Leviticus | Nearness

Zach Cunningham continues a series called Heart of God. 

Transcript

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Have a seat. Yes, happy Father's Day to all my fellow dads out there, especially my father-in-law Alan, sitting right there. Hope you guys have a great day, grilling some meat and golfing doing whatever it is. Watching the open, I think, is the end of the day. Guys, can you believe we get to be dads? This is amazing. Okay, guys. Hey, I'm proud of you for being here. And I'm proud, guys, in a lot of ways, I'm proud of everyone for being here, especially this morning. Uh, especially if you've been coming the last few weeks and understand the series that we're in, and uh can read a table of contents and can count to the number three, because today we have made it to a book that a lot of people are confused by, scared of, and repulsed away from. If you have a Bible, go ahead, open it to the book of Leviticus. We have made it to week three of the Heart of God series. And I'm actually really excited this morning to preach an entire sermon just on the book of Leviticus. Now, by show of hands, how many of you have never heard a sermon on the book of Leviticus before? Okay, let's see it. Okay, not that many. Let's go. Okay, we're in it, baby. I'm excited for uh Leviticus. Usually, humbly, honestly, I usually speed read this book or I skip large sections. It's a very unique book. It's a very strange book. In a lot of ways, it feels like you're stepping into a foreign country when you read this book. Uh which, side note, uh one of my favorite things about the World Cup, other than the USA absolutely dominating, uh, we're gonna win. Um, it definitely is the second thing is the videos of international fans coming uh to America and experiencing all that we have to offer. Like I actually said, Bucky's and Bass Pro Shop. Guys, go watch the videos if you've not seen it. And you know, Texas Roadhouse is a good one. Uh it's incredible, okay, seeing they've experienced the greatest country in the world. Okay, let's go. We're gonna win the World Cup. Anyways, to them, to these international fans, this is a foreign, strange land, and that is like Leviticus for a lot of us. Okay, we open this book, and you gotta just scan all the chapters, and you see its sacrifices and blood and curtains, and you think, what world did I just walk into? And generally, believers stay away from this book. Uh, in fact, that idea of being repulsed by something, staying away from something, is actually close to the heart of the book. Okay, and I'll try to explain it like this. Can you guys think of something that you generally try to avoid? Okay, something that you stay away from are repulsed by, like when this thing comes into the room, you leave the room. Well, uh, no joke, as I was thinking about this idea, the first thing that came to mind uh was something that my wife absolutely hates, that I didn't find out about until the worst timing imaginable. Okay, I'll share it quickly, it'll set us up. Okay, long story short, I just started dating my wife, and you guys know this. Like when a guy starts dating a girl, he pulls out all the stumps, okay? And so I wanted my wife, Matalie, to think I was fun and spontaneous. And so for our second date ever, I bought us tickets to Six Flags. Okay, anybody in here love roller coasters? Okay, that's me. My whole life, I'm going to Six Flags, and I enjoy it. It's a good time. Every summer when I was a kid, I went to Six Flags. Now, here's the deal uh I didn't uh run it by my wife uh that we were gonna go to Six Flags. So, anyways, I go to her, I say, babe. I didn't call her babe. Melly, this is what we're gonna do. This weekend we're gonna hang out with my brother and his wife, and we're gonna go to a really special place. And she's like, Where? I'm like, we're going to Six Flags. Okay. Now, listen, this is at the point in the relationship that if you hate roller coasters with all of your being and it makes you cry, you need to speak up. Um, you need to tell the gun nope, that would be terrible. Let's go get Froyo. Um, but listen, guys, my wife, she is a trooper and a liar because she told me I would love to go to Six Lags. Anyway, so fast forward, we're in the car, we're driving to Dallas, and there's no signs of fear. I'm looking over, she's smiling. We get there, we're like the first ones there, and so we run, obviously, to the best of my bear, the Titan. Okay, take a hard left, and we're running to the Titan, and still no signs of fear from my wife mentally. And we get to uh the Titan, and there's like nobody in line, and some of them said, Mentally, we're gonna run in the very front, okay? So we get up there, and guys, I'm there, and just the joy of my childhood is just overwhelmingly, and I look over, expecting to see that same face of my wife, and guys, I saw a face I have never seen since or before. My wife, uh, her face was pale white, and there was a tear coming out of her eyes. And it was at this moment he realized he made a grave mistake. Guys, my wife hates roller coasters. This is a terrible idea. And she's telling me this right as we're getting on. Now, okay, fellas, again, if you're in the spot, here's what you probably should do. You need to say, oh, don't worry about it. We don't have to ride the ride. Don't do what I did. This is what I told her. I said, Oh, no, no, no, don't worry. Like, it's not scary. Sit down, buckle up. I paid