So turn with me this morning to Leviticus chapter 14 Leviticus chapter 14 our study this morning resumes at verse 1 as you know, if you've been here over the last few weeks, we've been talking about the Lord's instruction to Moses. Regarding how individuals who contracted the horrible disease of leprosy were to be dealt with by the priests, who would bear the responsibility for identifying the disease, monitoring its advancement or its decline, as it were, and determining whether one has been healed. Of course, as we learned last Lord's Day in the annals of Jewish history, no Jewish person was ever healed of leprosy before Jesus' healing of the 10 lepers in Luke 17, which is what we looked at in our last study. Someone asked me after that last study why I didn't mention Naaman, who was healed of leprosy by the prophet Elisha. In 2nd Kings chapter 5, that's actually really simple. Naaman was not a Jew. This is why he's called Naaman the Syrian. So I stand by my statement that no Jew in the annals of Jewish history was ever healed of leprosy prior to Jesus' own healing of those lepers in Luke 17. Now, this is only fitting because you'll also recall that the rabbis had a list of miracles that they believed could only be performed by the Messiah himself. And what was at the top of the list It was the healing of leprosy. And the reason it was at the top of the list is because, again, nobody had ever seen anyone healed of that particular disease. As we discussed last time, This tenfold healing was also a tenfold validation of Christ as Messiah. What better way to indicate and validate Christ's Messiahship than to attribute a miracle to Him, not just once, but ten times, that only the Messiah was believed to be able to do. Of course, the detractors back in that day would not have given Jesus credit for that. Remember what the Pharisees often said to Jesus was that he did the miracles that he did by way of Beelzebub or the devil himself. And so, again, they wouldn't believe it even if Jesus did it ten times. They would still just find a way to not believe it. Well, here in chapter 14 of Leviticus, we find the Lord's instructions to Moses concerning the law of the leopard in the day of his cleansing. In other words, these are the steps that one was to take in the event that any leper was, in fact, healed. Now, I've said this a few times already, but this morning I'm going to make good on my statement that at some point we're going to speed up and take a more high-level approach to our study of this book. We've actually reached that point this morning. We're not going to go through in as laborious a fashion as we've been going through the Old Testament in a lot of the parts of Leviticus that simply don't warrant that. There's a lot of things written here in Leviticus that are so specific to Jewish ceremony and ritual, the Jewish people themselves, where they were, the amount of revelation that God had exposed them to at this point. There's so much specificity with regard to this ordinance and that ordinance and this process and that process. We benefit absolutely nothing really from going through a verse by verse exposition of those things. Now, I'm not saying that these parts of the scripture are not important to read on your own. Yes, read those. Pray before you read that the Holy Spirit might open your mind and illuminate certain things to you that are very important. But by and large, just going through here expositionally would be not only quite the drudgery, but again, I don't think it's really that necessary that we Look at this with such a fine-tooth comb. Now, that said, let's just hit the high points of what the Lord instructs Moses about here. Basically, Moses is saying that in the event that a leper claims to have been cleansed from his leprosy, he's to be brought to the priest outside the camp to be examined. And that makes sense. Why would you bring him inside the camp? This is a highly contagious condition. And so you would want him to remain outside the camp and the priests to go out there. Do the examination if the leper has in fact been healed the priest is to conduct a ritual or ceremony involving two birds cedarwood a scarlet string and hyssop and again this just goes to show you the specificity of these rituals these ceremonies One of the birds would be killed The other bird was to be tied to the cedar plank and dipped in the other birds blood via this this string, this scarlet thread, the cleansed leper would then be sprinkled seven times and pronounced clean. The bird that remained alive was then to be set free over the open field. The one healed was to be instructed to wash his clothes, shave all his hair off his whole body, and bathe in clean water. After a seven-day isolation period, of course that would be necessary to determine whether the disease is actually healed or not, If it comes back during that seven-day isolation period, the person is to go back to where they were, these leper colonies or wherever they tended to gather as those sharing that common condition. But after a seven-day isolation period, the individual that