of Leviticus Deal with all these sacrifices and offerings Now we just read chapter one before the sermon It gives you a little taste of it Now I think it's pretty interesting anyway And if you don't think it's that interesting You gotta just plow through those seven chapters It's not that long I mean even Leviticus chapter one that we just read It's really not a long chapter It's seventeen verses And what you're looking for in these chapters When you read about these animal sacrifices Is symbolism of the Lord Jesus Christ Because obviously we don't perform these offerings in the New Testament Jesus is the Lamb that was slain once for all So what you do to stay engaged as you're reading this And stay interested is You look for the spiritual application You look for the spiritual significance And you get a great lesson in animal anatomy And body parts and kidneys and gall bladders And you know, you learn a little bit about butchering But that's what you're mainly looking for Christ, you know, he's the Lamb of God He's a burnt offering for our sin And you go through all that and look for that symbolism So that's the first seven chapters You get into chapters eight and nine It's also a little dry It's the consecration of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood And they're getting all the right garments put on And going through the process of being sanctified And set apart for their job as the priest When you get into chapter ten Is when Leviticus really starts to kind of get exciting Starts to get interesting Because, you know, a couple guys get killed right at the beginning of chapter ten So you get into a story at the beginning of chapter ten So the first seven chapters are sacrifices Chapters eight and nine just have to do with consecrating the priests Getting them ready to serve in that capacity Well then in chapter ten some of those priests are already screwing it up And their names are Nadab and Abihu If you would look down at your Bible there in Leviticus chapter ten So the first nine chapters are pretty dry But you got to look for the spiritual significance in order to stay interested Look at chapter ten verse one Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron Took either of them his censer and put fire therein And put incense thereon and offered strange fire before the Lord Which he commanded them not And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them And they died before the Lord Then Moses said unto Aaron This is it that the Lord spake saying I will be sanctified And them that come nigh me And before all the people I will be glorified And Aaron held his peace So all these detailed instructions for nine chapters That some people would think oh this is too boring Well in chapter ten somebody wasn't listening Somebody didn't pay attention to the instructions And they want to do their own thing They want to serve the Lord in their own way Instead of following the clear instructions And God just right away makes an example out of these guys And just kills these two guys Because he's sending a real strong message Look we're not going to already start deviating From my word, from my plan We just started and you're already deviating We're going to nip this in the bud right now And he kills these two guys You say well that seems a little bit harsh But remember this is the same God Who says that if you don't believe on the Son You're going to be damned And being damned for all eternity is a lot worse Than just dying a physical death If you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ You're doomed You don't have eternal life The wrath of God abideth on you And so we need to understand the God of the Bible Doesn't mess around And he doesn't just allow him to just seek him In whatever way we want And all paths lead to God That is false Because the Bible said Jesus saith unto him I am the way, the truth and the life No man cometh unto the Father but by me And you have to come on his terms It's by faith alone It's not of works lest any man should boast And that's the only terms by which you can be saved You can't make your own turn You can't be like Cain and say Well I'm going to offer my own offering to the Lord Instead of the Lamb of God It's going to be my works It's going to be my fruits and vegetables and produce So that's another powerful message here That helps us to understand that we need to serve God And worship God in a way that pleases him In the ways that he has laid out in his word And not to just get creative And deviate from what he has taught us We need to worship him the way he has commanded to be worshipped So that's what we get from chapter 10 And the aftermath is explained there in Leviticus chapter 10 Now when we get into chapter 11 We get into the clean and unclean beasts This is where we get the instructions On what kind of animals the children of Israel were allowed to eat And which ones they were not allowed to eat Now first of all let me just explain the fact That back in Genesis chapter 9 When Noah gets off the ark He's told that he can eat any animal that breathes Every animal All the animals were meat unto him So before the Levitical law, the Mosaic law was given Man was allowed to eat pig meat Or any other meat for that matter They could eat the shrimp and the lobster And the pork And all the things that are prohibited Under the Mosaic law So what we need to understand is that These dietary laws are not just universal laws of right and wrong for all time Because otherwise God wouldn't have allowed the consumption of those unclean meats From Noah's ark all the way up to this point Thousands of years And then not only that But in the New Testament now we're