one, I paid, you know, I paid $120 for this ticket. So no joke. We're riding it, and guys, she's tearing up crying the whole time, and we're going to just click the she still has nightmares of this roller coaster. And so we finished the, we finished that one minute of horror, and we're grounded the rest of the day. Like we spent five hours watching my brother and his wife ride all the roller coasters. Which, okay, fellas, this is not a bad strategy. Take your girl to face her biggest fear, be there for her on the other side, hold her hand, fall in love, get married. Okay, anyways. So I can say, here's my point. Okay, my wife, since then, she has been separated from, repulsed by roller coasters. I have not gotten on another roller coaster with her in eight years. Okay, she is away from it. She wants distance from them. If one comes near, she gets away. Okay, it would take a miracle to get her back on there. And I start there this morning because I need you to have that kind of word picture in your mind as we approach the book of Leviticus. Because this book is going to show us something similar, but infinitely more serious than someone being opposed to roller coasters. Because this book, if you've read it, it's full of a lot of strange commands. Lots of sacrifices and blood and clean laws and unclean laws. Don't touch this, don't go there, don't do this. And all of those laws, they do serve a practical function. We're gonna keep Israel distinct from all the other nations around it. Let's keep it holy, let's keep it distinct. But there's something going on underneath all of the laws in this book that you have to see because it's communicating something about God and about us and the world that we live in. But more than that, this book, Leviticus, it's gonna serve as a scene-setting book, okay? A backdrop in the Bible, a spotlight on something coming later. There are categories and themes and ideas in this book that actually shape a lot of our view of Jesus and the gospel. So much so that one could easily make the argument that without Leviticus, in your mind and in your paradigm, you can't understand the fullness and the beauty of who Jesus is and what Jesus came to do. Okay, that like the fans leaving America going, that was strange, but it was wonderful. I think you can say the same thing about the book of Leviticus. Okay, and so this morning I want to show it to you. Uh, and we're gonna do that by looking at chapter 16 of Leviticus. Okay, so go to Leviticus chapter 16, the center of the book. In a lot of ways, the center of the gospel. Okay, we're in Leviticus 16. I'll let you get there. Leviticus 16. We're gonna start in verse one. If you got it, say got it. Okay, try to see if you can follow along. This is chapter 16, verse 1. The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron's sons, when they approached the presence of the Lord and died. The Lord said to Moses, Hey, tell your brother Aaron that he may not come whenever he wants into the holy place behind the curtain in front of the mercy seat of the other on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. Okay, stop right there. Let's try to enter back into the story. Okay, last week Drake taught Exodus, where God rescues his people from slavery. Uh, and it's a really crazy book, okay? Plagues, Passover, parting of the Red Sea. After that, God takes his people to Mount Sinai, he makes a covenant with them, Ten Commandments, but also he gives them something called the Tabernacle, okay, which is a really big deal. It was this tent-like structure where the presence of God was going to dwell, and they would make sacrifices, which is a big deal. Okay, God coming down to be with his people again, this is like the garden, okay? This is what it's supposed to be like. But if you're following the story, a question comes when the tabernacle comes, and it's this how can a holy God dwell with sinful people? And that is a big question, okay, which is the tension underneath this entire book and really the entire Bible, okay, which actually leads us to Leviticus and what we just read. Because if you follow along, something crazy just happened that we just read out loud. Okay, it says that the two sons of Aaron, it's a callback to chapter 10 of Leviticus, but Aaron had two sons who walked into the presence of God with unauthorized fire. Basically, they wanted to enter the presence of God in a way God said not to enter. And what happens to them? They drop dead. And then verse two, it says, Hey, make sure Aaron doesn't come into my presence however he wants, or else he also will drop dead. Okay, which actually shows us something right away that Leviticus wants to teach us two massive truths here in Leviticus that drive the entire book. Number one, God is holy. And number two, sin is serious. Okay, that God is holy, because of that, sin is serious. That's where you have to start with this book, the holiness of God. Now, I don't know what you think of when you first think of the word holy. Okay, growing up in church, I thought about like some super Christians, the movie Foot Loose, You Can't Dance, and I sang the song Holy, Holy, Holy, sometimes in some hymns. But then I got to college and somebody handed me two books that transformed my view of God. The first is the one that we're reading this summer in men's and women's groups called The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. The second, which is awesome, and we've really