Leviticus
Wednesday
Leviticus 1
July 26, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 1
In this book, God will invade your personal space. Personal hygiene, prayer, worship, even your sex lives will be fair game. Please don’t shut out anything/everything God wants to speak to you about… One thing I want you to take special note of is that worship and something dying always go together. God will remove any shallow-ness from your worship if you will let Him do so. Think about that as you contemplate your role in worship here at church. Sort-of sheds new light on the man/woman who says, ‘I don’t like the music part’ and come in late every Sunday to avoid it. Worship is sacrifice—that means we worship regardless of our likes/dislikes and personal preferences. We worship God because of who He is…
Leviticus 2-3
August 2, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 2, Leviticus 3
The grain offering speaks of our service to the Lord. This was NOT an offering for sin; it is an offering of thanksgiving to the Lord for His goodness to us. The grain offering was available to everyone, rich or poor, and only a portion of it was actually burnt before the altar. The rest was given to the priests as an offering for their service to God. The grain was ground (fine flour) and frankincense was added to insure that the offering smelled really good (evidently, God like good smells!)… The grain offerings had to be prepared at home and brought to the priests. Our devotion to the Lord always begins at home! If your faith isn’t working at home, it’s not genuine. We need to insure that our lives are the same in public or in private. God sees it all…
Leviticus 4
August 9, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 4
Sin is sin. Intentional or unintentional. That’s why we need to be extra diligent in examining our hearts continually. God is serious about all sin even though willful sin is far worse and carries far greater consequences. It is still necessary understand that all sin separates us from God. Too many of us we think if we sin but didn’t mean to, it’s somehow OK. God is HOLY and even these sins matter to God…
Leviticus 6
August 23, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 6
We open tonight with a really important principle. In the context of stealing, it is obvious that we sin against people. But God emphasizes that this is first and foremost a sin against God! I know we spoke about this in an earlier study, but we need to be reminded continually that sins against people are sins against God! We cut ourselves off from the fellowship that God sent His son to accomplish. And since we are so focused on people (getting justice), we too often forget that it is God who is the real victim of our lying/stealing… Let me also talk about lying. This is an acceptable sin because (yuk) ‘everybody lies.’ It is never OK to lie and we who are believers need to be known for always telling the truth in love… Sin always costs and we need to be aware of it.
Leviticus 8
September 6, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 8
The tabernacle is finished and the focus now shifts to God’s servants. God is setting His chosen servants apart for His glory. For us, because we are a royal priesthood, there is much in the way of application value to enjoy… Washing comes first followed by serving. Isn’t that the same thing that happens to us? This was a public washing; it could be embarrassing, even humbling to be washed with all the onlookers. But I think that’s crucial as well; we must be humbled (publicly) before accepting this calling…
Leviticus 9:1-10:10
September 13, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 9, Leviticus 10
Aaron’s sins had already been sacrificed for during the week. But the problem for Aaron—and for you and me—is that we continue to sin. Because God is going to appear to the Israelites in this chapter, it was necessary to insure that his sins during the week were atoned for. This is the inadequacy of the OT atonement process. Sin could be covered over but not forgiven completely. Thank God for grace… This would be the first time Aaron was able to go into the tent and it happened under the watchful eye of Moses. Before God can (figuratively) appear to you, there must be separation to the Lord and obedience to His commands. No short-cuts for anyone…
Leviticus 10:12-11:47
September 20, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 10:12–20, Leviticus 11
Please remember that Jesus, in the NT, declared all foods cleaned meaning that these dietary laws were for a specific people at a specific time…. These laws were given to the children of Israel specifically, not to humanity in general. Common sense is necessary here…
Leviticus 12-13
September 27, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh
This demonstrates to us how critical it is for each of us to be honest with the issue of our sin. There can be no ‘If I sinned’ prayers. We can’t rationalize that what we are doing isn’t really that bad or that God somehow understands why we are sinning. Sin needs a precise diagnosis and the Bible is the tool to conduct that examination. Examine our hearts daily, Paul said, and the Holy Spirit will make your diagnosis. There is no value—only harm—in putting off dealing with the diagnosis…
Leviticus 14
October 4, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 14
That the leper (former) could not go into his own tent, having to stay outside. This would certainly be uncomfortable but it was intended to be public—a demonstration that he really was healed. Each of us should live our lives in public in such a way that the people in our lives can see for themselves that we are different—healed… This is what happens to the rest of us lepers when we have been covered by the blood of Jesus. Once our sins are forgiven, our part in the process is to wash ourselves. We have to change; I know I say that a lot but this picture emphasizes our role in our relationship with Jesus. We change our habits, get rid of the old and embrace the newness—freshness—of life…
Leviticus 17
October 25, 2023 • Pastor Ron Arbaugh • Leviticus 17
Here’s something we need to consider seriouslty tonight. If life is in the blood, we who are true believers needs to understand that, since God gave us life in His blood, our lives belong to Him! Not to ourselves; we can’t just do what we want to do. That’s why Jesus said we must eat His flesh and drink His blood. It is an act of total surrender (that’s why the massive crowd left Him. They wanted His miraculous powers but they didn’t want to lose their own lives to get it).