has been healed would be required to stay outside of his tent. And on the seventh day, he'd be required to go through the shaving and bathing process all over again. You'd be healed, the bird is let loose, you shave all the hair off your body, you go bathe, and then seven days later you repeat the process, providing the disease hasn't resurfaced. Now, there's also an element in this ceremony involving oil that's to be sprinkled seven times before the Lord and placed on the individual's right earlobe, right thumb, and the big toe of the right foot. And we look at things like that and we're like, why? What good does oil, anointing oil do for someone when it's placed on the earlobe on the right thumb and the big toe of the right foot? What does that even mean? Well, it's all symbolism. We've talked about that before. And you can kind of envision what kind of symbolism's being represented here. By the way, this is the same thing that would be done to priests when they were consecrated. The oil of the anointing would be placed on their earlobe, signifying what? What would you imagine that would signify? Yes, yes, it was one's commitment to limit their hearing only to the voice of God, to pay heed to what God commands, and then to obey those commandments. So that's where the oil on the earlobe comes into play. What about on the thumb? Yes, the thumb is representative of the entire hand, and the hands are what does the work that the Lord requires in so many ways. What about the big toe? The big toe. Huh? Yes, walking in God's statutes. Now there's also another element there, and they knew this even back then. The big toe is absolutely necessary for balance. And so this also introduces the idea that we're to be balanced in our approach to the Lord. I've told you before that, you know, there are some who have taken religion to an unhealthy extreme. We call them the ascetics. These are people who beat their body, literally beat their body. If you go to the areas around Mexico City at a certain time of the year, people make pilgrimages into Mexico City and they will walk on their knees till their knees are just bloodied beyond recognition. There are people who have been known to sit on pillars 80 feet tall for any number of months, even years, as a way of expressing to God that they're worthy to be received by Him and blessed by Him. This is what happens when you take these things to an unhealthy extreme. The idea of balance is the recognition that While we are to be wholly devoted to God, while we are to be listening for His voice and obeying Him, while we are to be working with our hands in a way that honors and pleases Him, we are to be balanced in our life because not all of life is that part of life. There's still other things that you have to do that aren't characterized as ritual or religious observation. Now, as R.C. Sproul once said, either all of life is sacred or none of life is sacred. We can't, this doesn't mean that we separate our lives between the sacred and the secular, right? But we all have that awareness that we are to be balanced in our approach. We're not to quit our jobs and go wait for the Lord to return as the Thessalonians, many of them did. We're not to become so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good, right? We have to communicate in a world in which we're visited by all kinds of people. Right? You encounter all kinds of people all the time. And like the Apostle Paul said, I become all things to all men in hopes that I might win some. And so this balance, that's part of this idea of balance. Certainly among the priesthood, but the leper is being treated this way ceremonially because the leper of all people should be the most thankful. the most religious, the most observant. Why? Because look what the Lord has spared them from, to be healed of leprosy. I mean, that's like surviving a near-death experience. It just makes one more grateful. And of course, again, we don't have any examples of this except in that one leper who was healed and then ran back to Christ to thank him profusely and worship him. But even in that case, he was not a Jew. He was a Sumerian. So, but again, that's what this all symbolizes, this ritual. Now, in verses 21 and following, there are instructions regarding the same procedures for the poor, which are very similar to the Lord's previous instructions. So again, there's no need to go through all that. It's just that the Lord, as he does, in his grace and mercy, extends alternatives to those who can't afford some of the things those of, greater means could afford. And so that's what we see there. Well, this brings us to another section of the Lord's instruction in verses 33 through 57 of this 14th chapter. And here the Lord's instructions pertain to cleansing a leprous house. Of particular interest here is what the Lord says in verses 34 and 35. Here we read, when you enter the land of Canaan, which I give you for a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in the land of your possession, then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest saying something like a