Latest / Scripture Central / The Way In | Exodus 35-40; Leviticus 1; 4; 16; 19 | Come Follow Me | John Hilton III | Apr 27-May 3

Transcript

The Way In | Exodus 35-40; Leviticus 1; 4; 16; 19 | Come Follow Me | John Hilton III | Apr 27-May 3 · Scripture Central

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I could do something heroic for a day or two, but daily
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discipleship, that's hard. And sometimes it's these daily
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sacrifices that are the hardest to make.
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You don't have to solve all of your problems for the rest of
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your life. You just have to keep coming
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closer to Jesus Christ one day at a time.
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Holiness was never meant to be a do it yourself project.
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Because of Jesus Christ, the way in is open to all of us.
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One of the things I'd love to use as a resource for learning
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more about the scriptures is the Bible Project videos.
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And recently I was watching the Big picture overview they have
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on the book of Leviticus and they pointed out a principle I
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had never noticed before. So at the very end of the book
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of Exodus, the Tabernacle is complete.
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God's glory descends on it and fire in a cloud.
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It's the moment that Israel has been waiting for.
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God is now coming to dwell with his people.
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But then we read, Moses could not enter the tent of the
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meeting or Tabernacle because the cloud had settled on it.
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And that's how Exodus ends. The man who had talked to God on
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Sinai now can't enter the Tabernacle.
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Flip the page to Leviticus chapter 1.
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It's the same story. The Lord called to Moses and
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spoke to him from the tent. God's on the inside, but Moses
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is still on the outside. But then when we turn to the
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Book of Numbers, something has changed.
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In Numbers chapter one, verse one, we read the Lord spoke to
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Moses in the tent of meeting. So now Moses has come inside.
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Leviticus only covers a month of Israel's history, but it shows
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us the way in. It shows us how Moses went from
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outside the presence of God to inside his presence.
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And the key is holiness. As the Lord declares in
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Leviticus over and over again, He'll say I am the Lord your
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God, consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy.
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This theme appears throughout the book.
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A few chapters later we read Be holy because I, the Lord your
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God am holy. And I think this is an important
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principle for us to remember because it's easy to get lost in
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Leviticus. Lots of rules, lots of details,
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and a lot of them don't apply to us anymore.
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In fact, if we were to think about the doctrine principles
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application framework that we've discussed before, that's going
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to help us see that there's doctrines and principles that we
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can pull from Leviticus. And even though the applications
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are different for us today, the principles to apply, for
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example, if we were to look at a doctrine principle application
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framework for Leviticus, we might say that there's a
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doctrine. God is a holy divine being.
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A principle that grows out of this doctrine is I am created in
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the image of God. Therefore they need to be holy
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like God. And then within Leviticus,
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there's lots of applications that applied back.
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Then we can come up with our own applications that applied to us
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based on these same doctrines and principles.
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So today we're going to see four major themes of holiness.
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Holiness are being set apart, holiness through sacrifice,
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holiness through purity and holiness and the atonement.
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These are the ways that Leviticus is showing us how to
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come inside into the presence of God.
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Let's start with holiness through being set apart.
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You remember our good friend the Blue Letter Bible that talks
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about how we can see the original meanings of words in
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the Hebrew or the Greek. One meaning of the Hebrew word
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for Holy Kadosh is set apart. So to be holy is to be set
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apart, marked for a special purpose in belonging to God.
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We read you are to be holy to me because I the Lord am holy and I
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have set you apart from the nation's to be my own.
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From the very beginning, God has set apart His people by giving
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them specific practices to follow that make them different
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from everyone else around them. For example, consider the
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Sabbath. In Leviticus we read there are 6
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days when you may work, but the 7th day is a day of Sabbath
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rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work
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wherever you live, it is a Sabbath to the Lord.
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Now most of us probably grew up either with a family culture or
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a church culture or even a national culture that honored
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the Sabbath day, that in some form recognized Sunday as being
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different than other days. But that was not the case.
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Anciently, Romans, Greeks, they didn't have the weekend like we
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have it today. In fact, many Roman and Greek
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authors commented on how unique the Jewish practice of the
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Sabbath was, and it wasn't always in a positive way.