enjoyed going through it. The second one is like it, and I can't recommend it enough. It's called The Holiness of God by R. C. Sprawl. Okay, and that book changed my whole view. Guys, if you're looking for a Father's Day gift recommendation, I recommend that book. Because what Sprawl does is he talks about God being holy, and he takes you to Isaiah 6 and Revelation, this idea that God is set apart, he is different, he is morally pure while we're morally polluted. Like God is different from us, and it really expands your view of God. And because God is holy, sin is serious, and that's a problem for us because God is holy and we are not. Okay, and far more than my wife hates roller coasters, God hates sin. God is repulsed by sin. It's part of his nature, which means this that sinful people can't waltz into his presence. And that's why these guys died. Listen, the danger, and this is what Sparole helps you understand the danger is not that God is bad. The danger is that God is good, and that's why they died. Not because God is evil, but because God is holy. That their biggest problem and our biggest problem is the goodness and righteousness and holiness of God. Which actually is going to reframe the way you look at this book and the way you look at God. Because sure, there's a gap, a chasm, really, between God, holy, and us, sinful. God is clean, we're not clean, God is morally perfect, we're morally polluted. But Leviticus doesn't say stay away. And Leviticus doesn't say, tough luck, you can't come near, but no, look at verse 3 of chapter 16. Look at what it says. Aaron is to enter the most holy place in this way. Okay, can you see it here? Okay, that that there's a third thing happening here. Yes, God is holy, and yes, sin is serious, but also number three, God made a way. Okay, which is a massive statement given the divide between us and God. Guys, can you consider the grace packed into verse three? God doesn't say you can never come near. No, he says, hey, you can't come near whenever you want and however you want, but guys, you can come near to God, and that is good news, which means the main message of Leviticus is not stay away, but no, come here, come near, which leads us to the heart of God in the book of Leviticus. In one word, it's this nearness. God's heart to be near his people. God is making a way in Leviticus for his people to come into his presence again. Here's what this means. This is good for us. This book is not primarily about sacrifices and blood, it's about relationship and love that God has for us. It's about nearness, God making a way. And that's good news for us. Amen? But the question at this point, and what's even more powerful about this chapter is okay, God made a way. Well, what way did he make? And how are we to approach? Because, guys, there's a lot here in verse 3. Because sure there's a lot of sacrifices in all the chapters, but in chapter 16, we get one of the most unique and the most significant sacrifice in all the Bible. It's called the Day of Atonement. Okay, keep reading in verse 3. It's gonna get confusing, but I'll explain it. Okay, verse 3. Aaron is to enter the most holy place in this way with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. And then skip down to verse 6. Aaron will present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household. Next, he will take two goats and place them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, the tabernacle. After Aaron cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord, and the other for an uninhabitable place. He is to present the goat chosen by lot for the Lord and sacrifice it as a sin offering. But the goat chosen by Lot for an uninhabitable place is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement with it. How? By sending it into the wilderness of the uninhabitable place. Okay, that's a lot, but here's a simple version. Okay, there's like five animals involved with the Day of Atonement, but really three are at the heart of the ceremony. The first is this you need to get a bull for Aaron, and you need to get two goats. One goat is getting killed, and the other goat is getting kicked out of town. That's the heart of the ceremony. But there's something going on underneath it spiritually that you have to see. First, the bull. Okay, verse 6 Aaron has to get a bull and kill it as a sin offering to make atonement for himself. Okay, and this is big time. It basically means that before Aaron can do anything, he's got to deal with his own sins first. Yes, he's the high priest, but he's also a sinner. He can't just scroll stroll into the presence of God. His sin has to be dealt with first. That's what the bull is doing here. So it teaches us that even the priest needs atonement. Okay, that's the bull. And then we get to the first goat. Look at verse 9 again. He is to present the goat, the first one, chosen by Lot for the Lord, and sacrifice it as a sin offering. Okay, so the first goat's getting killed. Blood is shed, sacrifice is made. Why? Because sin must be paid for. Okay, God, if you read the Bible, he doesn't deal with sin by pretending it's not there. And he doesn't wave it off and ignore it. No, no, no. A good judge doesn't see something evil and say it's no big deal. And a good holy God doesn't look at sin and say, let's move on. And so sin requires atonement. And while the bull was for Aaron's sins, the goat is for the sins of Israel. And so sacrifice comes. Why? Because