mark of leprosy has become visible to me in the house. I don't know about you, but that's really fascinating. Houses can have leprosy? Yes. Yes. As we can see, as we move further into this passage, it's clear that the Lord is talking about the visual presentations of bacteria and fungus in the form of mold. What's particularly interesting about this is that the Lord says He's the one who puts the mold or the fungus there as a way of warning individuals that the house is not safe. Have you ever thought about God's purpose behind mold. I mean, why does it grow? It's really one of God's most astounding graces. I mean, you pull something out of the refrigerator that's been in the refrigerator too long and you open it up and there's mold on it. What does that tell you? Probably shouldn't eat that, right? You know, you have that loaf of bread that nobody's eaten, and you open it up and you look inside and you pull a piece out and it's furry, right? What does that tell you? Probably shouldn't eat that. Now, I don't know who in their right mind ever decided that it would be okay to eat mold, but you do eat mold if you like blue cheese. But the fungus that causes the mold spores to grow and develop in blue cheese is actually another of God's greatest graces. You know what the mold family that's found in blue cheese is actually called? The mold in blue cheese comes from a family of molds known as Penicillium roqueforti. You ever eat roquefort cheese? That's a form of blue cheese, kind of like What are some of the other blue cheeses? Roquefort. I had a couple of them in mind, but they've escaped me. But anyway, when you eat blue cheese, you're eating the same mold that they make penicillin from. And it's actually quite beneficial to you. Blue cheese is actually good for you because of that penicillium roqueforti bacteria. Now that said, that doesn't mean, children, that you can eat mold. with impunity. There are certain molds that will kill you, even if you breathe them. This type of mold that the Lord would mark the houses with was the type of mold that would kill you. This is the type of mold that God in His grace, yet again, would place there to warn people, don't go in there. If someone came and reported to the priests that their home was suspected of having been infected by this kind of mold, the priest was to order the house emptied, at which point he would conduct a thorough examination of the home, and if need be, place it under quarantine for seven days. If after the seven days the mold remained, every stone with mold on it would be torn out and taken to an unclean place outside the city, and they would replace it with a clean stone. If that failed, even more drastic measures would be taken. If the cleaning was successful, the priest would then conduct the same ceremony involving the two birds, the cedar plank and the scarlet string of hyssop. And they would go through the same ritual to declare the house finally clean from the mark of leprosy. Well, this brings us to chapter 15. Chapter 15. where the Lord's instruction to Moses and Aaron concerns bodily discharges. There's no way ever that I will preach through Leviticus chapter 15. Call me a chicken, call me, you know, whatever you want to call me, but I'm not about to stand up here and talk to a mixed audience about seminal and menstrual discharges. Maybe it's because I'm too squeamish. Maybe in a medical setting, we could talk about these things. But I would encourage you to read these on your own, because it's very important that we understand, again, what God says with regard to various things that might ooze out of your body. Yeah, I get nauseated just thinking about it. No offense, Lord. I mean, it's your word. But again, this goes to what I said a moment ago about the specificity. And the detail that God goes into, there's no stone unturned when it comes to his presentation of even this kind of material. It's just that some material, it's like the Song of Solomon. No, I'm not preaching through the Song of Solomon. If I had a nickel for every time someone came up to me over the years and laughing and said, hey, when are you going to go through the Song of Solomon? Never, right? Simply because of who we are, right? Not going to do that. So, this brings us to chapter 16. Let's just... That's my commentary on chapter 15. Turn in your Bibles to Leviticus 16. Here in chapter 16, the Lord turns His attention to something really important, and this is where we are going to slow down quite a bit. The Lord turns His attention to giving further instruction to Moses and Aaron concerning the law of atonement. The chapter begins with this introductory statement in verse 1. This, of course, is a reference to what we saw back in chapter 10. Remember Nadab and Abihu who offered strange fire to the Lord. In fact, just turn back there, Leviticus chapter 10. Just read verses 1 and 2. Leviticus 10, verses 1 and 2. Here we read now, Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. You know, I think we would all do well to remember that the overarching theme of Leviticus is not just a list of do's and