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For example, one Roman author wrote, the 7th day was set aside
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for rest because this marked the end of their toils.
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In course of time, the seductions of idleness made them
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devote every 7th year to indolence as well.
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Now for the Israelites, the Sabbath was not about laziness.
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It was a time for worship. Forrest in the Lord.
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But can you see how this Roman author mocked what was holy for
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the Israelites? It's sort of interesting.
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And maybe that suggests to us that we shouldn't be surprised
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today if there are things that we consider to be holy but are
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mocked by society more broadly. So the Sabbath set the Jews
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apart, marked them as holy. Another thing that set them
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apart was the food that they were allowed to eat or not eat.
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Leviticus is full of food prohibitions.
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Sometimes today we might think of this as whether a food is
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kosher or not allowable to eat under Jewish law.
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For example, the pig is unclean for you.
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The Lord says in Leviticus 11, you must not eat of their meat
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or touch their carcasses. They are unclean for you.
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Archaeologists today, when they're excavating in cities in
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the Galilee region, for example, can tell if there's an area that
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was Jewish because there won't be any pig bones there, versus a
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Gentile city will have pig bones.
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So the very food that they ate marked them.
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Now it's important to realize that at different times God has
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forbidden different foods. For example, Jews could drink
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wine but not eat bacon. Latter Day Saints, it's the
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opposite. I'll let you decide who got the
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better end of the deal. Now God, with his infinite
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foreknowledge, He knows why He gives certain health laws at
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certain times. But one thing is certain, living
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these laws sets us apart and helps us become holy.
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And even though we don't live the exact same food laws that
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ancient Jews lived, I think we can learn a lot from their
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faithfulness in practicing these laws.
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For example, you remember Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and
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Abednego? When they're taking captive into
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Babylon, they refuse to eat the King's meat.
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This would have been contrary to the laws of Leviticus.
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To the people of Babylon, this looked like foolishness.
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But to Daniel, it was faithfulness.
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And we sometimes just read the story and think, oh, way to go,
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Daniel. But Can you imagine the bravery
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it would take to tell the servant of the king, hey, I'm
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not going to eat that meat? Sometimes we worry about being
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in an awkward or uncomfortable social situation with the Word
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of Wisdom. But for ancient Jews it was much
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more serious than an uncomfortable situation.
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Consider the case of Eleazar. We read about him in the Book of
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Maccabees, which is part of the Apocrypha.
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So in about the year 170 BC. This is a time of Hellenization.
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The Greek king Antiochus the 4th is forcing Jews to forget the
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Jewish law and adopt Greek practices.
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There was 1 elderly man well respected in the city.
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His name was Eleazar. And some of the King's officials
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came to him and said, you're going to eat pork or you'll die.
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Now Eleazar are so faithful, he's not going to eat the pork,
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but no one wants him to die. So some of the people in the
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city, they come to Eleazar and say, hey, don't worry, we're
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going to do a little meat switch at the last moment, we'll swap
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out the pork. We'll put in chicken.
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You can just eat the chicken and it's OK.
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What would you say if you were Eleazar?
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In Maccabees we read. Such pretense is not worthy of
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our time of life. If I ate that meat, many of the
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young might suppose that Eleazar in his 90th year had gone over
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to a foreign way of life, and through my pretense, for the
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sake of living a brief moment longer, they would be LED astray
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because of me. While I defile and disgrace my
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old age. Even if for the present I would
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avoid the punishment of mortals, yet whether I live or die, I
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will not escape the hands of the Almighty.
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Therefore, by bravely giving up my life now, I will show myself
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worthy of my old age and leave to the young a noble example of
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how to die a good death willingly and nobly for the
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revered and holy laws. When he had said this, he was
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dragged at once to the rack. Sometimes we think peer pressure
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is hard, and it is. But if I'm lucky enough to meet
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Eleazar in the next life, I don't think I'm going to go up
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to him and tell him about the challenges of peer pressure in
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the 21st century. There's so much we can learn
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from these faithful individuals who received laws from God to
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set them apart and they adhere to them no matter what.