the atonement requires blood, and blood requires a sacrifice. That's the first goat. Sin has to be paid for. But the second goat is different. Okay, the second goat is called a scapegoat. Have you guys ever taken the fall for something you didn't do? Okay, I'm a twin brother, trust me. My whole life is taking the fall for the shenanigans that my brother uh did, Cole. I took the blame for something he did. And that's the idea of a scapegoat. And it's different than the first goat. The first goat gets killed, this one gets kicked out. Look at verse 10. But the goat chosen by Lot for the, I'll just call it the wild place, the wilderness, is to be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement. How? By sending it into the wilderness for in uh the wilderness. Anyway, okay, so this one gets to live. But it gets to live in the wilderness, okay? And that's pretty strange to me at first. If you're reading the Bible, you should go this. Wait. If the first goat died and my sins are paid for, then aren't we good? Like that goat died. Like, why do we gotta bring a second goat? I got no more guilt. And the answer is yes, you have no more guilt. But we learn something about the atonement from the book of Leviticus. That sin doesn't just need payment, it needs to be removed. That sin makes us guilty, but it also makes us unclean. And God wants to do more than just forgive our sins. And he talks about it more in verse 20. Skip down to verse 20. This is like the act of the scapegoat. Verse 20. When he has finished making atonement for the most holy place, the ten of meeting and the altar, the first goat, he is to present the second goat. Verse 21. Try to picture this. Aaron will lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and he will confess over it all the Israelites' iniquities and rebellious acts, all of their sins. He is to put them on the goat's head and send it away into the wilderness by the man appointed for the task. The goat will carry all of their sins into a desolate land, and the man will release it there. Okay, can you see the picture here? Uh God tells Aaron, Hey, go put all of the sins on the goat. Okay, literally, confess generally the iniquities, the rebellions, all of the sins of Israel onto the goat. And it's gonna metaphorically absorb all of the sins, and then it says, Now send it far, far away. And that is a big deal for Israel. Okay, it's a visual, it's a picture, it's a dramatic act designed to bring them comfort. Because as they watch that goat go further and further away, something happens in their heart. Um, because it's Father's Day, I'll share a dad joke. Uh, all the people I meet from West Texas, they always say the same joke. Uh, that nobody freaks out in West Texas when a dog runs away. Why? Because it's so flat you can still see it for three days. Okay, they see the dog over and everybody from West Texas tells me this joke. Beloved people, Texas Tech, hard time. Anyways, they would the idea is you could just keep watching it and keep watching it and keep watching it. Guys, it's not like that in Israel, and it's not like that for this goat because they would watch that goat go further away, further away, outside of the town, outside of the gate, out of their sight. And what that is doing is it's preaching a picture to Israel that your sins are removed from you. And they're not just paid for, they're taken care of. Your shame and your uncleanness have been taken away, which is big, because Israel wouldn't just need to know, are my sins paid for, but also, is my sin still on me? And the scapegoat answers, no, it's been carried away. And it's right here that we see the heart of God for Israel, that he loves them so much that he provides not just a way to pay for their sins, but to take it away. Okay, which is great news until you get to the last verse of this chapter. Look at 34, because you realize that the Day of Atonement, while it was gracious, it was also very limited. Look at verse 34. This Day of Atonement is to be a permanent statute for you to make atonement for the Israelites once a year because of all of their sins. Or in other words, this whole thing, you gotta do it once a year. Which, if your first thought is this, wow, God doesn't love them. He only let them come close once a year. You miss the grace of God. But the limitation is here you gotta do it again, and you gotta do it again. Yeah, this goat got sent away, but there will be another goat. Like, yes, this blood brought you in, but next year, more blood is required. Every year Israel is reminded your God is holy, your sin is serious, atonement is necessary, and there is no end in sight for all of this blood. And every year the animal gets selected, and every year the blood comes out and shed, and every year the people wait again. And the question underneath all of this, every year, would have been this will there ever be something better than this? Like, will there ever be a sacrifice that we can make? Are we just stuck like this forever? Like, is there ever a way that we can be close to God and stay close to God? And that's the tension that Leviticus 16 creates. Like it gives us the categories, but it doesn't give us a final answer. Like it gives us a shadow, but no substance. It gives us a pattern, but not yet the person. But then you get to the New Testament. And specifically, you get to the book of Hebrews, and all of this gets blown wide open. Because if you've been Following