don'ts. The overarching theme of the book of Leviticus is not God's harshness. It's not necessarily God's justice, although those things are in there. The overarching theme of the book of Leviticus is God's holiness. We would do well to understand that as we go through this particular book. In fact, we would do well to understand that as we go through much of the Old Testament. The overarching theme through all of these ceremonies and rituals and expectations and requirements for how Jews are to live their lives in a way that is pleasing to God, the overarching theme again, is God's holiness and man's lack thereof. It's to illuminate how holy God is and how unholy man, by his nature, tends to be. The reason that we see such an emphasis on the difference between the clean and the unclean is because the people needed to know just how holy God truly is. In fact, in verses 9 through 11 of the 10th chapter that we just read from, the Lord says as much to Aaron when he says, do not drink wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons with you when you come into the tent of meeting so that you will not die. It's a perpetual statute throughout your generations and so as to make a distinction between the holy and the profane and between the unclean and the clean and so as to teach the sons of Israel all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses. What's the implication there? The implication is that Nadab and Abihu may have gone into that holy place inebriated, drunk. They thought it would be okay for them to go in there without full control of their faculties, but the Lord had instructed them that he is holy, that they are to be holy, especially as consecrated or set-apart priests. They bore the responsibility for setting an example for every one of the Israelites in terms of how God is to be worshiped, and they went in there and they counted the worship of a thrice-holy God as a common thing. They were just going through the motions, obviously. They were just doing what they had been instructed by the letter of the law and not by the spirit and intent of the law. And that's never a good thing. That's never a good thing. We've talked about this as recently as Wednesday night. And I think it certainly bears repeating this morning. I think we would all do well to think more seriously about who God really is as opposed to who we think or imagine Him to be. We need more than anything, especially in the church at large today, we need a better grasp on who God is. Why? Because so much of modern Christendom is intending to teach you everything God isn't. You know, we have this flannel graph image of Jesus. People have locked into their minds that Jesus is this innocent little baby in a manger who grew up to You know, it's all about puppy dogs and rainbows and unicorns and he's just you know Living's just so people's lives could be better. He came to impart not only life to people but the abundant life and and that's been carried on and when he comes back he's gonna come back loving everyone and and patting everyone on the head no and No. Jesus came to this earth in human flesh to take on the wrath of God that was reserved for you and me. Christ came to live in virtual squalor for 30 plus years on this earth just so that he could die for the most undeserving, unworthy people imaginable. Christ came to give His life as a ransom, not to Satan as Origen proposed, but He came to give His life as a ransom to God the Father, who owed us nothing but eternal wrath, who owed us nothing but destruction. Christ came in as our perfect High Priest and as God's perfect Lamb, and He laid down His life so that you and I could live. Forever. And we would do well to look at Jesus, especially with regard to His second coming. What's that going to be like? Well, go read the latter chapters of Revelation. You'll find out what it's going to be like. He's not coming back as this meek little lamb. He's coming back as the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's coming back to exact God's wrath on all of God's enemies and to take His people home. where they will be forever in his presence. His second coming is not going to be like his first. His second coming will be the most frightful, terrifying day imaginable, except to us. If you're in Christ, his second coming will be the most glorious, most redeeming thing that you've ever experienced in your life. But again, you must be in Christ for that to be true. Again, I think we would all do well to contemplate God's perfections, including His sovereignty, His self-existence, His self-sufficiency, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, His immutability, His impassibility, His eternality, His righteousness, His justice, mercy, goodness, and faithfulness, and so many more things. And we should always begin with what many theologians consider His most important attribute, which is His holiness. I think, you know, holiness, and you might think to yourself, well, how can you ascribe to God or Or how can you consider one of his perfections to be greater than any of the others? It's easy, really. If