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So we talked about the Sabbath food laws.
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Let's look at one other laws relating to dress and
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appearance. Some of these might seem strange
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to Latter Day Saints today. For example, Leviticus chapter
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19 verse 27. Do not cut the hair at the sides
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of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.
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Over time, many Orthodox Jewish people have interpreted this
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about not cutting off a certain portion of your hair.
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That's why you might have observed Orthodox Jews who have
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very long side curls. They're doing their best to
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adhere to what Leviticus 19 says.
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Now, would you keep your side curls even if it meant your life
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was in danger? Many Jews chose to do just that
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during the Nazi occupation. Even though their side curls
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clearly marked them as a target for the Nazis, they chose to be
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faithful to what they understood Leviticus to be teaching.
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Think what kind of faith it takes to stay firm in the face
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of intense pressure. Now today we don't follow these
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specific laws. How does God today call us to be
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set apart? Let's think about these same 3
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categories. Does our behavior on the Sabbath
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set us apart in a world that treats Sunday like any other
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day? Do our choices about what we eat
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and drink mark us us as disciples?
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Does our appearance reflect our covenant identity?
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So in every age God has practices to set His people
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apart. This helps us to be holy so we
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can enter into His holy presence.
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Consider this question. What's 1 gospel standard that
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you have that sets you apart and how is keeping it blessed your
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life? Another way that Leviticus
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teaches us about holiness is holiness through sacrifice.
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And we could probably have a whole course just on the
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sacrificial system of Leviticus. There's all these different
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types of sacrifice, all of which point to Jesus Christ.
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So let's look at three types of sacrifice a little more closely
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and see how they can connect us to the Savior.
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So first there's the burnt offering talked about in
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Leviticus One. This is one of the most basic
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types of sacrifice. Unlike some sacrifices where
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people could eat some of the animal after the sacrifice, the
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burnt offering is consumed entirely on the altar, so it
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symbolizes complete surrender to God.
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Before the animal was killed, the worshipper was commanded.
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You are to lay your hand on the head of the burnt offering, and
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it will be accepted on your behalf to make atonement for
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you. So picture the scene a person
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brings. A spotless animal lays a hand on
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its head and watches as the priest takes its life.
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You acknowledge this animal is dying so that I can live.
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Just as the worshipper laid a hand on the Lamb, so the Lord
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laid on Christ the iniquity of us all.
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So remember the burnt offering is completely consumed.
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We might say it like this. Jesus gave himself holy for us
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so that we might be made holy in him.
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Another sacrifice described in Leviticus is called the free
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will offering. And the good news about this one
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is it's pretty self-explanatory. Just from the title.
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You know what it's about. It's just whatever offering you
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want to give, it's not prescribed.
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It's not a certain percentage. This is just an act you give out
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of love. And that of course, points us
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directly to Jesus Christ. We sometimes say the Romans
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killed Jesus. That's sort of true.
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But at the same time, the Savior said I lay down my life for the
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sheep. No one takes it from me, but I
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lay it down of my own accord. I think there can be a huge
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shift in our sacrifices when they go from being something
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that we have to do to becoming a free will offering.
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I was talking with a young mother.
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She had three kids under 5. Some of you have been there.
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It's such a busy time, she said. I was exhausted and frustrated.
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Every day felt like one more demand, another meal to cook,
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another nose to wipe, another diaper to change.
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I began resenting how much of myself I had to give up, but
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then I remembered that I had always wanted to be a mom.
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It was my choice. When I saw it as something I
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wanted to do, everything changed.
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It's still exhausting, but now I find joy in serving my children.
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That's the power of a free will offering.
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Now, the last offering we'll talk about might be the toughest
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one of all. It's the daily offering.
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Imagine if the prophet stood up in General Conference and said,
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drop everything you're doing and move to Missouri.
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Would you go? I know you would go.
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The freeway would be packed. Everyone's heading to Missouri.
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We're so excited. But what if instead the prophet
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says in General Conference, read the scriptures every day?
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We would feel the same level of excitement and dedication.