Jesus for a while, Leviticus 16 should be ringing some bells. Because you shouldn't be reading this and go, This is strange. You ought to be reading it and going, This is Jesus. Like all of this. The priest, the blood, the goat, the lamb, the atonement, the guilt, and the shame. Like all of this gets mapped onto Jesus. You can't read the New Testament for five minutes without getting to the ideas and categories of the book of Leviticus and especially Leviticus 16. Because the Day of Atonement, what we just read through, my argument is this: it was prepared and created not as an end in itself, but to set the stage for what Jesus was going to come do. Jesus is the fulfillment of all that we just discussed. And I want to show it to you quickly to end our time from three different angles. All from the book of Hebrews. And you don't got to turn there. We're going to be all over. I got that on the screen. It's going to be crazy. Okay, Hebrews. Here's what I want to do. Jesus fulfills all of this. And that should drive your worship when we sing. Okay, the first, here it is. Jesus is the better priest. Okay, here's Hebrews 7. This is what it says. For this is the kind of high priest we need. Holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He doesn't need to offer sacrifices every day as high priests like Aaron do, first for their own sins and then for the sins of people. No, he did this once for all times when he offered himself. Okay, can you see the contrast here? Aaron had to offer the bull for himself first, and then he could sacrifice for the people of Israel. Okay, it's like being on an airplane. I've never, this never sat well with me. The attendants, they do their thing. And what do they say? Hey, before you help other people put on the mask, what do you got to do? Put your own mask on first. And it never sat well with me, because if I got kids, I'm like trying to do it. Anyways, but the idea is this you gotta take care of yourself first before you can take care of others. And that was true for Aaron, but listen, it's not true for Jesus. He is a different high priest. He is a better high priest. He doesn't need to put a mask on, he doesn't need a bull, he doesn't need to go clean himself first. Why? Because he is our holy, innocent, undefiled priest. Yes, separated from sinners, but praise God, the friend of sinners. Yes, exalted in the heavens, but he came down to earth. He had no sin of his own. And it guys, if we're choosing a team captain to represent us before God, I'm choosing the holy one who doesn't have to deal with his own sins. Why? Because he's got more room for ours. Jesus is the better high priest, but also he's the better sacrifice, the better first goat. Okay, this is Hebrews 9, verse 11. But Christ has appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come. In the greater, more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, but verse 12, look at what it says. He entered the most holy place once for all time, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. Okay, praise God. Okay, you can see it here. That back then on the Day of Atonement, the priest would enter the sacrifice, the most holy place, by the blood of another. But Jesus enters by his own blood. Or in other words, he's not just the priest making the sacrifice, he is the sacrifice. Can you see it? And he is the perfect, unblemished, holy sacrifice. And Hebrews says this he does it one time for all. I would underline and circle and sing that phrase. This is not going to be an every year thing. Okay, this is not gonna be a once-a-year over and over again. Jesus did this once for all time, which is why Hebrews 12 or Hebrews 10 says this. It says, Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins. But this man, Jesus, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. Can you see the difference here? The priests had to keep standing. Why? Because their work was never finished. Every year another sacrifice, every year more blood. But it says Jesus offers one sacrifice for all time, and then he sits down. Why? Because it is finished. The work is done. He is the better sacrifice. Okay, and so here's what this means for us this morning as you sit here. Like if you're in Christ, let me just say this over you. Your sin is serious. Okay? Your sin against the Lord, though serious, whatever it is, your pride, the way that you use your words to flatter, to gossip, to slander, the anger that you've had towards your spouse, towards your kids, your bitterness, your passivity, every wandering eye, every lustful glance, your coveting, your jealousy, all of that, though serious, is also forgiven. That we fight and confess forgiven sins. My sins are paid for sins. Those are the sins I fight every day. It's been paid for because we have a perfect and better sacrifice in Jesus. It's good news for us. But he's not just the better sacrifice, he's also the better scapegoat. Okay, this is what Hebrews 9 says. See if you can catch the language. So also Christ, having been offered once, here it is, to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him. See, that's the language of a scapegoat here. That like a scapegoat, Jesus bears the sins, absorbs the sins of many. He carries them where? On the cross, which is why 2 Corinthians says that Jesus became sin on our behalf, and then he gets kicked out of town, literally in Jerusalem, into the wilderness, outside the city walls. This is why Hebrews 13 says