God is not holy, then God is like us. If God is not holy, then he's mundane. If God is not set apart as utterly unique in everything that exists, and oh, by the way, again, he's the self-existing one, If God is who he says he is, then his holiness has to be at the top. And I think this is demonstrated probably most clearly in the fact that God is said to be not holy, but holy, holy, holy. Listen to Sproul here in his classic work, The Holiness of God. If you've not read The Holiness of God, that'd be a great book. I'm going to recommend that right now. Get a copy, read it, and read it multiple times. The Holiness of God. But listen to what he says. In his book here, he says, on a handful of occasions, the Bible repeats something to the third degree. To mention something three times in succession is to elevate it to the superlative degree. Only once in scripture is an attribute of God elevated to the third degree. The Bible says that God is holy, holy, holy. The Bible never says that God is love, love, love, or mercy, mercy, mercy. or justice, justice, justice, or wrath, wrath, wrath, the Bible says God is holy, holy, holy. He says this is a dimension of God that consumes His very essence. When it is manifest to Isaiah, we read that at the sound of the voice, of the seraphim, the doorpost, the thresholds of the temple itself shook and began to tremble." Do you hear that? Inanimate, lifeless, unintelligible parts of creation in the presence of the manifestation of the holiness of God had the good sense to be moved. How can we, made in His image, be indifferent or apathetic to His majesty? God alone is holy. What happens to you when you think of God? That's a good indicator as to how seriously you consider His holiness. You know what should happen at every thought of God? Abject terror. Even for the Believer in Christ, even for those of us in Christ, even more so for those of us who are in Christ. But that abject terror is immediately replaced with the realization that there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. That we don't have to fear God in that way, but make no mistake about it, He is still a very fear-inducing God. Isaiah the prophet probably thought himself to be pretty up to speed when it came to understanding God. When he was commissioned as a prophet in Isaiah 6, what's the first thing that happened to him? When he saw the Lord, what happened? What was his automatic response? I mean, immediately his response, whoa, I'm undone, I'm ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips living among men of unclean lips. He knew at that moment that were it not for God's grace in sparing his life and commissioning him to be a prophet, he would have died on the spot. All this to say that the one truth that God seeks to convey to us in this book of the law is that he is holy and we are not. And as the holy one, he has the right to demand that he be worshiped in whatever way He deems appropriate to remind us of His holiness. What we're about to learn here in the context of Leviticus 16 are the ground rules for what would become one of the most important, if not the most important day on the Jewish calendar, the Day of Atonement. Gordon Wenham says this about this day. He said, the main purpose of the Day of Atonement ceremonies is to cleanse the sanctuary from the pollutions introduced into it by the unclean worshipers. Without a purpose such as this, there would have been little point in the high priest putting his life at risk by entering into the Holy of Holies. The aim of these rituals is to make possible God's continued presence among his people. Take the high priest. In the realm of humankind, the high priest is the perfect specimen. You don't get to be the high priest unless there's not a single blemish on your entire body. Unless and until you have been conditioned, trained, taught, well-steeped in everything concerning who God is. You've been given the right clothing to wear. You've been given all the instruction concerning your duties and responsibilities, much as Nadab and Abihu had been taught. But the high priest is even greater in terms of the responsibility that he bears for conducting the work of the priesthood. Now imagine, even the high priest, who was only able to enter the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was, he was only able to go in there one time a year. And he would go into that place one time a year with tremendous fear, tremendous hesitation. Why? Because he knew that he had no right to be there apart from the grace of God. He knew that his obedience to God in all the things that he was to perform in there had to be performed to perfection or else he'd be killed. I've told you before about the bells that were around the hem of the garment that the high priest wore. These bells were to ensure that they could listen You know, this veil that separates the holy place from the holy of holies was really thick and they would have to have a way of listening to make sure that he was still in there doing his thing. And what happened if the tinkling of the bells stopped? You've probably