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I think the reality is I could do something heroic for a day or
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two, but daily discipleship, that's hard.
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And ancient Israel knew about that.
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The Lord commanded, This is what you are to offer on the altar
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regularly. Each day 2 lambs a year old
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offer one in the morning and the other at twilight.
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So collectively Israel is making a daily sacrifice.
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And sometimes it's these daily sacrifices that are the hardest
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to make. But Jesus said, whoever wants to
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be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their
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cross, Ali, and follow me. For us, our daily sacrifices
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won't look like a lamb on the altar, but they might look like
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serving an aging parent day after day, or working hard in an
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important job, or making time for daily scripture study.
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Whatever our offerings might be, the daily sacrifice reminds us
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that enduring to the end comes one day at a time.
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And in some ways that's hard because you have to keep that
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momentum. But I also love what President
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Monson said. He said life by the yard is
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hard, but life by the inch is a cinch.
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You don't have to solve all of your problems for the rest of
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your life. You just have to keep coming
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closer to Jesus Christ one day at a time.
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The daily sacrifice helps us do that.
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So we've talked about 3 different types of sacrifices,
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burnt offerings, free will offerings, and the daily
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sacrifice. And I just want to give you a
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moment. Pick one of these sacrifices and
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think about how have you or how could you apply this in your
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life to increase in holiness. Let's hear some thoughts.
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I don't have a lot of money. I've never had a lot of money.
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I've been a single parent raising seven children, and so I
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wasn't able to afford to go on a mission.
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And so I put myself on a mission and I go to the temple every
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day. And I'm a convert to the church.
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So I have lots of ancestors who are not members of the Church
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and so I take their names to the temple.
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Thank you. When my oldest kids started
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going to seminary, they had seminary that was a 20 minute
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drive from our house and it was at 6:00 AM every day.
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And I started out by taking them to the church, wrapping them
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off, coming home and going back to bed.
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And I decided that they were making a sacrifice to get up and
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study their scriptures every single day that I could make a
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similar sacrifice. So instead of going back to bed,
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I used to come home and spend that same time that they were at
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seminary studying. And it just really drew me
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closer to the Lord and it really dreaming closer to my kids
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making that sacrifice every day. Beautiful, thank you.
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Now some of you might be thinking to yourself, I just
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love this discussion on holiness.
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I wish I could read a whole book about it.
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Wish granted. So there's a free e-book on this
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topic. It's called Approaching
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Holiness, so I've linked to it on the course website.
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I definitely suggest you check it out because we're only
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scratching the surface of holiness today.
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But for now, let's continue our discussion of holiness by
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looking at holiness through purity.
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Now in Leviticus, holiness wasn't just about sacrifices or
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food laws. It also reached into everyday
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life. And there were certain
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conditions that would make a person ritually unclean.
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This wasn't unclean as in like they were sinners or they
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couldn't come into the presence of God, couldn't go to heaven.
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It was more of a ritual impurity.
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One example of this would be leprosy.
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We read anyone suffering with a defiling skin disease must wear
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torn clothes, let their hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of
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their face and cry out. Unclean, unclean.
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As long as they have the disease, they remain unclean.
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They must live alone. They must live outside the camp.
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So why did the leper have to call out I'm unclean, I'm
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unclean? This is a key principle in
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Leviticus is that if anyone touches anything ceremonially
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unclean, they become unclean. So this ritual impurity is
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contagious. If you're a leper and I touch
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you, now I'm impure as well, and I'd have to go through some
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rituals to become ritually pure again.
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These laws create a painful separation.
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If you're a leper, no one wants to be around you.
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We also read when a woman has her regular flow of blood, the
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impurity of her monthly period will last seven days and anyone
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who touches her will be unclean till evening.
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Again, notice that it's contagious, and sometimes this
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could be extremely serious. Leviticus continues.
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When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time
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other than her monthly period, or has a discharge that
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continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she
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has the discharge. So for such a woman, daily life
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would be unbearable. Everything she touched would be
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unclean in their day and time. The husband could justifiably
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divorce her because she can't be.
