ACT 4: COVENANT - SCENE 5 HOLINESS
FROM DUST TO GLORY • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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IN EXODUS GOD GIVES THE LAW TO REFLECT THE HEART OF THE LAWGIVER.
God gives the law to teach His people His heart and to show them how to give Him their heart moment by moment.
GOD DESIRES TO DWELL.
The law revealed man's inability to live as God desires. God, desiring to dwell with man, designed a portal tent where he would dwell.
God's presence would dwell in this tent as the established priesthood, the Levites, ministered the necessary sacrifices for sin.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
This tent was designed to reflect the Garden of Eden. It reminded them of God's desire to walk with them and what must be done for God to walk with them.
THE TABERNACLE
The tent/tabernacle reminded them of their need to be made holy. Their holiness was contingent on a once-a-year sacrifice called the Day of Atonement.
THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS TEACHES US HOW A HOLY GOD LIVING IN THE MIDST OF A SINFUL PEOPLE PEOPLE IS MAKING A WAY FOR THEM TO BE IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIMSELF AND REFLECT HIS KINGDOM, CHARACTER, AND GLORY INTO THE WORLD.
GOD MADE US HOLY (WHOLE). WE BROKE OURSELVES. JESUS COMES HOLY (WHOLE) AND OVERCOMES WHAT BROKE US SO THAT WE MIGHT BECOME HOLY (WHOLE).
WE WHO BROKE THE LAW ARE MADE WHOLE BY THE ONE WHO KEPT THE LAW YET WAS SACRIFICED AS ONE WHO HAD BROKEN THE LAW.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.
For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.
For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”
“Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.
You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.
YOU SHALL BE WHOLE BECAUSE I AM WHOLE.
HOW DOES GOD CREATE HOLY (WHOLE) PEOPLE. . .
BY OFFERING A BLOOD SACRIFICE FOR THE ATONEMENT OF SIN THROUGH DEATH.
OFFERING, BLOOD, SACRIFICE, ATONEMENT, SIN, AND DEATH COMBINED MAKE UP 55% OF THE 859 VERSES FOUND IN LEVITICUS.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.
HOW DOES HE KEEP A HOLY (WHOLE) PEOPLE . . .
BY ESTABLISHING A SYSTEM OF FEASTS TO REMIND THEM OF THEIR REDEMPTION.
BY ESTABLISHING A SYMBOLIC FEAST TO REMIND US OF OUR REDEMPTION.
For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,
and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
WHY DOES GOD COMMAND US TO BE HOLY (WHOLE) . . .
IT REFLECTS GODS GLORY AND REPRESENTS HIS WILL IN THE WORLD.
THE TABERNACLE WAS A PORTABLE TENT.
JESUS INCARNATES HIMSELF.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)
he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.
For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.
Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.
For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.”
And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.
Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,
for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.
Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?
But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”
When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,
waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.
For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”
then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,
by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,
and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction.
And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;
then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,
and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones,
JESUS INCARNATES HIMSELF SO HE CAN INHABIT US.
JESUS CAME AN DWELT WITH US SO HE CAN DWELL IN US.
Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
THE TENT/TABERNACLE REMINDED THEM OF THEIR NEED TO BE MADE HOLY.
THEIR HOLINESS WAS CONTINGENT ON A ONCE A YEAR SACRIFICE CALLED THE DAY OF ATONEMENT. OUR HOLINESS IS CONTINGENT ON A ONCE AND FOR ALL SACRIFICE.
WE HAVE BECOME THE TEMPLE WHERE THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS TO PROD AND EMPOWER US TO LIVE HOLY.
IF JESUS SACRIFICE IS ONCE AND FOR ALL. WHY DO WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS AFTER WE ARE SAVED?
POST SALVATION FORGIVENESS IS NOT FOR THE SAKE OF REDEMPTION BUT REFRESHING.
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus,
THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST CREATES SACRIFICIAL CHRISTIANS.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.