heard that. I think I've even preached on the fact that they had this long silk rope that was tied to his ankle and if the bells ever stopped they would drag him out. I've since learned that's not true. Somebody made that up. What would they do? Well, they'd just leave you in there till the next time, I guess. The good news is this didn't really happen that much. I couldn't find any instances of that actually happening. But think about the sense of fear, you know? Think about how careful you would be as one given this awesome responsibility. Now think about your own lives as priests. Are we not told by the Apostle Peter that we are a royal priesthood? Now I'm not promoting some sort of sacerdotal view where we have certain privileges and responsibilities that no mere mortals have. We do, but not in that legalistic sort of fearful sense, but we're still to view God through the same lens. We're still to understand and be even more grateful because of Christ's intercessory work that we don't have to appear before that God. Christ himself, we read it last week in the doxology at the end of Jude's tiny letter, right? Now to him who is able to present you blameless and with great joy before him. What does that mean? It means you're not able on your own. You're not able to present yourself to God, you have to have the intercessory work of Christ himself. Back then though, it was all about this fearful dread of God himself. The Lord's instructions relative to this begin in chapter two, where the Lord says to Moses, tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. I don't know, that sounds harsh, doesn't it? I mean, what if, I mean, in addition to the Ark of the Covenant, there would have been a table in there and there would have been the menorah. You know, what if It was particularly windy and the side of the tent blew, the tabernacle blew in and it knocked one of the things in there down. And what would you do? What would you be tempted to do if you heard the loud crash of one of God's holy consecrated furnishings? Well, you would probably do the same thing as the guys who tried to steady the Ark of the Covenant as it started to wobble. And if it had fallen to the ground, it would have been destroyed. And what happened? They were told not to touch the Ark. But what did they do? They reached up innocently, completely innocently. They reached up to steady the ark as it wobbled and was about to fall and they died. God's instruction to Aaron is, don't. I don't care what happens in there. You're not allowed to go in there until I say you're allowed to go in there. this holy of holies, this holy place inside the veil was that inner sanctum in which the Ark of the Covenant was found. If you really want to balance what we read here with the value of the atoning work of Christ, just go to Hebrews 7, 8, 9, 10, and you'll see very clearly what Jesus in his sacrificial death, in his finishing the work that he had come to do, relinquishing us from the responsibility to obey to this degree, you'll see just how meaningful that really was. And then remember, you get to Hebrews 10, 4, and it's like, you know, if you're a Jew, your whole world comes crashing down. Can you imagine? What do you mean it was never possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins? What do you mean? Well, it was never possible because God wasn't pleased with sacrifices of that kind. There's only one sacrifice that God was ever pleased with, and that was the sacrifice of his son. All of those things foreshadowed, all those things pictured the finished work that Christ would do. But that's all they were, just negatives for the pictures that would later be developed. Now very quickly, let me just make an important practical consideration here. You know, you hear all the time that there are many roads that lead to God. I think Oprah Winfrey is probably the one that made this most famous in our modern era when she declared to unsuspecting viewers everywhere that there are many pathways to God, many religions, that one can follow that will get them to the same end. If there's ever been anything in the annals of scripture to prove how fallacious that argument is, this would be it. Folks, there's only one way to access God. And again, in this time period, it was through the tabernacle, it was through the high priestly that were conducted in the Holy of Holies, but we know that Christ came in fulfillment of all those things, and that makes the truth that is being presented here as there only being one way to God, it makes it even more concrete. Christ is the only way. There's only one name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Only one. Well, what about the person that's in the jungles and the rainforests and, you know, he worships a rock and isn't his sincerity in worshiping that rock, isn't that enough to save him? No! That man needs Jesus. He doesn't need him in the form of a rock. He needs a personal revelation and introduction to Jesus Christ via the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit, just like you and me. Well, that's not fair. What's