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Touched. So Leviticus makes it very clear
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that in a sense, unholiness is contagious.
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That's why what Jesus does is so surprising.
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One day a leper approached Jesus and he said, If you are willing,
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you can make me clean. Jesus reached out his hand and
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touched the man. Now can the Savior heal a leper
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without touching him? Yes, but Jesus touches him and
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says I am willing be clean. Christ's holiness was
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contagious. It reverses the Levitical
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practice. On another occasion there was a
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woman who later Christian tradition tells us her name was
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Veronica. She'd had an issue of blood for
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12 years. Think about what that would have
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meant for her, based on the Leviticus passage we just looked
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at. To us, Leviticus is done away,
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but to her that was the law of the land where she lived.
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According to Leviticus, she was permanently unclean.
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Then she heard about Jesus. She thought, if I could just
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touch the fringe of his garments, I'll be healed.
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So she reached out, touched Christ's clothing.
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At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.
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He turned around to the crowd and asked Who touched my
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clothes? The woman doesn't say anything
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because she's now broken every Levitical law.
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She's worried that Christ will be angry with her because now
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he's ritually impure. But the Savior didn't care about
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that. The opposite happened.
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Holiness and power flowed out of him and into her.
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And he said, daughter, your faith has healed you go in
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peace. So in the Old Testament,
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impurity was contagious, but with Jesus, holiness is
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contagious. And I want you to know, I really
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believe this. This is a true principle.
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There is nothing so unholy or so bad that Jesus cannot touch and
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heal it and bring it to holiness.
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I think we can see Jesus raising the bar in this, not lowering
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it. For example, if he were a
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teacher of a youth Sunday school class, I don't think Jesus would
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be kicking out the rowdy kids in the back.
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He'd be going to sit down and hang out with them.
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And I love all of this, but it's probably just the Pharisee in
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me. But I'm a little nervous about
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it. I'm a little nervous.
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For example, if I teach a family home evening lesson on this
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topic to my kids and we talk about how Jesus's holiness is
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contagious, and so my teenagers are like, great, I'm going to
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start hanging out with the really bad kids at school doing
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bad stuff, and I'm going to help them become more holy.
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Oh, that could be a good idea. But what if they crumble under
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pressure? I mean, that's a real concern,
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right? The apostle Paul wrote bad
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company corrupts good character. Even Peter, who swore he would
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never deny Christ, crumbles under the pressure.
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We're not as strong as Jesus Christ.
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I know His Holiness is enough, but is mine is my teenage
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child's. So I think just like with a lot
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of good gospel principles, there's a little bit of
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attention here. On the one hand, we could avoid
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unholy people in situations because unholiness is
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contagious. But on the other hand, we can be
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a light to others. We can be a force for good.
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So think about your own lives. Christ's holiness brought
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cleansing at the same time. Bad company corrupts good
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character. I love your thoughts in your
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life. How do you handle this tension?
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The first thought it came to me was my choice of entertainment,
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and I do thank the Holy Ghost. I think thank you.
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You reminded me that this is not going to go anyplace good.
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If I continue watching this movie or listening to this
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podcast or whatever, I appreciate that I'm hearing a
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voice that's helping me be more discerning about what I'm taking
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in so that the bad company won't corrupt the goodness that I'm
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trying to build inside me. Thank you.
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I love the new the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet,
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which talks about so much less. What actions should you should
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you be doing and should you not be doing?
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What are the intentions behind your actions?
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What are you hoping to accomplish with what you're
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doing there? Yeah, Amen.
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Ultimately, I don't know that there's one right answer to this
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wrestle, to this tension, but I love what Sister Wendy Watson
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Nelson said. What would a holy person do?
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Sometimes a holy person is going to reach out and touch another
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individual and bring them in, and sometimes a holy person is
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going to get out of a bad situation.
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Ultimately, it's revelation that's going to be the key.
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And I think honestly pondering the question, what would a holy
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person do? That's a question that can
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change our lives. So last, we want to focus on
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holiness and atonement. Once a year, on the holiest day
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of the year in the Jewish calendar, everything stopped.
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It's the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur.