again told Like Noah was told That we can eat all manner of meats All manner of flesh I just had pork for lunch today What did we have for dinner? What was that? What did we have for dinner? Roast what? Roast pork? So it was pork for lunch and pork for dinner So I double dipped on the unclean meats today But we need to understand that When Noah got off the ark He's told to eat everything We're told in the New Testament to eat all meats This was a temporary restriction imposed on them For a period of time Less than 2000 years We're talking about 1600 years off the top of my head I might be a little off on that But something like that That these laws were imposed just from Moses until Christ You say well why? What's the point? Well the point is that there's a symbolic meaning here This stuff was part of that which was imposed on them temporarily And if you would flip over to Hebrews 9 There are multiple scriptures we could go to in the New Testament to demonstrate this Let's just look at Hebrews chapter 9 Where he explains this It says in Hebrews chapter 9 Specifically about the meats and drinks It says in verse number 9 Which was a figure for the time then present Which were offered both gifts and sacrifices That could not make him that did the service perfect As pertain to the conscience Look at verse 10 of Hebrews 9 Which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings and carnal ordinances Watch this Imposed on them until the time of reformation So they weren't imposed on them permanently But imposed on them until the time of reformation The time of reformation is defined in the next verse Christ being come But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come That's when the time of reformation is That's when these things are no longer imposed Because verse 9 says that they were a figure or figurative They were symbolic for the time then present You say, well Pastor Anderson, go back to Leviticus 11 What in the world would be symbolized by the, you know, not being able to eat pork What's the symbolism? Well, the symbolism of the unclean beasts in chapter 11 It talks about which beasts you're supposed to eat And they are the beasts that part the hoof and chew the cud He said all the animals that part the hoof and chew the cud Those are the clean beasts Anything that does not part the hoof and does not chew the cud is an unclean beast So he explains to them the rabbit is going to be an unclean beast to you Obviously carnivores are unclean beasts The dogs and cats and bears and pigs are not And he explains all that And then the animals that do chew the cud and part the hoof Would be the cows and the sheep and the things of that nature So he explains in great detail listing animals that are to be eaten Animals that are not to be eaten And also amongst the sea creatures So what is the symbolism here of parting the hoof and chewing the cud? Well it has to do with their feet and it has to do with their mouth Because they chew the cud with their mouth and they part the hoof on their feet Well the first thing that we could learn from this As far as a symbolic meaning Is that we as Christians are to talk the talk And walk the walk If we're going to be clean and holy and righteous in the sight of God We're going to not just talk the talk But we're going to walk the walk We're not just going to chew the cud We're also going to part the hoof And there are a lot of people who talk a really good talk But they don't walk the walk These people are known as hypocrites They say and do not Then we have another classification of people Often pastors fall into this category Where they walk the walk But they don't talk the talk And that's bad too They part the hoof Problem is they don't chew the cud So they'll actually live a godly, Christian, separated life They're reading their Bibles every day They're praying, they're going soul winning They're not indulging in sinful activities But when they get up behind the pulpit to preach They don't teach any of that They don't actually get up and preach doctrine And they don't preach hard on sin And they don't preach a strict manner of living But they're living it So they're like the opposite of a hypocrite They walk the walk But they're not talking the talk enough They're not saying enough I like what it says in Acts chapter 1 verse 1 Where it says the former treatise have I made O Theophilus Of all that Jesus began both to do and teach To do and teach That's what we need to be doing We need to walk the walk But we also need to open our mouths boldly To make known the mystery of the gospel We need to also teach people with our mouths To observe all things whatsoever Christ commanded us So don't just walk the walk, talk the talk Don't just talk the talk, walk the walk Don't just chew the cud, part the hoof as well Another thing that this could be referring to Symbolically is two aspects of our Christian life Separation and rumination Separation and rumination What does it mean to be separated? That's a word that fundamental Baptists will use a lot Being separated means that there's a difference between us and the rest of the world We don't just live exactly like the world We don't just hang out with all the worldly sinful people And do all the same activities There's a difference between us and the people around us We're a peculiar people The Word of God says in 1 Corinthians Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord 2 Corinthians 6 And touch not the unclean thing Be separate Don't indulge in the sins of this world Be in the world but not of the world That's separation But in Romans chapter 1 it says Paul A servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle Separated