the likelihood that he's ever going to have a salvific experience? I don't know. What was the likelihood that you and I would? Again, do I have to go back to Romans 3? Look at what we were. This is what makes the doctrine of total depravity so important. There's not a man, woman, or child on planet Earth who in and of themselves would ever choose to believe in Christ. It's only as the Holy Spirit operates in us and through us, giving us a new heart of flesh to replace the heart of stone that we're born with. through God's grace alone that you and I are saved. And that's true of you. It's true of the person who's sitting right now in his little hut in the deepest, darkest recesses of the world. If God intends to save such a one, He will bring Christ to them. And again, you don't want to talk about unfairness. Well, look at all the people who have died in those circumstances, never having heard of Christ. What of it? You want to talk about fairness, as I've always said, fairness is that we all go to hell. Fairness is not judged by whether or not God saves everyone. God's fairness is demonstrated in his actually sending people to hell. That's what's just and fair. That's what you deserve. That's what I deserve. It's what that person sitting in that little hut deserves. And yet for reasons unexplicable to us, unknown to us, in eternity past, God foreloved some of us. And on the basis of having foreloved us, He predestined us. Having predestined us, He called us. Having called us, He justified us. Having justified us, He glorified us. How can it be? We sing that one of my favorite hymns, and can it be? How is it possible that God would love me? And if you're sitting here this morning as an unbeliever and that bothers you, oh, here you go. You're claiming some sort of exclusivity among mere mortals. Aren't you special? Well, you might be special too. You're all here by divine appointment. And even today, if you hear the sound of my voice giving you the gospel, which is that salvation is found in Christ alone and none other, then believe. Believe. The prevailing consensus among many today who consider themselves religious or, my favorite, spiritual. I'm spiritual. What? Yeah, you're spiritually dead. But the prevailing consensus is that there are a number of roads that lead to God and we're not, you know, bound to any of them. We're free to approach Him at any time. This is simply not true and never was. The holiness of God demands that He be the one who sets the rules for our engagement with Him. This is the very thing he's teaching Moses and Aaron at this point. In effect, he's saying, if you even attempt to approach me on your own terms, Aaron, if you get so full of yourself that you think you can just bebop in and out of my presence, you've got another thing coming. You will die just like your sons before you, who also failed to grasp who I am and what I require. And for some of you who might be inclined to protest, insisting that this paints God as a mean, unloving, and or despotic individual, let me correct you before you get yourself in trouble. The only thing this paints God as is holy. He's holy. You know, I find it funny that people respect all kinds of things, right? that in a manner of speaking are holy. I mean, you go out to some electric substation where, you know, they've got all these chain link fences and barbed wire and you hear the hum. And there's a big skull and crossbones on the thing that says, do not touch. A fool, only a fool would go in there and touch that thing, right? People are afraid of things like that. You know, I remember one time working in a place where they had one of these big grinders with the two teeth rollers that would go opposite each other, and you could put, man, we just love putting things in that thing, because it would eat anything, including you. And so, you know, as we drop things in there, we will always stand back and marvel, but we wouldn't get too close because That's really dangerous. Would that the average man would fear God that much? The average man is afraid of a lot of things and one of the telltale signs that he is totally depraved and unable to understand who God is, much less be saved by His grace on his own merits, one of the most telltale signs is that he knows nothing of just how dangerous this God is. Oh, but God loves everybody. God's our buddy. People in hell don't say that. Anyway, in verses 3 and following, the Lord continues giving Moses instructions regarding how Aaron will be allowed to approach him. And I'm not going to take the time to explain it this morning. We'll cover that Lord willing, in our next time together. The one thing I want us all to walk away from regarding this study this morning, I want you to walk away from this study at least thinking more seriously about the holiness of God. And while you're doing that, think of all the ways that you have been programmed to wrongly view God. and correct those things. Well, how do I do that? Well, there is a way to do that, and it's all found in the Word of God, which we're going to talk about more in the next hour or so.