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Even today in modern Jerusalem, which is a city of a million
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plus people, the entire city shuts down.
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All vehicles stop, traffic signals are turned off.
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It is a holy day. So what made the Day of
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Atonement so special? It's the one day in the year
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that the high priest can go into the Holy of Holies, which
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represents the presence of God. The ritual was something like
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this. There would be two goats
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selected and the high priest would cast lots to determine
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which would be sacrificed as an offering to the Lord and which
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would be the scapegoat that would be sent into the
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wilderness. We read he shall then slaughter
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the goat for the sin offering for the people and take its
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blood behind the curtain. So that's referring to taking
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the blood of the goat into the Holy of Holies and do with it
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what he did with the bull's blood.
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He shall sprinkle it on the atonement cover, and in front of
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it then another goat, the scapegoat, is brought forward.
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Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live
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goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the
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Israelites, all their sins, and put them on the goat's head.
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He shall send the goat away into the wilderness.
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So you have two bulls, 1 killed for a sacrifice and the other
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set free, and then the high priest would bathe himself with
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water after the ceremony. Year after year the same thing
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happens. The blood of the goat
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representing Aaron, bringing that into the presence of God,
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metaphorically the holy of Holies and offering this
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sacrifice. The book of Hebrews, though,
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teaches a blunt truth about this sacrifice.
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It says it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take
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away sin. This whole system, this most
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holy day, was all pointing to Jesus Christ.
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Again, in Hebrews we read Christ did not enter a sanctuary made
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with human hands. That was only a copy of the true
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1. He entered heaven itself.
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So the Tabernacle is a type or a shadow of heaven.
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Coming into the presence of God is symbolic in the Holy of
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Holies. But Jesus went truly into the
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presence of God. He has appeared once for all at
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the culmination of the ages, to do away with sin by the
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sacrifice of himself. It's not the sacrifice of a goat
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that atones for sins, it's the sacrifice of Christ.
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He went in not once a year, but once for all.
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We read Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of
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many, and he will appear a second time not to bear sin, but
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to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
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So can you see the contrast? The priest went in once a year.
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Christ went in once for all. Now a beautiful part of the Day
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of Atonement was it was a sacrifice for all of Israel.
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We read He, the high priest, shall make atonement for the
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most holy place, for the tent of meeting and the altar, and for
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the priests and all the members of the community of Israel.
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That's a pretty big group, but it's still exclusive.
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What about all the other nations?
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Jesus changes that too. In the Book of Revelation, we
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read that his sacrifice redeems people from every tribe and
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language and people and nation. Christ's atonement knows no
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boundaries, no exclusion. Now let's come back to the
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goats. So you remember the scapegoat
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that was set free. This idea of two goats coming
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before the high priest points forward to another person.
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Not the high priest, but Pilate. 2 men were brought before him.
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He had to make a choice. One would be slain for the sins
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of the people, the other would be set free.
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Even in some small details like Pilate washing his hands
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afterwards, point to the high priest who washed his hands
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after the sacrifice. In a sense, Barabbas is the
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scapegoat. He's set free because of the
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death of Jesus Christ. No, we don't often think a lot
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about the scapegoat, and we don't think a lot about
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Barabbas. But I watched a video one time
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that just deepened my understanding and appreciation
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for the Savior and what that experience might have been like
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with Christ and Barabbas before Pilate.
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So I want to share this clip with you.
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But just a little warning, it's maybe unique.
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It's a Christian pastor named Judah Smith who's going to be
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talking. He's not talking in a quiet
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sacrament meeting voice. He's got a loud preacher voice.
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So just enjoy it and think about what message from this video
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touches your heart today. We see the story of he's going
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to the cross and everything seems to kind of be hand in
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hand. And then there's there's one
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character that seems to interrupt the narrative stinks
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Barabbas. You don't even know much about
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him except that he's a murderer, leader of an insurrection, a
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rebel. And why he's even mentioned
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sometimes I'm not so sure. It's like what let's this is
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about Jesus going to the cross. So in this moment, Pilate
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thinks, I hold the destinies of these two men in my hand.