this. Therefore, Jesus also suffered where? Outside the gate. Why? That he might sanctify or make holy the people by his own blood, that Jesus went outside the gate for us, outside the camp, bearing our sins in shame, and our guilt, why? So that Psalm 103 would be true, that our sins have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west, forever removed. Our guilt isn't just paid for, but your shame is removed. So anytime you sit here and wonder, is my sins paid for? You look to the cross and you see Jesus. And if you ask the question, is my sin still on me? No, man, we look to Jesus and on the cross. And when God looks at us now, he doesn't see our sin. It's been removed. He sees his son. So our identity is changed. And so dads in the room who failed as a dad, listen, you're not defined by your worst mistakes. You're not defined by your dad's mistakes. You're defined by Jesus, and your guilt has been removed. So today we can be good dads. We can lean into this. Why? Because it's been removed from us. We're not defined by it. God sees us, he empowers us for it. He is the better scapegoat. And it's right here that we see the heart of God displayed for us: a full atonement, a forever atonement, and a final atonement for us. Which brings us back to the book of Leviticus. Because the heart of God for us also is not stay away. No, the heart of God is I will make a way for sinners to come home. And listen, in Jesus, he has made a way that has been blown open forever. The sacrifice has been offered, the blood has been shed, and our sins have been carried away. And that's the gospel according to the book of Leviticus, that in Jesus, God has made a way for you and I to come home and to stay home forever. And so my final encouragement to all of us is in light of what God has done, in light of him drawing near to us, what should we do? We should draw near to him this week. We should approach him with confidence before the throne. We should confess our sins, find fellowship and reconciliation, and come close to the God who draws near to us. Because James says if you do that, he'll draw near to you. Confess your sins, it doesn't define you. And I'll say this: if you're not a believer in Jesus, what an encouragement I think the book of Leviticus should be for you. Because here's what it says you don't have to clean yourself first. And you don't got to go make a sacrifice and make atonement for your own sins. And listen, you couldn't even if you tried. Because your God is holy and your sin is serious, but God has made a way in Jesus. And guys, Christianity, this is a different kind of religion. This is a different kind of faith. I'll close like this. I want you to try to imagine a conversation between an early Christian and someone from another religion. Here's what it would have happened. Okay? This other guy, this pagan, would come and say, So, Christianity, where's your temple? Like we all go to temples. Like, hey, where's your temple? And what would the Christian say? We ain't got a temple. Jesus is our temple. In some ways, we're the temple. It's like, okay, well, if you don't have a temple, then where does your priest work? And they'd go, well, you know, Jesus is our priest. And we're kind of the priesthood. So no, we don't have priests anymore. It's like, whoa, that's crazy. Then if you don't have priests, then where do you who makes the sacrifices? And what would the Christian say? Jesus was our sacrifice. We don't have to do that whole sacrifice thing again and again and again. And the question, the pagan, he would be so confused, he'd be like, if you don't have a temple and you don't have priests and there's no sacrifices, then how do you earn and work your way up to God? How do you please your God? And you go, Oh, we don't have to do that whole thing anymore. Because Jesus has come down for us. We don't have to climb our way up because our great high priest, our better sacrifice, has come down for us. And so if you're not a believer, that's Christianity. It's very different. But if you put your faith in Christ, the Bible says you're united to him, and his sacrifice is yours, his life is yours. So come to him by faith. And let me pray for us and we'll sing. Lord, I'm so grateful for the book of Leviticus. I'm thankful for all the sacrifices, all the chapters that we would read through in Leviticus that just remind us not just of what it required to atone for sins, but to see your heart for nearness that you have come near to us. And so, God, I pray for everybody in this room. I'm so grateful that on Father's Day, the fathers and everybody in this room made a decision to come near to you just by coming to church, by hearing the word preached and sung. And so, Lord, I just pray that this week, especially today, God, that we would confess our forgiven sins to one another and to you, and we would draw near to you with confidence. And God, I pray for the non-believers in the room that they would be captivated by this gospel in Leviticus and in Hebrews, that we have a Jesus who is our better high priest. God, I'm so grateful I don't have to go make sacrifices every day for all the sins, even from this morning. And God, I'm thankful that you have separated me from my past sins and my present sins and my future sins. That on the cross Jesus took our sins and paid the debt. God, thank you for the cross. We sing it in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys can stand. We'll sing.