unto the gospel of God So we don't want to just be separated from the world We want to be separated unto something We don't want to just be separated from the world and then we're just kind of in a no man's land We want to go from being worldly to being what? Spiritual So we want to be separated unto the gospel of God A lot of people are really separated They're living a really clean life But are they working hard in the gospel? Are they reading their Bibles? Are they going soul winning and preaching to people and things like that? So we want to be separated unto the gospel of God Separation and rumination What does it mean to ruminate? Ruminating is when you meditate on something or chew on something So think about an animal that chews the cud What does it mean to chew the cud? Well cows have four stomachs They eat grass and they chew on the grass They swallow it into one of their stomachs Then they regurgitate it back up into their mouth And then they chew it again And then they send it down to another stomach Then they bring it back up and chew it again That's called chewing the cud They do that multiple times And then that's how they fully digest that grass Well here's the thing God wants us to fully digest his word By ruminating on God's word By chewing the cud of God's word By meditating upon God's word So we read the Bible But then we're supposed to think about what we've read And then we get it out and read it again We think about it Read about it Think about it Meditate on it Ruminate on it And especially if we memorize scripture That allows for rumination Because then we're driving down the road We're walking down the street We're swinging a hammer at our job And verses are coming into our mind And we can dwell on those things We can ponder those things And really digest those things And we can ruminate on God's word Not to just be separated from the world But to also know and love And understand the Bible Separation and rumination Parting the hoof Represents separation Why? Because when we part the hoof That's a splitting of the hoof That's what it means to part, right? So that picture is what? Separation Chewing the cud pictures what? Rumination Okay Also in the New Testament Our feet are always symbolic of soul winning Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace And bring glad tidings of good things So the feet represent soul winning So you could also have a third application here And say chewing the cud and parting the hoof Refers to both ingesting God's word Learning the Bible But then also using your feet to go out there And get the gospel to other people There are some people who are great soul winners They don't know the Bible They know the Romans wrote really well They know how to win somebody to Christ But is that really a complete servant of God? Is that the perfect man in Christ? No We need to also make sure that we're eating God's word That we're chewing the cud and parting the hoof By getting our hoofs out there And getting the gospel to every creature So you see what I mean? You can learn a lot of spiritual application Even from the most mundane chapters That people would point to about diet Oh this doesn't apply to us anymore Well sure it doesn't apply to us when we go grocery shopping We don't pull out Leviticus 11 And make sure we're not buying anything prohibited Because everything in that meat section is open season In the New Testament All of it But we do need to understand these principles I just laid out Talking the talk, walking the walk, going soul winning Reading our Bibles, meditating on God's word Being separated from the world There's a lot in this book of Leviticus This is just a scratching of the surface So chapter 13 and 14 We get into the laws on leprosy Now some of this might come in handy If you start getting some bright spots appearing on your skin Maybe a little hairs coming out of it A rising in the flesh Or maybe the flesh is somewhat lower And maybe there's a white hair coming out of it Or a black hair coming out of it Before I went to the dermatologist I'd consult these chapters Because sometimes it tells you it's fine And then you can say no big deal Move on But there's obviously a lot of spiritual application going on Leprosy pictures sin in the Bible And I'm not going to spend too much time on this But if you're interested I did do a whole sermon called Leprosy About a year and a half ago So you can look up that past sermon And I go into great detail on Leviticus 13 and 14 And show all the spiritual applications with the rest of the Bible On leprosy Okay, I skipped a chapter there didn't I? Chapter 12, let's go to chapter 12 I wanted to talk about chapter 12 So chapter 11 was the unclean beast Chapters 13 and 14 have to do with leprosy Well chapter 12 is a short little chapter And it has to do with a woman giving birth And it says in verse number 1 And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto the children of Israel saying if a woman have conceived seed And born a man child Then she shall be unclean seven days according to the days of the separation For her infirmity shall she be unclean And in the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days She shall touch no hallowed thing nor come into the sanctuary Until the days of her purifying be fulfilled But if she bear a maid child Then she shall be unclean two weeks as in her separation And she shall continue in the blood of her purifying three score and six days And then it goes into the offering that's offered Now obviously we're not doing circumcision in the New Testament And we're not offering offerings in the New Testament But there's an important truth that can be learned from