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I know the Jews have a tradition that on a holy day I will
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release one of the prisoners on death row.
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Pilate stands on this audacious stage who now presents Jesus,
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son of the living God, versus Barabbas the thug and rebel.
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He says, all right, who do you want?
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This is blasphemy. This is this has gone too far.
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There's no comparison. This is a rightful prisoner, a
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man who should be on death row. He's a rebel against Rome.
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He leads a rebellion, he murders people.
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He's a bad man. He's a thug and he's a crook.
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He deserves the chains and he deserves the crucifixion.
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Jesus, what has he done but heal, restore, deliver, set
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free. Open blind eyes, open deaf ears,
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heal the lame and the leper. What?
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What has Jesus done? Who do you want?
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What? We want?
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Barabbas. Yeah, Give us Barabbas.
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People say. Give us Barabbas.
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The Roman soldiers come up and they put the key in and they
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unlock Barabbas from his chains and shackles and he walks down
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platform, welcomed by all of his thug friends.
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Yeah, the people love me. Yeah, that's right.
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I only know who this Jesus guy is.
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But all I know is my people love me.
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There seems to be no conscience in Barabbas.
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There's no record of him turning to Jesus and saying I owe you
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everything now for you have set me free.
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No, I don't see any of that in Barabbas.
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And God knew that Jesus stood there asylum, for he knew the
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will of the Father. He said it's fine, Father let
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him have Barabbas for Jesus. Knew that the Father would have
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to treat Jesus like Barabbas so he could treat Barabbas like
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Jesus. Barabbas thought it was the
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people that set him free. No, no, no, no.
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It was the love of a heavenly Father.
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When I look at the story, I realized who Barabbas really is.
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That's me, that's you, that's us.
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For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
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God sent his Son for Barabbas, even the one He knew would walk
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away from Jesus and his free gift and never come back.
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He loves them. And the nerve, the call on the
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audacity of believers to think I got saved by grace.
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But now that I'm in this deep, dark place of bondage, I'm going
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to work hard to get myself out. What?
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That's the opposite of the gospel.
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Are you bound? Are you held under the power of
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this temptation? This seems like it's controlling
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you. What are you going to do?
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I'm going to shake myself free. Stop it.
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No, you won't. You're nomads for the powers of
34:51
hell, and the urges of sin will not overcome it, and you will
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never overcome it. You'll just be another
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statistic. There's no answer within
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yourself. Your own marriage, your own
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goodness, your own discipline, your own devotion will not save
35:06
your marriage and will not save your kids.
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There's only one, and he's the one that took your place.
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He's the one that stood silently on the platform with Pilot that
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said yes, let him have Barabbas take me.
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I see him. I see him walking to the post to
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be whipped as I stand a freeman. All the attention is turned now
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and I feel the love of God. Same ghost son.
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Live your life, I'll pay the price.
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When did we get off thinking that we were going to set
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ourselves free? It's still Jesus.
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It'll always be Jesus. It'll never stop being the power
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of Jesus. If his blood is sufficient for
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your salvation, His blood is sufficient to sustain you
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through every challenge and every sin and every temptation.
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Jesus is enough. Do you really believe it?
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Do you really believe that Jesus is enough?
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And as we were watching that clip together, it just came into
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my mind. This is what holiness is all
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about. I'm not going to get to holiness
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through all of my own efforts. The holiness comes through Jesus
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Christ. As Paul writes, God demonstrates
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his own love for us in this While we were still sinners,
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Christ died for us. Holiness was never meant to be a
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do it yourself project. All of the sacrifices, all of
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the rules, everything we've been seeing in Leviticus, it all
36:53
points to Jesus Christ. And you remember that at the
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beginning of the book of Leviticus, Moses stood outside
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the tent. He can't get in, but by numbers,
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he's inside. He found a way in.
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What is the way into the presence of God?
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You know Jesus said it. I am the way, the truth and the
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life because of Jesus Christ. The way in is open to all of us.
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Because of Christ we can approach God's throne of grace
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with confidence. So I guess the question we have
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to ask ourselves is this, will we stay outside the tent or will
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we step in?