this chapter And that is that after you give birth to a baby You're supposed to take it easy And this is something that a lot of modern women don't understand A lot of modern women, they'll give birth on Friday And they're back at work on Monday No joke They get the scheduled C-section And they're back to work on Monday And a lot of women even make it a point of pride To just give birth And it's like they're just gonna be in church the very next service They give birth in the morning and they're at the evening service And they're like, yeah, you know, I'm spiritual, I'm down here, I'm in church You know, they're basically like cutting the umbilical cord on the way to church And, you know, that's ridiculous That's not what God's telling you to do And a lot of times our modern society doesn't really stop and appreciate child birth As a major ordeal And a major impact on a woman's body that she needs to recover from and rest And be healthy And, you know, especially if you want to have a lot of children If you're all fired up saying, I'm gonna be fruitful, I'm gonna multiply I'm gonna get Pastor Anderson to run for his money You know, then you gotta take care of your vessel If you're planning on bearing a lot of children You can't just drive it till the wheels fall off You've got to care for it And following God's advice is good here Now, another thing that's interesting is that the uncleanness and the blood of purifying lasts twice as long for the female child Now, why is that? Because of the fact that the hormones are different Giving birth to a boy is different than giving birth to a girl My wife and I have had a lot of experience with this Because we have five boys and four girls So we've seen a lot of both But the recovery is longer after a girl Even just as a scientific fact The bleeding lasts longer The impact on the body is different Because of the hormones that are different between a boy and a girl And so this information is important for people to realize That, you know, hey, for a week you don't go anywhere For two weeks you don't go anywhere You take it easy You stay in bed You relax You know, you allow people to help you And this is why we try to help people out with meals and do what we can It's great if you can have family come over and help Or other brothers and sisters can help You know, if the husband can help If he's available So these are all good lessons that we can apply right now today That we would respect when our wife gives birth That she needs some time to recover And that to be back to normal And obviously you're not even going to be totally back to normal After 40 days or 80 days But after 40 to 80 days Are you even reasonably back to normal It's probably, you know, my wife and I have talked about this You're probably 100% about six months after giving birth to a baby You're back in the saddle again You're back at 100% It's a process The first couple weeks You need to take it very easy Let your body recover And then there's the blood of the cleansing That's going to continue past that But you're starting to get up and about and around after a week or two And then the bleeding is going to stop You still are recovering a little bit It's a process And it takes many months We need to respect that And understand that your body has gone through a lot To bring that child into this world And you need rest That's a powerful lesson here from Leviticus chapter 12 That 2017 America should listen to But no, Leviticus is this archaic, antiquated, put it in a museum No, we need to learn from this right now Speaking of which, chapter 15 is all about sanitation And quarantining the sick That's a pretty important lesson Nowadays we take this for granted But even just a couple hundred years ago They didn't understand this Even just a couple hundred years ago Doctors and hospitals were spreading germs like crazy And if they would have actually read and believed Leviticus 15 It would have stopped a ton of disease A ton of infection A ton of illness Doctors would wash their hands in standing water In basins of water Whereas the Bible says in Leviticus 15 to wash them in running water Why? Because if you wash them in standing water You're just spreading the germs I wash my hands in the water Somebody else comes and wash their hands in the same water You have to pour the water Running water Obviously they didn't have plumbing back then But one person would pour the water And the other guy would wash his hands And a lot of people still do this around the world The Bible talks about Elijah having water poured on his hands by Elisha So he could wash his hands When we were in Africa before meals The ladies would come around to all the men that were seated at the table And bring out a basin and a little mug of water And they would pour water on our hands And we would wash our hands like that Before eating under running water And so the Bible teaches that in Leviticus 15 Way ahead of science Everybody acts like the Bible is not scientific Well you know what? The Bible was way ahead of science a couple hundred years ago But now science has passed up the Bible And we've gotten so much smarter No, the Bible is always going to be ahead The Bible is always smarter than man Chapter 16 goes into the Day of Atonement It goes into more offerings And it goes into the concept of the scapegoat Which has a lot of problems Which has a lot of powerful significance there about Jesus Christ Where all the sins are placed upon the head of that goat And obviously that represents Christ Had all the sins of the world placed on him And there's so many layers of symbolism with the scapegoat There's so many different interpretations you can get from that That many of which are valid Then in chapter 17 The big message that I got out of chapter 17 is Don't worship devils and don't eat blood He's going into that kind of stuff Don't be demonic Don't eat blood Don't worship devils Then we get into chapter 18 And this is something that 2017 America needs Chapter 18 talks about nakedness And it talks about sexual perversion And so this is something that just gives a lot of prohibitions About what should not happen And what relationships are an abomination before the Lord Obviously the Sodomites are addressed in chapter 18 verse 22 Lots of other different perversions and nakedness are brought out It also is prohibiting incest And things like It's not necessarily a pleasant chapter But it's important And in 2017 the words are kind of jumping off the page at you Like it's as relevant as today's newspaper Chapter 19 is probably my favorite chapter in Leviticus I've done a lot of sermons on Leviticus 19 It's probably my favorite chapter It's kind of just a mixed bag Of just a lot of miscellaneous laws But there's a lot of really interesting stuff So I really like chapter 19 And of course chapter 19 contains The verse that Jesus Christ said was the second greatest commandment in the law It says in chapter 19 verse 18 Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself I am the Lord That phrase Love thy neighbor as thyself Is found only in Leviticus 19 18 That's the only place it's found in the whole Old Testament And this is what Jesus and the apostles are constantly referring back to Love thy neighbor as thyself So this is important to understand That this is where the source of that comes from Now people that are progressive or liberal or anti-fundamentalist They'll often disparage us for preaching out of Leviticus And say you're condemning the Sodomites but you're using Leviticus First of all I preached pretty hard against the Sodomites this morning And I don't think I even turned to Leviticus did I? In fact all of my preaching this morning against the Sodomites Was pretty much based in the New Testament I was focusing on 2 Peter chapter 2 and the book of Jude and the book of Revelation So there's plenty of preaching in the New Testament Oh you know the book of Leviticus Chapter 18 verse 22 when it says that if a man lies with a man it's an abomination Or chapter 2013 where it says they'll be put to death How can you get that from Leviticus? They say you should do like Jesus said and love your neighbor as yourself But here's the thing that's not what Jesus said That's what Jesus quoted from Leviticus So how can you throw out chapter 18 and throw out chapter 20 And then say you need to follow chapter 19 buddy No actually I'm going to follow 18 19 and 20 And if chapter 19 falls between chapters 18 and 20 you know what that means? Chapter 19 must not contradict 18 and 20 So I must be able to love my neighbor as myself And consider Sodomy an abomination And believe that they should be put to death all at the same time Because God told me all three of those things We need the whole counsel of God People today want to pick and choose They want to take one verse out of Leviticus literally And throw the whole rest of the book in the trash I want to believe and read and study and understand and apply the whole thing All of it Which leads me into chapter 20 which has to do with more perversion You know you get through chapter 18 and you're kind of glad that's all over with All the perverts Then you get into chapter 19 and it's a really good chapter really interesting And then in chapter 20 you're back on the perverts again Unfortunately So you know you read up on that all the disgusting things And you know I remember when I was reading this as a teenager Things weren't as weird as in America as they are now And I'm a young man So I read the book of Leviticus for the first time Pretty much exactly 20 years ago Because I'm 36 now and I read it as a 16 year old Remember I told you I started reading the Bible cover to cover at 16? Well Leviticus was one of the first books I read Because that's where I had left off on a previous failed attempt So I jumped back into Leviticus right away And I remember when I was reading this in chapter 20 I just thought to myself Why do we need all these like who would do this stuff? Like why does he even need to tell us not to do this stuff? And then I remember just having my mind blown When I would get to the end of chapter 18 And when I would get to the end of chapter 20 And realize that the people of the land They did all these things Now go back if you went to chapter 18 verse 24 Because you're reading about just all these sick things And incest and the sodomites and bestiality And just all these horrific things And you're wondering like why does God even bring this up? Who does this? Is this really necessary? Why didn't he just say don't do anything weird? Don't do anything that's not just with your wife that you're not related to But he says in verse 24 Defile not yourselves in any of these things And I mean he just finished in verse 23 talking about a woman Standing before a beast to lie down there to Then he says in verse 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things For in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you He said in all these the nations are defiled He's saying the nations that I'm kicking out The Canaanites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Amorites, the Jebusites He said they've done it all And you wonder why God told them to just wipe those people out They've done all this stuff And he said in verse 25 And the land is defiled therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it And the land itself vomitteth out her inhabitants I mean he's saying even the earth wants to just throw up He said the land vomitteth out her inhabitants Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments And shall not commit any of these abominations Neither any of your own nation Nor any stranger that sojourneth among you He's saying look you don't do it But don't even allow people to do this stuff around you You can't even have these people around Because it's so sick He says all these abominations Verse 27 Have the men of the land done which were before you And the land is defiled that the land spew you not out Also when you defile it As it spewed out The nations that were before you For whosoever shall commit any of these abominations Even the souls that commit them shall be cut off From among their people And so that's pretty much the reason why God had to say this Because people do this stuff The workers of iniquity The wicked people of this world They go into all these perversions And you know the world makes sin look so appealing And it makes it look fun on the beer commercial And on the casino ad Sin takes people down a very dark path Into some very dark places that no one would want to go If they knew what they were really getting into Chapter 21 changes gears and it gets into The standards for the priests You know different standards for the priests Who they should marry How they should live Things that they're not allowed to do specifically Chapter 22 is back to more offerings More about the sacrifices and burnt offerings Gets into a little bit of rules about being holy and unholy and so forth Chapter 23 is a pretty interesting chapter Chapter 23 goes through all the feast days and holidays Now we don't observe these Galatians is clear and other scriptures are clear We should not observe the Jewish calendar And the new moons and the sabbaths And the day of atonement and all these things We don't follow that in the New Testament And we don't listen to the Judaizers That are trying to bring us back under that Paul said I'm afraid of you if you're into that stuff The times, the months, the years Forget that stuff Say what do you think about this eclipse? I don't think about it I don't think anything about it because it's meaningless to me I don't get dismayed at the stars of the sky If I look up at the stars it's just to admire the handiwork of God And I mean I think that an eclipse is as cool as the next guy But what's the prophetic significance? The answer is nothing The prophetic significance is nil The prophetic significance is that a lot of people are constantly bringing out false alarms Of the second coming of Christ In order to wear people out so that people will start to think it's never going to happen Because the Bible says in the end times People will say well where is the promise of his coming? Why? Because they've had so many false alarms of Christians lying and saying Oh we know when it's going to happen The Bible guarantees it The solar eclipse and the constellations and the zodiac And they do all this stuff and it wears people out to the point where they think it's never going to happen It's all a fraud No the true story is that even Jesus Christ said He said I don't even know when my second coming is going to be He said the Father in heaven knows And the angels know in Mark 13 He said the Son doesn't even know But you think you know? If you could figure it out from the Bible Jesus would have had it figured out from the Bible I mean he's the smartest man who ever lived He's filled with the Spirit beyond measure He knew the Scriptures He was the Scriptures It made flesh He could have looked up at the stars and figured it all out if that's what it really was about He said I don't even know The Father knows So don't think that you figured it out No one has figured it out We need to just patiently serve the Lord And when it happens we'll see the signs of the times We see the abomination of desolation That's when we'll know this is not a drill And we'll know that the end is near We'll look up and know that our redemption draws nigh But not before that So don't get dismayed at these things Don't sell the farm yet Okay So the feast days Even though we don't celebrate those holidays There's a lot of symbolic spiritual applications So there are seven feasts that are listed And we have the spring feasts And then we have the fall feasts And what's interesting is that when Christ came the first time He fulfilled the spring feasts Why? Because the spring feasts are the Passover The Feast of Unleavened Bread The Feast of Tabernacles The Day of Pentecost fulfilled So we have these feast days of the first coming of Christ Obviously Christ is our Passover He's the Bread of Life Obviously the Day of Pentecost fulfilled that So you have the spring feasts fulfilled with Christ's first advent And then you have the fall feasts that will be fulfilled in the second coming of Christ And I don't have time to go into it And I don't have time to go into it But I did a whole sermon called the Feast of the Lord That was all about Leviticus 23 I covered a little bit in the Revelation series I think in chapter 2 Actually I just did it in the sermon called the timing of the rapture Did I do it in that one? Right? Like a month ago? So there's a lot of really interesting things Because Jesus when he gives parables in the New Testament He says that the harvest is the end of the world So the harvest feasts all revolve around end times events So the spring feasts have to do with Christ's first coming The fall feasts or harvest feasts have to do with his second coming The sounding of the trumpets The feast of Tabernacles And also the What's the other one? Day of Atonement Day of Atonement, also Year of Jubilee That stuff all plays a part in the end times So that's pretty interesting in chapter 23 Chapter 24 talks about blaspheming God And things like that Chapter 25 talks about the Year of Jubilee This is a fascinating concept And I've heard almost no one talk about the Year of Jubilee I've never heard a sermon on it Except for the sermons that I've preached on it But I've never heard a Baptist preacher preach on it I've grown up in church my whole life Has anybody heard a preacher other than me or one of my friends Ever preach on this? Anybody? You heard a sermon on the Year of Jubilee? It wasn't a Baptist? What was it about? I don't remember Okay, you don't remember I hope it was a long time ago So you heard a sermon one time So out of hundreds of people, one person here says Hey, I remember a sermon that was done Or actually, I don't remember a sermon I heard a sermon that was done on the Year of Jubilee Well, it's something that people don't talk about But it's a fascinating concept And you would think this would come up in political discussions Or amongst libertarians Or amongst patriots and constitutionalists And people that are into getting back to the foundations of our country Or the foundations of God's intent for human government Because it's so fascinating this idea of every 50 years a reset button Where all debts are forgiven every 50 years Sounds pretty good Some of you are like Where has this been all my life? Every 50 years a total reset button All debts are forgiven Every slave goes free All the land returns to the owners thereof Based upon their family ancestral lands It goes back to them So the land is divided up by people and their inheritance And then new people would move into the area Then they would carve out a place for them They would inherit amongst that tribe or amongst the land And you were only allowed to own land that you would use You can't just own huge amounts of land that you're not using You could buy them temporarily You could farm them out But guess what? Every year of Jubilee it all gets reset It all goes back to everybody having their piece of land God wanted everybody to have their own piece of land Do their own thing To be out of debt It's really a great system I'm simplifying it You have to read Leviticus 25 to get all the details But if you really read Leviticus 25 and you really comprehend it And study it and learn it and understand it It is genius It is a perfect system And here we are thousands of years later and no one's ever done it No one's ever tried it I don't even believe the children of Israel ever did it There were a lot of things about God's law that just never got implemented The children of Israel, they never went all the way Why? Because they're human They're not perfect They're sinful They scoffed at this year of Jubilee I personally do not believe it was never implemented Because the whole Old Testament you'll never see any mention of this ever happening God tells them to do it I don't believe they did it even once You say, well what's the point of coming out with a cool system that nobody's ever going to use? Here's the point The millennium We're going to do this for a thousand years Every fifty years there's going to be a Jubilee And we'll see how well the economy can work We'll see how God has a perfect system Where people can work and enjoy the fruit of their labor See the problem with all of man's systems Is that they allow too much power to get in the hands of too few people And even if you just went with a total libertarian or anarcho-capitalism or whatever you want to call it You'll end up with people just amassing too much wealth Which even just the word too much wealth is anathema sometimes to libertarians What are you talking about? Free market Yeah but if you just allow that to just go unfettered And to be passed down from generation to generation You'll end up with just a few super wealthy people That buy up all the land They buy up everything And then everybody who lives on that land Has to follow their rules And so libertarianism If carried out according to a lot of people's view of libertarianism Would actually lead to feudalism And we're back in the middle ages Where you have the landlord That owns half of Arizona And we're all his serfs We're all his servants We're all his sharecroppers or tenants on his space The year of Jubilee prevented the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers of this world From just passing down these huge amounts of wealth To their wicked inbred descendants The Rothschilds need to go back and read that chapter again But anyway So the year of Jubilee is fascinating In fact the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia Which is a great landmark in the United States It has a verse inscribed on it from Leviticus 25 That says proclaim liberty throughout all the land To all the inhabitants thereof But I think that very few people Went and looked up that verse in its context Read the whole chapter and learned about this amazing thing called The year of Jubilee You know one time I wanted to call into it One time I was in the middle of the night I was driving And I was listening to some XM radio political talk thing I was getting desperate for entertainment folks It was the middle of the night and I was on a really long drive I was listening to some And I remember I just wanted to call in and explain to them about the year of Jubilee And I kept calling and I just couldn't get through I wanted to get on the air so bad and just enlighten the world about this Because it's such a powerful truth Chapter 26 is pretty interesting It goes into the blessings and the cursings So he's explained a lot of laws in Exodus He's explained a lot of laws in the first 25 chapters Then in chapter 26 he explains the consequences Of obeying God's word versus disobeying God's word He says if you obey God's word this is how you'll be blessed And the blessings are from verses 3 through 13 You know your animals are going to be healthy You're going to give birth to children You're going to defeat your enemies You're going to have prosperity You're going to be blessed He explains all these good things that he's going to do for them Then in verses 14 through 39 are the cursings All the bad things that are going to happen if they don't obey Now right off the bat what I think is pretty interesting about this Is that there are 11 verses dealing with the blessings And then there are 26 verses dealing with the cursings And that's the way the whole Bible is There's more than twice as much warning you about disobedience Than telling you positive reinforcement So God isn't just giving a lot of positive reinforcement He gives a little positive reinforcement and a lot of negative reinforcement But what are churches doing today? 90% positive, 10% negative if you're lucky If you're lucky Then in chapter 27 we go into the values of various items The values of houses, the values of servants The values of different things that would be sold Or devoted to the Lord or redeemed and so on And there's a lot of interesting things You can compare these values with other things in the Bible You can even draw conclusions about the amount of money that was used to betray Jesus Christ I mean there's a lot of application So that's it for the book of Leviticus I mean that's 27 chapters Now look, this book gets a bad rap It's packed with interesting stuff This is not just some dry, boring drudgery of You know, well let's just plow through this thing Now I admit the first nine chapters are a little bit of heavy plowing the first few times you go through them But chapter 10 about Nadab and Abihu is pretty interesting Chapter 11 about the clean and unclean beast is pretty entertaining At least reading about all these different animals And which ones they ate and which ones they couldn't eat You get the leprosy, the sanitation, the day of atonement Don't eat bread, don't look at your auntie or your grandma naked Don't perform all these perversions In chapter 18, a lot of really interesting stuff in chapter 19 That's my favorite chapter of the book Chapter 20, all the perversion, that's pretty relevant today Chapter 21, the standards for the priest We can apply those as, you know, some standards that we should have in our life And, you know, convert those things to a modern application for us as Christians We get into the feast days We can learn something about Bible prophecy Compare it with Revelation Blaspheming God That's relevant to understand that we need not profane the name of the Lord Not take His name in vain And all the blessings for doing right God's still going to bless us today for doing right And He's still going to curse us for doing wrong And so as we study this book, there is a ton of relevant teaching You could easily preach every Sunday night on the book of Leviticus for the next six months And preach a relevant sermon that applies to us today in 2017 That would be edifying, helpful, practical, informative You could do that easily for six months I will do it on a Wednesday night when we get there Right now we're in Luke, but I'm preaching through the whole Bible on Wednesday nights Right now I'm in Luke, I'm skipping around It's going to take me 23 and a half years to get through the whole Bible It's 1189 part series And right now I'm 11 and a half years in So 11 and a half down, 12 to go, alright? And so once I finish this, you know, so there is going to be a six month period Where I spend a Wednesday night on Leviticus 1, a Wednesday night on Leviticus 2 I guarantee you it's not going to be the hardest series I guarantee you there's going to be plenty of great preaching And you could not even cover the same thing twice This book is dense with spiritual nutrition There is a lot of meat on the bone And I'm not just talking about the heave shoulder and the wave breast I'm saying there's a lot of spiritual meat on this bone of Leviticus It's a great book Love it! Don't ever make fun of it or disparage it Love it! Read it! Meditate on it Learn something from it Apply it Teach it to others Let's buy our ads and have a word of prayer Father, we thank you so much for the whole Bible But especially, Lord, we want to thank you for Leviticus It's a powerful book Without it, there would be a lot of missing teachings in the Bible If we had a 65 book Bible with no Leviticus, Lord, we would be deficient We would lack many critical teachings And so we thank you for giving us this book Translated perfectly into our English language So that we can read it in our own native tongue And understand these great truths, Lord Help us to take advantage of that And Lord, if there's anybody here tonight who's never read the book of Leviticus Which I'm sure that there were many I pray that they would decide right now To start with the book of Leviticus And to read the entire Bible cover to cover And to put a check mark by the book of Leviticus Several days from now after they've read through it, Lord And in Jesus' name we pray, amen Please open your hymnals to song 131 Christ is all I need Song 131 Christ is all I need Song 131 Christ is all I need Christ is all I need All I need Christ is all I need Christ is all I need All I need He was crucified For me He died On Calvary That's why I know He loves me so He's all I need